Love this bike (there's a clue) and will always kick myself that I didn't follow up the one on Gumtree that seems like only a few years ago.
i had a 2001 pegasso for the all year round commute with that engine back in day. rotax 650 5v. awesome bike for the money. just over 3k new. scrape the pegs wet or dry without the worry of bankruptcy. deffo regret selling that one.
I can only imagine he took the (rather nice) V due chassis and put in a heavily modified Rotax from the Cagina to race in singles, and built this with what was left over (like building a Triton and a Norumph, and riding the latter)
Yeah, those early big trailies had just the right combo of power & lightness before they morphed into some fat sod dual purpose jobbie or whatever they call them now. I had a couple of years urban commuting on a Honda Dominator and very jolly it was too.
I had to look it up and the Canyon did use a Rotax but it was air cooled. It's way past me memory synapses bed time.... but I might be back