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Matty's Italian Job (Benelli Tornado TRE 900)

21K views 403 replies 21 participants last post by  Mattson 
#1 ·
Sorry guys no fightering going on here but figured I'd still make a blog of all the things I'm doing to it, if for nothing else then to act as an electric service history (and I will be doing some minor mods along the way too)





As she sits on the day I brought it home. In my opinion one of, if not the, most beautiful bike ever made.

And as can be guessed our life together did not start quite as smoothly as could be wished... It started fine at my friend's place, started fine again at my front yard but when I went to put on my riding gear and came back the bike suddenly refused to run properly. At first it only ran on two cylinders without revving past 5k and dying as soon as I let off the throttle, now it doesn't even fire up so I'm guessing it's the plugs since these bikes have a reputation of eating them. Which leads to the next problem... You see in their great wisdom the engineers at Benelli have developed a fuel coupler in the fuel pump that has to be opened with a special tool or the disconnect will break which means new pompa de benzina, and the coupler hole does not self-close so it needs to be plugged with a special bung. You guessed it, neither came with the bike so I just ordered new spark plugs and a CPC in-line self-closing fuel coupler from Germany, they should arrive some time next week.

In the meantime gonna remove that bad joke of a muffler as it is not only ugly it is also stupid loud and illegal here, cannot even try sourcing an original or an approved aftermarket can ATM so in the meantime I will be trying to fit the OEM can of my old Daytona on it, seems like an almost direct bolt-on job and hopefully will look original enough to fool the feds to not spot that the spec markings on the side of the can quite clearly says Triumph...
 
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#232 ·
Glad it's helping ;) earlier I tried to reduce the size with an online resizer but it made the pics unusable and it was a pain, now I just shoot them with 1mp, doesn't seem to have much effect on them as this phone has a shit camera anyway...

Basically twiddling thumbs until them exhaust gaskets arrive, ain't much of nuttin to do til then. Oh well except cleaning up the entire garage, it's in such a state I couldn't get the bike out if I wanted, besides gotta swap them rubbers on the cars again so need the big jack out anyway, fun times ahead...
 
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#234 ·

Well ain' that just FUCKING GRAND. Did I mention new seals, thicker than spec to avoid leaking. Oh what's that you already filled in the oil? Well too fucking bad cause the level goes over the waterpump hole!
 
#236 ·
Actually got that sorted last night, wasn't much of a chore just reeeeally didn't want to drain the fresh fluids out as the oil alone cost 70eur, fairly sure I got it out clean enough to reuse, coolant picked up some crap so might replace that as I need to restock on it anyway for the mail vans.
 
#237 ·
Fluids back in, again. Shifter linkage fitted and adjusted. Managed to get the ECM to play ball with bluetooth, although the throttle opening still shows only 0-33% the signal is crisp and clear and always returns back to zero so I'm venturing a guess that's just a quirk of TuneEcu as I've read it does that with some bikes. OBD shows zero fault codes and fluids seem to be actually staying in this time. Now all I need are the damn exhaust seals, a refill and an empty road.

Weeeelll apart from the left side tail blinker which seems to not be working, was boiling beer in the garage last night when out of the blue the alarm started blaring for no reason which is when I noticed the left side blinker isn't flashing. Probly just a contact failure, should be a doddle to sort tonight.
 
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#240 ·
Teehee guys that actually made me smile out loud :D Alas much to the chagrin of anyone reading this thread the tail blinker was fixed with a mere bulb change, there seemed to be some sort of an internal contact failure within the bulb itself as it was only working when I pressed the glass dome against the side of the metal collar in a particular direction. Luckily I had extra bulbs as the BAX9s isn`t exactly a widely used bulb so when I went to get fresh ones I had the presence of mind to get a few spares should something arise later.

As to what triggered the alarm at the stroke of midnight without any outside influence I`m afraid shall remain a mystery.
 
#241 ·
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#243 ·
Certainly hope so, would for once rather spend the season actually riding than always fixing this that or other. Gotta wait til the start of next month to get it insured though as I've pretty much spent this month's "fun money" to parts already and this bitch is thirsty.
 
#248 ·
Got tired waiting for the exhaust port seals so threw MCP an email today asking about what gives, now I hope I would have done so sooner... Apparently the package was sent shortly after ordering but between Sheffield sorting center and Heathrow International it seems to vanish in thin air as it never arrived at the airport. They promised to send a second batch today in first class so guess the waiting game continues still...
 
#249 ·


Had some time to kill so figured just for shiz n giggles gonna go pest the clerk at a local bike parts shop, turns out RD350 uses the exact same exhaust seals so couldn't resist but to get a set for 9eur. Couldn't go further than the next street in our neighbourhood cause I don't have insurance yet but so far everything seems to be working, just need to top up the fluids once she cools down. If weather permits gonna do a proper shakedown run either tomorrow or the start of next week.
 
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#250 ·
Im curious how it will pull above 80 if you pin it.

Everyone who loves twins and triples talks so much shit about inline 4s, except they run down everything else built? lol. I love twins and trips, but I still never had anything perform like an i4. so I prefer them for everything above 100. I was always fascinated with the benelli though. I think the exhaust looks right too. rest of the bike has that 00s fatness. you can't put a tiny pipe on it. gotta be deleted or there. imo.
 
#260 ·
engine designers can pick powerbands when they design head/cams

you can make a twin with a powerband traditionally associated with a 4 (see: Panigale)

you can make a 4 with a powerband traditionally associated with a twin (see: ST bikes, GSX-S, etc)

not that they're *quite* as far that way as what they're imitating, but it's more about what they design it to do than the layout
 
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#251 ·
Well it does have noticably less torque than the Daytona did, understandably too since this is a 898cc instead of 955, but where the daytona's power curve peaked at 6500 this has much more top end power than that low end grunt the triumphs are famous for. This bike's ace in the sleeve is the ridiculously good suspension, you can throw it into any corner at any speed and it won't so much than raise an eyebrow at you. Well at least with my skills... Another thing with this bike which I think I've mentioned before is it's rough, clatters etc feels generally cumbersome below 105km/h but once you reach that threshold it completely transforms into an entirely another bike altogether.
 
#252 ·
Sounds like the Panigale. Damn near unrideable at low speeds and/or part-throttle. Wonderful when going balls out.
Almost like these are race bikes or something :D
 
#254 ·

Maaaaaaaan it feels good to be back on the saddle, haven't grinned as much in a long ass time. That Arrow can surely fulfills the whole titanium exhaust and has a MEAN note to it! There seems to be two rev ranges now, below 4000 for cruising and above that is race mode. There's some hesitation when transfering from one to another but once you spool it up to around 6000 and let er rip whooo boy does she sing!

Next up is to dig up the neutral sensor wire so I can fool the gear diplay into learn mode and to make some sort of a minimalistic luggage rack for SMASH.
 
#255 ·

38km done on an Italian bike so high time for a strip-down right :D



Super tough to get any luggage onto this one as the tail has this pyramid thing going on and the whole fairing is pretty flat with sharp edges so saddlebags won`t do either. I wanna make some sort of a tiny discreet tail rack that can be fitted and removed with ZERO modifications to the bike itself so had to get a bit creative as there isn`t a whole lot to attach to in the tail. Gonna make a bracket that`ll fit inside the fairing and can be left there so when the need to get camping equipment with me comes I can bolt the tail rack onto the bracket. Gonna be a really minimalistic thing with basically just a few flatiron pieces bent to shape holding two tubes as the rails for the bag to strap onto, more to come once I can schedule in some noise time in the garage.
 
#257 ·
Not much, basically one big:ish bag and a tent, the rack will be little more than two pipes in a rough V formation to provide side support and with the help of the back seat a somewhat flat surface as well as mount points for straps. Not gonna be anything fancy or particularily attractice and I m not planning to leave it there permanently.


Got to start the week with a bit of a chuckle. The exhaust seals finally bothered to show up, only thing is I ordered THREE of them and received THIRTY :D Already emailed the shop if they wish to pay for return shipping to England as I sure as hell ain't gonna.
 
#258 ·
With as often as you're tearing this thing apart it might be worth keeping the extras :D
 
#259 ·
Haar har veeery funny... That however is not how I roll, got a very surprised email answer from the shop and gonna get a quote for them tomorrow. After all there's probly sth like a hundred euros worth of seals there, and I AM left with a spare set as I did order three of these :D
 
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