Benelli Velvet 400

I just picked up V400 today and have been out for a couple of hours to get used to it. At first things felt very strange as I had been riding a maxi scooter and had much more leg room. After a while I got used the riding position which almost forces you in to a more race like posture.

The bike itself is ridiculous with the 400cc engine sat inside a almost moped size frame. The noise of the engine turned a few heads. You can imagine people were thinking did i just see a moped fly by with that big engine sound.

The acceleration is phenomenal and had me screaming to myself like I was on a very scary roller coaster.

Once you get used to the power/weight ratio you start to really enjoy yourself.

This feels and is a very very fast scooter. The exhaust makes a very nice popping sounds as mentioned in the other review.

The only down size is that I imagine a long journey would start to feel uncomfortable in the non relaxed position and maybe the indicators could have been included in the main body rather than the pokey eyes that stick out.

All in all this bike is a real head turner. Just be careful like I think I am going to have to be.

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?