The Cagiva C589 was a racing motorcycle made by

Cagiva Cagiva is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer. It was founded in 1950 by Giovanni Castiglioni in Varese, originally producing small metal components. Giovanni's sons, Claudio and Gianfranco Castiglioni, went into the motorcycle industry in 1978. ...

, which was used in the 500cc class of

Grand Prix motorcycle racing Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...

during the

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

season. The name is formed by an amalgamation of words and letters, namely the "C", "5" and "89". The "C" stands for the company (Cagiva), the "5" stands for the class the company races in as well as the engine capacity (500) and the "89" stands for the season the bike raced in (1989). The bike replaced the C588 model used in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

and was replaced by the C590, used in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

Description

This bike is the direct evolution of previous year's bike and thus it barely differs in terms of parts and definitively adopted the new inverted forks (which were also used by Randy Mamola in the 1988 championship), as well as a banana swingarm and a 'one piece' bodywork which were designed by

Massimo Tamburini Massimo Tamburini (November 28, 1943 – April 6, 2014) was an Italian motorcycle designer for Cagiva, Ducati, and MV Agusta, and one of the founders of Bimota. Tamburini's designs are iconic in their field, with one critic calling him the "Michel ...

. However, this design did not give an easy life to its riders as the bike was given the incorrect weight distribution which prevented it from freely unloading the power to the ground, the drivers frequently reporting that they found themselves in trouble because of it. Aesthetically compared to the previous model, the C589 differs only for the long and thin additional slits at the end of the radiator vents and a slit behind and below the vents, while the Plexiglas on the front fairing is lower and less rounded.

Season progress

Despite the new and futuristic designs on the bikes, Cagiva still continued to struggle throughout the year. The main reason for this was the lack of top-end speed the bike had compared to its competitors, incorrect weight distribution and poor power delivery. Randy Mamola scored a decent haul of points but also frequently failed to finish, scoring 4 DNFs during the season, and did not start three races as well. Wildcard rider Massimo Broccoli scored points twice and did not finish once, while the other replacement rider Raymond Roche failed to finish for his only outing for the team. The team scored a total of 41 points overall.

Mass production

The C589 was the inspiration for the company to release a road-legal model with a similar design called the Cagiva Mito in 1990.

Specifications

References

{{Cagiva C589 Grand Prix motorcycles Motorcycles introduced in 1989 Two-stroke motorcycles