BENELLI'S naked BN302 has spawned a full-faired tourer derivative. The finished bike has just been revealed in China, home of the Italian brand’s parent company, Qianjiang.
While there’s no guarantee that the machine will be followed by a European-spec version, the fact that it’s got ABS and is based on the Euro4-legal BN302 means there’s no significant technical barrier to bringing it over here. Whether there’s a worthwhile market for a 300cc twin-cylinder touring bike in Europe is another question altogether, though.
In terms of specifications, it’s much as you might expect given its close ties to the existing BN302. The engine has the same 65mm bore, 45.2mm stroke and 12:1 compression ratio, and the quoted performance figures are pretty close at 34hp – down from 37hp for the naked bike – and 20lbft of torque, up from 19lbft. Those differences are more likely to be down to different measurement techniques than to any technical changes to the power unit.
As usual with the Chinese-made Benelli models, the decent tech specs are marred by more weight than you’d expect from a machine this size. Benelli is quoting a wet weight figure of 216kg.
Whether the bike ever makes it to the European market remains to be seen, but compared to the increasingly impressive-looking Benelli machines like the Leoncino scrambler and the new 752S naked 750, revealed last November, it looks like a throwback to an earlier era.
