[DeTomaso] (medium detomaso content) Benelli Sei 900 for sale

[Charles McCall]

Hi all

For those who don’t know, in 1971 Alejando DeTomaso purchased Benelli, the
historic Italian motorcycle manufacturer. He’d later go on to acquire Moto
Guzzi, Maserati, Innocenti, etc and create a rather significant empire based
in and around Modena. 

 

He decided that what Benelli needed was a new and flashy model, something
that would get the name in the press and get people talking about them
again. So he ordered his engineers to design the world’s first street bike
with a six cylinder engine. To reduce development time, they, um, used a
Honda 500/4 as inspiration and adapted the design for six cylinders. I’ve
read numerous articles from period magazines, and the journalists were
uniformly extremely impressed with the result. Brembo brakes, a
well-balanced chassis, it was far lighter than they were expecting, and it
made the most wonderful noises. At the time, it was the crème de la crème. 

 

Once this new model, the Benelli 750 Sei, was released, two things happened.
First of all, other Japanese manufacturers copied the idea – Honda and
Kawasaki would both go on to produce straight six motorcycles. And also at
the same time, the Japanese continued development work on their “regular”
sport bikes, while DeTomaso had moved on to other projects. So it wasn’t
long before the Japanese bikes left the original Benelli Sei in the dust. 

 

Alejando revisited the project a few years later and decided to catch up.
The 750cc 6 cylinder engine was upgraded to 906cc, the bodywork was
completely redone, and some minor changes were made (electronic ignition,
etc). once again he had closed the gap with the leading Japanese bikes of
the day, but as usual he left the design at that. It ended up as an
extremely well handling motorcycle, but there were soon faster ones out
there if that was what you wanted. 

 

Last year I purchased a Benelli 900 Sei that had been sitting in storage for
nearly 20 years. It’s registered as a 1987 model, a year that there were 88
examples built. I’m not expert enough to know if that was the actual year of
manufacture, since sometimes they sat around for a while waiting to be sold,
but that was when it was first registered. I brought it back to life and
replaced everything that should be replaced before riding it. I used it
literally every day last year to go to work if the weather was dry, and my
plan was to use it to see what needed to be replaced, replace it, and keep
riding. Probably the most significant change I made was to install a set of
custom 6-into-6 exhausts as opposed to the boring 6-into-2. The earlier Sei
750 model had 6-into-6, but the later 900’s mostly came with 6-into-2. You
cannot believe what this engine sounds like with this exhaust! My fuel
mileage is significantly affected by the sound – one finds oneself giving
far more gas than is necessary simply because it sounds sooooo good. Mike
Drew says it sounds like a Jaguar D-type, I think it sounds like a classic
Ferrari – doesn’t really matter I suppose. I’m completely in love with this
bike, because it simply works so well
 the chassis, brakes, engine
 they all
work together to make for a great riding experience. I’ve been using it for
the past two weeks to go back and forth to work and enjoying every mile. 

 

Anyway, since I’m heading out of the country for what could conceivably be
quite a few years, I’ve decided to put the Benelli up for sale. Having just
spend several thousand euros to replace things that had gone bad after
sitting for years, it would seem a shame to go and put it into storage for
what could be a long time and then have to pay to have everything done all
over again. When I get back I’ll definitely go looking for another Sei since
I think that they are such great bikes. I’m basically hoping to get back
what I have into the bike – if I sell it, great. If I don’t, then it’ll go
back into storage until some point in the future – it isn’t the end of the
world. 

 

If anyone is interested, here’s an ad
 and I’m happy to send pictures,
videos, more info
 if you are interested you need to act sort of quickly. I
leave for India this week but my wife will be home until the end of June.
Then we go to Le Mans Classic, will be home for 2-3 days after to pack
everything up, and then we’re out of here. So pickup should be arranged for
June, and there will be a very small window in July. Let me know if you need
more info – thanks!

 

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/motorbikes/benelli/all-models/benell
i-900-sei--barn-find--great-condition/8540485

-------------- next part --------------
   Hi all

   For those who don't know, in 1971 Alejando DeTomaso purchased Benelli,
   the historic Italian motorcycle manufacturer. He'd later go on to
   acquire Moto Guzzi, Maserati, Innocenti, etc and create a rather
   significant empire based in and around Modena.


   He decided that what Benelli needed was a new and flashy model,
   something that would get the name in the press and get people talking
   about them again. So he ordered his engineers to design the world's
   first street bike with a six cylinder engine. To reduce development
   time, they, um, used a Honda 500/4 as inspiration and adapted the
   design for six cylinders. I've read numerous articles from period
   magazines, and the journalists were uniformly extremely impressed with
   the result. Brembo brakes, a well-balanced chassis, it was far lighter
   than they were expecting, and it made the most wonderful noises. At the
   time, it was the creme de la creme.


   Once this new model, the Benelli 750 Sei, was released, two things
   happened. First of all, other Japanese manufacturers copied the idea -
   Honda and Kawasaki would both go on to produce straight six
   motorcycles. And also at the same time, the Japanese continued
   development work on their "regular" sport bikes, while DeTomaso had
   moved on to other projects. So it wasn't long before the Japanese bikes
   left the original Benelli Sei in the dust.


   Alejando revisited the project a few years later and decided to catch
   up. The 750cc 6 cylinder engine was upgraded to 906cc, the bodywork was
   completely redone, and some minor changes were made (electronic
   ignition, etc). once again he had closed the gap with the leading
   Japanese bikes of the day, but as usual he left the design at that. It
   ended up as an extremely well handling motorcycle, but there were soon
   faster ones out there if that was what you wanted.


   Last year I purchased a Benelli 900 Sei that had been sitting in
   storage for nearly 20 years. It's registered as a 1987 model, a year
   that there were 88 examples built. I'm not expert enough to know if
   that was the actual year of manufacture, since sometimes they sat
   around for a while waiting to be sold, but that was when it was first
   registered. I brought it back to life and replaced everything that
   should be replaced before riding it. I used it literally every day last
   year to go to work if the weather was dry, and my plan was to use it to
   see what needed to be replaced, replace it, and keep riding. Probably
   the most significant change I made was to install a set of custom
   6-into-6 exhausts as opposed to the boring 6-into-2. The earlier Sei
   750 model had 6-into-6, but the later 900's mostly came with 6-into-2.
   You cannot believe what this engine sounds like with this exhaust! My
   fuel mileage is significantly affected by the sound - one finds oneself
   giving far more gas than is necessary simply because it sounds sooooo
   good. Mike Drew says it sounds like a Jaguar D-type, I think it sounds
   like a classic Ferrari - doesn't really matter I suppose. I'm
   completely in love with this bike, because it simply works so well...
   the chassis, brakes, engine... they all work together to make for a
   great riding experience. I've been using it for the past two weeks to
   go back and forth to work and enjoying every mile.


   Anyway, since I'm heading out of the country for what could conceivably
   be quite a few years, I've decided to put the Benelli up for sale.
   Having just spend several thousand euros to replace things that had
   gone bad after sitting for years, it would seem a shame to go and put
   it into storage for what could be a long time and then have to pay to
   have everything done all over again. When I get back I'll definitely go
   looking for another Sei since I think that they are such great bikes.
   I'm basically hoping to get back what I have into the bike - if I sell
   it, great. If I don't, then it'll go back into storage until some point
   in the future - it isn't the end of the world.


   If anyone is interested, here's an ad... and I'm happy to send
   pictures, videos, more info... if you are interested you need to act
   sort of quickly. I leave for India this week but my wife will be home
   until the end of June. Then we go to Le Mans Classic, will be home for
   2-3 days after to pack everything up, and then we're out of here. So
   pickup should be arranged for June, and there will be a very small
   window in July. Let me know if you need more info - thanks!


   [1]https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/motorbikes/benelli/all-model
   s/benelli-900-sei--barn-find--great-condition/8540485

References

   1. https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/motorbikes/benelli/all-models/benelli-900-sei--barn-find--great-condition/8540485
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