Written by Andrew Jones
Established on Italy’s North East coast in 1911, the lion-branded Benelli Motorcycles predates Moto Guzzi’s foundation by a decade and holds the title of Italy’s oldest existing moto brand. And after a rather half-hearted reboot in the early noughties the last 6 months has seen the company, along with new Chinese corporate parents Qianjiang, concept and release a bunch of new metal. From our point of view, the bike to watch is their new Benelli ?Leoncino? ( or ?Lion cub?) 500cc twin. And Thailand’s EAK Speed have clearly been doing just that. Asked by Benelli Thailand to give the new bike a custom once-over, they made this. Meet the ?Dark Simba? scrambler. It’s just like the Lion King, only more evil.
The shop has started the year off well with their ?Super Power? ?18 Honda Super Cub 110 that made quite the splash online, along with them managing to take out a big, shiny first prize trophy at the recent Bangkok Motorbike Festival with their ?Future Storm? ?96 Honda Bros 400. And with monikers like those, it’s pretty clear that they’ve got the whole naming thing sorted, too.
Looks hard as diamond nails
Chatting to shop owner Eak, he was quick to point out that the Benelli?s new style is a fusion of sorts. ?The Leoncino has touches of the scrambler style, but I also took some inspiration from adventure bikes that can go on and off-road, and that have a more aggressive look to them.?

As the bike was a joint...