Matty's Italian Job (Benelli Tornado TRE 900)

[Mattson]

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...

[yantosh]

that's a nice little can , I'll ask my mate about the tank, he's worked on a few

[SEBSPEED]

Friend of mine also reviving one, silver/green w fire damage. Tried getting him spares from the member here that bought one to grab the tail off, but never heard back from him.

Bet my friend would be interested in that Austin pipe, if you'd care to part with it?

[Mattson]

For sure I got no use for it with this bike anyway as it's an '06 so it has to have an e-approved can, original or aftermarket. Shipping would probly sting though.

[MikeGyver]

I've never seen one of those before. I like the headlight!!!

[Mattson]

Then you`ll probly like the signature tail too


Mine has the mesh removed as it is told to significantly reduce airflow and this puppy is running HOT.


Took the front end apart today, that was educational... Taught me to keep good care of it as I do NOT want to be doing that again anytime soon! To get to the plugs you got to make kebab of the entire front end as the air intake ducts that connect to the airbox can only be removed if the front fairing is off and to get that out you need to remove the lower fairings which are covering half of the bolts, the windscreen and all the tiny little fairings covering the gauge/ignition area.


This is how many bolts are keeping the front plastics in place. Good luck remembering which goes where...


Good news is once you DO get it apart there`s plenty of room to arse around.


WTF is this thing? Looks like a sidestand killswitch to me. Why is it ziptied to the wire harness under the rider seat?


Looks like the PO beat me to it with the fuel coupler... Oh well with a bike this rare it doesn`t hurt to have a spare of anything...


Ripped the tacky CF vinyl off the gauge infill panels as it was done so bad it was immediately clear. The panels weren`t quite as bad as I feared but still scratched up and cracked in a few places.


The plugs were in far better nick than I expected, though couldn`t test if they actually fire as the kids are sleeping directly above the bike lifter so will do that tomorrow. Wouldn`t be the first time good looking plugs area actually dead, happened a few times with the `Tona.

Also about the headlights, looks like the PO has also fitted HIDs to the bike. Although I`m generally against illegal headlights I think I`m actually going to keep these ones as the bike IMO looks modern enough to not raise suspicions, and if a copper ever stops me and gives me lip about them I can always play dumb and say that`s how I bought it so I thought they`re supposed to be there (although I did check the markings in the glass first thing and it does say H C/R when it should be saying D C/R (halogen/discharge hi/low beam)

And Seb don`t be calling your mate just yet, the Daytona can cannot be fitted to the bike without modding one or the other and I don`t wanna cut either so gonna try liquidating some of the old triumph parts to get a proper legal exhaust (though the first thing in the purchase list after getting it running are the chain and sprockets)

[SEBSPEED]

Originally Posted by Mattson

Then you`ll probly like the signature tail too
And Seb don`t be calling your mate just yet, the Daytona can cannot be fitted to the bike without modding one or the other and I don`t wanna cut either so gonna try liquidating some of the old triumph parts to get a proper legal exhaust (though the first thing in the purchase list after getting it running are the chain and sprockets)

No prob. I sent him a link to this thread, told him to sign up and contact you here. At the very least to share ownership experience.

[SEBSPEED]

Originally Posted by Mattson

Then you`ll probly like the signature tail too

Somebody told somebody at Benelli to "blow it out their arse", and the poor somebody took it literally...

[Mattson]

Originally Posted by SEBSPEED

No prob. I sent him a link to this thread, told him to sign up and contact you here. At the very least to share ownership experience.

Though he probably already has, tell him to (or if you`re reading this) go through this site with a tight comb as it is pretty much the ONLY and best source for information about these bikes:

http://www.engenia.com.au/

[shinyribs]

I like the gray/silver better then the green. The green is really sharp, but the grey is slimming imo.

Good stuff, Mattson. Happy for you man