Hello everyone,

Its been a while and I know many had been waiting to hear about the TNT 899. My apologies for the late write up, been held up with a lot of things going around. Again good things comes with a patience, instead of a pre-mature write up. Having done over 1300 kms since getting registered a week back (22 Jan) am in a position to provide an objective view of the TNT 899… everything that works for it and things which goes against it.
So, am splitting this write up into 2 sections-

1. The decision making and everything that led towards getting the TNT 899
2. My journey so far and what I feel about the bike (trailing section 4 threads below)

Before we start, a brief introduction-
I am Tharun Venkat, currently based in Chennai. I shuttle between Chennai and Bangalore frequently, you can consider me a resident of both the states. Though I had been away from motorcycling since 2007 (literally haven’t ridden anything since ‘07), have had a long share of experience both on and off track. And have owned and toured on a variety of machines across a handful of countries. If you want to know my journey started with a TVS Champ when I was 14, followed by a Fiero, RD 350, BMW R100 RT, Honda CB 919 and breaking in at CB 1000 RR in ’07.

The decision to wind up riding again, leading to picking up the TNT 899-
The seeds to this journey was sown sometime mid-December last year. Call it boredom or midlife crisis there was an itch which kept growing stronger by the day re-kindling the interest in resuming my motorcycle diaries. December has always been a tricky month for me, in 2014 I resumed photography and in 2015 leading to me resuming the motorcycle days.
The process started with looking up for the launch of CS 400 pulsar and slowly branched out to what was available in the used market for in the 600 cc (sports touring / A2 class vehicles). I frankly had no intentions of picking up nothing more than a 600 A2 (western equivalent of a mid-segment beginner’s bike). Having had experience in riding litre class machines for many years, definitely know they aren’t suitable (objectively speaking) for Indian traffic conditions. You just can’t over the machines for anything more than a few minutes in 40 kmph without catching your pants on fire. And frankly none of them are designed to rev comfortably at such low rmp’s (just takes the fun out of these machines)
Pinning down the requirement-
Personally I have been a fan of the naked / semi fared motorcycles, love having a versatile usable power and handling of a super sport yet being able to be seated in the saddle for long hours. (Usable power, not top speed which you never get to see). It had somehow suited my riding style and what I used to be at heart.
The search over the next week grew a bit intense and I was thinking about picking up a used Ninja 650 or a Hyosong 650 GTN model. But then decided to stick to a used Ninja 650. Spoke to a few prospective sellers of both Kawasaki and met up with a couple of owners test riding their machines. To be blunt, there was nothing. I god damn felt nothing!!! Not a piece of excitement, joy, no adrenaline rush. It was a blunt experience. Again being practical around Christmas was making queries to pick a new one up from Pondicherry instead of Chennai and was making enquiries about them.
Finding the One & the calling-
During the search, happened accidently to come upon the Benelli’s available in India and looking up on reviews of the 600i. The word Benelli brought about amongst the sweetest memories of my motorcycling days in Australia. Back to the story I was still stubborn looking for a 600 class motorcycle and now benelli 600 GT was in the list cos of its touring ability. Frankly I still like the GT’s versatility to that of the 600i, test rode them all and finally the 899. The shot ride I took on the 899 brought a spark of life into me. Then went back and rode it again and had a strange calling of feeling complete again.
(A trip into the memory lane- Honestly, had forgotten the brand name even since then. This was sometime back in ’05 or ’06 one of the dealers whom I used to be well acquainted with had a 1130 Benelli and provided it to me for the weekend to test (had a strong relationship with them, my ’05 RR was done done up for track spec’s by these guys). Now this was 2005 and frankly for then nobody had seen anything that looked like that. The only other machine I could think of was the MV’s which were drastically designed and looked apart, and came with zero usability as one wouldn’t last 30 mins in her saddle. And the Benelli rode like hell for a naked machine, no wind blast and for the throttle I am used to providing my cb 919 (which was completely modded), she would out run her by 50% more acceleration. My first stretch from the dealer to the lights before doing a u-turn was so exhaling that before I could see, was somewhere @ 130 in a 70km zone while I was expecting her to be at around 100. The weekend was so wonderful that everyone stopped to enquire / take a look @ her. Had to turn her down though, she came at a hefty price tag of around AU$19.5k and I was having huge money riding on upgrading my CBR. BTW then CBR ’05 1000RR used to cost around AU$17.5k)

Change in heart-
Since riding the TNT 899, I had a strong change of heart and felt that doesn’t matter which 600 class I would get, would never feel comfortable / complete. And the best thing to do is get a litre class naked / sports tourer…
The Options-
Not much really, with my budget being 10 lakhs. Just got pushed from wanting something to fulfil my itch and deciding to spend 4 lakhs or so a hike upto 10 lakhs in a matter of 2 days. From what I could gather my options
The others which I wanted but were struck off the list- Suzuki GSX 1000, Yamaha FZ1 for lack of dealership and service network. In an ideal world would have picked from the following- a KTM 1290, Multistrada or a Ninja 1000 but they were way off my budget.
Hence, it was these 3 which were finalized.

1. Kawasaki- Z800
2. Ducati- 821 monster
3. Benelli- TNT 899

The Ducati-
The Ducati 821 monster is the clear winner here, in terms of performance- electronics and as an overall package. But the lack of dealership and service network (along with Ducati’s poor history in India until recently) made it out of the list. The lack of homogenization and service network was my biggest issue with them. The 15K service interval is great, however in Indian conditions and practical approach, it doesn’t work without having a service centre in your city. Say for example, every 500 kms you require your chain tightened / fixed etc. And about 10 K in our conditions, forks re aligned, valves cleared etc. This apart from any minor adjustments or fixes which one may require. From my past experience, I had to visited the service centre once a month and before every long trip (my vehicles are mechanically to be maintained at top condition always, call it an obsession). Now this wouldn’t just be possible with the Ducati.
The Kawasaki-
Great options, after market goods for the Z800. Test rode it a couple of times, once at a dealership and with a common friend. Butter smooth engine performance. Nimble (subjective). Reasonably good service network across all metro’s and major cities in India. Fantastic machine for canyon carving. However, didn’t suit my purpose for a few reasons-

1. I take pillions occasionally for long / city rides, especially for the long rides the seating in the Z800 is virtually non-existent. Now that’s a major hindrance
2. It does fairly heat up. Had temperatures go upto 120c in city traffic
3. The styling makes it difficult to have saddle bags for touring. (Not picking a bike for riding in the city, and touring doesn’t mean coffee rides out of town. Sorry)
4. From speaking with Kawasaki zx10r and a z800 owner. Service lead time for spares is usually about a month or more. But still acceptable given you are picking a premium product and spares needs to be imported

The Benelli-
The TNT 899 was infact the odd one out in every way. It’s a very old model, which still stands up to today’s market. A not so smooth 3 cylinder. And a brand that’s slowly getting revived. Zero electronics doesn’t really bother me much. This bike is not going to see any track days and am used to riding far torquier and powerful machines in the past and it’s something of getting used to.
What really made this stuck out was-

1. Best dealership support I had received amongst the 3 showrooms I had been to (have visited the service center twice and they had been extremely helpful)
2. I rode the bike for about 75 kms spread across multiple test rides in a variety of conditions and different throttle usage. And found it to be extremely versatile even under bumber to bumper heavy traffic.
3. For a 900, this one hardly heats up (have ridden 1300 km’s so far and there’s barely any heating) temperature hasn’t gone up over 90 degrees in the worst situation. These days I manage it under 83c.
4. Widest Dealer + Service support – 15 so far and to be 27 by end of the year.
5. Apart from Ducati, Benelli is the only one to provide total warranty. This includes suspension, chains, sprockets, brake rotors, electronics etc.
6. Better wind protection compared to Ducati 821 and z800
7. Extremely communicative chassis while getting my knee almost down during test
8. Third year extended warranty option

The purchase & delivery-
It took us a week to negotiate on the price, went for part finance option. We finally shook hands and had a sweet deal which was around the end of second week of Jan.
The bike was supposed to be delivered on the 12^th Jan, but got delayed and there were further repeated delays. The next auspicious day was on 17^th Jan, took delivery and got the bike registered on the 19^th. There were repeated setbacks as the delivery and registration kept extending from the 12^th due to holidays followed by some mix up at the registration office, since this being the first TNT 899 to be registered in TN.

To be continued… summary of my 1300kms of riding experience