Good call Phil. Did you get a red one, or green & silver? If you haven't already done so I recommend you join the BenelliForum - plenty of useful insights about the fabulous Tornado. It's a small community but you couldn't find a more helpful band of brothers... My 03 Tre is #99 off the production line, and I'm never parting with it. Lovely bike. cheers, Dom
Sounds like a plan. Mine isn't arriving until march as I wanted to get it on a 15 plate, plus the weather won't be up to much before that.
The only one left was black / silver. Thanks for the forum link, it's very useful on obscure machinery like this.
Aaahh - nice! And pretty rare. Well, they're all rare but there are not many Silver and Blacks around. Think I've only ever seen one or two at most.
I feckin love kats, had 3 550's and a South African 750 that was the same as the mk1 1000/1100. Sadly never a uk 1000/1100.
I had an 1100 Katana, wanted one all my life. When I got it...bloody hated it. Ah well, never meet your heroes...
A girlfriend years ago had a CBX550 when I met her, I persuaded her to by a Katana 1000 and we tiger striped it - she did look cool on it wish I had it, she PX'd it for a V Max
What didn't you like about it figaro? They're stonking when well sorted. Mine started out as totally stock and got modified over the years. There are a host of features you wouldn't be able to see from the pics, like the front mudguard remade slightly smaller in fibreglass as a one-off so the 17 inch front wheel is all in proportion and I can take modern rubber instead of the ridiculous 19 inch original front. This has also quickened up the steering no end. The flat-slide carbs make throttle response pretty swift too
Too heavy, too long, too slow (bearing in mind I didn't get hold of one til 1998). But what really pissed me off was when I borrowed a mate's GS1000G (that's the shaft-drive version) - it was nicer in every single way, and only a tiny bit slower. By the time I sold it I had a ZXR750 and a tuned TL1000S, so the katana just wasn't getting a look in. In fact it rotted away in the garden. That's how much I cared for it.
As stock I'd have to agree with you but to look at they're beautiful and if you have the time and resource to make your own tweaks well worth it IMHO. Wouldn't get rid of mine ever now but it's taken years of riding, thinking, tinkering and tweaking to get just the way I like it. Riding a stock one now would probably be frustrating
