First Look Review
Benelli finally has a fully-faired motorcycle in its line-up – the Tornado 302. Unveiled at the 2015 EICMA, the Tornado 302 has been developed for emerging markets like India where there is demand for fully-faired motorcycles.
Based on the BN 302- the naked Benelli motorcycle, the Tornado 302 is an attractive motorcycle. The Italian designers have stuck to the sober design language for the bike. However, there are decent amount of creases on the Tornado 302. While we appreciate the engineers for this new bike, the front looks slightly disproportionate. The V-shaped headlamp on the fascia looks quite big and takes most of the space on the fairing. Just above the headlamp, there are colour stripes – an attempt to make the bike look nice. Come to the side and you will notice the bright red trellis frame and to complement it, there is an Italian flag decal along with lot of red stickers. At first touch, the rear view mirrors seem very flimsy. However, DSK Benelli has said that the quality will improve on the production version.
This fully-faired Benelli is powered by a parallel-twin liquid cooled engine. This mill produces 36bhp at 12,000rpm and peak torque of 27Nm at 9,000rpm. This engine is mated to a six-speed gearbox. The company claims a top speed of 170kmph for the Tornado 302. However, for track junkies, there is an upgrade kit which will available soon after the global launch. This performance kit will help the bike churn out close to 40bhp.
The bike is built on a new trellis frame which has helped the bike reduce the weight to 180kg as compared to 196kg for the naked sibling. The Benelli Tornado 302 gets 41mm upside down forks at the front and monoshock with adjustable preload at the rear. The braking power comes from twin 260 mm floating discs with a four piston caliper at the front and a single 240 mm disc with a single piston caliper brake at the rear. ABS will be optional. The bike features 110/70 tyres at the front and 150/60 tyres at the rear which are mounted on 17-inch wheels.
Just like the Yamaha YZF-R3, the Tornado 302 has been designed for daily commuting as well as sport riding. DSK Motowheels will be launching the Tornado 302 in the middle of the next financial year as a completely-knocked-down (CKD) model. However, if you are desperate to see this bike in person, then you should head to the 2016 Auto Expo, where this bike will be displayed with the rest of the Benelli motorcycles.
