Benelli Bikes

Benelli started operations in 1911 and counts among oldest surviving Italian brands in the world. Teresa Benelli invested her entire family capital into a venture that could help her six sons get full time employment during those days.

They primarily worked on repair and spare part production as Benelli Garage was away from producing something that could give them a unique identity. Benelli Garage worked hard in fixing First World War Italian machines and soon after, presented their first motorcycle in 1919. It took them just one year to make a production ready 75cc, single cylinder engine at their garage.

Five brothers worked in the garage with six other employees initially. Tonino Benelli, the youngest brother out of six, became a popular performance racer riding Benelli 175. He won 4 out of 5 Italian championship titles. Second World War limited Benelli’s exposure to races outside and they focused more on repairs and development.

They developed a powerful four cylinder 250cc racer around 1940. They were unable to produce anything due to World War destruction. They restarted their repairing process and sold wartime bikes to civilians for profit generation after things started to settle around the world.

After taking a huge hit from Japanese brands and their popular products, Benelli went extinct for a long time. It was revived around 1989 and entered the market again with capable products like TNT 1130 and Tornado TRE 900. Benelli operates in India through a joint venture with DSK and now has a respectable dealership network in the country.

The range starts from TNT 25 and goes up to TNT 600 GT. They had discontinued the bigger variants due to lack of sales. The price range starts well under INR 2 lakh and could become more flexible when they bring the 150cc model to the Indian market.