According to Benelli, the legend is back.
Does that mean we’re about to see Gordie Howe return to skates in order to score, set up goals, and fight his opponents in yet another decade of pro hockey? Nope. We’re not really sure what it means at all. Benelli hasn’t produced a legendary bike in so long, that, well, it’s kinda like those older machines are legends — great stories, like all those tales of knights fighting dragons, but we’re not sure if they really happened.
Actually, Benelli has produced a lot of fine motorcycles in their decades-past history, and as recently as the 1990s and arguably the early 2000s, they made some gnarly nakeds, but while they had styling and maybe even horsepower to back it up, none have become known for hammer-like reliability and longevity. And now that the company is under Chinese ownership, well, those sorts of wild Italian stallions are things of the past.
But! In a press release this week, Benelli tells us something new and exciting is coming at EICMA. Jensen Beeler over at Asphalt & Rubber has done a little bit of Photoshop tweaking to support the hypothesis of a scrambler model. Maybe? It’s true those pseudo-duallies are hot stuff these days, particularly with the Euro set. The only details we know for sure are those we can glean from that title photo, and that isn’t much.
[…] And here we go again. Benelli, formerly a purveyor of high-end exotica, now pushed to the fringes of the motorcycle industry, is once more promising the return of a legendary model. Apparently, that legend is the Leoncino. […]
“The Legend Is Back” ? Apparently the recently-fired Harley marketing guy now works for Benelli.
Any minute now – I can hear the truck backing up to the loading dock, right behind the Norton guys….
My thoughts exactly.