The story of the Benelli Sei motorcycle - Bike of the week
I Sei
The Benelli factory was first established in Pesaro in Italy in 1911 as a problem solving exercise for the widow Teresa Benelli who had six sons to support when she lost her husband. With great forethought she sold some property, invested it in machine tools and founded the Benelli garage which repaired guns, bicycles and motorbikes, in order to provide work for her sons: Giuseppe, Giovanni, Francesco, Filippo, Domenico and Antonio ("Tonino"). To gain the necessary skills to run the business, Teresa Benelli sent the two eldest to Switzerland to learn engineering.
The garage was successful from the off because parts were hard to come by but could be made efficiently to order by the Benelli garage. When it first started, the Benelli business employed the oldest five brothers and six other employees so it was quite a large enterprise from the start. Each of the brothers had a specialism which contributed to the ultimate success of the business: Guiseppe and Giovanni handled engineering, Domenico and Filipo dealt with finance and Francesco specialized in the car side of the business. Tonino was too young to work at the beginning but was destined to be perhaps the most famous son of the Benelli clan when he took to motorcycle racing.
Benelli Sei 900 which visited Wemoto
The first Benelli motorcycle
Then along came the first world war and the Benelli factory worked hard producing spare parts for the war effort. In 1919 all the expertise and practice gained during the war was put into the production of the Benelli's very first motorcycle, swiftly followed by the production of Benelli's first engine totally produced in house. This engine was a single cylinder two stroke 75cc model in a bicycle frame – followed in 1921 by the first Motorcycle with a 98cc engine all built in the Benelli garage. Subsequent versions of this bike used an enlarged 150 cc engine which, a couple of years later, Antonio (or Tonino 'The Terrible”) tuned and used for racing.
Tonino 'The Terrible'
Tonino was a very talented racer and his racing confirmed the company's great ability for motorcycle development and production and worked wonders on getting the Benneli name out there and upping its prestige. Tonino Benelli won four Italian championship titles in five years. Unfortunately, he crashed badly in 1932 which ended his great racing career and then sadly he was killed in a road accident in 1937.
The Lion King
Benelli produced many innovative machines including a 1938 water cooled supercharged 250cc four cylinder race bike with a power output of more than 60hp. Then the second world war put Benelli out of production for a while until 1949, but by 1951 they were back offering a range of 98cc and 125cc lightweights called the Leoncino (Lion Cub) and 350cc and 500cc singles. Because of the state of the nation after the war these lightweight motorcycles were very popular as they were practical and cheap to run in countries with little money recovering from the war.
Although small capacity road bikes were the mainstay of the Benelli company, the brand was promoted by its racing success which was great. Benelli motorcycles did really well in the Italian championships with Tarquinio Provini, Renzo Pasolini, Mike Hailwood and Kel Carruthers (world 250-cc champion in 1969 on a Benelli) all achieving great success on Benellis.
Tornado
By 1969 Benelli brought out the Tornado 650, a vertical twin designed for sale in the UK and US. It was a high performance motorcycle albeit a bit heavy at 480 pounds, but with a top speed of 117mph.
The birth of the Benelli Sei
Then in 1971 Benelli was bought by Alejandro De Tomaso an Argentinian entrepreneur who wanted to create the motorcycle version of his De Tomaso Pantera car, a luxury sporting motorcycle. It seemed that the best way to do this was to make a bike similar to the Japanese Honda CB500F so Benelli started to make larger capacity bikes, including their great gamble the 1974 multi cylinder Superbike the 750cc Benelli Sei (six in Italian) styled by Ghia the Italian car styling specialists. Although this bike was new for Benelli, it was basically a Honda 500 four with two extra cylinders. The bore and stroke were identical and the single overhead camshaft layout and Hy-Vo chain primary drive. It did however distinguish itself with three Dell'Orto VHB 24mm carburettors.
The engine was moderately tuned producing only 71 horsepower at 8,500 rpm but sounded beautiful and truly Italian with six individual mufflers. It managed to achieve that Italian speciallity of superb handling, using great components like Brembo brakes, Marzocchi suspension and Borrani alloy wheels. Making its entrance in an era when the skill of Japanese engines was normally out pulling the capabilities of their chassis, its great handling was very much appreciated. De Tomaso also tried to correct traditional Italian bike failings when he built the Sei – for example he sorted out the electrics and added a proper instrument panel complete with warning lights and signals which actually worked. The Benelli Sei however did have some flaws - it was an expensive bike but did not really go very fast and it unfortunately had some issues with an unreliable crankshaft and gear box.
About 3,200 examples of the 750 six were produced between 1974 and 1977 before the model was replaced by a larger capacity version of 900-cc in 1978.
* Benelli 750 Sei Specifications:
* Engine: 748-cc transverse six cylinder 4-stroke producing 58 hp
* Carburation: 3 x 24-mm DelĺOrto VHB
* Valves: OHC with two valves per cylinder
*Compression 9.8:1
* Transmission: 5-speed gearbox with chain final drive
* Brakes: Twin front rotors, drum rear
* Weight: 484 lb.’s (220 kg)
Here are some interesting and exciting facts about the Benelli Sei
The first Benelli Sei appeared in 1972 but between then and when it went into production two years later it had already been usurped by 900s from Kawasaki, the Laverda 1000 and BMW.
The Benelli Sei was built in Pesaro in Italy but the engine was manufactured at the Moto Guzzi factory at Mandello del Lario next to Lake Como – nice
In 1977 production of the 750 Sei finished and it turned into the 900 Sei which was produced until 1988.
Today the Benelli Sei has become a sought after and valuable collectors item - as you can see from the great condition of the one we had visiting us here.
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