Fri Apr 11 15:22:56 1997 - Message No. 613
From: Pierre DEBRAS

Subject: Re: Africa Twin vs. Cagiva Elefant


Hi Paul,

may be I can answer your question: a friend of mine has an Elefant 90 ('95
the carb one, as you may know, first elefant had electronic injection).

As soon as you start driving the Elefant, you realise a couple of things
vs the AT. First the clucth. Very brutal. Really not a good bike to start
with. Second, the noise: the desmo sounds like an old locomotive. Three:
the engine has more horse power. I would say this is the only advantage of
the Elefant compared to the AT. For long drive, I found the fairing of the
Elefant slightly less protective. The road holding and the driveability of
the AT are far superior. Also, don't even think of taking the Elefant off
road. The engine, the clucth and overall the manoeuvrability are really
not to compare. You feel really as if you were driving ... an elefant !!

You should also consider the reliability. After two years, the Elefant of
my friend (20 000 km) looks very dirty, Oil / fuel leakage, problems with
the fork ... Because of the desmo, you can't service the Elefant yourself,
and services are very expensive.

You've understood, I don't have a lot of consideration for the Elefant.
The AT is by far superior to the Cagiva.

Keep trying to find an AT !!!
Hope this help,
Pierre

PS: my opinion on the AT/Elefant was confirmed by a comparative test
performed two years ago by a french paper (they compared the AT, the Super
Tenere, the Triumph Tiger and the Elefant).  To summarize: the Tiger had
the better engine (3 cyl 80 hp!), followed by the Elefant on that point.
The AT was really the best balanced bike. And the only one able to go
off-road. In windy roads, none of them could follow the AT.



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dipper@normans.isd.uni-stuttgart.de