Great to see two Benelli’s in a month, but two have popped up this holiday week ! This is an earlier example of the rear-radiator sportbike, with just dealer miles despite its litigious past.
2005 Benelli Tornado Tré for sale on eBay
After difficulties in the late 1980’s, the revitalized Benelli showed the Tornado in 1999, and developed the 898cc triple with a reputed 140 hp. In concert with a desire to have the engine as far forward as possible, the radiator was located amidships with underseat fans vacuuming hot air out the back. The tube and casting chassis is Triumph-esque, with premium Brembo and Öhlins components.
The Tré has traveled but unfortunately not much under power, between storage units mostly. It appears as new except for a couple of very light marks. The owner has dealt with a couple of storage-related issues, and the ECU re-flash hopefully exorcised the lean-running midrange flat spot. From the eBay auction:
This example has now 198 original miles. I think it had 135 miles when I first got it about 6 years ago. I found it in North Carolina. It was said to come out of a storage locker. I had to chase down the original owner and pay off the bank loan to acquire title. That took a while.
I found a former Benelli technical rep who has a small shop near Pittsburgh. He helped me bring it back to life, fixed a few things and put in the current ECU map, etc. That was when first got it and Its been part of my collection ever since. More recently, I had to replace the fuel pump which went south from sitting. Back to Pittsburgh it went.
Its now again a turn key bike! You wont find a cleaner nicer example but it does have a couple small hairline scratches in the lower left green panel. See pix. That’s about it. The rest is as new.
The offbeat design led to an 1130cc superbike and naked, but after a 2005 merger with Qjian Jiang the company’s focus has shifted to smaller singles and scooters, though a 600cc four is still on their North American menu. Good reviews for the Tré were tempered by ECU mapping and alternator drive difficulties, but once sorted it handles great and the 900 triple is a joy. The asking price concentrates on all the good things about rarity, and maybe there is a buyer with the support network in place. In the meantime, the rest of us can enjoy a very Italian sport from 2005 with just 200 miles…
donn
SOLD!!!
Fast by Ferrachi had one of these in their showroom for years. My thoughts that its the same bike seem to be confirmed by the fact that the ebay listing is just north of the old dealership. Could not have been of many around .
damn…too fast. Nice to see these are climbing the charts for collectors.
$10,500. Yours now Adam? Happy New Year!
dc
Thanks Dan! I’m super excited. Back when I had MotoExtreme Performance, I was setting up the parts in our booth at Laguna Seca during WSB and I heard this crazy sound shoot by…..Then I heard it again and ran out of the booth. Sure as sh**, it was this bike and I said to myself…I need one! This one is going in the museum for all to see. Just told our buddy Tom the Stuntman…before we take it upstairs, we’re going to wring it’s neck a little and see what she can do :). What a great Saturday!
Congrats on the purchase Adam, these are just too cool, they hit all the right buttons for me.
Thanks Billy! The style is crazy but we’ve always wanted to ride one and it would look cool for our guests. Don’t think we’ll sell it but maybe put some crazy price tag if someone “has to have it” but you just never see them so pretty cool addition. We’ll get our painter to touch her up too so she’s perfect again. Good to hear from you again old friend. Rode your bike last week just to keep her going. She’s a popular movie rental bike so that helps keep the lights on 🙂
Ah yes! Love these colors and the the tech is interestingly different without being so out there that it would seem a reliability concern. Love the radiators. As a track bike I’d yank the fans off, otherwise i love it as is.
Hi Gents, l had the pleasure of riding a friend’s early Tre many years ago. I’ll always remember that raspy sound and torque. Beautiful machine and something different. The following machine caught my eye in Australia recently but failed to get a bid at 8500usd. Later model example. Anyone got any thoughts or opinions on the larger capacity model? https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F332908207307
I have my eyes on when the LE comes up for a sale
Nice acquisition Adam. Congratulations!
You don’t see these coming up for sale very often. Especially in like new condition like this one!
This would have been a nice addition to my own Italian Superbike collection.
I definitely need to come down and check out your moto museum one day. I’ll put it on my calendar for 2019!
Congrats again. Should be a great addition to the collection!
Happy New Year everyone!
Thanks my friend. I went to see a collection back in Jan, guy had 75 or so great bikes but he had one of these and I kept thinking….man I want one of those! The partners and I talked about it last night, we’re going to keep her for a while, just such a rare bike. Hopefully our Patronas comes through so we can do a triples test ride…dare to dream :). Come down one day, come during the week and we’ll do a local spin on some of the rarer ones. Place gets a little crazy on weekends. Happy New Year everyone. And a Very heartfelt thank you to this site for helping us build Iconic…this site was the source for MANY of our bikes so huge thanks to Dan, Tad and the rest of the crew!!! Only site I visit regularly!
what are the tallow fan blade looking things as seen just inside the exhaust?
Large fans that pull the air through the rear mounted radiators. One of thie things that made this bike stick out so much 🙂