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The Cagiva Raptor 1000′s engine is borrowed from Suzuki’s TL1000. It’s a gutsy V-twin which made 124 bhp at the rear wheel in the TL – it’s detuned to a claimed 105bhp in the Cagiva Raptor but short gearing means it’s still rapid. Showing its age next to the latest power plants like KTM’s compact V twins but still a legendary engine.

There’s so few Cagiva Raptors in the UK it’s hard to identify any trends. The Suzuki engine is reliable and other problems seem scarce although electrics can be troublesome. Finish can be patchy and can rub of where clothes of boots touch the bike. Exhuast down pipes can rust if exposed to water and salt.

The Cagiva Raptor is a bike at it’s best being flicked into tight turns on twisty roads – and it excels at it. The stubby chassis and relatively simple suspension means bumps on the exits to corners can make the bars shake – it’s all part of the fun. Brakes are excellent if in good condition.

The Cagiva Raptor’s list price is too high for a niche bike. Resale values are pretty low – second hand buyers don’t get an importer backed warranty. Best go for a discounted new bike – we’ve seen them advertised for as little as £3999 – probably the cheapest 1000cc new bike you can buy.

The Cagiva Raptor 1000 is not over endowed with extras but it’s a minimal, purposeful tool – like a shotgun with the stock cut down and the sight filed off. The clocks and peg hangers are nice styling touches. You can always add a screen if the wind blast gets too much but that’s not really what the Cagiva Raptor’s all about.

The Cagiva Mito 125 is a fragile, small capacity two-stroke that makes loads of power that shouldn’t be entrusted to teenagers who’s idea of servicing the motorcycle is to run a rag over the headlight once a year. Seizures aren’t uncommon with the Cagiva Mito 125, but a piston and cylinder set is cheap – under £50. Better, though, to warm the motorcycle’s engine up properly and use decent two-stroke oil in the first place.

The Cagiva Mito 125 can quickly become scruffy, though that’s usually due to owners neglecting the motorcycle. Treated right, and fed high quality oil, you should expect to change the piston only every 9500 miles with a Cagiva Mito 125. However, after just 30,000-35,000 miles a Cagiva Mito 125 is fit only for the scrapper by-and-large. Some motorcycles seem plagued by battery and electrical woes.

No long distance motorcycle this. The seat’s hard and thin, the riding position will quickly alienate anyone over 21. The Cagiva Mito 125′s steering lock is very poor, but the handling is sharp and copes with British roads very well considering the motorcycle’s lack of adjustability. The gearbox is slick, it brakes well and it’s easy to gel with the Cagiva Mito 125 around twisty roads.

Cagiva Mito 125s are quite dear new and prices reflect their speed, ease of de-restriction (which is illegal without the correct motorcycle licence) and stunning looks. Used prices are more modest, but check your likely insurance premiums before you buy as insurers see Cagiva Mito 125s as high risk motorcycles.

A Ducati 916-style steering damper is standard on the Cagiva Mito 125 and there are comprehensive clocks including a tachometer. With a full Arrow exhaust system fitted to a Cagiva Mito 125 a possible 120mph is achievable. Terrifying, yes, but achievable with this motorcycle nevertheless.

Here’s an odd thing, with the Canyon, Cagiva started out with a 600cc single, then downsized to a 500. Not exactly progress some might say, although to be fair the old 600 Rotax lump makes about the same poke as the later 500cc unit. But both feel very vibey and are unpleasant above 65mph.

The Cagiva Canyon is just not very well made basically, with the chances of electrical gremlins, bits coming loose or engines spluttering to a halt all realistic scenarios. Starter motors are known to fail on them. Buying one used is a real gamble, purely on Cagiva spares availablity if nothing else.

The Cagiva Canyon is nice and soft for novice riders, but once you gain some confidence and riding skills, you’ll soon wish the Cagiva had more precision, more panache, than it can offer. Non adjustable front forks and a squishy rear monoshock make the Canyon something akin to a mobile bouncy castle on a country lane.

Yes, Cagiva Canyons do go cheap secondhand. But there’s a whole stack of reasons why and they’re mostly bad news. The Canyon’s used buy competition in the shape of the Aprilia Pegaso 600/650, CCM R30, Suzuki Freewind 650, BMW F650 etc, all make the Cagiva look like a poor second choice.

Actually, the Cagiva Canyon 500 looks really good. The nose fairing has an insect-like aggression about its bug-eyed stare, whilst the wide saddle, handy carrier and 20 litre fuel capacity help make it a viable commuter machine. On paper it’s got all it needs – in reality, few riders fell for its quirky charms.

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.

The Cagiva Gran Canyon’s 904cc V-twin, DOHC desmodromic motor comes from Ducati’s lovely old 900SS. It makes a mere 63bhp at the back wheel, but there’s decent low-down shove from the fuel-injected, air-cooled lump and a goodly mid-range, too. It can quite easily be taken out to 944cc and there a re-chip kit that releases a further 12bhp.

The Cagiva Gran Canyon’s motor is expensive to service thanks to the Ducati motor’s cambelt system (£700-£800 every two years), the fuel-injection occasionally throws a wobbler, bolts need Loctiting in place and spares are hard to source.

The Cagiva Gran Canyon’s short gearing, narrow tyres and wide bars make for a quick-turning and flickable machine that loves to romp from corner to corner. The seat and screen are day-long comfortable, and the package still works well with a pillion. The Nissin twin-piston brakes worked well when new, but all bikes will benefit from braided steel hoses.

You can pick up a late model Cagiva Gran Canyon for about half the price of an equivalent BMW 1150GS. But the GS is more reliable, more powerful and less of a financial gamble. If you must buy Italian Cagiva’s Suzuki TL1000S-powered Navigator is a much better bet.

The Cagiva Gran Canyon has little in the way of equipment – you don’t even get a centrestand and the clocks are marked on in kilometres. Watch out when you fill the 20-litre tank via the twin filler caps – it’s easy to overfill and spill petrol everywhere.

The Cagiva Navigator’s V-twin DOHC motor is from Suzuki’s stonking TL1000S, albeit with softer cams, revised ignition and exhausts, which knocks the power down to just under 100bhp. But that’s still some 10 more back-wheel bhp than BMW’s R1200GS. On the road this means the Navigator has easy torque, effortless cruising and easy wheelies. The single-point injection needs finessing to avoid low-speed snatchiness.

Frequent stops in production and corporate uncertainty at Cagiva means that spares supply is patchy at best, but there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the Cagiva Navigator. Some models had a problem with the battery leaking and corroding the frame and swingarm area. Switching to a dry cell battery prevents this.

Although the Cagiva Navigator’s suspension is basic, just preload and rebound at the back, it’s a neat balance between comfortable cruising and poised cornering. The Nissin brakes provide decent stopping power and there’s only a fraction of the unsettling fork dive that so often plagues giant trialies. The seat’s wide and comfy, the screen quiet and the motorcycle is stable right up to its top speed of 130mph.

With questions over the factory’s longevity prices for secondhand Cagiva Navigators are low, which is something to bear in mind if you buy a new one.

The Cagiva Navigator is well-specced, but a centrestand is only available on the aftermarket. Hard and soft luggage is available from the factory.

The Cagiva Planet 125′s engine is taken from the mini sports 125 Cagiva Mito, the two-stroke, single cylinder engine’s detuned to provide the Planet with more town-usable grunt and a little less manic top end. It works a treat. Plenty of acceleration is perfect for filtering through traffic and leaping away from the lights and it’s all delivered in a neat, controllable but fun little package.

Smooth and curvaceous, all wrapped in a flingable little body. Nope, not Kylie, but the Cagiva Planet 125. It may be a starter motorcycle but the attention to detail is impressive: that beautifully-sculpted chrome exhaust is rather lovely, for a start. The engine/chassis are proven but check clutches for wear and, similarly, paintwork.

The Cagiva Planet’s tiny but has great brakes, excellent handling and lots of go, for a little ‘un. Throwing it around is easy, as is its slow speed manoeuvrability (perfect for urban riding) and its suspension deals with whatever city streets can throw at it. A teenager’s dream but, frankly, anyone could have a go and enjoy mucking about to their heart’s content.

The only downside. The Cagiva Planet 125 is not cheap and, when lined up next to modern scooters, you’d wonder if it’s worth considering at all. It is. It’s well made, easy to ride and provides more fun than any scooter ever will. And, above all, it’s a bike and it looks cool.

It’s pretty, very comfortable to ride and the Cagiva Planet 125’s very much a baby Ducati Monster to look at. Single, round headlight, basic clocks and mirrors, USD forks and Brembo calipers: it’s a mix of the simple and the sublime. There’s underseat storage and, get this, room to store a helmet under the tank!