Chinese-owned Italian motorcycle brand Benelli is planning to bring a new motorcycle to their product portfolio and a middleweight segment motorcycle has been spied in China bearing the ‘SRK 600’ moniker leading us to believe that this could be the successor to the Benelli TNT 600i.
Design renderings of the spied motorcycle dubbed ‘Qianjiang 600’ have been circulating the internet before and were believed to the new Benelli TNT 600i but the brand unveiled the facelift model of the Benelli TNT 600i and the motorcycle was recently launched in the Chinese market with new upgrades to its fascia as well as added equipment such as a colour TFT instrumentation, but the facelift TNT 600i had nothing in common with the design rendering that was leaked earlier.
The spied pictures of the Benelli with the SRK 600 moniker match the earlier Qianjiang 600 renderings and is completely new in terms of styling though it is likely to be underpinned by the TNT 600i. The spied picture of Benelli SRK 600 features a sharp low slung LED headlamp unit with body-coloured headlight shroud, carbon fibre finish on the headlamp garnish, rectangular colour TFT screen could be borrowed from the TNT 600i facelift, chiselled fuel tank, boomerang-shaped radiator shrouds, step-up seats, straight handlebars and a midship style exhaust with a short end can.
The Benelli SRK 600 is likely to borrow the mechanical hardware from the Benelli TNT 600i and appears to feature the same steel trellis frame that rides on upside down hydraulic front forks, offset monoshock suspension mounted on an angled cast aluminium swingarm, hydraulically operated dual discs on the front and a single disc on the rear.
In the engine department, the Benelli SRK 600 is likely to carry forward the same 600cc engine from the Benelli TNT 600i updated to latest emission standards and is likely to produce slightly upwards of 82 Hp of power and 51 Nm of torque that is churned out on the Benelli TNT 600i. The motorcycle is expected to get the same 6-speed transmission unit but could get an upgraded electronics package with user-adjustable multi-stage traction control, ABS etc.
The Benelli SRK 600 is expected to be introduced at the EICMA 2020 in November and is being speculated to hit the Indian streets by early 2021.
