When is a road test not a road test?
When it's written by the guy who spent his own money on the bike in question.
I mean how can you be objective?
Well here goes nothing.
I paid a just over two grand for this Cagiva based on things like it looked cool. had a Suzuki TL thousand lump in it, was sort of rare (in UK) and I like oddities.
The previous owner was buying a KTM and couldn't get a good part exchange so we did a deal and I rode away
I could see is girlfriend's unhappy face in the mirror as I rode off down the lane, she loved the bike and didn't want to part with it.
I genuinely think it wouldn't have been hard to take her with me if I'd wanted to, she was so enamoured of the bikes comfortable seat
First impressions were, well not disappointing just, I don't know, sort of ordinary.
It was fine, it worked as it should, there was nothing to pick up on, it just worked faultlessly.
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't boring just really competent.
It did the back roads, dual carriage ways and motorway work just fine and I got back home with no muss no fuss.
I parked it up and stood staring at it.
What the fuck had I bought?
I was confused, again not disappointed, just something was missing.
Time passed and I rode it a lot and it did everything I asked of it.
It was really good around fast back roads and galloped along motorways comfortably eating up the miles.
The build quality is okay, not up to BMW or Honda standards but good for an Italian bike with a few miles and years on it.
The bikes equipped with Suzuki electrics so all the usual faults associated with their sparky stuff apply
My bike had been sprayed black and it was a decent job so maybe better than the original paint would have been
I had a seventeen inch front rim instead of the standard nineteen which made it turn real quickly which was helpful at Rockingham Motor Speedway when I took it for a track day.
Evening track sessions on a Friday are a great way to end a week of work a day bullshit and set you up for the weekend.
On track the Cagiva soon showed the limits of it's basic suspension but it didn't matter because I could ride around them.
It gripped well on Michelin Pilot sport 2's and even in my hands (I'm no racer) managed to stick to some far superior track tackle, especially in to and out of Tarzans as the wide bars lets you muscle the bike around the hairpin and the torque from the TL engine propels the ungainly, tall, insectoid looking thing up the hill at a rate of knots.
Insect like is a good description of the style of the bike.
It has a sort of praying mantis thing going on and although it looks tall even a short legged (I'm barley thirty inch inside leg) tall midget like me has not trouble keeping it upright at the traffic lights.
It has odd 'eyes' as it's got a normal and projector light in the array which adds to the whole insect vibe.
So it looks weird, it just works, it has a few potential electrical issues, did I get what I paid for?
Yeah I did, I expected a bike with a lot of 'personality' which it sort of has, certainly in respect of the styling but not in the breaks down and has to be treated in a particular way or it won't work typical of small manufacturer runs.
I was glad to own it and would have bought it again if time was reversed.
If you want a cheap, slightly weird, stand out bike you should buy one
A footnote, everywhere I went where other bikers were, there was always someone telling me if I decided to sell it they'd buy it off me.
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