Cagiva Elefant: the motorcycle that inspired DesertX. More in description!

No, it is not the Ducati DesertX but the motorcycle that inspired it and guess what? This is not even a true Ducati. Meet the Cagiva Elefant Lucky Explorer. Behind this rather quirky name, is a glorious Dakar legend. Back in the 1990s when Cagiva used to own Ducati, they entered the famed Paris-Dakar Rally with the Elefant. And it won the Rally twice - in 1990 and 1994, both times taken over the finish line by Edi Orioli. To this day, it remains the only Italian motorcycle to win the overall Paris-Dakar Rally. If you think that Ducati has been going the unconventional way only in recent years, think again. At the time, it was powered by a Ducati-derived 90° air-cooled Desmodromic L-twin displacing 944cc, when most rivals relied on singles or smaller twins. The Lucky Explorer graphics also became one of the most iconic liveries in Dakar history. The DesertX is able to walk today because the Cagiva Elefant ran a marathon back in the day. Do you like how Ducati has carried over its legacy in modern times?