Benelli TRK 502 - We Ride The Latest Italian ADV

Benelli’s second coming of sorts brings a whole new line of better built and slightly more exciting Italian mtorocycles, led by the TRK series of middle-wieght Adventure tourers. We hop in the saddle of the road-biased 502 to find out!

- Dipayan Dutta

I don’t know what has changed over the course of the past decade, but adventure tourers seem to be bursting out of the woodwork. From the 200cc mighty-midget in the form of the Xpulse to the BMW 1250 GS there’s an adventure tourer for everyone. Benelli too, now mounting their second charge on the Indian market, has now joined the Bandwagon with two new middle-weight adventure tourers in the form of the TRK 502 and the 502X. Splashed on this spread is the 502, which is the more road-oriented version of the TRK, slotting itself between the Himalayan and the Japanese 650s. Considering the Rs 5.10lakh floor price, it makes a compelling case for itself too, at least on paper. Now we finally get to see how it weighs up in the real world, can the Benelli make a mark in this almost supersaturated space.

How you feel about the way the TRK 502 looks is quite irrelevant, it’s got presence that’s undeniable. The front end gets the traditional adv-beak that seems to funnel air into two strategically placed air dams; feeding the massive radiator. LEDs with DRLs on the TRK look the part, although I did have a bit of a problem with the focus of the lamps once the lights went out. The sinewy 20-liter fuel tank adds to the TRKs presence. Finally, the TRKs final flex is an outer roll-cage that skirts the body, just in case it wasn’t butch or imposing enough already. Point being this is a motorcycle that could be mixed into a pack of 1200cc ADVs and you’d probably not be able to pick it out of the line-up.