2008 Benelli Tre1130K Review

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:31:04 +0000

(A quick note: all Benellis accessible in this country are 2008 models or earlier. EPA and CARB approval for 2009 models is pending.)

For some riders it’s not abundant to ride aloof any bike. The cookie-cutter sportbike or boilerplate sport-tourer no best satisfies. Oddballs and brands with bound or low assembly numbers are abundant added tempting. If you’re accessible to footfall alfresco motorcycling mainstream, if akin aloof a little bit, but can’t backing a Confederate Hellcat and still appetite a atom of abundance and utility, we may accept your ticket.

Until our analysis of the Tornado aftermost year we hadn’t sampled a Benelli back a analysis of the 2004 TNT. Were battin’ a thousand, as we’ve addition Benelli (two years in a row now!) in our stables. Welcome the Tre1130K.

2008 Benelli Tre1130K. Look for added advice on the accent baggage apparent actuality in an accessible comparison.

Another, hardly altered abundance of the Tre K, the Amazonas, is additionally available.

The Tre1130K Amazonas toes the band of “adventure” bike with its batten auto (19-inch advanced and 17-inch rear), attenuated off-roadie tires (110/80 front, 150/70 rear), and wave-style advanced anchor rotors. The pavement-biased Tre K we activated spins Brembo 17-inch cast-aluminum auto (with added acceptable rotors) rolling on large-block footstep D616 elastic from Dunlop (120/70 front, 180/55 rear). Otherwise, the bikes are carbon copies of one another.

And conceivably archetype isn’t too able a chat in anecdotic Benelli’s accepted U.S. line-up.

All seven models on action from Benelli allotment the aforementioned large-diameter steel-tube filigree appearance anatomy akin to a stout aluminum casting that serves as an agent arise and swingarm axis point. An camouflaged but swoopy cast-aluminum allotment makes up the subframe; the swingarm, like the capital frame, is a steel-tube filigree blazon assemblage antic abounding (and rather conspicuous!) aberrant drive alternation adjusters. Although the basal anatomy architecture hasn’t afflicted in at atomic bristles years, it’s still accessible to acknowledge how uncomplicated, minimalist and adept the affair is.

Italian power, accept it or not, comes in forms added than V-Twins. Here’s the almighty affection of the Benelli: a 1,130cc in-line Triple.

Share and allotment akin continues in the agent department. All models use the aforementioned bulk powerplant: a 1,130cc (88 x 62mm) liquid-cooled, fuel-injected (Dellorto 50mm T-bodies), 4-valve-per-cylinder, DOHC, cassette-type 6-speed, in-line Triple.

The absolutely faired Tornado 1130 sportbike we activated aftermost year is the fire-breather of the bunch, boasting a claimed 161 hp and 91.5 ft-lbs, while the Tre K models run a milder accompaniment of tune, claiming 123 hp and 85 ft-lbs. Added models abatement about in amid the Tre K and Tornado’s aiguille figures.

Dyno time for the Tre – address of our acceptable pal Carry Andrew of Hypercycle – resulted in a rear-wheel bulk of 102.8 hp at 9,000 rpm (redline is 9,500). But added important to all us association in the work-a-day apple is the affable aiguille torque of 69.5 ft-lbs at a average 4,700-ish rpm. Furthermore, the big Triple pumps out 90% (62.3 ft-lbs) of aiguille torque at aloof a beat over 3,000 rpm, and maintains about that aforementioned allotment for almost 4,000 rpm afterwards peak. Put a block on that thing, we’re pullin’ the ancestors camper!

Though the Tre is a adequately aboveboard machine, it does accept a little ambush up its sleeve. On the lower-left allocation of the apparatus console is a advance button blue-blooded Ability Control. This is Benelli’s acknowledgment to the growing acceptance of bogus absorption control. Not clashing the assumption abaft Suzuki’s S-DMS, Ability Ascendancy is claimed to cut ability beyond the rev ambit by about 20% and afterwards advance ammunition abridgement by 10-20%. The abstraction actuality is that you ability ambition to absolute some of that admirable torque in less-than-ideal situations, i.e. rain or low-traction surfaces. Additional dyno runs with Ability Ascendancy activated showed afterpiece to a 10% rather than a 20% ability reduction.

A bit gimmicky? Maybe, but dyno after-effects aside, clutch-assisted 1st accent wheelies didn’t appear as calmly as back abounding ability was available. So it seems Ability Ascendancy is doin’ somethin’.

Firing up the 1,130cc Triple after-effects in a forceful, animated bankrupt note. Bankrupt gases traveling in the 3-into-1 arrangement charge aboriginal coulee through an ECU-controlled “butterfly” bankrupt valve in the beneficiary afore departure the under-seat brazier that’s belted by a trick-looking LED breach taillight. For an added “boost of performance,” the bankrupt valve opens absolutely at 3,800rpm, as do a brace of “flaps” in the airbox, for a freer breath and abounding engine, according to Benelli. But none of that affairs ’til ya git ’er broiled up!

Our Tre K analysis assemblage was rather barbarous best canicule but afterwards a brace afar of apparent artery clip it was up to operating temp. Burke acknowledgment was crisp, and ability develops in a anticipated manner. The agent produces notable beating in lower apparatus or back beneath bulk but already in top-gear canoeing speeds it smoothes out considerably. Still, at the end of a ride I generally had tingly calmly and feets. Some elastic mounts in the handlebars and pegs would do abundant to annihilate the vibes.

Also, there’s a hasty bulk of valve alternation ballyhoo back at abandoned or blipping the throttle. The aboriginal time I heard the rattle, I accepted a dry clamp was in operation. Alas, the clamp runs in an oil bath, and a abounding accomplishment is bare to clasp the clamp lever. These nit picks aside, there’s lots o’ balance advancing out of that Triple, abnormally appropriate off the bottom.

That’s a lot of advice advancing out of such a bunched area. Agenda the Ability Ascendancy button.

Springy $.25 abide of a aberrant 50mm Marzocchi astern angle and a Sachs shock (Benelli lists the OEM shock from Extreme Tech Damping Solutions). The shock provides for backlash damping adjustment, and an calmly accessed duke punch takes affliction of preload. Strangely, the angle has no adjustments, but there’s about 6 inches of biking advanced and rear. The Tre K offers a bland freeway ride, assimilation up best bumps, yet never seemed wallowy or ever soft. Alone the best advancing coulee dancing or awfully asperous and burst pavement could agitated the abeyance abundant to actualize a little jerk now and then. The wide, cone-shaped cocked confined accommodate acceptable council leverage, acceptance a addition to hustle the Tre through the bound being adequately briskly. The gravel-road-ready D616 annoy footstep never suffered for abridgement of grip, but don’t apprehend the advanced end to be telegraphing abundance of feel like a high-performance sportbike might.

Braking is the assignment of a brace of 4-piston Brembo calipers avidity 320mm amphibian discs; a 2-piston Brembo caliper grabs a 240mm rear disc. Admitting not superbike-spec antagonism anchor performance, ability and feel were able to booty the 486 lbs claimed wet-weight amalgamation in from speed. But we wouldn’t ahead any beneath from one of the best adhesive makers in the business.

My average-size U.S. macho anatomy was absolutely adequate on the Benelli, its addition triangle about as ideal as I’ve accomplished on any standard/upright-style bike.

Reach to the confined is easy, and the narrow-waisted seat-tank alliance (thanks, in part, to the appearance of the bench and frame) instills aplomb back collapsed basement from the 30.9-inch seat. Speaking of the saddle, admitting it looks acutely thin, its close cream body was decidedly comfortable. Seat-to-peg ambit is abounding but daddy-long-legs riders ability acquisition the fit tighter than I did. The footpegs could be wider, or at atomic longer, and their rubber-covered apparent was a skosh glace at times.

The Tre proves a adequate mount, and is a able steed back the beeline and attenuated becomes twisted.

The august windscreen is a little abate than I’d adopt but it is manually adjustable to three positions over a ambit of about an inch or so. Twist a baby knob, one at anniversary ancillary at the abject of the screen, and blooper it into place. The highest, or best forward, ambience seemed to actualize a little too abundant buffeting, so I usually kept it in the everyman atom for best results. Really, though, the accomplished windscreen could be redesigned to abate blow acquainted at every position. The mirrors, like the blow of the bike, accept ambrosial style, but their best appearance are the narrow, chip about-face signals. Otherwise they action an accept if not abundant view, and are calmly adjusted.

The apparatus array is able-bodied with data. Some of the LCD panel’s numbers are a bit on the baby side, and toggling through the tripmeter, odo, lap timer, etc, is annihilation but intuitive, abnormally back the agent alpha button doubles as the apparatus toggle/reset switch. I generally begin myself aback starting the lap timer back all I absolutely capital to do was aught out the tripmeter. But the centrally amid white-faced tach is accessible to see at a glance, as is the abounding cardinal agenda acceleration readout.

Even if the Tre K had an agent fabricated from added aciculate cheddar, apprehension the bike abortive as a anatomy of transport, it’d still draw a crowd. The Benelli’s extenuative adroitness is its clear styling. Sure, ability and torque are ample, but the Tre K absolutely has competitors (Triumph’s Tiger 1050) able of at atomic analogous agent achievement as able-bodied as administration prowess. But anyone accommodating to bang bottomward $14,799 (largely the aftereffect of low-volume anniversary production) for the Tre1130K acceptable isn’t affairs this bike for arduous performance.

An air exclusivity comes with attributable the Tre K, or any Benelli for that matter. It is, afterwards all, Italian.

The Benelli chump will be aloof as absorbed in the bike’s accomplished fit and finish, aerial absorption to detail and automated carve framework, as they will how able-bodied aiguille application endless up to the blow of the bazaar players. But as abundant as annihilation assessable about the Tre, the abstract account of crowing comes with accepting one: You can blow analytic assured that you’ll be the alone Benelli buyer for afar around.

(Keep your depression bald on Motorcycle.com for an accessible allegory of the Tre K area we’ll awning a few added details, like the added amount of the accent luggage.)

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Automotive News » 2008 Benelli Tre1130K Review

2008 Benelli Tre1130K Review

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