CAGIVA RIVER 500 (1995 - 2002) Review

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 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…

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 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.

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…