Cagiva 900 Lucky strike

[rockclingerjim]

Hello everybody,
I was after some oppinions of the Cagiva 900 Elefant. Its a Lucky Strike Dakar model im thinking of buying off a friend. He has had it for years and has done a few bits and pieces to it like aftermarked fuel pump, sorted out the dogy Italian wiring loom, etc.

I know that they arnt ideal for off roading due to there size but has anybody done anything on these bikes before.

Also does the Lucky Strike Dakar model have any differences to the stock model.

Any thoughts and comments appreciated,
Many thanks

[Jake]

I owned and rode one of these for 3 or 4 years before Buying a KTM the cagiva is a great bike. The engine is really well set up for style of the bike with loads of low down grunt. The chassis is excellent and the bike performed great on two up tours into and around Europe. It will lug heavy loads and cope with most terrain fairly well. Build quality is always a subject that comes up and I found the engine fine if well looked after however ancillary bits and chassis parts were not as they should have been. (Cracks in the wheels at the spoke ends, wheel bearing failure and corrosion were all a problem maybe more so than other european bikes but all in all its a great bike (saddle is a killer mind). Spares were also another problem with terrible waiting times for parts and that was what ended it for me with the bike. At the travellers meet in Derby I was Talking to a young lad who had just travelled Eastern Europe and the Stans on one but he had a few engine problems but it got him there and back - much of it down to his excellent mechanical ability.