Benelli Tornado's

[2008 ZX10R Owner]

What are they like to ride? Pro's? Con's? Reliability? etc
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Don't want a signature so haven't got one!

[01dabreoo]

Reliabilty = non existant
However, i couldn't blame you if you wanted to buy one just to stick in your living room

[TUG]

Urm, everytime i see one, its in the workshop busted up lol, well, its italian, and you know what they're like for reliabilty, if you got one, i'd use it as a toy and hope that nothing goes wrong with it, not saying there all dodgey, but i've seen 1 with a collapsed shock(TRE X?), 1 ate its own engine in less than 400 miles (tre), When they get PDI'ed they have alot of parts swapped over an takes quite a long time to do, i heard of someone going round a corner an the ECU decided it wanted a rest an the guy riding it binned it due to lack of exit speed (tornado) lol. Good bikes though, there is a dedicated forum for benelli's someplace if you google am sure you could find it easy.
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Haz ER-5, innit!

[Polarbear]

[TUG]

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Read bike magazine from this month. They have a review on them in there.
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My Flickr

[craigs23]

How does one bin a bike by exiting a corner too slowly?

[TUG]

[Polarbear]

[MarJay]

Psychohippy has one. He really likes it, but I suspect that he is at least slightly miffed that you can get one brand new for £6k now.

But he has had it since I first met him which would be somewhere around 2004...
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Lukaz2205]

[AppleJoe]

[ZaphodBeeble]

What's with all the Benelli slander!? The Tornado is the most reliable of the Benelli range. The only major problem I've had with all the Tornado 900's that we (the shop where I work) sold is the temperature sender failing. I really can't accept that they are unreliable even compared to Jap bikes. Why is it that when something is Italian people pluck stories from the back of their mind and slag them off? Not all Italian machines fall apart.

To answer the OP's post honestly I will say that they are a bit tall, heavy and slightly underpowered for a 900, although they are quite torquey so that kind of makes up for it. They sound awesome too, get them up to 8k rpm and they sing. They also look really nice.
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Current bike: VTR1000F Firestorm. Previous: Firestorm (written off) - XJ600 Divvy - NSR125 - DT125 and a load of offroaders.

[damz]

there been a benelli tornado on ebay for bloody ages, looked alright but has never managed to be sold, been wondering why it hasnt sold yet.
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Current Bikes RVF400 - 94
Cars: RX7 FD, Eunos Roadster
Former Bikes: FZR 250R 89, ZX7R 98

[Polarbear]

[craigs23]

[Polarbear]

I suppose it's because you expect the engine to pick the bike up and by the time you realise it's not going to happen, (milliseconds) it's too late. I haven't put that very well I know.

When you braked you already knew what the bike was going to do so you were proactive, when you open the throttle and it dies, you are being reactive and too late to do anything.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Lukaz2205]

i aint critisicing the bike out of spite....its coz its italian!

Benellis dont fall apart.....its just every Electrical gremlin comes out at the same time. only time they do is when rider is a cock and sends it into a hedge.
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1st....2nd....3rd....4th.....into 5th......6th field and stopped in a heap!

[Kris]

Visordown thread

[Seb]

Agreed, I think they just underestimate the weather. On mine a portion of the loom under the front cylinder was in a nice protective shroud that also doubled as a rain water butt, needless to say that section of the loom rotted away, I was hugely lucky that a mate took it on and sorted it himself, otherwise it'd have been a trailer to GTs jobby and I'd have probably got charged a fortune.

One little bit of electrical tape to seal the top of that shroud from the factor and it wouldn't have even been a problem
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2010 Triumph 1050 Sprint ST

[PsychoHippy]

I've had my Tornado for about 5 years now and it's never put a foot wrong. Reliability has been faultless (ok, 1 blown fuse) and the ride quality is totally unmatched. I'm hopeing to get myself a Café Racer as a stable mate for it, but I need to find the money for it.

I went out to Italy for a Benelli weekend a few years ago and one chap rode his Tornado from London to Misano, spent 2 days with it on the track and rode it back again without any problems what so ever. Yes there have been some problems for some people, but no more than many other bikes I can think of.
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I spend all my money on bikes and beer, the rest I simply waste!

[ZaphodBeeble]

What annoys me the most is that you don't hear the horror stories about the Jap bikes as much as the Italian stuff. I've had 2 GSXR thou's come through my workshop with rusty fuel tanks. Both of them K7's. Makes the bike lurch horribly because the bottom of the tank is full of rust. Also, the main ignition fuse is in such a position that it gets corroded and no longer carries sufficient current to allow the bike to rev properly under full throttle load.

The point is that all bikes have their gremlins no matter where they are made. Another example would be the infamous Honda regulator/rectifier problem. Surely that warrants horror status?
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Current bike: VTR1000F Firestorm. Previous: Firestorm (written off) - XJ600 Divvy - NSR125 - DT125 and a load of offroaders.

[Kris]

[PsychoHippy]

[Flip]