Lion Trail: Leoncino 800 Trail announced

As promised by Benelli, an off-road version of the Leoncino 800 is coming, following in the footsteps of its roadster sib announced recently. Dubbed the Leoncino 800 Trail, it features raised double exhausts, a 19-inch front wheel and kobby tyres for best dirt traction. Otherwise, it is technically the same as the Leoncino 800 road-going motorcycle. Leoncino, by the by, means ‘lion cub’ in Italian.

At its core is the same 754-cc liquid-cooled Euro 5-approved parallel twin, good for 56kW of power at 8500 rpm and 67Nm of torque at 6500rpm. The output is processed by a six-speed gearbox.

The chassis is the same tubular trellis item with steel plates that the road version uses but the fully adjustable 50mm Marzocchi USD forks have 8mm of extra travel, out to 148mm in the Trail. It’s the same travel extension for the monoshock that features spring preload and rebound damping adjustability. The Leoncino 800 Trail seat height is also raised, from 805mm on the road bike to 834mm in the Trail model.

Brakes are the same Brembo units as used on the Leo 800 road bike (twin 320mm discs with four-piston radial-mount calipers up front) while knobby tyres are 120/70-19 for the front hoop and 170/60-17 at the rear.

Styling features include an oval LED headlamp with small wind deflector above, the high-mount double exhaust out of harm’s way, modern TFT instruments and a well padded seat. A wee lion rides on the front mudguard, a symbol of the Benelli brand. It’s a sharp looking off-road machine.

Pricing for the Leoncino 800 Trail, which comes with a two-year/unlimited km warranty, will be available when the bike dots down here in the first quarter of 2022.