Benelli Leoncino 500 to launch on August 5

A few days ago, we reported that Benelli would launch the Leoncino 500 in early August and we now have a date – August 5, 2019. The upcoming scrambler-style motorcycle has been a long time coming and here’s everything we know about it.

While the Leoncino has been shown in three variants – the standard, Trail and Sport – India will only get the standard one, at first. In an interview with us a couple of months ago, Vikas Jhabakh, managing director, Benelli India, said, “At this moment, we are planning to launch only the street [standard] version. We will consider the Trail variant based on the feedback from the market.” Benelli has also not said anything about the Sport variant.

The Benelli Leoncino 500 is powered by a 499.6cc, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected, twin-cylinder motor that develops 47.6hp at 8,500rpm and 45Nm of torque at 5,000rpm. It uses a tubular steel-trellis frame and the standard 500 variant sits on 17-inch wheels at both ends. The fork is a 50mm USD unit, while the rear gets a monoshock.

ABS is standard on the Leoncino and it gets a 320mm twin-disc setup (with four-piston calipers) at the front, and a 260mm disc (with a single-piston caliper) at the rear. The standard motorcycle has a 207kg kerb weight and a 13.5-litre fuel-tank capacity.

In the global market, the Benelli Leoncino 500 and the Benelli TRK 502 are priced quite close to each other. However, in India we expect a bigger price gap between the two models, since the Leoncino will sit at the entry point of Benelli’s 500cc range in India.

Considering the competitive pricing of the Benelli TRK 502 (Rs 5.10 lakh) and TRK 502X (Rs 5.50 lakh) we expect the Benelli Leoncino 500's price to be around the Rs 4.7-5 lakh mark.

(All prices ex-showroom, Delhi.)