Words by Jeff Ware Photography by Keith Muir, Heather Ware
The original Benelli Tornado Tre RS is 20-years-old this year. I find that hard to believe, as it only feels like yesterday that I tested one for Two Wheels magazine, when I was a young Staff Journalist there. It was expensive, fast, rare, and I crashed it after being taken out at a ride day!
Let’s take a step back in time to this bike, one that had potential but never quite got there. I fire up the triple and start blipping the throttle. It’s a coldblooded machine, the RS, and doesn’t like to idle until the temperature gauge wakes up and has a stretch.
The Benelli takes a handful of revs to get moving. I settle into the
riding position almost immediately. The wide, low bars feel just right and the seat to ‘peg distance suites my lanky frame well.
The clutch is a pain in the neck. Take-up is not at all progressive and selecting neutral at a standstill is off limits. My first impression on handling is how sweet the RS steers. It’s much more agile than the base model.
The shock is very stiff and the front end quite soft, so the bike really turns in quickly. In fact, it is razor sharp in the steering department, a bit too sharp, so I add two clicks of front compression to slow the forks down and stop them moving through their stroke so quickly.
The front is planted and confidence inspiring into turns and the radial-mount Brembos are brilliant. Loads of feel, huge power and very responsive to subtle inputs at the lever. The entire package feels refined and well balanced.
As is the case on the base model Tre, the rear tends to wander a little under hard braking, and the slipper clutch is, well, not the most consistent clutch on earth. But the overall balance of the motorcycle feels very good right throughout the cornering process.
The RS is a heavy motorcycle, and flipping the bike from full lean-to full lean through a succession of 35ers is working my upper body. The well positioned ‘pegs make all the difference though.
Fuelling? Fair. But there is some snatch as I crack the throttle mid-turn and I’m burning up the rear brake trying to get a smooth transition. The idle on this test bike is inconsistent and sometimes drops below 1000rpm, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Rolling between 4000 and 7000rpm is smooth and sweet, but the RS punches off the turns like hellfire as I let the tacho swing between 7500rpm and 11000rpm, where the power tails off before slamming into the abrupt 11800rpm limiter.
Gearbox action is positive and relatively slick and with such a wide spread of power the ratios aren’t an issue. For the serious sportsrider or track punter the RS, as an overall package, is well worth the extra bucks over the standard Tornado.
Quality of build is dramatically improved over early models and although it has a few very
minor gremlins, pride of ownership and the superb chassis and engine combo more than compensate for them. Did I mention the sweet chassis?
2003 BENELLI TORNADO Tre RS
New Price: $33,450
Power: 105kW [140hp]@11500rpm
Torque: 100Nm [73.7ft-lbs]@8500rpm
Weight: 195kg
Engine: liquid-cooled, in-line, three-cylinder four-stroke with four valves per cylinder, 88 x 49.2mm, 898cc Compression ra 11.0:1 Fuel delivery: Sagem multi-point EFI Ignition: electronic Exhaust: Titanium/alloy.
Chassis: Tubular steel front trusses, cast alloy rear section, joined with traction screws, fully adjustable 50mm Marzocchi inverted forks, fully adjustable Extreme Tech shock, Twin four piston Brembo ‘Serio Oro’ radial-mount calipers, Brembo twin-piston caliper, OZ Raci g forged wheels.
Instruments: Speedo, tacho, odo, tripmeter.
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