DSK Motowheels' latest, small-capacity, full-faired motorcycle, the Benelli 302R, is now officially set to be launched later this month – on July 25. Bookings for the 302 were opened a month ago and interested customers could put their name down for one at any of the company’s 25 showrooms located across the country. Pricing for the bike hasn’t been revealed yet, but we estimate after factoring in things like new GST rates, among others, the 302R would nudge the Rs 3.50 lakh ex-showroom mark.
The Benelli 302R is powered by the 300cc, liquid-cooled, parallel-twin 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 it back its handling potential, as we found out during our test ride late last year, was a rather lower cornering clearance thanks to its footpeg design. However, DSK Benelli seems to have addressed that shortcoming with slimmer rider footpegs. But we’ll know exactly what updates it has seen once we get our hands on it once again.
You can check out our first ride impressions here