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By ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOS BY KYOICHI NAKAMURA
ne look at Benelli's charisma tic new streetlighte r
triple designed by the Italian company 's progress ive
p,ogell isto , Englishman
Adrian Morton, tells you all you need to
know about what kind of bike this is.
The TNT 1130's unashamedly aggressive styling is not only completely fresh and
nonderivative , representing yet another
milestone in the design-led wave of innovation that encompasses the Italian motorcycle industry, its confrontational appearance
also announc es - no, shouts - the muscular
might of its longstroke I 13Icc three-cylinder engine. The TNT sports a considerably
uprated evo/uzione of Benelli's existing fuelinjected dohc I2-valve Tornado sportbike
motor. This is a bike with attitude, backed
up at least on paper with the performance
to punch its weight - but can it deliver in
the minefield of the marketplace?
It's a bit of a risk for Benelli to name the
latest member of its two-wheeled tribe of
triples after the world's best-known form
of dynamite - yet after a day spent canyon
carving aboard the new TNT II 30 in the
hilly hinterland behind Benelli's Pesaro
base, on an exclusive first ride in the week
before the new model's press launch, I can
assure you that it indeed lives up to the
explosive expectations forged by its name.
For the TNT - standing for Tornado Nuda
Tre, rather than Tri-Nitro-Toluene - delivers an exciting kind of riding satisfaction
that 's totally unique, from a bike that's
totally mad, totally extreme. That makes it
a mota totole, as they say in Italy, and
O
70 MAY 12,2004 • CYCLE NEWS
40th Anniversa r y
