BENELLI

All-new parallel twin drops into the middle of a competitive middleweight naked market. Only taken 11 years to get here...

Back in the mists of time – well, 2006 – there was an exciting bike on Benelli’s show stand. The parallel twin 756cc Due had a cool cast aluminium frame and was shown often over the next few years. Bike was even promised a ride on a prototype... then it all went rather quiet. Over a decade later it’s here. Or the engine is. Now called the 752 S, it’s like the spy shot we had in the August ’16 issue. There’s a trellis frame and the swingarm is new, despite looking like the TRK502. USD forks are unadjustable, radial calipers are own-brand, and the pipe shown is an Arrow accessory. But if they can keep the price at around £6000 it’ll be cool. And it’s not the only new naked Benelli. There’s also a Sport version of the Leoncini 500 (shown last year, yet to arrive), a Leoncino 250 (looks like Husky’s Vitpilen, page 53) and the new 402 S – think 400cc Ducati Diavel.