Benelli Leoncino 125 Motorcycle Review: All The Things You Need to Know!

Welcome back to Bike Matters. Today we've got a tasty little Italian number that's actually made in China. It's the Benelli Leoncino 125. So for the engine we've got a 125cc single cylinder four-stroke and it is liquid cooled which is nice. A lot of these Chinese engines are now moving over from the air-cooled models to liquid cooled and that is down to of course the Euro 5 regulations coming into play. This is fully Euro 5 compliant. This one's brand new. We've had this straight from the factory 2022 model. It puts out 12.8 brake horsepower so it's a couple of horses below the maximum allowance for a CVT holder but still respectable. And despite being a little bit on the heavy side you're looking at about 155 kilos wet. The early acceleration is actually pretty good. It hits 30 miles an hour nice and swiftly, 40 nice and swiftly. Once you reach kind of 60 miles an hour that's where it takes some time but it is a 125. I was able to get a maximum of 71 miles an hour out of it on the dual carriageway so cruising on fast roads with a bit of patience is certainly possible. Now the ratios of the gears all feel great. We have nice long gears which is good on the 125 you know but it's the changing gear can feel a little bit finicky on this and once upon a time that was very common on 125s but I have noticed over the past few years they've really improved in terms of their all-round refinement. Part of the problem is probably down to the gear lever itself right. Quite a bit of travel time before it engages and when you combine that with quite a lot of travel time on the throttle as well you kind of end up in this very exaggerated riding position where when you're changing gear you need to really clank it up on the foot and yank it on the on the bars so it's not entirely comfortable and it can be a little bit finicky you know hitting false neutrals is quite easy between first and second gear. Sometimes it'll get locked in neutral not a big deal you just have to roll it back and it'll slip back into first but those are just kind of the problems that used to be very common on 125s but now aren't really in 2022 so just feels a little bit dated there. I'd actually be very interested to hear from some of you Leoncino owners you know did you have similar issues because I'm reviewing this based on the way it was set up from the factory as we've received it you know it may be that you can just adjust these levers a little bit and it'll feel a lot nicer for me it's just a little bit more finicky than some of its counterparts. So the styling I think is one of the biggest strengths of this bike it is a budget bike it's three and a half grand but it certainly doesn't look like one it looks really premium I love the design here it is designed in Italy it's manufactured in China and I think both things show through well we'll get more into the way this bike rides later on but visually that Italian design is singing out clear we've got it in the forest green here which I like but you can also get it in a matte black a matte white and a lava red they all look awesome I feel like at this budget price there aren't many bikes that can compete with this especially if you like the neo-retro styling that's going on here right it's almost kind of scrambler-esque I can only really think of kind of the excellent Yamaha XSR that's doing a similar style but that bike is almost a grand more expensive so something to weigh up there for the brakes we've got a 280 millimeter single disc on the front with a three piston caliper and on the rear we've got a 220 millimeter disc now it uses a combined braking system rather than ABS and that's why we've got those three pistons on the front it just means that when you apply the rear brake it automatically applies a little bit of the front as well and the front brake functions independently as you'd expect so speaking of the front brake it actually feels pretty good when you're using it and riding around the lever is lovely and light you just need a couple of fingers which is the way I like it as soon as you touch the squeeze it does engage gets you slowed down pretty well the rear brake on the other hand once it does engage perfectly fine gets the job done but I found that the rear brake lever was a little bit soft you had to push it down a fair few centimeters you know before it will even engage now that might be simply an issue with the way it's set up you might be able to adjust that but I'm reviewing it based on how I received it from the factory and like I said the rear lever was just a little bit soft for me I want it to bite a little bit quicker perhaps you guys who own one of these can let me know if you had a similar problem or if you were able to adjust it and how it felt for you but for me I would have liked it to bite a little bit quicker but again once it does engage the brakes feel pretty good the suspension is actually one of the strong points of this bike it's another highlight here I was very pleased with the way this bike feels in terms of the suspension setup we've got a 35 millimeter upside down fork on the front and a monoshock on the rear and it just felt really comfy for me I like bikes that are a little more on the firmer side when it comes to suspension but this one still had enough give on it that you know we are in Norfolk I say this almost every time I review a bike there's plenty of lumpy nasty back roads that I put these bikes through when I'm riding them and it absorbed them all quite comfortably I didn't really get any you know clanging impacts from some of those at the same time it wasn't so soft that it bounced me around so for me kind of felt just right so I was impressed with the suspension and I think especially for this budget price that's a real strong point the seat height is 795 millimeters so it's lovely and accessible on average height about 5'10 I can flat foot it very easily Brett who's a little bit smaller than me he could still flat foot this so it's definitely an option for the shorter riders Felix is about six foot and it was still fairly comfortable for him too so if you are a taller rider it's not going to be out of the question but you know as usual just have a sit on it if you're thinking about buying one and see how it feels another thing worth mentioning here is the ride position itself it's a little bit unique here the pegs are set quite far back so they almost feel like you're on a sport bike at times right your your legs are bent quite a bit back to fit on them naturally while the rest of the bike is a more traditional upright naked style right it's certainly unique but it's perhaps not quite as comfortable as it could be and while we're on the subject of comfortable this seat once more while it looks great and it's nice and accessible it's not the most comfortable seat in the world either after riding this for a few hours you know I did get a bit of ache in the rear end which doesn't always happen even on the budget models so again overall it feels fine but it could be a little bit more comfortable perhaps while we're on the subject of this bike's proportions one thing I was a little bit disappointed by was the 130 rear tire a lot of 125s these days are now moving up to the 140s and obviously that means you've got more more contact with the roads they just feel a little bit more stable a little bit more planted especially on the corners and it helps give that kind of comfortable big bike feeling and more and more 125s are getting that this is still on the 130s now it doesn't feel bad you can flick it left and right really well it corners nicely I would have loved to have had a 140 on the rear but still it's still okay especially for a budget price we've got a nice big 12.5 litre fuel tank here which is excellent for a 125 and it's very economical as well that's one of the big wins this bike has you know one of the huge selling points it's a very economical bike all round both in its initial purchase price and in its fuel consumption we put a full tank of fuel in this and it took 70 miles before the dash even indicated it lost a single bar so very economical you're looking at probably 200 miles on a tank on this and I wasn't riding it particularly conservatively either you know I wanted to see what it could do I was putting it for its paces still performed very well so that that's a big plus for this bike the economical nature of it when it comes to tech features once again we're keeping things pretty simple here it is a budget model so not much to speak of in the way of gadgetry or anything I will say the switch gear is pretty good it feels nice even on some of the more premium 125s these days sometimes the switch gear can feel a little bit flimsy perhaps this all feels very high quality feels nicely positioned as well all very intuitive you know you're not gonna be fishing for any controls it's all there at the fingertips I will say the dash is a bit of an interesting one I think some people are going to love it and some people perhaps won't for me it kind of looks a bit like a mobile phone on a mobile holder it's very basic and quite small we've got a black and white digital display it has all the key info that you'd need it's got a nice large speedo which is the most important thing I want to be able to just glance down and see exactly where I'm at it's got a nice clear rpm meter it's got your basic trip meters it's got a small gear indicator as well so it covers all the basics but for me I feel like it's a little bit perhaps more basic than some of the other dashes that we're seeing even on these budget models I've said throughout this is a budget model so that's what you have to bear in mind price point for one of these brand new £3,599 which when you take into account the excellent Italian styling and the fantastic fuel economy as well which I talked about with this large 12.5 litre tank it's definitely good value for money now the offset of that is that again it can feel a little bit dated in its overall ride quality when you compare it to the more premium models out there which are all starting to feel quite slick quite refined with their gear changes and the way they operate and this is just a little bit dated in that regard now once upon a time all 125s felt like that so it's not the biggest deal in the world you can still have a lot of fun on this bike you can still get the job done it's just not quite as comfortable as some of the others out there I think where this bike really shines is going to be kind of as an urban short range commuter riding it through town looking pretty cool while you do it for a decent price so definitely well worth thinking about even if it's not quite as polished as some of the other bikes on the market these days all right guys thanks very much for watching hopefully you found this perhaps helpful or entertaining and if you did do me a favor and hit that thumbs up button we've got plenty more videos on the channel so feel free to subscribe ring the bell and you won't miss another video I'll see you in the next one