Review Benelli Leoncino 800 | Motorcycle check

Review Benelli Leoncino 800

By Wayne Vickers, Image by Rob Mott

No, it’s not the Italian citrus flavored drink, but the ‘baby’ lion Benelli has grown up and found his roar. While the bike was first introduced with a 500 cc heart rate, the new Leoncino 800 now uses the same 754 cc engine found in the 752S model. Confused? Well I can’t explain the model naming either. Before it was 500, now it’s 750 cc.

See Benelli Leoncino Trail Review 500 to run down on the smaller version.

Strange naming aside, there’s quite a bit to like about the new 800. It comes in two variants, a road-oriented version as tested here and a ‘Trail’ model that comes with a slightly longer suspension setup, higher ground clearance, 19-inch front wheels and exhaust pipes. is different. In fact, a little more without spending more. But here, we focus on the more touring version that I spent a few weeks on the train.

First impressions are pretty solid. It’s quite unique in style indeed. The bike certainly received a lot of attention and praise from passersby and onlookers. Overall, it also looks pretty well finished, that barrel paint looks especially good, although I do have a thing for that matte/satin finish. However, you think it would be a good idea to paint the frame with a color other than black.

The seat height is nice and low, and the wide bars are just right for good leverage without feeling like riding a Texas Longhorn. Have you noticed when moving the bike in a stationary state that it feels heavier than you think (the bike weighs more than 220 kg) and the steering wheel is not as spacious as you imagine.

That steering lock will work if you find yourself trying to change lanes while filtering through congested traffic but otherwise that shouldn’t be an issue. The steering is quite slow but not heavy at all.

The engine and transmission are quite nice. While it has some minor tweaks from the 752S and offers almost identical specs – the pack feels a bit lighter due to the extra weight.

The car runs well, has a smooth and mid-range end, even gets a little extra thrust from about seven thousand, which is quite nice. Overall, it’s nothing to worry about although I do find it starting to get a bit grumpy in hot traffic. Maybe just my bike, but I wonder what it would be like on a hot summer day…

But in all other situations, the Leoncino 800 is completely at home. A lot is unleashed on the open road and is perfect at home as an urban weapon. There’s no need to use much of the end, though – keep it average at best. The box is so cute. The feeling of change is really nice. The clutch is also quite nice although I do notice that the top of the clutch pull sometimes creates a bit of mechanical resistance across the lever.

Handling and braking are where I found the new 800 to have some shortcomings. Front brake. The Benelli-branded twin 320mm discs up front feel a bit weak for my liking but the bigger issue is the feel of the stiff and all-woody gearshift. Not much feedback is available for what happened.

They seem to work, but you have to squeeze them appropriately… and then feel what they’re doing from the bike’s behavior, not through the levers. I guess ABS will be available if you get to the lock point.

On the other end, the rear has power and feels good, but my bike has the most squeaky pads. It might just be some sort of contaminant on the pad after a media launch, so I’ll waive it.

The suspension wasn’t quite what I wanted either. Original Moreso. The fork is a super strong 50mm work-fork but seems exceptionally sturdy – especially around town and shows reluctance to deal with bumps and surface changes – especially early in the journey.

Looks like it could be done with a little less liquid? Unfortunately, they’re not adjustable with the knobs, which takes me straight to the rear preload setting that was turned off as soon as I picked it up.

While I’m on it. That initial rigor made the chair work hard after more than an hour. Ask for a break. Shorter rides weren’t a problem, and in fact, I quite liked the sculpted seat shape around town, but yes, my butt gauge was blaring badly on any big day. which era.

The good news is very similar to my experience on Ducati’s Desert More recently, the increased front-rear load has dramatically improved the feel of the front end – turning it into something that’s still fairly solid but not too rough. It still felt reluctant at the start of the ride, but the bike’s balance was much better once I got the ends to work in unison and even the saddle became a bit more comfortable.

When dialed in, the surface changes are less abrupt but overall still much stiffer than what I would think would be appropriate for a powertrain. So be aware that this bike is quite sensitive to the front-rear load setting.

Dashes and controls are fine, while the design has unnecessarily reflective tops and bottoms that are annoying (Tiger 900 makes the same mistake), the TFT display has a nice matte finish that helps taking pictures is easier so Rob is very pleased! Dash pics can really be a pain.

However, menu controls, such as resetting the trip odometer, are pretty normal. About five or six button presses to complete… That gets stale pretty quickly. And you can’t reset the odometer or access any menu controls while on the go.

So if you refuel and take off, you have to wait to stop to rebook your ride… In the end I didn’t bother using it either. This can be a problem since I don’t get the amazing mileage, having to refuel at the 230 km mark. However – it doesn’t pretend to be a tourist.

The only other thing to mention is that the rear fender is not functioning as it should be. In the end, I got quite wet from the water splashed when it rained. More than once. Maybe they don’t expect owners to ride in the wet. Hard to avoid that in recent Victoria…

As for the 752S, the price is where it starts to rally again in a good way. At thirteen and a half miles, it offers solid value. I suppose a quick fork service someone knows they’re doing to remove that last bit of reluctance at the top and maybe some twine action on the front brake would get this done pretty well.

It is not a superpower. That 220+ kg weight takes away most of the growl that the 500 cc to 750 cc upgrade gives as it’s about 25% heavier. But the Leoncino 800 had a certain swagger about it that after spending some time with it, I fell in love with it much more than I initially thought. I was expecting it to be quite pleasant around town, but I probably didn’t expect it to be as enjoyable as a traffic engraving tool.

Definitely worth a look, especially if you want to tweak a bit to categorize the front suspension and brakes (which I don’t think would be super expensive exercises and would help a lot). It has some strong competition in the more expensive segment, but I think it’s quite pricey (from $13,490* with ride) and deserves some fans.

Check out the bike at the Benelli Australia website:
https://benelli.com.au/model/leoncino-800/

I like the Benelli Leoncino 800 because:

• Nice smooth driveway with pretty bang
• Design and finish are quite good
• Surprisingly good traffic filtering weapon
• Hard to argue with that price

I would prefer the Benelli Leoncino 800 if:

• Forks can do with one tweak (or some tweaking)
• The dash control is pretty clumsy
• The front brake feels very wooden
• The engine can be a bit slow in Summer traffic?

Specifications Benelli Leoncino 800