EICMA / Italian By Way Of China? Benelli Shows Off New TRK 800 ADV Bike, 800 Scrambler

Full disclosure: I have the Benelli Leoncino 500 in my garage for review at this time. Quick review preview: A capable, easy-to-ride bike with great brakes, six gears, and nice style. Check back in January for the full review.

More disclosure: Benelli is a classic Italian nameplate that, since 2005, has been owned and operated by the Chinese firm Qianjiang Group (also known as “Q.J.” and “QJMotor”), which is a huge transportation company that punches out over a million motorbikes of all kinds every year for its domestic market, including this 753cc adventure model. Q.J. is in turn owned by Chinese mega-conglomerate Geely, which also owns Volvo, Lotus, Smart, Polestar and a bunch of other brands.

Benelli motorcycles are made in China, but are designed in Italy and built while being overseen by Italian managers every step of the way, according to Qianjang. Make of that what you will.

Now, Benelli Q.J., as they sometimes call themselves, has introduced a major new adventure bike, the TRK 800, at EICMA 2021.

On paper, it looks promising: A 754 cc fuel-injected eight-valve P-twin makes a claimed 76 horsepower, there are six speeds and a slipper clutch. There’s also a spacious 7-inch LCD display, 170mm of travel front and rear through fully adjustable Marzocchi legs, and Brembo ABS brakes on the 19-inch front and 17-inch rear wheels. It’ll hold 5.5 gallons of fuel. It looks decent, with LED lights, a stylish physique and the requisite beaky front end.

More photos at end of this story. Image: Benelli

There’s also a new scrambler, the Leoncino 800 Trail (below), that has the same engine and many other bits as the TRK 800 and it looks pretty stout and stylish as well. So far, no prices have been announced, but the bikes should hit showrooms in the the summer of 2022, according to a press release. And yes, there are showrooms/dealers in the U.S. Not many, but they are out there.

The Lioncino 800 Trail Image: Benelli

The bottom line is this: Chinese motorcycle makers make a zillion small bikes annually in aggregate, but they have been looking to make entry into major U.S. and E.U. big-bike markets for years, and hitching a ride on an iconic Italian marque is a way of smoothing entry. While they don’t make it plain that’s the case, they don’t really try to hide it either. Such is the multinational corporate world we live in. From their website: “Qianjiang is a corporation located in Wenling where 14,000 people produce more than 1,200,000 vehicles and two million engines per year in a super modern factory large as a city. [The factory has] 670.000 square meters of production area equipped with sophisticated parts manufacturing machinery imported from Germany, Italy and the USA.”

However, Benelli’s press release for the TRK 800 leans heavily on the Italian influence, saying the TRK is “born in the Benelli Style Centre and developed by the R&D department of the House of the Leoncino in Pesaro, where the headquarters and the heart of the company are located.”

Before rendering early dismissal or derision of the Benelli bikes due to China’s geopolitics and so forth, be sure to check your hypocrisy: Where is your smartphone made? Your TV? Your laptop? Your headphones? And so on. They may have well-known American or Japanese brand names on them (or not), but they are often built if not designed in China. It’s tolerable to buy and use those items, but not Chinese motorcycles? Hmmmm…

It’s arguable to say that QJ and similar Chinese interests are going through the same cycle of introduction, quality issues and skepticism as Japanese bike makers in the 1950s and ’60s. There are major differences in their political systems, but the Chinese do produce some great tech.

Testing and proper non-biased evaluation will eventually render a fair decision on the worthiness of the Benelli TRK 800 and other road machines from the workers of the CCP, so stay tuned.

Would you buy a bike made in China if it had proper dealership and parts support? Leave a comment below, but be aware of where the device you’re typing that comment on came from.