Benelli TnT 1130 CENTURY RACER 2011 — Specifications

A century. One hundred years of building machines, weathering crises, brushing against extinction and rising again. Pesaro 2011: Benelli blows out its hundred candles, and the Italian brand chooses its TnT roadster to embody the occasion. The choice is logical. Since its return under Chinese ownership in the early 2000s, it is the TnT that has restored credibility to the marque, with its aggressive inline three-cylinder and its tubular trellis frame that never goes unnoticed.

The Century Racer is presented as the centenary edition. Let's be honest from the outset: it does not revolutionize the formula. We're talking about an exclusive livery, a "100 Anniversary" badge and a vintage logo resurrected for the occasion. It's the bare minimum for a commemorative edition, and those hoping for a radical transformation may well feel frustrated. Fortunately, Benelli used the anniversary as an opportunity to refine the entire TnT 1130 range, and the Century Racer benefits naturally from this. The radially mounted Brembo calipers on the two 320 mm front discs are the genuinely good news: the braking gained in bite and precision where the previous generation had lacked a little character. The Alcantara seat adds a premium finishing touch, and the revised injection mapping corrects a few hesitations that had irritated riders in earlier versions.

The engine, for its part, needed no anniversary to make its case. This 1,130 cc three-cylinder, with its 137 horsepower at 9,500 rpm and 109.8 Nm available at 7,750 rpm, delivers healthy, well-spread power. It doesn't reach the hysterical excess of a Triumph Speed Triple of the era, but the comparison doesn't necessarily go against the Italian machine. The character is different, deeper, almost Latin in its rev transitions. At 215 kg fully fuelled and with a seat height of 820 mm, the machine remains accessible to a rider of average build, even if it can't be called light against competitors like the Ducati Monster 1100, which came in under 190 kg dry. The 50 mm inverted fork with 120 mm of travel and the revised rear monoshock provide a solid foundation, firm enough to make the most of the claimed 240 km/h without feeling out of one's depth on the road.

At €15,000 at launch, the positioning is ambitious for a special edition whose distinguishing features ultimately amount to stickers and paint. That is the real weakness of the case. The technical improvements benefit all TnT 1130s of the same year, which considerably dilutes the collector appeal of the Century Racer. The enthusiast looking for a motorcycle with history may well buy the cheaper standard version and skip the anniversary premium. So who is this machine for? More likely an urban and GT rider in equal measure, drawn to the café-racer style that the TnT embodies better than most, and sufficiently attached to the Benelli story to want a piece of that resurrection. The 16-litre tank allows for occasional getaways without anxiety, the 6-speed gearbox works cleanly, and the chain drive remains easy to maintain.

Benelli deserved more than a badge for its hundredth birthday. The Century Racer nonetheless remains an Italian roadster with character to spare, a triple sound that growls just right, and a silhouette nobody copies. That's already quite a lot.