Benelli Imperiale 250, Imperiale 530, TRK800 Coming This Year

A fully-faired sportsbike called the 600RR is also expected

• The plans were revealed at a press conference in China.
• Benelli’s parent company will also manufacture a small-capacity bike for Harley-Davidson.
• The Leoncino 800 will also go into production this year.

It’s only the second week of January but we already have quite a clear idea about Benelli’s plans for all of 2020. The Italian bikemaker has a lot going on this year, with quite a few new models being unveiled. So let’s take a closer look.

The year will start off a bit slow, with mildly updated versions of the TNT600i and TRK502X going into production, followed by the all-new Leoncino 800. But these are motorcycles that we’ve already seen previously, and we know pretty much everything about them. In the middle of May, however, the brand will unveil two all-new models, the 600N and 600RR, that we haven’t laid eyes on officially.

That being said, we may have already come across the 600N. Images emerged last year of a new naked bike based on the TNT600, and this is probably what the 600N will be since the alphabet in its name presumably stands for ‘naked’. The ‘RR’, though, is a different story. When this particular alphabet is used twice by any manufacturer, it usually refers to a fully faired sportsbike. Perhaps Benelli is attempting to eke out a little more power from its inline-4 motor and put it into a sporty motorcycle.

This will then be followed by the unveiling of two more new models in June. The bikes in question are  the Harley-Davidson HD338 -- a derivative of Benelli’s 302S twin, which will be built in China by Benelli’s parent company Qianjiang -- and an Imperiale 250. The latter will be a retro-styled motorcycle similar to the Imperiale 400 currently sold in India, but powered by the single-cylinder 250cc motor based on the unit seen in the Leoncino 250.

After this is where things get really interesting. Benelli has plans for an even larger Imperiale 530. It’s not yet clear whether this bike will replace the Imperiale 400 or be sold alongside it. But the biggest news is that Benelli will bring us a TRK800. The 754cc parallel-twin motor doing duty in the 752S and Leoncino 800 will be housed in an adventure bike that will rival the likes of the BMW F 750 GS.

The TRK lineup is expected to expand at the opposite end as well, with a smaller TRK250 due to launch in India this year. With KTM’s Adventure range coming to India this year as well, the small-capacity adventure tourer segment in India is set for a boom in 2020 and Benelli surely doesn’t want to be left out.

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