DSK Motowheels has just announced that they’ve started accepting bookings for their latest small-capacity full-faired motorcycle, the Benelli 302R. The bike can be booked at any of the company’s 25 showrooms located across the country. At this stage, though, DSK Motowheels hasn’t announced the bike’s exact pricing or launch date; although, they do say that the bike will be available sometime next month.
Speaking about the announcement, Shirish Kulkarni, Chairman of DSK Motowheels, commented, “It is quite overwhelming to see that DSK Benelli 302R is receiving such a positive customer response even before it has entered the market.” When describing the new bike, he added, “What’s more remarkable about the 302R is the fact that the fully faired sports bike is a true manifestation of the Tornado pedigree, whose legacy has enchanted the global superbiking community for about half a century now.”
The Benelli 302R gets powered by the 300cc, parallel-twin, liquid-cooled motor from its naked sibling, the TNT300, which is good for 38hp of peak power that comes in at a heady 10,000rpm and a peak torque figure of 27.4Nm at 9,000rpm. But the 302R isn’t just a TNT300 with a full fairing. It gets a new trestle frame that’s quite different from the naked bike’s trellis frame, and it even ditches its lateral rear monoshock for a more conventional centrally mounted monoshock. The front gets the same 41mm upside-down forks as the TNT, although travel has been reduced.
At a dry weight of 190kg, the Benelli 302R is certainly a slightly portly motorcycle, but it seems to have been designed with a sport-touring role in mind, rather than being an outright sports bike. One of the things holding back its handling potential, as we found out during our test ride late last year, was rather lower cornering clearance, thanks to its foot peg design. However, DSK Benelli seems to have addressed that shortcoming with slimmer rider foot pegs. But we’ll know exactly what updates it has seen when we get our hands on it once again.
As mentioned, DSK Benelli hasn’t specified the price of the 302R as of yet. Last year we were estimating a sub-Rs 3 lakh ex-showroom price, but since the bike will go on sale after GST implementation next month, its actual price might just nudge Rs 3.50 lakh (ex-showroom).
You can check out our first ride impressions here.