2013 Benelli Tornado 900 TRE

2013 Benelli Tornado 900 TRE in beautiful condition, and a future Classic.

The Benelli Tornado is a uniquely styled sports bike that handles and sounds like few other bikes, thanks to a big capacity triple cylinder engine and high quality suspension, its a lot of bike for the Money.


Reviews

Benelli is a brand which has always been surrounded by a rich motorcycling history, its actually one of the oldest motorcycle brands in the world being founded all the way back in 1911 in Pesaro, Italy by a widow who was hoping to create work for her six sons. The company contributed hugely to the Italian war effort during world war 1, designed and developed their own in house engine in 1920 and produced its own branded motorcycle a year later.

Development would continue up until World War 2 put a halt on the development of a supercharged 250cc race bike they were building with the intention of competing at the lightweight Isle of Man TT. By the end of the war, the majority of the Benelli factory was left destroyed and the business was in ruins. Fortunately, they managed to get back on their feet by acquiring motorcycles that had been abandoned on the battlefield and restoring them for civilian use.

Benelli would continue to innovate with new bikes for the next 20 years or so, until the Japanese bikes started to shakeup the market towards the end of the 60’s. Shortly after this the struggling company was sold to an Italian/ Argentine industrialist who would go on to acquire many Italian brands, such as Maserati and Moto Guzzi. A rocky few years followed until 1995 when Benelli was again taken over and relaunched, only this time with a bold new vision. Over the coming years Benelli released several smaller capacity bikes aimed at younger riders which were very successful. Then, in 1999, Benelli hired an ex Cagiva technician and in 2002 they brought us their new flagship bike, the Tornado 900 Tre, or Triple, Benelli’s first crack at a full blown superbike.

The Tornado:
At the time, the Tornado was praised for doing things a bit differently. For example, the radiator is actually mounted underneath the seat, rather than upfront like most bikes. This allowed Benelli to create a narrower front end for sharper handling. Another example would be the use of aircraft spec glue and fittings to hold together the four trellis’s of the frame rather than welding to save weight.

At the heart of the bike we have an 898cc inline triple engine, producing a claimed 140bhp. What’s interesting is this engine was actually built for a Lavarda sports bike which never actually made it into production, Benelli acquired the design and built it themselves for the Tornado.

For suspension we have adjustable forks upfront from Mizrachi with offering from Ohlin's available on the top spec bike. For brakes, again we’ve got top shelf offerings with 320mm discs up front with four piston callipers which are still very decent by todays standards. It is just as well the Tornado is so well equipped straight from the box. As the Tornado wasn’t with us for very long, you will struggle to find aftermarket parts aside from a few exhaust variations and cosmetic items such as screens.

Getting out onto the big roads is where the Tornado REALLY shines. The bike is so lively and loves to push through the revs, tipping in is effortless and the bike holds its position on the road beautifully.

As the bike I rode was an exceptionally low mileage example, I was very conscious of not adding to that mileage unnecessarily so only spent around 30 minutes on the road, but I think that is enough to draw up a summary of what this bike is all about.

Conclusion:
The Tornado really is an incredibly interesting bike, it’s so hard to understand why it didn’t take off to be a roaring success. A sad story of what could have been for Benelli. For whatever reason the Tornado never properly got sales traction, possibly due to a lack of main dealer support compared to its rivals and not managing to find the allure that Ducati has always held in the Italian bike sector and it’s not quite as powerful as some of the Japanese competition at the time. The Tornado was produced all the way up until 2014 before Benelli pulled the plug on it to focus on other models in their range.

But, none of this makes it a bad bike. The handling is crisp and sharp, the acceleration is super lively and the triple just loves to rev. The styling, in true Italian fashion, is dramatic and like nothing else on the market and everything is finished beautifully. In respect of character, the Tornado runs rings around the Japanese bikes of the time.

If your thinking of buying one, there isn’t really a whole lot to be aware of. Early models of the Tornado were plagued by a few issues but these were mostly all resolved by 2004.