Rare, potent, and each with its own vibe. The German MZ and French Voxan are so thin on the ground as to be collectible, the Cagiva Raptor a bargain V-twin gem (after some work)
Big twins became a force to be reckoned with back in the 1990s thanks to Ducati’s success in WSB and subsequently on the street with the M900 Monster. By the early 2000s most European manufacturers, and even a couple of Japanese ones, offered a selection of large capacity twin-pot bruisers, from full-on sportsbikes to naked roadsters.
The latter category makes a lot of sense. Superbikes are great, obviously, but for most middle-aged bodies (yup, that’s us lot) any more than a 50-mile jaunt aboard a 916 or an SP-1 has certain parts of our anatomy – particularly necks, backs and wrists – looking to throw in the towel. Luckily, there’s a whole host of marginally less extreme, yet no less exciting, twin-pot beauties to choose from.
And you don’t have to opt for the obvious. Cagiva finally embraced big bikes with its Raptor series, borrowing engines from Suzuki’s proven TL1000S and SV650 (and why not, they were those bikes’ best features) and wrapping them in a not dissimilar look to Ducati’s hugely successful Monster. Even MZ got on board, entering the sector with a ballsy parallel-twin sportster, perfect for those not looking to be part of the crowd.
For the truly leftfield, French niche manufacturer Voxan offered something completely different at the start of this millennium with its 996cc, 72° V-twin Cafe Racer, way before Trustafarians gentrified the term into shorthand for unoriginal, ill-conceived lash-up. But which of these slightly off-beat twins is best, and have they stood the test of time? We get under the skin of MZ’s 1000S, Voxan’s Cafe Racer, and Cagiva’s Raptor to find out.
MZ 1000S
For those of a certain age, the name MZ conjures up images of utilitarian two-strokes choking the High Street with clouds of thick, blue two-stroke fumes. Before that the East German concern enjoyed considerable success on the Grand Prix circuit, winning races with the most advanced strokers of the time. But then their star rider, Ernst Degner, defected to Suzuki, taking MZ’s secrets with him, the Iron Curtain became almost impenetrable, and the once world-leading manufacturer was reduced to knocking out bog-basic models for the underprivileged masses.
And so, it was something of a surprise back in 2004 to see a re
