Benelli Velvet 400 Review

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4.3 stars
Average rating for this product is: 4.3 out of 5

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maximmoto's Review of Benelli Velvet 400 Scooter

11th Mar 2007

Overall Rating

4.5 stars
  • Value for money
    5 stars
  • Length of ownership
    2 Months
  • Reliability
    4 stars
  • Year Manufactured
    2005
  • Build quality
    3.5 stars
Good Points

Engine, engine, engine and engine! Nice styling - not dissimilar to the Gilera Runner from the front.


Bad Points

Seat uncomfortable over distance (75 miles +).
Very small helmet bay.
Manual choke - slow to warm up.
Twin front discs would be sharper.
Center stand doesn't sit the rear wheel high enough.
Needs better quality suspension.
Some rust /chrome/ anodising furring already evident.


General Comments

With a list of gripes like that how could the Benelli Velvet 400 possibly be a 9 rating? The answer is simply the engine. It overwhelms every aspect of riding the bike, as you'd hope a 385cc engine stuffed into a 125 chassis would! I'd compare it to a V-Max scooter. The Moto Morini engine barely makes 30bhp but it does the business low down, sending the 140kg bike shooting off to an indicated 100mph. Not many cars will take it on from a standing start - from experience it's as fast as a 6 second 0-60mph car with the owner going for it hard though the gears. Of course a lot of cars can come back at it given enough road but the damage it does, especially in the 0-40pmh range tends to convince them that they've just been thoroughly outrun by what they thought was a moped. My other bike is an X11 so I know about quick!). As you can imagine there's a lot of fun to be had re-educating the performance car fraternity about scooters. I'm over 14 stone in my gear so lighter pilots will get even more fun out of it. Another thing to mention is the exhaust - it's a superb feature of chrome with 3 exhaust holes and a wonderful irregular pop pop on the overrun which adds to the character - I'd never change it. As far as I'm concerned it's the best scooter. Burgmans, Nexus, Beverly 500s, Piaggio X9s, Silverwings, Aprillia Atlantics (all of which the velvet will apparently eat at the lights) are just big long bikes - too big and slow turning for snarled up commuting. Maybe a Malossi 172 runner tuned to the nuts would have it but try getting a new one for £2000 and don't get me started on 2 stroke mpg! It's faults (which are many) I forgive. Why aren't other manufacturers making high performance sub-150kg scooters?

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