A unique taste of Italy
By TMX Archives on 4th Dec 08
NICHE Italian manufacturer Benelli is at the International Motorcycle and Scooter Show at the NEC this week along with legendary stablemate MV Agusta where it is mainly enthusiastically displaying its range of unique and individual three-cylinder road bikes with which this minnow takes on the might of the bigger factories.
But, as it did last year actually, the Benelli stand also featured a single-cylinder off-road bike which, we were reliably informed last Thursday, now has a definite scheduled and imminent production slot and that the Benelli BX449 would be available early in 2009 in both motocross and enduro guise.
The pre-production display bike, although a bit rough around the edges having been trawled round various shows, does actually promise to be a quality product with a very smart, sculptured aluminium twin-spar chassis housing an in-house built 450cc DOHC four-valve engine. The motor is fed fuel via a conventional carburettor but does feature an electric starter for instant action in all conditions. A twin exhaust system is unique with each exhaust port feeding a separate pipe and silencer.
State of the art forks and a link-type rear suspension should keep pace with the opposition.
The single cylinder four-stroke off-road market is a crowded place right now and you could ask the question, do we need another one?
Aprilia has shown that there is a market for something completely different though and you would certainly stand out from the crowd on this baby. The British importer is expecting to have a demo model before the end of the year (nearly there!) and you can bet that T+MX will be first in line when it comes to testing time...