Benelli TNT 135: India’s super insane ‘pocket bike’

Benelli is one of the fastest selling brands in the performance motorcycle segment in India. Their value for money products with great style quotient puts them on the radar of the youths of the country. Benelli is readying one more product for the Indian market and it will be very different from the current forms of two-wheelers available here. Let’s find out what TNT 135 is all about.

What is TNT 135?

The Benelli TNT 135 has been spied testing in India. The pocket bike will make its way to the Indian market by the middle of next year. The stylish motorcycle will be one of its kind and will target young riders and city commuters who want to travel in style. Targeting the youngsters, the TNT 135 comes with an irresistible design.

The pocket bike is built around a lattice frame, which gets lightweight steel tubes. The chassis is similar to the bigger Benelli TNT motorcycles. The TNT 135 looks very unorthodox. The headlamp unit is very aggressive with 4 LED lamps with a highly contoured front lens.

The short wheelbase motorcycle also gets stylish upside down forks. The 12-inch fat profile tyres at the front and rear look very funky with 220mm disc brake at front and a 190mm disc brake at the rear. The callipers are painted in red to add to the looks

The motorcycle also gets a mono-shock absorber at the rear with pre-load adjustment. The small motorcycle can put larger capacity motorcycles to shame when it comes to styling. The single-cylinder engine gets double-barrel, high-mounted exhaust muffler. It also comes with split seats. The exposed chassis that gets painted in red takes the looks to the next level.

The pocket bike draws power from an oil-cooled 135cc, single cylinder engine that generates a maximum of 12.8 BHP at 9,000 rpm and 10.8 Nm at 7,000 rpm. This is fairly good power for a motorcycle of this size. The TNT 135 gets a 5-speed manual gearbox.

What is a pocket bike?

A pocket bike or mini moto bike are miniature motorcycles. Earlier, such motorcycles were built by enthusiasts in the backyard of their garages by using spare or unused parts from the garage. Seeing the popularity, manufacturers started commercially producing such miniatures in the 1960s.

India first saw such commercially produced pocket bike in form of Rajdoot GTS a.k.a Bobby after it featured in the popular Bollywood flick, Bobby. The two-stroke motorcycle came to the Indian shore in 1980s and became very popular among the enthusiasts. Currently, there are many collectors who keep the GTS in their beloved garage collection. The miniature motorcycle came with 2-stroke, 173 cc, 7.5 Bhp engine. After the GTS disappeared from the market, there was no such motorcycle for a long time.

Earlier this year, Honda launched the Navi, a similar pocket bike but based on the Activa. The Navi does not get a manual gearbox and gets identical specification like the popular scooter Activa.

The Benelli TNT 135 will be first true pocket bike in a long time as and when it is launched in the country (sometime in 2017). The motorcycle will be also be quite affordable and is expected to carry a price tag close to Rs. 75,000.