Gavin’s Bimota/Cagiva Strada Squalo 500

Look carefully at this green bike and you should realise you have no idea what it is. That’s because there’s only one. Gavin’s Strada Squalo (Street Shark) is based on a drawing Mr Tamburini did of a bike using Bimota’s short-lived, late-1990s, 500 V-twin two-stroke. Having heard of this drawing, Gavin built the bike it could have become. That’s right: a one-off frame, tank, bodywork, exhausts… and electrics.

It has been in and out of the Rupe’s Rewires workshop three times as the concept developed (for example, it’s had three different sets of clocks and two paint schemes). Finally it was finished, and he took it to the Cagiva International Meeting in Kludzko, Poland at the end of June. More than 100 Cagiva bikes were there, from all over the EU.

The Strada Squalo won best bike. Gavin’s other entry, a Cagiva Elefant with a Ducati 999R engine and Diesel paint, won the special engineering award.

Gavin reports that the grey bike in the pic is a 1098 Ducati Cagiva Elefant, and the Lucky Strike one is a Paris Dakar Rallye Cagiva Elefant 944 owned by one of the Lucky Strike Race Team mechanics.

Gavin clearly has bike modifying disease, but he does it really well. Alongside Guy Martin’s Martek turbo, the Strada Squalo is the most ambitious project I’ve worked on. As he puts it: “I see these bikes as a substitute to class A drugs and loose women – but not financially!”