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The Cagiva 750 and 900 Elefants were powered by a standard fare air-cooled Ducati Desmo two-valver, which proved right at home in tall boy chassis offering flexibility and poke and enough verve to make Africa Twins and Super Teneres seem dull.

Monster trailies need to be more durable than most so the Cagiva Elefant, blighted by typical early 1990s Italian woes of poor paint, iffy reliability and insufficient corrosion resistance, was asking for trouble. No major mechanical disasters, but they need treating with kid gloves.

The Cagiva Elefant’s steering, as you might expect from a motorcycle from an Italian firm, is impressively sharp and incisive (for a big trailie) yet it’s reasonably stable and plush too thanks to half-decent Marzocchi and Ohlins suspension components. Seat is unnecessarily narrow and firm, however.

The Cagiva Elefant seemingly represents a lot of bike for the money and a cheap way into ‘Ducati’ ownership. The downsides are dodgy styling and paintjobs (brown among them) – so make sure you get a Lucky Strike replica – and iffy finish and reliability, so do your homework when being used.

Despite decent cycle parts (the aforementioned Marzocchi and Ohlins plus Brembo brakes etc), the rest of the Cagiva Elefant is unfortunately fairly basic, crude and frills-free. Clocks and fairing do the job but are not in the same league as Honda’s Africa Twin.