Benelli TNT 600 leak reveals new naked bike in the nude
Images emerge online revealing Benelli's latest 600cc naked roadster, the TNT 600, completely, well, naked...
BENELLI’S latest machine, the Benelli TNT 600, has been leaked after photographs intended for the eyes of only the patent office instead landed in the inbox of journalists.
The machine is slightly changed from the grainy spy shots somebody captured in China a while back, and now features underslung exhaust, slip headlights and a revised seat.
Since Benelli’s take over by Qianjiang, the chances of a leaked shot of one of their new machines reaching the internet have been at an all-time high. There newest model, the TNT 600 has received the same treatment, after a clumsy worker must’ve accidently sent the new patent images to the whole of the motorcycle industry!
The new, and much clearer images, clearly show a number of updates to the machine, most notable is the new front end design, which has ditched the large, round headlight and gone for a dual headlight design, not dissimilar to the old three-cylinder nakeds Benelli produced pre-takeover.
The bike in the new picture has also ditched the underseat exhaust system in favour of a more conventional – for 2019 anyway – underslung exhaust, nestling the catalytic converter and exhaust exit on the righthand side of the engine. One reason for this change is that the underslung exhaust does help to centralise the mass of the bike, but it’s also probably cheaper to manufacture and easier to keep quiet too, helping it to get through impending Euro5 regulations.
One interesting feature of the machine is the turn signals that are mounted on leading edge of the fuel-tank. With most manufacturers opting for mirror-mounted indicators or conventional headlight mounted ones, the move to the tank seems interesting, but hardly ground-breaking.
We expect the TNT 600 to be launched later this year, where it’ll be launched into the highly competitive 600-700 naked market, doing battle with bikes like the Kawasaki Z650, Honda CB650R and Yamaha’s MT07. Given the bike’s origins, we expect it to come in quite a bit cheaper than mainstream options.
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
