Benelli?

Benelli is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer that was formed in 1911, and produced its first complete motorcycle in 1921. Over the years, they went through numerous changes, creating quite a storied history. In the late 1970's they began to lose market share to the big Japanese motorcycle companies (Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki) and eventually shut down production on their motorcycles. Their last motorcycle before the shutdown was the Sei 900, an impressive 6-cylinder machine.

Then, in 1995, the company began its rebirth under the new leadership of Andrea Merloni. In early 2001, plans for a new machine, the Tornado 900 Tre, were announced. I saw photos of the bike on the internet, and instantly fell in love with it. In 2002, came the official launch of the superbike. Australian rider Peter Goddard raced this bike in the World Superbike series. I was lucky enough to witness this machine howling around the track at Laguna Seca that year at the World Superbike event. Seeing and hearing it in person was fantastic!

I finally took delivery of my 2005 Benelli Tornado 900 Tre in October of 2005. Shortly thereafter, I was asked by the editor of CityBike magazine in San Francisco to write an article about it (there were only a handful of the bikes in the US at the time - mine was the first in northern California). Here's a link to my article. There, you can read all about the trials and tribulations I went through to eventually own this beautiful machine.