Owner Review: "A sexy Italian restaurant with a Chinese chef..." - My 2017 Benelli TNT25 250cc

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Basic information about my ride

“A sexy Italian restaurant, with a Chinese chef…. that’s my 2017 Benelli TNT25 250cc”

Reasons why I bought this bike

My daily routine during the workweek would be to go to work together with my wife. I would send my wife 60km to KL, then I would u-turn back another 60km to where I work which is near where we lived. After work, I would go to fetch my wife (another 60km) and then we would come home together (another 60km). As I would put it, this is ONE of the satisfaction of spending time with my beloved wife on daily basis during our busy working life. But from this, it can be expected that the petrol and toll charges will eventually catch up. Average spent on tolls and fuel amounts to about RM1200 per month! Holy crap… so something has to be changed. BINGO…. take a bike on the portion where I drive alone. Reduce cars on the road and eliminate SOVs (single-occupant vehicles). 4 trips on a car will change to 2 trips each on a car and bike.

Bike Selection Process

• My budget:

No more than RM10K and it has to be something I have not ridden before. Over my adolescent years, I started with an underbone (kapchai if you must) of 80cc, then moved up to another underbone but higher cc at 100cc. Thirst for speed (as a growing teenager), I moved up to a moped (scooter) of 150cc out of curiosity for ease and comfort. I would not like to spend any extra to change my license to a B1 or full B (for now). so the only highest level I could go for would be up to 250cc. Something ticked me that, “Hey, this is going into superbike territory. Why not?”. If it's superbike, then there will be 3 kinds to look for. Sportbike, Naked bike, and Classic bike. For sport bikes, I still could not comprehend the fact that when the handlebar has turned (left/right) and the bike is turning its direction, the meter and “cockpit” is still facing STRAIGHT and STATIC! That is the delusion I had with full fairing sportbikes. Then come the Classics. I have yet to hit my 50s to fit the bill, and I am no Gen Z happy-go-lucky version that goes well with classics. That leaves my choice to Naked Bikes. I just “loved” the term used… NAKED! As a male species, what is there NOT to like about “nakedness”. So…that seals the deal. 10K, 250cc, Naked…. and no way there is any new 250cc bike that would be 10K and below. So, I am ok with a 2nd hand used unit.

• Model(s) that I have considered include:

Scouring through the web, only a few models fit the criteria above. Models available were:

1. NAZA Blade 250

2. KTM Duke 200

3. Modenas Pulsar 200

4. Benelli TNT25

Reasons why I chose this bike:

The KTM and MODENAS were good but somehow, it's only 200cc and their respective model upgrades are 300cc (beyond my B2 license). It's a fight between the NAZA and BENELLI. Asked around and somehow, NAZA has stopped dealership and manufacturing of the NAZA bikes. Spares are almost rare and scarce. Finally, ended up with the “sexy Italian restaurant that has a Chinese chef”. Did some research on Benelli and found out that this brand is manufactured under the SYM-KEMCO conglomerate. FYI, SYM is THE biggest manufacturer of global scooters/mopeds and is Taiwanese. SYM is also the rebrand for MODENAS. So, nothing could be wrong with this partnership. So the scope has been narrowed down to this model and the search begins.

Found a 3-year old model with 29K km on the odo at the Sri Kembangan area. Got the negotiation down to RM6K OTR. Adding on full-face helmet upgrade, riding jacket, GIVI storage box, gloves, raincoat, chain lock… RM6500, the deal is the seal!

User Experience

• I have already done 33,000 km. Travelled about 4000km only since bought back end of Sept 2020. The bike was used barely about 2 weeks, landed into the workshop with a loose chain, burst fuel pump, damaged fuel coil, and busted coil plugs! Took 1 month to get the spares by the workshop. In the end, I sourced myself and found the official spares distributor in Malaysia in Penang with a branch over in KL. So I get to purchase direct and provide to shop.

• Since the purchase, my thoughts about the car are:

It's a very nice looking bike, sexy with the red paint that signifies “Italian”. It just seems to glow the “Ferrari red aura”. And the USD front forks (upside-down in you need to know…and not US Dollar), looks great. The fuel consumption that I am able to get is averaging 370km for 13litres petrol. Converting that to car-lingo, it's about 3.5Litre/100km….boy!! Is that super-saving? Almost/Better than hybrids’ consumption! So what does it cost me on tolls and petrol in a month?

120km per day = 4.2litres = RM8.40 (using RON97)

22days a month = 8.40 x 22 = RM186 per month

Comparing just fuel alone with previous travel using the car after dropping wife off and picking up (120km daily at 14km/litre consumption for 22days)

It is RM370 (car) vs RM186 (bike)…. 50% reduction on petrol!!!   

The only downside would be the SINGLE cylinder engine where vibration would be almost 100% transferred to your palms and arms.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Has the features of high-end bikes

• Smart design and beautiful red. Sexy, but macho is for sure

• Rides well and planted at all speeds; confident in corners and high speed

• Has an anti-start feature where if in gear (and not neutral), the bike won't start. (I am a newbie in superbike territory and does not know if this is a standard feature)

• Has another safety feature where the kick starts not lifted, after getting into gear, the engine will cut-off and not allow to ride on!

Cons

• Massive vibration from the single cylinder. Palm and wrist tend to get numb but again, it could be due to my age and health.

• Not a speedster for sure as the top speed able to clock is only a meager 132kph! Almost all the time, a kapchai will just speed through me in clear traffic with me already a top throttle.

Ratings

• Total Score: 4.2

• Performance: 4

• Quality & Features: 5

• Space: 4

• Ride Comfort: 3

• Fuel Economy: 4

• Price & Cost: 5

Summary

This has been just the beginning as I am sure our nature for Need For Speed will creep in. And speed does come from higher cc engines. So hopefully it is NOT too soon that I would go get a full B license to jump to the 500cc above range. In short, a bike does save our travel expenses like road tax is ok, fuel consumption is ok, no toll charges required, and THE time of travel is ALMOST consistent irrespective of traffic volume or weather. Keynote would be to practice caution and ensure focus as a bike DOES indeed has less metal to protect the rider or pillion. But who can be sure that the more metal is the better? All in all, we must practice care and utilize full sensory perceptions available at a full time whenever riding or driving. Shit happens and it all depends on one’s ability to avoid or minimize the impact. I do love riding this as it does allow me the freedom of travel, knowing I can almost estimate 98% accuracy of ETA at the destination. To add on, it allows me to enjoy the breeze, swallow the rainwater, see the horizon as I ride. Tend to make me very appreciative of nature and God’s creation.

Interesting events that happened to my car

If having to spend almost RM2K and 1 month in the workshop is something interesting that happened, then that would be it! Apart from that, I am still experiencing this and hopefully, there is a positive joy as the day goes by.

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