Benelli UK

On the 5th October I celebrated 7 years of ownership of my Honda Deauville. Bought in 2005 it was a 2001 bike with just one previous owner and having had only 3,249 miles pass under it's wheels. In my ownership it has covered a further 43,000 plus miles - mostly trouble free. It's evolution over this period has been well documented on my web site.  It is a fact that I have never owned any motorbike for more than 3 years so although I am now considering replacing it, I am in no hurry.  And I am being very specific about my requirements.

It is a simple fact that motorcyclists are an emotive lot and most machines are bought with the heart and not the head.  But when you own a bike for as long as I've owned mine it becomes very difficult to not have high expectations of its replacement.  

As part of my selection process I spent some time looking at the Benelli Tre-K 899.  I followed through on a few adverts in BikeTrader, eBay and MCN Classifieds - they all led me to a group of companies that include KJM Superbikes, Wigan Superbikes, Preston Superbikes and Robinsons of Rochdale.  In the conversations I had it appears that they are tied into the UK Importer as they are all part of the same group of 10 - 12 companies.  Yet between them they had only 1 Tre-K 899 and nobody knew where it was or how I could get a test ride.

However, Using the Benelli UK web site I found that a local dealer, John Carr of Alfreton is a "Benelli dealer" so on Saturday I took a ride up there to talk to the nice young man in sales.  Turns out that they have a Tornado (super sport bike) in the window now reduced to £6,999 along with a couple of scooters which are all gathering dust.  There's no support from Benelli UK who won't release bikes on sale or return and they have yet to sell a Benelli machine.  So we talked about a used Aprilia Shiver GT they had in the showroom.

Over the weekend I managed to find the Benelli.com web site and it appears that the Tre-K has ceased production from some time in 2010 and was a run-out model in 2011.  Since being taken over by it's new Chinese owners it appears that they are more interested in setting up an Asian network under the Benelli name to re-badge and sell off cheaply made scooters and small capacity motorcycles.

So if anyone out there in UK land is thinking of purchasing a Benelli, be warned, you could find yourself with absolutely no manufacturer back-up.  Shame, I'd liked to have at least had a ride on a Tre-K 899.