Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127950
,. 1 C giv a a900 Gran C y n an o (Left) The Gran Canyon is a really capable back-road ride with a broad spread of power and supple, long-travel suspension. (Above) As part of Cagiva's plan to reestablish its elf in the United States, the Gran Canyon will be coming to America to stand alongside the MV Agusta F4 on showroom floors. Expect the first Gran Canyons around the beginn ing of 1999. By Alan Cathcart Photos by Kyo ich i Nakamura a giva ha s been born agai n - in more ways than one . After more tha n two years of up heaval and bre a ks in pr odu cti on ca used b y th e sa me cash -flow crisis tha t fo rce d the con tro lling Castiglioni family to sell off a ma jority share ho ldi ng in Ducati, the com pany that a decade ago wa s Italy's la rgest moto rcycle manufa cturer ha s risen from the dead -' and not just in the wa ke of the high-profile launch of its MV Agusta F4 d ream bike, either. Inst ead , on the 20th ann iversary o f th e Castiglion i brothers' purchas e of Harley-Da vidson 's Italian fac tory and ren aming it Cag iva, the company is on a ro ll, wi th severa l new mod els no w in the process of reaching production. . Cagiva is back in business - this time , it seems , for real. What one sees just driving into the Varese factory yard underlin es th e na t u re of t h e 'com p a n y ' s revi va l. You thread yo u r way bet ween tru cks be ing load ed fu ll of bikes fres h off th e assembly line, around components stacked up read y to fuel that prod uction process - parts just ferried in from Cagiva' s ne w warehouse ac ross the lake a t Ca ss inett a, wh ere the new plant acquired from Whir lp ool is located , a nd to w hic h production will be tra nsferred in th e au tumn. Then yo u find 'you have to ca rv e you rs elf ou t a pa rking p lace by squeezing into a gap bet w een Cla udio Castiglioni's Lancia an d the MV F4 d evelop ment hack tha t tes ter Latini is abou t to rid e away on, C 36 d own to CRC design head quarter s in San Marino. There 's a gre at sense of so me thi ng happen in g here, that peop le are busy a n d thin gs are getti ng d o n e. , Now , alongs ide the Hu sqv arn a off-road hard wa re fina lly bein g shi pped to sa tis fy pent-u p d ema nd for the Ducati of di rt bikes , mot orcycles bea rin g the Cagiva name a re also finall y h ead in g ou t to dea lerships around th e world, s pearhead ed by th e new 900 Gran Ca nyon mota totale, the Ducati 900SS-powered roadster all-rounder designed by Pierre Terbl an che th at debut ed at the 1996 Cologne Show , but which Cagiva is only now in a po sition to put in to prod uction . The qu est ion is: Was it wo r.th th e wai t? Ma ybe the best answer to this is that, accord ing to Cagiva execu tives, Du cati man agem en t ha s twice in the pa st month leaned hea vil y on them to sell it the Gr an Canyon project in prod u cti o n-re a d y guise , read y to be laun ch ed as th e lead new m ode l in Du cat i' s own ' 99 mod el-yeardesmodae lineup! N ot su r p risi ng, r ea ll y , g ive n th e e ng ine th at p o w ers th e 900GC is sourced from Bologna un der wa tertight co n tract, and th e fact that its crea tor, Terblan che, has since moved to head up design at Ducati . But instead of that , the s leek- loo king s po r ts road ster with a d esm o motor is availab le here and now with Cag iva's name on the tank and in the marque's trademark red -and-silver colors (chosen back in '78 in homage to MV Agusta - fu n ny how things ha ve go ne full circle), wit h a silve r-and-blue opti on tha t look s better in the metal tha n in ph otos. But as a viab le altern a tive to the ST2 and new 900 Supersport in the dcsmodue "clas s ic s po r ts " ra nge, th ei r G ra n Can yon co us in slo ts r ight int o th e Ducati lineu p - a real-world motorcycle that's p otent eno ugh to be sporty, ye t pr actical enough to be usab le in a hu ge .va riety o f conditions, even includ ing so me nominal off-road capability. It's a two-wh eeled Range Rover! Ac tu ally , that a nalogy see ms ev en more approp riate when you throw a leg over the Gran Ca ny on (it's oka y, the y know how to spell- there's no "d" in the It a liap s p e lltngl ). and find yo u rs e lf enjoy ing the sam e kind of command ing stance that d rivers of 4x4s ge t from thei r chu nkv-tire tarmac tanks. Thou gh you d on't need the steplad der to climb aboa rd that you d o with the Mot o Guzzi Quota , the Gra n Canvon's 33.5-inch seat height is well wo rthy of a Paris-Daka r end uro en try , a nd co ul d usefully have been dro pped a coup le of inches , to make th e bike a littl e less uprigh t for everyday stree t use and not so tall to clamber aboard . However, this p ro bably wasn ' t an op tion, give n that the bike is essentia lly based on the old 900 Ele fa n t endu ro mo d e l, whose u n lovely squa re-tu be st eel fram e has been cleverly disguised on the Gran Canyon with plastic cladding to resemble a deltabox affair. Onl y it 's not - a fact wh ic h a lso explains the 19-inch front wheel (but 17inch rear) and gu nmetal-a nodized wire- s po ke d alloy ri ms, pl us th e s lig h tly, inco ng ruous dua l filler caps for the tw in ; fuel tanks (though these are obv iousl y. if lin ked, vou have to use both fille rs you want to squeeze aboard all 5.3 gal lon s of gas they' ll carry) . ,2 Ok ay - I know what you' re thinking.q Sounds like the bike's a bit of a compre:.. mise, doesn 't it - mu tton d ressed up as{ lamb? Well, think agai n, because even a { cou ple of ho u rs spent in the sad dle of j th e Gra n Canyon (le t a lone th e w ho le.l day I spent ridi ng it arou nd the hills and la kes of northern Ita ly) w ill co nvincej you this is a really, really good motorcYi " cle that in real-world rid ing is the pi ck.j of the desmodue range. I I'll admit I was surprised - altho ughre thinking back to rid ing the 600 Ca nyon sin g le that gave birth to th e project, ma ybe I sho uld n' t have been. That bikeo po w ered by Cag iva 's a rth rit ic T4 aircoo led si ngle-cy linder mot or , not only) co nfi r med Pie rre Ter b la nc he as a j designer full of origi na l thou ght, it also underlined how mu ch a ma ster of pack aging he is . In tra ns ferri ng his show proto type to produ ctio n almos t unchanged, Cagiva has also delivered a. riding pos ition that sets a benchmark for o thers in terms of the cru cia l seat-to-y ha ndlebars-to-footpeg ra tio - and th e-] result is a bike it' s impossible not to feel comfy on and relaxed aboard, either fo short blasts throu gh town, w here th hig h stance gives grea t traffic visio n, or fo r lo nger hauls ou t in to the coun try. j where the pulled-bac k han dl ebars deliv"b er a 's o -n a tu r a l rid in g pos it io n and... (thanks to their fairly wide spread) great levera ge in tight turns or street comers . rl Really, all the traditiona l advantages j of street end u ros app ly her e in spades, exc ep t tha t the Gra n Canyon is a fa r more civ iliz ed tarmac rid e tha n yo urll average ref ugee from Dakar. The onlY n criticism I'd make is of the blind screen.j, whi ch wo rks fine a t deflecting wind blas t but needs a reve rse curve on it, to _~ lift the airs tream high er at speed. For ail 6-foot rider like me, the airflow aimed directly a t your throat at mu ch over j 6O" m ph is tiresome, and makes the ton -u po autostrada cruising that the bike is eas ily,j capable of (top speed is a cla ime d 118:t