Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

[MENTION=80812]teezam[/MENTION] Congrats on the bike, looks wicked!

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience


Not sure, Though its been a while. The temp when I took it for a short spin def crossed 115

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

This weekend will be going on a long ride and plan to cover some 1000 kms in 2 days and will be a mix of roads. So will be able to provide a good review on the riding experience by next week.

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

Have done approximately 2000 kms since taking delivery. Guess thats good enough miles to form an opinion.
Last weekend I did a trip to Kalvarayan hills and nearby areas which added about 800kms to the odo. This is the first, long trip on this bike. Have rides planned for the next 3 consecutive weekends. Will update once am through them all. I am part of CTC (Chennai trekking group) where rides are frequently organized. This one was an easy ride (usually the hard ones are a week long covering thousand's of km's). Riding part of a group was fun and yet at times felt a bit challenging given the ride rules and that the average speed was set to 100. On the other hand, CTC rides and trips are fantastic and well organized. Happy to be part of riding with mature riders than in-disciplined hooligans.


My impressions-
Handles beautifully well, swallows broken roads beyond my expectations.
Good power across the range. Frankly still haven't crossed the 7k rpm mark. No longer a frantic hooligan to rip across town . To be honest with power being available across the band haven't felt the need to rev the accelerator hard. In fact the bike begs to be reved harder and harder. The only challenge / boring aspect is keeping the speed steady and the accelerator closed (near closing position)...

The bike took to corners well, there was some 80 kms (40+ 40) stretch across hilly terrain where I got to play around with the bike briefly, yet didn't get to push it hard as the roads were narrow and had quite a bit of gravel and blind corners with traffic flowing in both directions.

From handling & comfort perspective the 899 ha been a delight so far. The breaks are fantastic, has a good initial bite and a beautiful progressive feel to hit. Still have to fully test the rear breaks (kind of not fully sure about it yet)

Fuel consumption-
Returned a highway mileage of about 15 kms / ltr. In the city the average drops to around 10
The challenge is getting premium fuel. The company recommends 97 octane petrol, however finding xtra premium itself is an issue once you leave the city. And while touring the 16 ltr tank with a 5 liter reserve kind of feels very puny. Making you hunt for petrol pumps far too often than enjoying the ride.

Other quirkiness to get used to-
1. The fork angle and the odd shaped fuel tank gets in the way of fast and tight cornering ability. Giving the bike a huge turning radius
2. A little bit of engine switching off (similar to Triumph but not remotely that bad), during cold start and the initial few km's specially when run on regular fuel. Have picked up an octane booster, will update on the status once done.
3. The off shape of the tank makes it unfeasable to have tank bag in place
4. There is a bit of a glitchy fueling while passing through 3k rpm, other times you don't find it

Most annoying stuff-The fuel gauge is grossly inaccurate

The roads I went through had terrible cross winds and return trip was awful. Need to get a windshield installed as a priority.

What I have added so far-
Frame slider, Fork & rear axil sliders- all fro R&G racing. Costed 15k including shipping but customs laid out a charge of 9k (80%) of the value.

There are certain things I had wished for which won't be possible with this bike. (keeping touring in mind)

To do list based on the ride-
1. Wind shield / screen
2. Better grips, adjustable clutch levers
3. Exhaust wrap with protective ropes like done on enfield
4. Set of touring lights & bulb upgrade
5. Engine & clutch case protective mould

Other wish list items to cover-
1. Hand guards
2. Bike wrap

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

Congratulations on the motorcycle.
Have you thought of changing the exhausts? It could do with a better looking pipe instead of that nozzle at the end. I guess the tail would look cleaner like that, Akra, or Yoshimura may be? Plus the benefit with carbon is that it keeps the heat in check. So as to making the ride more comfortable.
Also on the radiators fans which are on the side, are there any guards that protect them? In an unfortunate situation i assume that would take a beating first.

Ride safe man have fun.

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

Heartiest congratulations on the beauty, and being one of the first owners in the forum to start a thread. Captivating narration all the way. Please continue...

PS - I have waited long to see a 899 thread on this forum. Thanks for sharing!

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

Had picked up fork, swing arm and frame sliders form R&G. They nicely protect the radiator grills.

A local person from the dealership is to introduce me to get engine protective case done. (will make a couple of them JIC)

Only GPR has exhausts available for Benelli, investigating if the 1130's carbon exhaust will fit the 899. If so will slip that one in. For a 3 cylinder changing exhaust tip doesn't really change much on the sound front.

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This is one of the primary reasons, I choose the TNT. I had been on super sports before and this one doesn't transfer the heat to my legs. Running temperatures in B2B traffic- the max i do these days are 83 c. Since there's a distance between me and other bikes or vehicles in traffic its not a complaint.

Funny circumstances yes, annoying ones tops the lot...
Funny ones are usually around cost of the bike, why do u get a bike, why not spend it elsewhere- didn't know there are so many free financial advisers around... top speed -top sped (this is the most annoying part)


Firstly parking it out of sight is an issue.
Usually I find people who want to take a look at the bike come too close into the traffic. On the way back from my weekend ride, 3 bikes tried cornering me with one jackass trying to cut / block me from the front. This went on for the next 4 km's. Was in traffic, super tired and returning from a 400km ride

BTW my camera is out with my dad who's away travelling. If anyone wants pictures / video's- drop by for a ride.. collect as many as you want and post them

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

Nope wasn't referring to the sound. Basically the aesthetics of it. May be of the can did not have that nozzle kind of a thing the rear would look cleaner. For a lack of a better example like a CBR 600 under seat exhaust.

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

I do want to add a carbon slip-on to it, for nothing but heat reduction

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

Hai Tarun,
Have a good and pure biking....similarities between you and me is just one word that's benelli very younger sibling of yours TNT 25

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

Waiting for your journey with 899..

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

Hi Teezam,

Can you please share updates on how is your beast performing , upgrades etc ?
Already glued to this thread.. And please also share some pictures of the Beast 899 !!

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

Hi,

How is the bike doing in day to day traffic? Also, have you done any comparisons with other bikes in roughly similar price range (e.g. Triumph Street Triple, Kawasaki Z800 on one side and Ducati Monster 821 on the other?) Leaving aside the ABS aspect as initially Benelli launched without ABS - how about general handling, comfort, maintenance and reliability so far?

I had really loved the Benelli bikes and went on to buy Red Rose (my Triumph Street Triple) purely because of ABS and its light weight which made it extremely easy among all superbikes to ride daily in packed traffic. Almost 1 year went by and I am quite happy with my bike...Curious to know other brands satisfaction as well..

Triumph has had its share of problems (first detuning fiasco and later Street Triple riders facing stalling issues - though I didn't face this so far). Kawasaki had some other issues like Mumbai people paid money but didn't get deliveries for long time and so on!

Re: The white steed... Benelli TNT 899 ownership experience

Replying after a long time, had been keeping busy and away from the forum for a long time...

WRT the 899, Zero issues till date... Have used the bike for over a year its fantastic. I see people on other forums (whatsapp rider groups) about cribbing about brake down, spare issues etc... so far haven't faced anything similar on the reliability end.... There are 600i's, Triumph's adn even Ducati's break down during trips but touchwood haven't had anything to face like that.

To answer a few of your questions-

Nible or Not- The bike isn't nimble and is front heavy due to its 50mm Marzozzi forks. Its a double edged sword, at highway speeds the bike is excellent and very planted while at neck bumper traffic its front heavy. Frankly I am happy with having a planted bike on highway speed rather than a wobbly one or loose the front.
In other words you don't need to add steering dampners to maintain fork stability during hard acceleration, highers speeds.
Also the turning radius is greater compared to your street triple...

Comfort- Good comfort specially if you are on the athletic body type and above 5.5" . For me the seat isn't wide enough but hey I weigh about 120, The seats surely can do with some better gel, I use "Air cushion's" to negate the effect. Usually I stop every 80-100 kms once to have a puff and coffee, while most people in my group like stopping at far lesser frequencies. But thats my preference

Maintenance- I can't say the same for every Benelli owner, but i get treated like a king. Sometime i feel am taking advantage over their good will. I get small tune up's and adjustments done at door step. before any long rides I call my Benelli service and they send out a technician to adjust, lube chains etc and do a check up. Also for service, have it picked and delivered at door step. I have some after market accessories which they facilitated having it installed. Top that they give a 4 year warranty on the whole bike + RSA that no other manufacturer covers...

On the whole, I love the bike. There are a few things i like different like able to add panniers, do long touring, pillion comfort, Larger fuel tank and miss the comfort of tourer and a smother power delivery. So am planning on getting an adventure tourer like the Versys / Ninja 1000 or a Tiger.
However, I am don't feel comfortable taking that leap given that none of the other manufacturers would support me the way guys at Benelli do.