Benelli To Launch A 400cc Twin-Cylinder Sportbike?

Qianjiang Motorcycle, Benelli’s parent company, has filed a patent application for a new 400cc supersport that shares an uncanny resemblance to the Benelli Tornado 252R. This particular patent hints at the development of a new 400cc bike by the Italian bikemaker, which could just be called the Tornado 402R.

Benelli’s sister company, QJMotor, recently launched the GS400RR supersport in China and the new model in the patent visibly shares many characteristics with that bike.

In terms of appearance, the supersport borrows a lot of visual elements from its smaller sibling, the Tornado 252R. It gets a similar vertical headlight with DRLs and an aggressive fairing design, which is edgier on the 252R, whereas on the 400cc bike’s patent, the fairing and headlight design looks coherent. The patent also shows a similar muscular fuel tank and a raised pillion seat, similar to the 252R.

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Powering the bike should be a 400cc, twin-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine based on the same platform as QJMotor’s 400cc bikes, which, in turn, is quite similar to Kawasaki’s 400cc engine. However, the engine casing on the design patent looks slightly different from the GS400RR, so we will only get to know more details when the brand discloses it. We can expect it to produce around 44.8PS and 37Nm, similar to the QJMotor SRK 400 RR, which should be good enough to take on the KTM RC 390, but its other rival, the Kawasaki Ninja 400 makes about 4PS and 1Nm more

Going by the renderings, the bike is suspended on a USD fork up front and a monoshock linked to the single-sided swingarm, something that’s usually found on much more premium motorcycles. The bike is anchored by a single disc on both ends, and should come with the safety net of dual channel ABS (similar to its smaller sibling).

The Benelli 402R appears to be a promising contender to take on the other 400cc capacity supersports. However, its success will primarily depend on its asking price.