21 February 2023 , 09:50
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In Italian, leoncino means little lion. It is not to be confused with limoncello, a lemon liqueur made with lemon zest, sugar, and vodka which is the second most popular liqueur in Italy after Campari.
After one or four too many of those one night in a bar on the shores of Lake Garda, I woke up with the world’s first lemon hangover, vowing never to go near a lemon again and in no fit state to ride a motorbike.
Thankfully, it was more recently, and with a clear head, that I strode manfully up to the Benelli Leoncino 800 Trail.
Benelli, as many of you will know, was founded in Pesaro in 1911 by Teresa Benelli after her husband popped his clogs, leaving her with six wayward sons and no means of supporting them except for her savings.
Brisk - Progress is lusty, with lots of torque, and handling is nicely lightThe company did reasonably well until the late Sixties, when along with many others, it was scuppered by the slick, reliable machines emerging from Japan.
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The factory closed in 1988, and in 2005 the Benelli name was bought by giant Chinese company Qiangjiang.
Although the bikes are made in China, they’re still designed in Pesaro, and with a nice touch, the Leoncino has a little lion on the front mudguard, harking back to the days when bikes had numberplates there, carefully designed to slice careless jaywalkers in half.
Detail - Leoncino means little lion and there's one on the front mudguardClimbing aboard, it feels like the love child of an adventure bike and a scrambler, with a tall, firm saddle, wide bars, brilliant mirrors and the most innovative TFT screen out there, with the tacho two blue bands at the top and bottom of the screen.
It was so hypnotic that I almost nodded off a couple of times and ran into the car in front.
Innovative - The twin tachos are top and bottom, and the gear indicator is like a one-armed banditThe gear indicator’s equally innovative, like a one-armed bandit in which the numbers tumble up or down to let you know if you’ve won the lottery of motorcycling.
Note for riders under 5ft 8in – the seat height’s a fairly lofty 818mm, so you may struggle.
At 224kg, it’s not the lightest bike in the world, but with 80bhp on tap, acceleration is brisk enough through the six-speed box, and with max torque reached at 6,500rpm, you don’t need to thrash the engine all the way to max power at 9,000 to get the most out of it.
Mud - Benelli's marketing aims it at off-roaders, but it's doubtful how many riders actually go thereAt motorway speeds, it’s still sitting at a comfortable 5,000rpm or so.
With 17in rear wheels and 19in front, handling is fairly light and agile, although precision isn’t helped by the semi-knobbly tyres, and with twin discs up front, you never need to go near the rear unless you become hypnotised by that tacho and find yourself hurtling too hot into a downhill corner.
With only a tiny flyscreen, you’ll get a bit windblown at speed, and that firm seat means that you’ll be wanting a break after about an hour.
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But here’s the weird thing – when I got off the bike and took out my voice recorder, I recorded several seconds of silence while I tried to think of a single thing that made it stand out from other traily scramblers by Triumph or Ducati.
And the only thing that does is the price. This is £7,799, whereas the 800cc Ducati Icon is £8,995 and the Triumph Scrambler 900 is £9,595.
Sideways - Although it can also go in straight linesAlthough they’re both less powerful, with the Ducati at 73bhp and the Triumph at 64bhp, I find both more characterful than the Benelli for some reason.
Weird how some bikes grab you for no obvious reason and others don’t. Mi dispiace, Signora Benelli.
* Test bike supplied by Davy’s Bikes of Bangor, davysbikes.com.