Miles and JAM,

I hope you guys are ready for what is about to happen. This website is about to go into hyperdrive. When the northeast thaws out and the entire North American continent starts seeing Visions on the road and available for test drives, life as you guys know it will not be the same. Vision-Riders will be ground zero for the masses.

I know you have experience with theVMC but this will be totally different. Victory had some early growing pains but has turned into a world-class bike maker. All of their models have been cruisers of various styles and were great for those who wanted an American alternative to H-D. They were nice bikes but they blended in with the rest of the cruiser market. Their numbers were relatively small and non-bikers probably just wondered what kind of "Harley" that was. None of those models really put Victory on the map as offering anything radically different. Just a nice change. To be honest, most people have never even heard of Victory Motorcycles.

When the Victory corporate media hype says that the Vision is "iconic", for the first time in my life I believe it. I can see it in peoples reaction to the bike every day. The Vision blows away all of the boundaries. People who would never own a motorcycle have walked up to me and said "That is the most beautiful machine I have ever seen. What is it?" I'm not talking middle aged guys here, I mean a 70 year old black woman who probably grew up on a farm in Mississippi. I mean the Hispanic laborers laying down mulch at the house next door. The 22 year old bank teller at the drive-through window. The 80-year old WWII vet standing next to his Crown Vic at the gas pump. The mom in the mini-van at a stop light. These are just the people who took the time to strike up a conversation. I can feel everyone else staring at the bike and trust me, it's not because they think it's butt ugly. It is literally a head turner.

Ok, so non-motorcyclists like it. Big deal. They don't know what to look for in a motorcycle. They are going purely on looks. Think about this: For the first time in my lifetime, members of three fanatically loyal groups will cross-over. Die-hard, "the only real bike" Harley guys, "everything plus the kitchen sink" GoldWingers and the group who personifies "anal" - BMW riders. I realize that a lot (if not most) of the Vision buyers will come from previous Victory owners and Japanese brands (based on pure numbers) but it is amazing to see who is really looking hard at the Vision. A Harley guy, a Winger and a Beemer-head all in the same showroom, looking at the same bike!? That is truly unbelievable. Japanese brand riders (myself included) will come over in droves for various reasons but face it, as a group we are not as fanatical as the "big three".

The Vision-Riders forum is quickly establishing it's place as the go-to site for real life experience with the bike. The good, the bad and the ugly will come out here. Lots of people lurk here that we never hear from. Now that the bike is starting to cut it's teeth and get some miles built up, it is becoming apparent that the Vision is not just a nice first attempt by Victory. It is an unbelievably fantastic bike.

A new owner's initial reaction is to compare the Vision to what you rode before but you quickly realize that you can only compare it to itself. The guys that rode Harleys and now have Visions don't even bring up the differences after a few posts because it's so unfair. The Wingers and Beemer guys are a very knowledgable group of riders but you get the feeling that they picked their bikes for the functionality and technology. Nice bikes but they have had their "souls" engineered out of them. The Vision has the sensory input to match the looks.

Victory dealers at the bike shows are freaking out over the crowds around the Vision. Spring is coming. You have about two months left before the lid blows off.