ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES
ORIGINS
The Elefant we shouldn’t forget
MARK LINDEMANN
Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France is home to some of the world’s oldest and best-known cave paintings, depictions of animals and natural scenes which demonstrate representational figurative art first beginning to take shape. About 250 miles to the east lies Varese, Italy, where something similar occurred in the world of motorcycling: the Cagiva Elefant, the cave-painting equivalent of our modern adventure bikes. It’s hardly a coincidence that the roads winding over the Alps and connecting those two spots are perfect adventure-bike habitat.
As a class, adventure bikes are some of the most popular motorcycles in our world, and for good reason. But it’s easy to forget they’re a relatively new species in motorcycling’s taxonomic hierarchy. BMW’s R 80 G/S is, of course, the ur-ADV, the original which birthed the modern concept: a large-displacement twin in a dirtworthy chassis. By itself, the BMW was an anomaly; when Cagiva introduced the Elefant in 1985, together they defined a class, joined a year later by Honda’s Transalp, and began the competitive evolution of the machines we so love today.
BIRTH OF THE BEAST
As a company, Cagiva was founded in 1950, but didn’t start producing motorcycles until 1978. Cagiva is a portmanteau of the founder’s name and the company’s location: CAstiglioni Giovanni VArese. Their first bikes were 125-350cc two-strokes. By 1983 it grew more ambitious, purchasing engines from Ducati to fit in its own chassis. Two years later it bought Ducati outright.
Species evolve in response to their environment. In 1979, seismic environmental change came to the offroad world: the first Paris-Dakar rally. Big four-stroke Yamaha singles won the first two events, but as soon as the BMW R 80 G/S appeared, it won four out of the next five years. As the rally’s popularity grew, more and more companies jumped on the twin-cylinder adventure bandwagon. Newcomer Cagiva wasted no time.
In 1980 Ducati introduced its Pantah, an air-cooled 90-degree V-twin sportbike with desmodromic valve gear. This modern interpretation of Fabio Taglioni’s classic engine design drove its cams with toothed belts rather than the earlier shaft-and-bevel system. Inspired by growing interest in Dakar, Cagiva took the 650 Pantah engine, added a new “reversed” rear cylinder head and eventually a dry clutch, and put it in a new full-cradle steel chassis designed for off-roading. Thus was the first 650cc Elefant born.
Are you one of those bikewatchers who thrills in seeing rare machines, the two-wheel equivalent of a birder who keeps a life list? Then sighting a North American Elefant in 2021 will certainly make your day. They’re a rara avis in our world. Those 650 Elefants were only sold in the US for a couple of years. Cagiva later offered 350, 750, and 900cc versions. The last (1990-1997) is possibly the best known, especially in its colorful Lucky Explorer livery. There were even 125 and 200cc singles, but these are really Elefants in name only. Italian racer Edi Orioli rode a 900 Elefant to victory twice at Paris-Dakar, in 1990 and 1994.
MOTORCYCLING MAHOUT
When I first encountered the 650 Elefant as a test bike in 1985,1 was baffled, the way many explorers are when they encounter a new creature. What was this—a gigantic twin-cylinder dirt bike? An off-road streetbike? Some sort of two-wheeled platypus? While a blast to ride on choppy canyon roads, on claustrophobic single-track it was a handful for someone like me, who was more used to a 233-pound Yamaha IT200. It was definitely European, and not simply because of where it was made. It was built with a different philosophy, one which defied our then-contemporary classifications. A friend describes his Elefant as sort of a twin-cylinder KLR650, but it was a much better streetbike than the Kawasaki.
At Cycle we wrote, “An Elefant is...a unique experience to ride. Its size gives it a streetbike presence off road; other dual-purpose bikes—even 600cc thumpers—feel tiny by comparison. Tight, rocky trails exaggerate the Elefant’s scale; fire roads put it back into perspective. Sliding the Elefant through turns, you feel as if you’re riding a tall streetbike—and getting away with murder. Terrific fun, yes, but be warned: When 454 pounds of motorcycle gets away from you in the dirt, the chances of snatching it back are slim.” Too true. Yet today’s selection of adventure bikes makes the 454-pound Elefant look like a gazelle by comparison, its 650cc displacement tiny. Even then, when a fellow staffer tipped over on a ride, he had to wait for a second rider to help pick the bike up.
Today's adventure bikes make the 454-pound Elefant look like a gazelle by comparison.
Cycle World’s road test of the $4,288 Cagiva got closer, classifying the Elefant 650 as a “dual-purpose sport-touring machine.” That seems a spot-on definition far ahead of its time, and a solid explanation of the concept that’s matured into today’s adventure bike. The test also noted that an Elefant would out-accelerate and outrun a BMW R 80 G/S. Cycle went on to say, “The Elefant is remarkably trustworthy, stable, responsive.”
THE PACHYDERM TODAY
We homo sapiens like to tie memories to treasured objects. An old Army uniform that last fit about 40 pounds ago. A Nikon film camera that rode in your tank bag during that hostel-hopping tour of Europe. Elefant riders continue to show a fierce loyalty toward their bikes, associating them with grand adventures.
Cagiva sold Ducati in 1996, and in 1999 was restructured into MV Agusta, which in turn was bought and then sold by Harley-Davidson. At present, the brand is inactive. And while the company is gone from the motorcycling scene, you can see the Elefant’s DNA in machines like Ducati’s Multistrada 950. A new book, Elefant People, celebrates the workers who built the bikes and the riders who think of them as part of their family.
Because a ride on an Elefant is not something you’re likely to forget.
