A Vicious Ride
To an Italian style is everything, form and function follows style, it doesn't proceed it.
Let's take a stroll down memory lane, let's go back to the early Seventies, a time when Japanese bikes were fast, reliable and heavy. When good handling was a thing that even Japanese race bikes were still only aspiring to. In those days of flared trousers and dodgy rock stars in too much make up, only the British and the Italians could build anything that could go around a corner with any sort of composure. Then came the likes of the GS750 and GS1000, bikes that could at least hold a candle to a European bike on the twisties, even if they still had to rely on power to finish the job off. These were days when, in Britian, the major production racing series were won by a Bonneville one year, and a Laverda Jota another. Japanese bikes could go the distance without a problem but only if the rider could hang on!
Gradually the Japanese firms got their act together, often by hiring European and American chassis engineers. And now only a fool would claim that the Japanese haven't got the handling game down to a pretty fine art. So where does that leave the Europeans? For the Italians, at least, it leaves them taking care of style.
To an Italian style is everything, form and function follows style, it doesn't proceed it as in the Japanese culture. When Cagiva group planned a new superbike, the MV Augusta F4, they spent a small fortune developing their own motor. They then wrapped it in an exquisite styling package and ensured that all of this was complimented with class-leading handling. The problem was that it means a sticker price that has the average motorcyclist leaving the showroom pronto. What Cagiva needed was something that was equally stylish but with a more down-to-earth price tag. Their solution was the Raptor and the V-Raptor. Both have stunning looks but without a price tag that leaves you equally stunned. How did they do it? Simple, they went back to a tried and tested formula, they let someone else build the motors.
The naked look has been taken to extremes on the Raptor. Get underneath and look at the belly, there's literally nothing between the Cagiva and a harsh world.
Cagiva employed the mechanical wizardry of Suzuki and dropped a 105 horsepower TL Twin into this bike so the muscle would match the style. Cagiva clearly wants the best of both worlds and it's pretty obvious they achieved their goal with the Raptor. In some ways the Cagiva Raptors could be called the new Rickmans, these were superbikes built in the UK in the Seventies that used a trick frame made from Reynolds tubing. These tasteful frames housed a Japanese motor such as from a CB750 or a Z1 – the motor usually benefited from a bit of tuning work also.
The Rickmans worked because they matched bought-in and proven engineering with an in-house ability to build a chassis that worked. There's no doubt that Cagiva can build a working chassis and the donor motor, from Suzuki's TL1000 range, is already well known for power and reliability. What's more, Cagiva have arguably out TL'd the TL by adding some sensational Italian styling that works well on the eye. Actually, a correction, the styling was done by none other than Miguel Angel Galluzzi an Argentinean.
If the name seems familiar it's because he's the same bloke that penned Ducati's original Monster and then persuaded, nagged and cajoled the management to build it, the rest is history and high sales figures, just the sort of history that bike manufacturers love.
The Raptor is more than just performance and style. Take a peek at the chassis. It's not only stylish, but built to last as well. This chassis is as tough as nails.
That's the Monster recipe, good on the eye, good for the soul and good on the street. But how does the Cagiva recipe work on the road, does it feel the absence of an Italian motor? Not at all, the 90 degree V-Twin liquid-cooled engine was an inspired choice. Cagiva wanted to out-do Ducati, the company they had recently sold and was now a rival. They needed an engine that would square up to Ducati's brilliant eight-valve liquid cooled Vee which they knew would be in the Monster chassis before too long. The Suzuki engine was a perfect choice. The motor is narrow, just like a Ducati, it's powerful, also just like a Ducati, and it's a V-twin, you get the picture. Cagiva were hoping that the Japanese heritage would add reliability, a point that was sometimes questioned with the Ducati option. Besides, it's a whole lot cheaper to buy in an engine than to design and build yourself, a vital detail to a company that had undoubtedly just spent a pile developing the exotic MV range.
The 98 x 66mm 996cc and 105 horsepower engine certainly delivers the poke you'd expect from a big V-twin. Get the needle up to around 4,000 rpm on that wacky triangular analogue tach and the engine's more than ready to rip up the pavement. Suzuki claimed 120bhp from the same motor when they launched it, so where's the missing 15bhp? The answer lies in the method of measurement, with Suzuki running the Dyno off the crankshaft whereas Cagiva took a reading at the rear tyre, where it matters!
Whatever the output, when combined with only 192 kg (423lbs) of weight that power leads direct to performance, and lots of it. As for the torque I didn't have the bike long enough to get it to a dyno but rest assured there's simply loads of the stuff.
The Raptor's styling certainly draws crowds just like a good Italian bike should.
Wind the needle on from a lazy 2,000 rpm, or hold onto the throttle all the way past the 10,300 rpm redline and you'll be rewarded with loads of go. This is a brilliant motor, make no mistake. Whether you're flying away from the lights, blasting past a row of cars, or punching out of a slow corner this little baby smokes 'em. The feeling is so good you'll keep slowing down just so you can wind it on again and revel in that satisfying, fat power band.
The gearbox, a six-speeder, was generally well behaved during our test, although there was the occasional missed shift from first to second when the engine was still cold. The cable-operated clutch was light and progressive but it bit very late on our test model. I like it this way because it means that just a slight dip of the clutch lever is all that's needed when changing down. Other than that, the clutch behaved perfectly with no screeching, rattling or grabbing , very un-Ducati like. I also couldn't fault the digital fuel injection. At any speed, even trickling through traffic, the motor was properly fed fuel, again, no hunting, surging or hiccoughing. Even when trailing the throttle the metering was spot on. No amount of heavy handedness with the throttle grip could fool the mapping. Brilliant!
Power is useless without control, or so the saying goes. Good job then that Cagiva wrapped the motor in a Ducati-inspired (or is it Rickman inspired?) steel tube trellis type chassis. But the inverted 43mm Marzocchi front forks felt a little hard in bumpier corners, there was a tendency for the Raptor to shake its head exiting corners on less than smooth pavement. The handlebars, which are the traditional steel tube type with upward and rearward bends in them, exaggerate this front-end nervousness. Alloy clip-ons might normally be fitted to a bike like this and they get the rider's weight over the front end to calm things down more. You need to lean forwards over the front wheel to calm things down a little when pushing this bike hard on a back road. I had one occasion where I backed off to pass a girl riding a horse, and when I wound it back on the front end must have picked up on some bumps in the road. The bars tank slapped so hard it actually bent the lock stops on the steering tube , whoa boy!
Cagiva employed the mechanical wizardry of Suzuki and dropped a 105 horsepower TL Twin into this bike so the muscle would match the style. Cagiva clearly wants the best of both worlds and it's pretty obvious they achieved their goal with the Raptor.
At the rear the Sachs damper, adjustable for spring preload only, never gave a murmur of trouble, it just got on with the job of digging all that punch deep into the road. It's not hard to make the rear wheel spin though, but that's more to do with the punchy delivery of that V-twin sports motor than any shortcoming in the suspension set up.
This is a fun bike, a bike that makes you want to ride it. Park one of these in your garage and you'll constantly be finding excuses to get back on. Those five-minute hops to the local store (you'll find any excuse to ride the Raptor) soon turn into fifty mile scorching rides down the local canyon.
Unfortunately, on the Raptor, the comfort runs out long before the fun does. I found the sloping forward saddle a real pain in the nuts. Shortly after riding off on the Raptor I had a painful meeting with the petrol tank when I applied the front brakes. It's the sort of bike that encourages you to sit well forward, motocross style, in the saddle. While this might aid control in the twisties it did nothing for the safety of my vital organs. This upright and forward stance also meant that most of my contact with the bike was via the rather hard saddle, there's very little weight on the 'bars or the slightly rearward mounted footpegs. This soon led to discomfort, about fifty miles into any ride my butt would start to snooze. Lucky then maybe that, when given loads of stick, the petrol tank would soon be demanding more fuel via the flashing warning light on the funky console after as little as sixty-five miles! Use the throttle a bit less and the 18 litre tank lasts longer, but it's hard to ride a bike like this slowly, it seems to urge you to misbehave. I didn't keep a close mathematical watch on the consumption but a quick mental tot up after a couple of tanks of gas came out with a figure of around 28 mpg!
Tach and Guages: The tach and guages adhere to the namesake of the bike with clearly visible controls and the angular styling of a prehistoric beast.
This capable chassis set up is backed up by a good set of brakes. There's twin Brembo 4-piston callipers up front that grip a pair of 298mm discs. These are backed up by another 298mm disc at the rear, this time with a twin-piston calliper. The rear brake is well balanced and powerful, but not so sensitive that it locks at a mere touch, perfect. The front brakes require quite a bit of lever effort to get them really working, they don't bite hard and immediately like on some sport bikes. Given that this bike might appeal to the less-experienced rider this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Use them properly and they'll give a useful combination of power with plenty of feedback. Unusually, for a modern bike, I found that attempting to perform stoppies for the amusement of the local car drivers led to a sliding front tyre. I can't see that this was the fault of the Bridgestone BT56 tyre, so that over-stiff front suspension set-up must be the culprit again. Interestingly, when the bike was first launched in Europe many of the testers complained that the front end was too soft on the pre-production bikes. Maybe Cagiva went a little too far in rectifying this and that might explain why the front gets nervous on bumpier surfaces. The front suspension isn't adjustable for anything.
At high speed, this bike will do 145mph flat out but you're going to have trouble holding on. Without even the bikini fairing fitted to the V-Raptor there's loads of wind force at speed and all of it's trying hard to remove your head and helmet in one unit! At speeds above 125mph the front end doesn't feel as planted as you might want it too at such velocity, more than a little vagueness sets in at higher speeds. All this confirms that the Raptor is a back-road blaster, a real roadster, not a hyper-sport bike. Considerations like ultra-high speed handling are academic for a roadster, fun factor counts for far more on this type of steed.
If you've got a big, powerful engine, then you'd better have the brakes to slow it down. Cagiva has all the stopping power one would need. A handful of brakes brings you to a halt in a hurry.
If I owned one I'd be tempted to get a re-valve job done on those forks and maybe even fit a steering damper. But if you don't ride it on the edge, you won't be troubled by any of this.
The bike is light, with the weight low down. This and its small physical size means it's an easy bike to manage, even if your body isn't held as far off the ground by your legs as you'd like. For this reason, and its low and narrow 770mm seat height, it would make an excellent choice for the ladies who don't want to default to a Cruiser. Wheeling it in and out of the garage is a doddle, aided by the upright bars and low centre of gravity.
The Raptor won't be a good choice for touring, too little luggage room and not enough comfort. It isn't the right selection for hypersports blasts either; a well-ridden sport bike will trounce it on both handling and absolute speed. But point it down some twisty back roads and it'll return you to home with a huge smile that makes it hard to fit your helmet on your head. It'll also leave you with a burning desire to get the bike back out of the garage and go back for more. Roll it slowly through your neighbourhood and it'll turn heads, just like a Cruiser! The styling may not be everyone's cup of high-octane fuel but it does it for me and it never failed to draw a crowd when parked.
Just like those Rickman hybrids of yesteryear this is a mix and match of components that works to produce an integrated motorcycle. The sum of parts adds up to the same thing too: Fun with a capital F!
