Cagiva Alazzurra? [Archive] – Ducati UpNorth

Eddie, I know you love your Pantahs but seriously don’t you reckon whoever designed the fairing had not seen the rest of the bike before they started? Just looks like it came off something else. like an MZ from WW2 perhaps. sorry. o

it’s possible that Cagiva borrowed the design from a previous bike, as they seem to have had a place for it (i.e. Ala Rossa, Ala Verde, etc.)

but to my knowledge, the Ally’s setup was brand new for it.

The frame is substantially identical to a Pantah 600/650TL. Notice the peg and exhaust hangers, compare them to the previously posted Pantah 500’s hangers and now this:

Look at the bizarrely shaped tank and the enormous sideplate which covers the top of the engine, then compare it with the Alazzurra’s tank and side covers (which reveal the Ducati belt covers)

I always thought the older Pantahs to be quite naff, although very retro funky looking nowadays. Try riding a Pantah down the street and see if you don’t draw a crowd.

IMHO, the Alazzurra got the best bits of the Pantahs and updated styling, electrics and QA from Cagiva. The old ND coils and parts were inferior to the Bosch/Mototrans setup (even thought the pickups were still a problem).

A lot of them in the 650SS format were sold in the USA, which is surprising considering it was the first Cagiva bike ever sold here — no one had ever heard of them except as the company that bought Ducati and its even more surprising considering how many Bevel owners were burned when all the older Ducati dealers were spun off (Berlin went out of business) and lost their parts supply for a few years.

The Alazzurra was sold 84-87. the first 84’s had a polished engine (as in biscuitpotato’s photo) and the latter models were blacked, with blacked Silentium cansheaders. There were 350/400/650 models sold, and the 400s only sold in Japan. Wet and dry clutches available, Allys had a hydraulic clutch unlike the Pantahs which were wire clutchs.

The GT model had a half fairing and SS model was a full fairing. SS model had bigger front brakes (F08 vs F05 calipers), same setup otherwise. All of the models had the smallish 260mm front rotors and 35mm Marzocchi or Paioli forks.

Red with white (GT), Silver with red, and Pearl with grey/brown.

http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/Gallery/Cagiva%20Alzzurra%20350%20GT%2085.jpg

I consider the Alazzurra to be the first Sport Touring Ducati. If you compare the setup to the ST2 (i.e. rider position, seat size, handlebar height, dash) you can see the form and features are there. The Ally’s dash had a quartz analog clock for instance, and an audible turn signal beeper.