Ducati Monster Forum

How does it differ from the M900's of the 90's?
They look seemingly like m900's.
I'm curious bc there are Elefants and Gran Canyons on evilbay now but I know nothing of the performance characteristics.

I will still likely keep my eye out for a V head 900 but I still gotta ask. Sorry for the noob question...

I recently checked out 3 models of Elefant. An '85/86 650, '88 Elf 750 bifaro (twin headlight) & '95 750 AC (last iteration). Got the good oil from some Elefant nuts.
I'll be checking out an '88 monofaro 750LE in Sept.

I was very impressed. I understand why people who have them are crazy about them.
The carbed 900 models from '93/94 are reputedly meant to have 900V motors, but I cant confirm that. If you do, let me know. The Gran Canyon looks a more road biased version with the Elefants more dirt capable. The 90-93 ie bikes and GC have W heads.


Ducatiz knows alot about them and speeddog has a Gran Canyon. I would strengthen the wiring on the Elefants and change the very restrictive mufflers. Brad B has demonstrated how restrictive the airbox is on the GC, even with open lid.

Awesome long distance bikes with good ergos and all rounder capabilities. I want one.

The E900 and Elefant 900 are the same bike.

They have W heads only.

I don't feel the E900 is a bonafide offroad bike, it's more of a sports tourer.  More road bias.  The older Elefants (650/old 750) had a much better offroad bias -- long ass forks.

The Gran Canyon is also a sport tourer.  beautiful bike IMHO, also W heads.

They are not Monsters or SS bikes.. They are totally different -- the frame is made by Cagiva and is not a Ducati style trellis.

I'll have a GC one day.

So Falloon's wrong again? I forgot to ask the guy about the W head thing.
The 900AC models had W heads too?
So effectively, all E900s had W heads?

MY 99 Cagiva Gran Canyon has W heads...( which is for sale )

My take on the E900 and GC was they were the godfather of the MTS.

more or less

All of the Elefant 900/E900 models that I know of have W heads, but it's possibly they put the V on one.  I have to ask the elefant oracle..


And the Alazzurra was the godfather of the ST

and unfortunately they killed the line after that


i would love to see a Hyper/Diavel motored ST duo revival

According to Falloon:

The 900ie had the same heads as the 900SS, but with same cams as E750 and Paso.
It had a 5-speed transmission.
P7 ECU.
'90 model had 300W alternator, '91 got a 350W.
The '91 900 ieGT had a 6-speed.
All the 900's have 19" front wheels, (IMO: fine for the street, fine for hard dirt, hopeless in deep sand).

'93 E900 got Mikuni carbs and engine same as 900SS, and a cat in the muffler.
Showa 45mm USD forks, rear shock now Boge instead of previous Ohlins.
Dual (smaller) front discs.
Lower seat height.
Purportedly stayed the same 'til the end in '95.

I have a 2000 Gran Canyon 900.

Biggest issue is finding plastics.  Not impossible, but requires patience.

I have been told the GC900 has 750 heads on it.  It's definitely wheezier than my former 2001 900SS.  The factory rating is something like 10 HP less as well.  A somewhat desirable mod on the GC is to install 900SS heads and a PCIII.  Adds quite a bit more poke, and one user on the Yahoo group has the dyno charts to prove it.

The GC is so-so when taken off pavement.  The Elefant may be better, but I have no FHE with the E900.  I ride mine down 5 miles of gravel to get to the pavement when commuting.  It's okay on that.  I'd have to go *really* slow on any kind of singletrack, and that'd be a risky adventure.  I'd say you can get in about as much trouble as you can on a BMW 1200GS... except the GC is lighter and narrower, which makes it a touch easier to handle.

On pavement, it's a wonderful machine.  It's supremely comfortable (and I'm 6'4").  It handles very nicely.  Mine has Remus Ti cans on it... sounds great.

Hard to compare to other bikes.  It is definitely the predecessor to the original Multi.  Similar ergos and functionality, just less grunt.  IMO, it looks better than the original Multi.  The Multi 1200 is in a whole other league... that's a long-distance power tourer.

Yiddische language lesson time!

"mish-mosh"  See below:

They killed the line because they sold so few.. the Tre was the last model and i think it was about 400 sold in the last year.  the only people buying them were Ducati owners..  first time buyers of ST type bikes didn't go Ducati, they would get BMWs or Hondas or the venerable B-King

with the new long service interval, it's the perfect time to reintroduce the ST line.

Make sure to include the features that pudgy, middle-aged men want, and it might sell better...

(http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l309/ducatiz/boardpics/CIMG0921.jpg~original)

Thanks for the fine education guys!

Let us know how you go gettin' one.

I'm Elefant hunting myself, so it would be cool seeing what you find and what you do to it.

Good luck.

a buddy of mine has a hot rodded E900...he went 944 kit with Flatside 41's and got an extra set of wheels and had Woody's lace some 17" hoops to the stock hubs and he does very well on that thing...

^^ That sounds cool.  There pics of this beast anywhere on the interwebz?

Check out Gavins Custom Elefants. He goes nuts with the mods.
Gavin944888.com.
Dumbo Development or Elefantadventures for parts or mods.
Elefantman's site for tips and reliability mods.

Just doing research at this time about different 900 motors. Cam differences, valve differences and head/cylinder differences.

I just ordered several hundred bucks worth of stuff for my GC from DDL/Motolectric about a month ago (same guy).  [thumbsup]  Got the crashbars installed a few weeks ago, gonna do the HICAP starter wiring and ST1 capacitor this weekend.

+1 on Elefantman's site.  Good resource.

I'm very fond of these here Elefants... mate of mine has one that I lust after...

Hurry up and get one koko64  [thumbsup]

Which one's he got?

A blue one  ;D

Blue white 650 or dark blue e900?

Dark blue... has USD forks...

He teases and taunts us from his enclave way down in the Southern region of a Southern Australian state. Way way down South. ;D

What's that mean?  Banjos?  or some oddball didgeridoo tunes?

The Australian equivalent of "Deliverance"?  [cheeky]

Remember, our South is your North relative to proximity of the equator.  Therefore... my geocultural locational equivalent is... Maine.

Gotta go to outback Queensland for the banjos  ;)

I'm not teasing.  I just don't know. 

Waiting for Ducatiz to enlighten me with his Elefantine knowledge  ;D


 [popcorn]

Blue with UDForks would be one of the later carbed 750/900 models Tiz? Checked out one of the last 750s a week ago, the metallic blue model. Nice.

Actually, I dont mind some good banjo playin', an underated instrument imo.
But then, I'm a country boy. ;D

All the 900 models were carbed except for the last year iiic.  The first ie bike with a ducati 900 was the gran canyon.

The 900s are really different bikes from the early models imho.

I thought the first injected 900 was the 1990 E900ie Lucky Explorer? It ran through to '93 including GT variants and then came the long manifold Mikuni carbed E900s in '93/94?
The LE 900ie used injection a year before the 907. Spose that makes it the first aircooled injected model.

nope, you're right.  i keep thinking it was the GC  because i've never seen one in person, they were not imported to the US IIRC.

Europe got all of them, they are still very popular in benelux for some reason.  there is an Elefant group that has a "treffen" every year.  a few dozen crotchety mahouts camping somewhere in the Alps.

I've seen their website, real crusty adventurer types, very staunch [thumbsup].
They come from all over Europe including across/under the channel.

For reference:

Elefant "Old style"

350 and 650 (1984-1987) (also 350, looked the same)
The main difference other than cc was the clutch.  The 350 models came with a cable clutch slave and wet plates.  The 650 had the same hydraulic clutch as the Ally and dry plates.
(http://cdn2.bikesevolution.com/pics/44/db/Cagiva-20Elefant-20350_1.jpg)

650 and 350 both came in red too.
(http://cdn2.bikesevolution.com/pics/f1/c7/Cagiva-20Elefant-20650-20-202jpg_2.jpg)

750 (1988-1990) (with Lucky Strike livery) MONOFARO
(http://cdn2.bikesevolution.com/pics/8e/58/foto-de-cagiva-elefant-750-motofoto_02.jpg)

750 Lucky Strike BIFARO
(http://mototrips.free.fr/forum/expo/divers_cagiva-ducati/illustration%20elefant/750-bifaro-LE-88.jpg)

Elefant "later style"  

E900AC (1992-)

(http://cdn2.bikesevolution.com/photos/a9/f1/1995-cagiva-elefant-900-ac-vergasermodell-farbversionen-in-luckyexplorer_4d6f5.jpg)




Custom job with old style donor bike.. (I LIKE THIS)

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qpWtg6IvDLk/THFjs7MyRwI/AAAAAAAAckw/_t_BTqWh8Dg/s1600/cagivaducati+totti+scrambler+elefant+750.jpg)