Tourer
Posts: 548
Mount Vernon, WA United States | onevikesfan - 2011-12-12 8:45 AM
Disappointing......let me explain my point of view. I am a motorcycling enthusiast and a Victory brand cheerleader who looks forward to the releases every year. Below are the golden years for me:
1999 V92C Release
2003 Vegas Release
2004 Kingpin Release
2005 Hammer Release
2008 Vision Release
2010 X Bike Release
The years when Victory releases a bike that has a modified paint scheme, handlebar, or swingarm configuration and name it something such as 8ball or Jackpot in the case of the vegas platform, tour in the case of Kingpin platform are simply lazy years where my expectations aren't met and I am disappointed with the release.
The bean counters, executive and marketing teams need to release the engineers to let their imaginations run wild allowing them to come up with a long range dual sport or large cc sport bike as an example....there are avenues, silos, verticals or what ever you want to call it that they can leverage the base Freedom Vtwin and still reach out and grab another riding community bringing them into the fold of Victory owners and continue to build on the brand. Just saying........
+1
+1 -ish. I don't agree 100% but my list would only differ with the removing "Kingpin" as I think it's just a Vegas with fenders and bags... but that's just my opinion. Every two-three years Victory has created a truly NEW bike while making constant improvements and mods to whatever the current lineup is. That's really not a bad plan. I expect 2012 or 2013 will be the next "new" bike. It fits the pattern anyway.
I totally agree that there is a need for a heavy USA Built "Eurosport" bike. Something to truly go head-to-head with the big BMW, Guzzi Norge, GoldWing, etc.. That would open the gateway to Dual Sports and sport bikes in general. To be clear, Eurosport is NOT crotch rocket. Although that is another market I think there are plenty of choices there already and the demographic of who buys the crotch rockets is not Victory's demographic. The Eurosport is in Victory's demographic. I think I'm pretty typical in that way. I want a slightly aggressive ride position, essentially with my feet under me, not on boards. I want the torque you can only get with a V-twin. Shorter wheelbase maneuverability and handling. Large load capacity. higher center to easily go lightly off-road. By lightly off-road I mean dirt and gravel roads... but not really off-road.
Currently only BMW, Ducati, Guzzi, KTM and Triumph make bikes in this category that are worth a damn and they seem to sell a lot of them, most of them, in the USA. Seems there is a little niche for Victory to tap into like they have done before.
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Hard Ball - let's hear some honest assessments
