Benelli Leoncino 500

From the looks, the Benelli Leoncino 250 has a perfect balance of a neo-retro roadster and a new age scrambler, which gives it a distinctive visual appeal. The motorcycle looks compact for its size, though, the unique design language does make it noticeable on the road.

From the front, the Benelli Leoncino 250 has a simplistic look with a vertically aligned ovular headlamp, which comes with a two-part assembly. While the upper part houses the low beam halogen projector bulbs, the lower part gets a simple halogen bulb for the high beam. The upper half of the headlamp also gets daytime running LED on its outer circumference. The whole headlamp is encased in a black-coloured housing, which is flanked with LED turn indicators on either side. An interesting highlight in the front profile of the Benelli Leoncino 250 is the small lion motif sitting proudly on the front fender. It symbolizes the name “Leoncino”, which means ‘lion’s cub’.

The Benelli Leoncino 250 looks smart when viewed from the side. The fuel tank has a rounded design, which slopes towards the rider’s seat and gets a large rounded logo on either side of it. This fuel tank is accompanied well by sleek-looking side body panels, which carry forward the graphics of the fuel tank and run in unison towards the tail section. There is a nice looking Leoncino logo in between the side panels of the motorcycle. The black-themed engine, tubular frame and multi-spoke alloy wheels, and the single stubby exhaust pipe go well with the design of the Benelli Leoncino 250.

The Benelli Leoncino 250 looks very compact when viewed from the back, with the motorcycle getting a small LED tail lamp just behind the pillion seat. The LED turn indicators are mounted just beside the tail lamp on the tailpiece itself. The Leoncino 250 lacks a proper rear fender but gets a large rear tyre hugger over the rear wheel. The Benelli Leoncino 250 gets nice-looking switchgear and a fully-digital rectangular instrument console, which shows data of speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauge, temperature gauge and gear indicator. Fit and finish levels are decent for a motorcycle of this price.

Besides a liquid-cooled engine, the Benelli Leoncino 250 gets a premium chassis under its skin. Sitting on a tubular trellis frame, the Benelli Leoncino 250 is fitted with upside-down telescopic forks with 120mm travel at the front and an oil-damped mono-shock with 60mm travel at the back. The Leoncino 250 rides on a 110/70 R17 tyre at the front and a 150/60 R17 tyre at the rear, with disc brakes at both ends fitted for agile stopping power. Thanks to its lean stance and a low kerb weight of 155 kg, the Benelli Leoncino 250 feels nimble to ride in urban conditions.

The Benelli Leoncino 250 shares its four-stroke, single-cylinder, liquid-cooled, 249cc engine with the TRK 251, which is coupled to a 6-speed gearbox here. The maximum power and torque figures of this 249c engine are rated at 25.8 PS and 21 Nm respectively, which makes it one of the most powerful 250cc naked roadsters available in Malaysia today.

Except for a dual-channel ABS, there is no other modern safety feature present in the Benelli Leoncino 250.

The most important aspect of the Benelli Leoncino 250 has to be its design, which makes it look fresh and very different from other 250cc naked roadsters priced similarly to it. The torquey engine and agile handling make the Benelli Leoncino 250 a nice urban motorcycle for your daily runabouts. However, it would have been better if the motorcycle was equipped with a bit more features to give it an edge over its direct competitors.