Benelli TRK 502

Best selling bike in Italy in 2020
Some Italian dude in action:

saw one today here in Maribor Slovenia and met the rider - Federico from Rome or Zero Highways on the forum. hope he chimes in and shares his travels and experiences with the TRK502X. what a sweet bike, twin 500 cc


more here

Hi Joel, thanks for this nice photo, let's hope the owner of the cob isn't an ADV member
It was an honour meeting you!
I'll start with pleasure to share my round the world adventure with my TRK here on the forum.

I bought a Benelli Leoncino Trail in Feb 2021 and I'm super happy with it. I'm excited to hear about your travels with the ADV bike (which shares the same motor).

Charles.

Nice bike the Leoncino!
I'll start as soon as possible to share info and photos of my round the world trip, I just need few days to be focused on scheduled maintenance, finding new tires, editing new videos and things like that, that are getting urgent and priority

it will be very interesting to see how your trip goes how the bike holds up ect

i took mine for short tour managed 1000 miles in four days on four tanks of fuel on day 1 239 miles on 14.8 litres of petrol ..so well ove 5 litres to spare non motorway varying spped up to 80mph
i enjoyed the trip it was easy to ride very comfy and very stable cornered well did a few fireroads but the bike is to heavy for anything more for me and the standing position /tank is awful for this ...i just sat down and went steady it really isnt much good for anything other than gravel ..to be fair its not what i bought it for and i found it quite liberating not having to ponder tyres and guards and pegs ect ..the bike has benifitted greatly from fitting a15t front sprocket as apparantly they use 14/44 for off road where the road version uses 14/42 ..im trying 15/42 at the moment and its a pretty calm cruise in the high 70s sat nav with 86 on the clock being a real world 78mph at 6500 revs
its not a quick bike by any streach ..i have run varderos dl1000s gs1200s 1150s t7 and some pretty handy 130bhp sport tourers so i am used to bikes with a lot more grunt than the trk ..it cant be exxpected to match those big bikes in turn of speed of course but i really didnt find the bike too slow in real word touring it accelerates enough to deal and overtake most daily traffic and it would trot along at decent pace best ridden without forcing the speed and shifting aroun 6.5k i did a lot of single track tar and the motor is super flexable you really can leave it in 5th gear and from 25mph it pulls clean and flawless its like riding a autmatic not what you would think at all at 35mph you can choose any gear u want its very very easy to ride lazy ...gearbox is as good as anything from japan that ive owned ..what it was good at was holding the momentum through the corners while being extreamly comfy and extreamly protective from the weather ..suspension i think is above average and certainly way better than my old vee stroms for sure .tank range is huge and have no complaints at all at the price point it ispretty decent on the road quite plush without excessive dive on the brakes ..brakes are alittle wooden at low pressures but they are pretty strong and you can stop in short order id you ever need to
all in all i had a really nice four days touring and at a touring pace the bike does very well indeed ..it has susperised me quite abit it is not the most exciting thing ive ever ridden but it is a pleasent place to sit and watch the world go by ...given it is heavy and 47hp a2 licence it really has ridden alot better than i expected . im not planning to shove it back on ebay i quite like it now ive lived on it for a few days ..seems ideal for some nice soft touring and the price is plain silly

Some great observations. The reliability bias will melt away I suspect. I am old enough to recall when "Made in Japan" was considered the assured mark of cheap junk in relation to "Made in America" . It seems the era of computers, CAD, CNC and robotic assembly has leveled the playing field. Metallurgically too, I think EVERYONE is far ahead of the the old BSAs, Triumphs, Harleys, Jawas, Hodakas, CZs and other world beaters. I have enjoyed watching the much derided Hyundai and Kia brands ease up reputationally from junk to fully accepted.

Now Bennelli had some false starts with the Tre etc. but they have persisted so there must be some jam somewhere. We all crave a 500 CC ADV bike and when a new one arrives we bash hell out of it. Odd bunch we are.

Lee

Just an FYI, I've got over 6000 miles on my Leoncino right now, and haven't had to do one single, solitary thing to the bike. It's not broken. Nothing has gone wrong. I'm just riding it. Way, WAY different experience than my CSC RX3 or even my SSR Buccaneer. The Benelli is in a completely different class. It's not a chinese bike, it's an Italian bike that happens to be made in China.

Charles.

Number of European TRK owners post regularly (in English) on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheLoneWolf1976/videos
https://www.youtube.com/c/BikeRiderReviews/videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoALEV7v3wTO9L0Hd4ZQtoA/videos

nice to see zero
32000 km ride report if you watch it on you tube it has english subtitles

This is cool information about how Benelli is doing: https://www.motorcyclesdata.com/2021/08/15/benelli/

Charles.

Well if all goes well I'll complete the purchase for a 2021 TRK502X on Tuesday. [emoji2][emoji51][emoji2][emoji2]

So. Quite a range of prices I found over the past week.

A dealer in Arkansas wanted $7999. Ouch.

Had a TRK on the hook, I thought in Irving, TX for $7239... but it sold.

Saw others for $7500-7700 ish.

Then I bought one from a dealer in Yuba City California for $6014. The dealer honored his original cost pricing as this was on the floor before the price surge. Who does that anymore?

Thanks to Mathews Power sports in Yuba City! Jim was extremely accommodating.

You had an odd duck RX3 as most have turned out very reliable and durable.

You say that, but there are a whole lot of people having problems with the RX3s too. While normally I'd jump to the defense of a bike I own and truly like, I think it's safer to understand that the RX3 is just not on the same level of quality as the Japanese or the next wave of modern Chinese bikes. The RX4 might be. I saw one in person and it was a far more impressive bike, with excellent fit and finish. The RE3/SG400 is likewise well built and has a great fit and finish. Better than the RX4's actually, and I haven't run into any problems in 2500 miles so far.

But compared to my Benelli, all three of my other Chinese bikes fall short. The RX3, SSR, and yes even my brand new SG400. The Benelli handles WELL, and has had zero problems in 7000 miles.

Also, I'm not bashing my RX3. I like it for what it is. But more than that, I like the company for the way they support the owners and help diagnose repairs and are available on the phone. I also see them improving every model year, and that's just not something I see from other manufacturers. (Kawasaki, your doohickey is still a problem 34 years later. BMW, your final drives still grenade.). That's why I kept my RX3 and stuck around and bought an SG400.

That said, while the SG400 is a lot closer, the benelli still beats it in fit and finish, handling, design considerations, and overall package.

Charles.

I saw one of these at a dealer yesterday. My first thoughts where that it was huge for a 500 and it was a really boring color for an "Italian" bike.



I had not payed any attention to this bike before seeing this one so I did a little research and found this review: https://ridermagazine.com/2021/01/27/2021-benelli-trk502x-road-test-review/

While I like the idea of an adventure bike with a 500cc twin motor, an as tested weight of 589 pounds seems a "bit" porky.

Yep, it's a bit porky. But it is also HUGE. Easily accomodates two American-sized adults, which you don't find in the 300-650 class from any other manufacturer. It also comes stock with a lot of accessories the other brands make you pay for. Those hand guards, crash bars, and rear rack are not accessories, what you see is bone stock. And those don't weigh nothing. Also note that Rider tested the bike with the accessory luggage and rack system. Motorcycle.com tested the stock bike and had it at 546 pounds... with a full tank of fuel. 43 pounds of that is fuel. In reality, the *motorcycle* is just over 500 pounds. I really wish they would weigh the bikes with coolant and oil but no fuel, because otherwise the bikes with stingy tanks have "better" specs. Center stand, hand guards, rear rack, and crash bars are maybe another 30 pounds, which brings the bike much closer to the V-Strom 650's weight.

As for the color, yeah Benelli USA imported only gray and white. Other countries got red and yellow. Personally, I'd get the white one, and when it comes time for the first valve adjustment I'd strip it down and paint the exposed trellis frame and swingarm fire engine red. Since the tank, seat, and fairing will be off already, it won't be that much more disassembly for the tail and stuff. Then I think I could get away with just masking off the exhaust and engine and spray bombing it.

I have the Benelli Leoncino Trail, and I've ridden with a pair of CB500Xs. (Actually I took an adventure riding course with them). One was stock, one with the rally raid kit. And... the motor makes power differently, but the speed is roughly the same. The Benelli has way more bottom end torque, the CB500X has more top end. I'd say they're within 2 or 3 horsepower of each other.

Charles.

Update: I bought the Leoncino Trail in Feb 2021 and absolutely love it. Now considering the TRK502 for long distance touring.

Charles.

https://ultimatemotorcycling.com/2021/01/22/2021-benelli-trk502-review-15-fast-facts-sport-touring/

Charles.