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The Cagiva River is one of the great oddballs of Italian motorcycling of the last decade. Forget traditional performance, passion and style, the city commuter River is the opposite: workmanlike, pedestrian and dull. Honest and different, though.
The Cagiva River's air-cooled single pushes out meagre 32bhp so don’t expect any thrills. It’s fine for plodding through gridlocked town centres and putting to work, though, but it’s also fairly crude and rough around the edges. Honda does this sort of thing far better…
The Cagiva River's handling is steady, neutral and unremarkable. Brakes, suspension, chassis and tyres are all budget and basic, but nor is much asked of them. Despite touring overtones (screen, panniers) this is no motorway tourer, though…
Here lies a momentary flicker of interest in the Cagiva River. Basic cycle parts are run of the mill but standard fitment of panniers and screen was unusual for a lightweight motorcycle in pre-Honda Deauville 1995. Just the thing for traffic wardens and the like…
The Cagiva River has reasonable build quality and understressed components should add up to reliability but the River still isn’t in the Honda league and dealer and spares availability are much thinner on the ground.
The Cagiva River was reasonable value when new, but, due to fairly savage depreciation (due to the reasons above) better used. Just be sure of what you want, what you’re getting and go in with your eyes wide open. Find a Cagiva River for sale.
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Feb 1995: Cagiva River 600 launched.Oct 1996: Cagiva River discontinued.Nov 1997: Cagiva River reintroduced to UK.Jan 2000: Cagiva River replaced by virtually identical 500 version.Feb 2002: Cagiva River discontinued.
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My favourite bike so far
theearlof87
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I doubt MCN have actually even bothered to test ride this bike. They seem to have neglected to mention the USD Marzocchi forks and the brembo brakes. Okay the power is lacking somewhat but the Torque of the engine (44nm) makes up for this especially as the weight is so little and low down due to having a tank made out of what seems to be a strong plastic of some kind. You can even get the front wheel up off the throttle with a bit of vigarous acceleration in 1st. After riding it for about 18 months (with numerous trips from Northants to Newcastle and back) I could have lots of fun on this bike. Tail out just using the torque out of the twistier bends. The main thing that makes this a great bike is the fact that it has a 24.8kw power output making it 0.2kw inside the power limit for anyone on a restricted license.
11 September 2008
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weatherwax says
cagiva 600
10 January 2012 11:32
turingsays
cagiva river 600
Would like to add to first feedback iv just got a 1998 600 the mcn test seems a bit narrow to me iv never owned or ridden a single before but was not as bad as the reports id heard.
This model is good on petrol which is sadly what is needed with the current state of play with petrol in this country dearest in europe i won't go on.
Any how i commute 104 miles aday five somtimes 6 days aweek had the bike 3 weeks now and if i stick to the motorway speed limit she retuns over 200 miles till on low reserve fuel gauge on this model not 126miles as stated in test.
Yes i do some milage am a rare bird these days small motorcycle shop owner who after 30 years of riding i guess i no my bikes wont go down the road on an R1 then jump on a small single and think it will perform the same as iv said very narrow minded test of what is a good bike and cheap as chips at the moment........GP Motorcycles Liverpool L9 8BU.
21 September 2011 11:35
jon8608bike
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