Benelli SEi

Saturday morning, out in the car on the way to homebase. Spot a
motorcycle pulling out of the side road I was about to turn into. I'm
about 75 yards away I suppose. Hang on is that 3 silencers (on the
nearside) I see? Cancel turn indicator (having checked to see I wouldn't
cause an accident 1st!) and follow the bike. Get up close as I can
following the bike through Crookham Village (Hants). It's an R reg
(76/77). I can see the ends of 6 silencers now. On the back of the
saddle I can read Benelli. He turns left and I carry on my merry way. I
*really* would have liked a better look.

I assume it was a Benelli Sei - never seen one before but hope to see
that one again..

Timo: does Benelli figure anywhere in your love of SOItalianBs?

 

Thus spake Jeremy unto the assembled multitudes:

My neighbour has a 900 Sei with a 6-into-2 system with very little in the
way of baffles. Exhaust sound is amazing, and it's lovely and smooth, but
the engine (valvegear and clutch mostly) is mechanically very noisy and it
feels pretty gutless compared to modern 900's. Great fun though.

 

Jeremy was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

6-into-6 exhaust would be a 750 Sei aka the collectable one. The year
puts it into the right ballpark as well.

Benelli built a whole line of bikes in the 1970s whose engines paid
homage to the Honda SOHC design (to put it mildly). AFAIK the range
include fours from 250cc to 650cc, plus the 750 Sei and later the 900
Sei. The 750 was basically the 500 with two extra cylinders stuck on.

I've only ridden the 500, which appears to handle better than the
CB500, which is what you'd expect from a 1970s Italian bike. AFAIK
quite a lot of Honda engine parts can be used in the 500, but in
general the spares situation for these bikes is pretty dire.