ride reort: TNT
06-16-2009, 07:20 AM
#1
Senior Member
Superstock
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 358
ride reort: TNT
finally got a chance to take the benelli out after it sitting in my garage for 2 weeks and me staring at it. a little bit of a bugger to get started but oh the sound it makes. litterely somewhere in between the the deep thump of a piped hawk and the high pitched wail of a piped litre I4. honestly its sound made me think of a ferrari just because it was so unique.
the ridding position is wonderful, more upright then the hawk by a lot. im short enough that the hawk had me putting more weight on my wrists then was comfortable with its stock angle. the pegs are in about the same spot as the hawk so its really just the handlebars being raised that alters the sitting position.
this also helps with the passenger. the rear seat is actually a tad higher then the hawk but the upright riding position of the driver means the passenger is not perched up there all alone like a sail on a boat.
i do have one complaint, this thing came stock with Michelin pilots, and they SUCK, so far its been like riding around on a patch of snot. i new i should have kept the tires off my hawk. what i wouldnt give for my conti sports right now.
the rest of the bike is amazing. forged wheels, radial brembos, stainless lines, fully adjustable shocks and forks. 500mm forks that dont even know the meaning of the word flex. the engine and bike is stock except for my tail tidy i did to get rid of the stock ugly rear tag bracket and huge blinkers. and the power is crazy, literally pulls from the bottom better then my non-stock hawk all the way up to the 9800 red line. one of my only mods im considering is a tuneboy so that i can bump the redline to about 10,400 because when it hits the rev limiter its still pulling so hard. on the rare chance i could get shifted around and get traction on the back tire the front end pointed skyward with no clutching.
all in all im very glad i went with the I-3 just to try something new. it was totally worth it. while i really do miss the hawk i think in reality this is what we are all trying to turn our hawks into. by the time i would have gotten 'done' with my hawk it would have been a high compression engine and had light wheels and big breaks etc etc. also thouse of you with high performance hawks know that the time and money invested in it about equals out to a bike like this.
oh Superhawk you will be missed, but the TNT is a KEEPER.
the ridding position is wonderful, more upright then the hawk by a lot. im short enough that the hawk had me putting more weight on my wrists then was comfortable with its stock angle. the pegs are in about the same spot as the hawk so its really just the handlebars being raised that alters the sitting position.
this also helps with the passenger. the rear seat is actually a tad higher then the hawk but the upright riding position of the driver means the passenger is not perched up there all alone like a sail on a boat.
i do have one complaint, this thing came stock with Michelin pilots, and they SUCK, so far its been like riding around on a patch of snot. i new i should have kept the tires off my hawk. what i wouldnt give for my conti sports right now.
the rest of the bike is amazing. forged wheels, radial brembos, stainless lines, fully adjustable shocks and forks. 500mm forks that dont even know the meaning of the word flex. the engine and bike is stock except for my tail tidy i did to get rid of the stock ugly rear tag bracket and huge blinkers. and the power is crazy, literally pulls from the bottom better then my non-stock hawk all the way up to the 9800 red line. one of my only mods im considering is a tuneboy so that i can bump the redline to about 10,400 because when it hits the rev limiter its still pulling so hard. on the rare chance i could get shifted around and get traction on the back tire the front end pointed skyward with no clutching.
all in all im very glad i went with the I-3 just to try something new. it was totally worth it. while i really do miss the hawk i think in reality this is what we are all trying to turn our hawks into. by the time i would have gotten 'done' with my hawk it would have been a high compression engine and had light wheels and big breaks etc etc. also thouse of you with high performance hawks know that the time and money invested in it about equals out to a bike like this.
oh Superhawk you will be missed, but the TNT is a KEEPER.
