2018 Benelli 302R: FIRST LOOK
Rennie Scaysbrook | September 19, 2017
The great name of Benelli is coming back in the junior sportbike market
There seems to be two areas of the motorcycle market that are really hot right now, and both are on absolute polar opposite ends to each other.
The first is the new craze surrounding baggers like the BMW K 1600 B and Yamaha Star Eluder, and the second is around small capacity sportbikes.
Driven by demand in Asian markets like Thailand and China, especially, these little weapons are now many and varied, the latest of which is the new Benelli 302R out of China under the Quinjiang Group (but with Italian genes, as Benelli’s HQ is still noted as Pesaro, Italy).
That’s because Benellis are manufactured in the Far East, as they have been for some time. The 302R is not exactly new—it was released at the 2015 EICMA Show in Milan, but this new one comes with Euro4 compliance and some funky new color schemes that will offer the discerning junior something a touch different to the Yamaha R3, Honda CBR300R, KTM RC 390, Kawasaki Ninja 300 and the new Suzuki GSX-250R—that’s if they can get hold of one in America, because we have yet to receive word the 303R will actually make it to our shores.
The 302R is powered by a 300cc parallel-twin that cranks out about 36 hp at 10,000 rpm and 20 ft-lb of torque at 9000 rpm, putting it on par with the CBR300R, which cranks out about 27-29 hp—depending on who is doing the dyno run.
Hopefully, we’ll see this little beauty on U.S. roads in the near future as (in our humble opinion) we think it’s aesthetically the pick of the junior sportbike crop and would love to see how it goes against our current favorite in the Yamaha YZF-R3.
