Every time I see the advertisement of Incredible India, keeping a check of the gypsy hormones inside me becomes difficult. The wanderer bug (read as rehmani keeda) inside me starts cribbing about the day to day life & the biker inside me lead me to some beautiful places which worth all the efforts & time. Now let’s stop all this chemical reactions & get straight to the point. The bike, which one to opt for if you want to go for long distance touring & specially if you are married, remember the vows you took which includes that your wife need to be with you everywhere for next seven rebirths. Now regret or cherish this is your call, but surely what you can cherish for is about this new Italian lad from the house of one the pioneers of motorcycling “Benelli”. Now if you have been following the Indian two wheelers market very closely you would be as happy as a lark because, the number of international manufacturers showing interests in the Indian market is tremendous & recently Benelli tied up with DSK in India to bring their ace bikes here.
The Benelli TNT 600 GT is one of the bikes from its stable I recently got a hold of & trust me the machine is here to inject new blood into the breed of motorcycle tourers. Now Royal Enfield has always been the first choice of the riders & its ability to tackle terrains like Leh & Ladakh has been tried & tested several times & after that there is dearth of options. Lately people has been trying their luck with the Hero Impluse & Karizma but not too much of success has been achieved till date. The GT 600 perfectly fits the bill as per its utility is concerned & the only adversary the Italian has in India is from the Japanese, the Kawasaki Ninja 650.
The Benelli TNT GT600 is powered by an in line 4 cylinder, 16 valve, 600 cc, 82 hp engine which is also shared by the Benelli 600i & it’s being continuously supported by a huge 27 litre fuel tank providing a good range for the rider. Much attention has been given to the seating posture of the rider, well positioned handle bar complimented by the forward set foot pegs, comfortable seats & reach adjustable brake lever can make you crunch miles without complaining.
The GT600 is definitely an attention seeker when it comes to its looks & design, most of the times it will make its presence felt whether you are on red signal or cruising down the highway. With all due respect to the designers I would say they have done a good job. The GT 600 comes with a semi digital instrument cluster, day time running projector headlamps and amiably designed switch gears. The front gets a recherché fairing & it’s eulogized by a short wind shield. Now again, if you have a Anshuka Sharma type girlfriend (ask Virat Kohli why) the folks at Benelli has ensured that even she is not left out. The rear seats are very spacious & comfortable & I did a 400 kms run with a pillion onboard & her body language tells me that there is huge smile inside the helmet. Damn!
The ride quality is up to the mark of what you can expect from a sports tourer, the gear shifting is short which 
will help to manoeuvre the 220 plus kilos bike smoothly in city traffic & highway. With a good ground clearance of 140 mm & seating height of 800 mm, even an average heighted Indian rider should not complain. The music from the catalytic exhaust is well received above 5500 rpm but post 7500 rpm vibes creeps below the seat & fuel tank but that doesn’t hamper your ride to a great extent.
With the pricing yet to be announced, the GT600 if priced lesser than 6 lacs it will be a hot cake in the market. Currently all the bikes are CBUs but soon the DSK Benelli partnership is planning to get the bikes as CKDs here & then it will be interesting to see the market sizzling up.
Like: Engine quality, Built quality, throttle response, sitting posture, comfortable seats for pillion.
Dislike: Soft rear suspension, absence of ABS.
Spec Sheets: – Benelli TNT 600 GT
Type: In line 4 cylinders, 4-stroke, liquid cooled, 4 valves for cylinder double overhead camshaft.
DISPLACEMENT: 600 cc.
Rated Output: 82 Bhp @ 11000 rpm
Maximum Torque: 55 Nm @ 8000 rpm