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Benelli 502C Experiences

10K views 17 replies 10 participants last post by  BermondseyBiker 
#1 ·
Hi folks,

I took delivery of my 502C today. So far I am quite impressed.

I would be very interested in swapping notes with other 502C owners.

In the meantime, enjoy your riding!!

John Willis
 
#3 ·
Very first thoughts on the 502C

Hi Rick,

Well I like its looks and it is nice to have a budget bike that at least to my old eyes, looks a little special. Certainly people keep looking at it. At first it seemed an intimidating and very heavy beast, but being so low it is actually ok to paddle or push around.

At 65, a little stiff in the joints and with a very short inside leg of around 29", I can flat foot both sides and the bike feels nicely balanced, not top heavy like a V-Strom or BMW GS. The seat is a little unyielding but holds you nicely and I very quickly got used to the slightly feet forward, arms up and wide riding position.


A couple of hours poking around and spraying ACF50 onto bright metal parts revealed a finish that seems no worse than budget Japanese (of which I have plenty of experience), but time will tell. The dash is ok, and I like the night setting. It doesn't have fuel consumption, but does have 2 trips, gear indicator and fuel gauge.

It sounds nice and is very easy to ride and I found the front brake to be excellent, the back much less so. You can feel vibrations through the pegs, at least at speeds below 45 mph and it is no speed machine but it has enough go for me. I have only ridden it for a couple of hours but started off cautiously in case I grounded it on corners. Now I feel very happy to tip it well over into corners and am very impressed with its handliingg, which is surprisingly sporty for a cruiser. The suspension is basic and on the hard side, but not uncomfortably so. Gearbox is smooth, no false neutrals although engaging 1st sometimes comes with a clunk.

The downsides? I haven't really found any, except that its too new for there to be any useful accessories such as a screen, though I have had an after market USB port fitted. Maybe I will find that seat a little unyielding on longer trips.

So that's it so far. In the final analysis, its a bargain basement bike and its strengths and weaknesses need to be seen in that light. Sure a Ducati Diablo is better in probably every way, but is it £10k better? Probably not.



Later this year I plan to take it on the ferry from England to Spain and do some warm distance riding, which should show up its strengths and weaknesses (I can see luggage might be an issue).

In the meantime I plan to enjoy it.

JMW



 
#7 ·
tA couple of years ago I tested a Leoncino and a 502trk and found the suspension had lot of adjustments. You might find the 502c has these adjustments, I Agee with you it’s a nice looking bike for the money. I only rode one round the field at the Benellimotobiclubgb meet at Mallory park last year but the engine felt good as did all the controls.
keep us updated, it’s better to hear from real riders than MCN bike testers who only want to know if you can get your knee down!
 
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#9 ·
Hi ....I've had mine 3-4 months now, love it.

The only issue I've had us some n*b clipped it outside my house, knocked it over and now have a broken rear hanger, and large dent in the tank .....this happened a few months ago and still waiting for the new tank and hanger to arrive from China ......there are no parts for this bike in the UK, took weeks just to get prices in the parts.

That said the dealership have been very helpful and the bike thankfully is still ridable.

So bar the parts issue ....it looks great, rides well, you can chuck in a corner unlike most cruisers, it's comfy, I've had a number of 3-4 hour rides ....and did I mention it looks great
 
#10 ·
I've also added the Puig sport screen in black to match, doesn't offer a lot of wind cover but also looks cool, passenger back rest and now looking at exhausts ......any thoughts would be good, doesn't look like they will help performance much but I'd love a little more grunt from the sound
 
#18 · (Edited)
A little late to the party but I've fitted the Givi Easylock to my Benelli, very easy took 20 minutes to fit the rack and doesn't clutter the lines much. Semi-Soft bags, hard back and expandable front. Specialist fitting for each bike, I sourced the rack from Italy but available seperately: Used the rack to keep throw-overs away from the wheel until I could find the bags elsewhere. Good solid kit but may be harder to find these days as Givi has stopped making them, although still seems to be old stock knocking about. Rack kit on it's own about £80-£90 and I got the bag set around the £220 mark, bargain compared to other hard cases. Don't have a picture of the fitment on my own bike but here's a stock picture (PS Givi model number is Givi ST609 for the bags, easy enough to find on Google)

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