Storm Warning

In 2003 an Italian Tornado blew in and caused quite a commotion.

- Jon Urry

There are some bikes that everyone has an opinion on – the Benelli Tornado Novecentro Tre is one such machine. Those who have never ridden, or most probably never even sat on a Tre, will confidently tell you that they are unreliable pieces of Italian junk before riding off on their run-of-the-mill Japanese sportsbike. However ask an owner what they think of the bike and you will get a very different side to the story.

While it is most certainly true that very few owners will admit they have bought a lemon, the simple fact of the matter is that despite what all the headlines have said over the years, the Benelli Tornado isn’t actually a bad motorcycle. Quite the opposite, it is actually a good one. The problem Benelli had with the Tornado was it was brought to market too early (or late depending on your point of view) and as such suffered from some very high profile issues.

This, combined with the fact that the dealer network and Benelli themselves didn’t really get to grips with the problems quickly enough, cast a dark cloud over the bike in what should have been its glorious launch year. And its lack of success in WSB did little to lift this gloom.

Too little, too late

In wonderful Italian style, having unveiled the Tre as a concept in 1999, built the homologation special LE version in 2001 and raced in WSB from 2001 until 2002, by the time the road bike arrived in 2003 the race team had already disbanded without a single top ten finish to its name. As launches go, that’s not exactly a great start to proceedings. And the same issues that dogged the Benelli WSB team also affected the road bike – namely a lack of power and a poor degree of reliability.