Motorcycle specifications Benelli125 Leoncino 2022 Tigger on the lookout

Benelli has succeeded with the 500 Leoncino. A beautifully shaped roadster, with a non-violent engine that's just right for A2s. And very Italian scents, making you forget its distant origins.
2022 saw a major expansion of the model, with two siblings announced: a large 800 twin-cylinder and a modest 125 cm3 forager.

Modest but not ugly. The smallest Leoncino is quick to point out its kinship with the 500. The styling is perhaps less delicate, less carnal, more adolescent, and therefore more in keeping with the slenderness of the machine. Relative slenderness, however, as the bike still weighs in at 145 kilos. The kind of weight it shares with its competitors of remarkable stature, but it's not hard to find wheels 10 or 15 kilos lighter.

The Italian's plastic also offers a different choice, like the CB 125 R. Trends have brought manga-robotized or retro-basic machines onto the market, very typical on the one hand and fundamentally vintage on the other. With the Benelli and the Honda, it's another approach, softer, less tense. Between techno and jazz, there's Rock'n Roll.

Except that on a motorcycle, there are no strings or brass. Scores are composed with steel, rubber and a whole host of other elements. You can tell the bike means well, but some of the parts seem rather crude, at odds with the general tone of the young Leoncino. The shifter pedal and the lower end of the frame tubes look really sloppy. We also have some reservations about the tires made in Taiwan, which are a priori delicate in the wet.
It's a pity, though, because apart from these complaints, the Benelli offers some very pleasant demonstrations. A finely crafted LED headlamp, the sculpted lion on the front fender, this charming tank, the original TFT display, the short rear frame... almost with a false air of Husqvarna Svartpilen. There's even enough to attract curiosity, with a double brake chamber on the rear master cylinder.

the "Centoventicinque" is powered by a new single-cylinder from Keeway, a first for Benelli. It's water-cooled, breathes through 4 valves, has a single ACT and delivers 12.8 hp and 1 mkg of torque. Decent values, but nothing more. There's still some way to go before we reach the legal maximum. The performance level should therefore be somewhere between the old-technology Chinese and the stubborn Japanese. No engine show-offs, but very frugal fuel consumption to compensate, with a claimed 2.2 liters per 100 km.
With a 12.5-liter fuel tank, you can imagine how many kilometers you can cover on a full tank.

To make their mark, some 125 models have gone so far as to equip themselves with extravagant chassis, with huge, totally disproportionate forks (sometimes 50 mm). No such thing here. The skeleton consists of a tubular steel frame fitted with a single shock absorber and a 35 mm upside-down fork - an almost insubstantial value, but a reasonable one for the intended use. The 280 mm and 220 mm disc brakes (one per wheel) are controlled by a CBS coupled system, acting on a 3-piston caliper at the front and two at the rear.

The 125 Leoncino cleverly completes the Lion family, giving A1s access to the successful design of this range. It's not a neo-retro reinterpretation of the 1956 model, but a 1/4 version of the modern-day Leoncino - the 500. If the Sino-Italian brand manages to keep the price down, the CB 125 R and XSR 125 will have to be wary of its bite.

M.B - Manufacturer's photos