Along with the Leoncino and TRK 502, Benelli Imperiale 400 is also launching in India. It will be a pure old-school cruiser with heavy chrome elements. This bike will compete directly against the Royal Enfield Classic and Bullet. As confirmed by Benelli, the cruiser will launch by end of 2019.
Benelli has been in the news lately due to falling out with its earlier partner, DSK. Now Benelli has tied up with South-India based Mahavir Group to manufacture more bikes in India. However, the bikes will have their names as ‘Benelli’ against the earlier ‘DSK-Benelli’. Now with the new partnership, Benelli has announced that it will launch 3-4 bikes in India by 2019. The lineup includes Scrambler-type Leoncino, Adventure bike TRK 502, the sports bike 302R and the old-school cruiser Benelli Imperiale 400. In this case, we take the Imperiale 400. Out of all the Benelli bikes, this one looks the most retro and simple. It looks like some cruiser from the 1950s with all its heavy chrome inserts. Without any further ado, check out our expectations for the launch date, price, specs, and features.
Also Read: Benelli Coming Back To India Soon; To Launch New Bikes This Year
Starting with its design, it looks like a proper retro styled cruiser, back from the 1950-60s. It gets chrome inserts over the fuel tank, over the cluster dials, on its engines and the tire fenders. Another good thing about the cruiser is the spring-loaded driver seat. Unlike the modern-day bikes like Leoncino and all, this one is clearly a tough rival to the Royal Enfield bikes. That’s why it looks a little similar to them.
The bike will launch in 2019, according to Benelli. In their recent media events, they confirmed the launch of the mentioned bikes. Also, Imperiale 400 launch in India was pending for a long time. We expect it to be priced competitively with Bullet and Classic 350. So the expected price is around Rs 1.2 Lakhs (ex-showroom). Currently, there are no direct Royal Enfield rivals as such, but this is undoubtedly the first direct one.
Also Read: Benelli Leoncino 500 – What Can You Expect From This Bike?
Coming to the engine, it will sport a 373cc air-cooled fuel injected engine. This engine churns out 19.7 BHP @ 5,500 RPM of power and 28 Nm @ 3500 ROM of torque. It comes paired to a 5-speed transmission. The drivetrain and torque figures are similar to Royal Enfield Classic and Bullet. It would not feature ABS and all those high-end features. It is reported that the Benelli Imperiale 400 might also get RE Bullet’s traditional ‘dug-dug-dug’ exhaust note.
Like the usual RE bikes, the Benelli Imperiale 400 will hardly have many features. For a more retro look, it will use the analog tachometer, speedometer, and the fuel reading meter. It will come with disc brakes in the front, separate rider and pillion seat, a spring-loaded rider seat and the long-running exhaust muffler. Well, in these types of bikes, we do not expect any features. The primary reason is that they are made like this for the ‘old times’ sake.
