Benelli Leoncino 500 likely to be launched on 5 August; bookings open

- Deliveries of the Leoncino 500 will commence within a month of launch

- Benelli will launch the road-biased Standard variant initially 

- Is likely to be priced between Rs 4.70 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs

Benelli is likely to launch a new scrambler-styled motorcycle, the Leoncino 500, on 5 August in India. Several dealers across the country have started accepting unofficial bookings, with the amount varying from Rs 10,000 to Rs 35,000, depending on the dealer. Deliveries of the motorcycle will commence within a month of its official launch. 

The Leoncino 500 belongs to the middle-weight scrambler range of Benelli. The Italian bikemaker has three variants of the bike in the international markets which include Standard, Trail and Sport. While Standard is a road-biased model, Trail is a more off-road-focused variant of the bike. Meanwhile, the Sport model is a café-racer styled trim of the Leoncino 500. In India, Benelli will initially introduce the standard variant, and depending on the response, the company might introduce the other models later.

The Leoncino 500 was spotted testing in India in 2017. The motorcycle carries a retro design theme with a round headlamp, single-pod instrument cluster, a curvy fuel tank which blends with the under-seat cowl and a sleek tail section. In terms of features, the Leoncino 500 is quite modern as it offers a full-LED headlamp with LED DRL, LED turn indicators and a fully-digital instrument cluster. 

The motorcycle is powered by a 500cc, parallel-twin, liquid-cooled motor which does duty on the TRK 502 and 502X models as well. It churns out 46.8bhp at 8,500rpm and 46Nm at 6,000rpm, and comes mated to a six-speed gearbox. The Leoncino 500 rides on 17-inch alloy wheels which are suspended by 50mm inverted forks up front and a monoshock at the rear. Braking hardware consists of 320mm dual discs with radially-mounted four-piston calipers at the front and a 260mm single disc with a single-piston floating caliper at the rear. This is assisted by a dual-channel switchable ABS as standard. 

The Leoncino 500 is likely to be priced lower than the TRK 502 and TRK 502X which cost Rs 5.10 lakhs and Rs 5.50 lakhs (ex-showroom), respectively. In that case, we expect Benelli to price the scrambler between Rs 4.70 and Rs 5 lakhs in India. While it doesn’t have any direct competition in India, in terms of pricing, the Leoncino 500 will go up against the Kawasaki Z650 and the newly-launched CFMoto 650MT.