NEC 2007: The babes are out, Charley Boorman interviewed, 250 pictures!
It's all out there now, the news from KTM, BMW, Ducati, CCM, Royal Enfield, Megelli, Triumph, Hyosung, Benelli and Vectrix. The 990 Supermoto, The Woodsman, CMX, Gorgeous Triumph show specials, 08 BMW's, Charley Boorman and a lot of babes! See it all here!
All the Victory motorcycles 2008 models
Below you will find the 2008 range from Victory. Add the Vision Tour and Street (see test) and the picture is complete. The Vision Tour gets the new 106 (1734cc) engine whilst all the 100ci versions gets the same updates, but not the increase in capacity.
2008 Ness Signature
Victory Vegas by Cory and Arlen Ness. Very purple...
2008 Victory Vegas Low
A lower version of the Vegas for woman and shorter riders.
2008 Victory Kingpin 8-Ball
The mighty Kingpin is back, this time in 8-ball black more affordable than ever without compromising much of the distinct styling. All blacked out is just cool on the Kingpin.
At the exclusive world launch in Minnesota and Iowa, USA we made this film. Onboard and walk around. The Victory Vision Tour and Street is bigger than life with some innovative American styling. Long and low, comfortable as few other motorcycles and built to last many miles on the open roads. Cruise control, big stereo with iPod connection, king and queen seat, big storage capacity and one of the most comprehensive fairings ever built. Then add a 1731cc V-twin engine and the road is yours. Read parts of our test here. Will Harley-Davidson take notice? We will know in mid July when we ride the 08 Harley models in New York.
2008 Victory Vision Street & Tour launched! 106ci new V-twin!
We have been cruisin' with the alien in America and Victory's home state, Minnesota. In a very exclusive group of selected people we rode both the Vision Tour and Street for 500 miles between Minnesota and Iowa. The Vision luxury touring bikes cost millions of dollars to develop and Victory have been working on these bikes since the beginning in 1998. The final specifications that you have been waiting for are as follows: Tour (Street): 1731cc new air-cooled V-twin engine, 92bhp and 109ft-lbs torque, 365kg dry weight (Street 325kg), 22.7 litre fuel capacity, Ipod connection ready, button adjustable windscreen (stepless), black colour launched in addition to cherry and silver, 50 amps max output alternator and a innovative cast aluminium air box/frame section. We found the bikes close to Area 51 and looking at 30 of these bikes in a line down a straight road made for a pretty impressive sight. Soon we will tell you much more about these bikes right here and here. Videos (onboard, walk around, press introduction and more coming next...) TS
2008 Victory Vision Street and Tour-Victory for Victory with Vision
Victory motorcycles were launched by Polaris in 1998. It took 8 years for Victory to get to where they are today and the new Vision luxury tourers have been 6 years in the making. We attended the exclusive pre-view of this new American luxury tourer in the US. Two new motorcycles were launched to the press; The Victory Vision Tour and Vision Street.
Words: Tor Sagen/Photography: Tor Sagen & Victory
Victory claims that the Vision totally redefines the definition what it means to be an American motorcycle. And it’s true; we have never before seen any American motorcycle with so much fairing and so much groundbreaking design. The new bikes are luxury tourers, much like a Honda Gold Wing, Harley-Davidson Electra Glide or even a BMW K 1200 LT. But the Vision Tour is different, Victory are positioning the new jumbo tourer in-between the Harley-Davidson tourers and the Honda’s and BMW’s. Vision Tour and Street gets a big air-cooled V-twin with a gigantic fairing and new technology. The design is very futuristic, and that is more BMW or Honda than Harley-Davidson. So this is a quantum leap for a manufacturer of big air-cooled V-twin cruisers.
Victory Vision Tour:
The Tour is the fully faired and equipped version of the new Vision range. It’s based on the most outrageous of the four concept models shown earlier in 2006. Victory’s Vice President Mark Blackwell and Greg Brew, Director of the Industrial design department told us that this concept stood out as much more popular amongst the people, Victory owners and others that took part in the research. A very high percentage of those people wanted to buy the Vision Tour without any second thought and that beats a maybe by a long mile.
Specifications Vision Tour: Seat height: 673mm (Gold Wing: 740mm), length: 2664mm, Wheelbase: 1669mm, fuel: 23litres, 110L storage space, Tyres, front: 130/70-18 radial, rear: 180/60-16. Belt drive and six speed overdrive gearbox. Engine: Oil/air-cooled V-twin. Displacement and performance TBA. Brakes: 3 piston on dual 300mm rotors front and 2 piston single 300mm rear. Victory also offers what they call premium fully integrated audio/visual solutions. Including GPS and MP3 support. Specifications on the Vision Street only vary with less storage space, slightly shorter due to the lack of the big top box and presumably lower weight. Colours: Black, Super steel grey and Midnight cherry.
What we know that was not announced in public are that the new engine layout with new double exhaust produce more power and torque than any other Victory motorcycle. And since displacement has not been revealed yet there must be a reason to that. So we expect a bigger engine than the current 1634cc V-twin.
We spoke to Stacey Stewart, Stacey is Victory’s Engineering Manager. Stacey first showed us where the new 23 litre fuel tank is. It is a double tank linked at the top filler cap. But the special is that the fuel tank is up front under the front fairing. On each side of the front fork under the fairing is an aluminium fuel tank. This solution was partly done to get the weight distribution right to add more weight to the front, but it is no small engineering feat. Stacey also showed us something that could be very interesting to actually try (not…). Stacey and his engineering team found out that many people that ride big touring bikes have a bad tendency to drop the big beasts and then struggle both to get it upright again and with a huge bill for new plastics and levers. The new Vision Tour and Street have been designed in such a way that it won’t fall all the way to its side! It will stop with the footboards! If this is really the case it could be the invention of the century! You can drop your big heavy tourer and all you get is a few scratches on the footboards and the chassis details made to withstand such an accident. Another important detail for the touring people around the world is the new brakes. They are now 3 piston branded Victory. However to me they look very much like the same Nissin combi outfit that we find on the Honda tourers for instance. To me that shouts ABS ready! Stacey would not reveal to us that that was actually the case, but after mentioning this to enough people in the Victory team during the night I got a good impression that I was pretty much spot on with my observations, and not only on the brakes... If Victory launches ABS it will be as an option though as Americans don’t seem to like such aids much.
The enormous front fairing features an equally big headlight winged by the industries biggest mirror/blinker combo. The unpainted parts you can see on the fairing are made of aluminium. All the aluminium parts can be replaced by chromed parts to make the Vision Tour or Street even more bling than it is. The windscreen is electrically adjustable from the handlebars and another feature that separates it from the Gold Wing that still features an old fashioned manually adjustable windscreen. The front mudguard also looks like one of the industries biggest. The bike has been in the wind tunnel for the aerodynamics and this is very important on such a big bike. You don’t want turbulence to twist the bike into knots whilst doing 110mph on the motorway. Below the mirrors are an air-deflector made in see-through plastic to make life easier for the pillion passenger. It has been designed to remove turbulence further at the back of the bike.
For me the highlight is the beautifully designed rear end of the bike. A big V shaped stop light symbolises the intentions in the name, both Victory and Vision. Even though this is one of the biggest motorcycles we have ever seen, the design and the lines makes the Vision look much narrower than it is. And the narrow rear end is mighty tasteful and we suppose the poser would go straight for the Vision Street. But the top box on the Tour is firmly a part of the design and enables a full 110 litre carrying capacity and a luxury Queen seat. Particularly on the Vision Street you can see the lines at the back clearly. The narrow, but long panniers stretch a little bit upwards like on an old Cadillac’s wings and the double exhaust is perfectly designed to fit with the flowing lines. It’s almost like I can’t wait to ride one and follow another Vision Street because it must look amazing cruising down the highway with its long and low stance.
We spoke to Michael Song, Lead designer, about the design aspect of the Vision.
TS: How much of the design is your vision, who did the drawings?
MS: “I was more like a project leader for the design people. Greg (Brew) and I were actually working with a team of designers and we were basically directing them. We obviously had the vision.”
The Vision Tour and Vision Street launch in Long Beach, California, USA was the biggest ever press event for Victory Motorcycles. I have never seen such a big bunch of proud people in the same room before the launch of the Vision's! It was obvious from looking at and speaking to every single person in the Victory team that night that this was a historic day for the American firm. Tony Meirovitz, Victory External relations specialist kicked off the night with a few well prepared words and Mark Blackwell, the Vice president showed confidence like Tom Cruise when he talked macho in Magnolia. So covering the event was a privilege to me as a journalist as well. I understood that this event was just as important to Victory motorcycles as when Armstrong set foot on the Moon was to NASA. So as regard to the event and to the new product, congratulations, it’s a victory to Victory!
Victory launched the Vision 800 concept in California late 2005. This was done to let people know that Victory intends to do something different. Something very different and the new Vision Tour and Street are the first evidence of that. Vision 800 might never happen in the conceptual form, but with the new air-cooled touring bikes Victory is showing us how serious they are about the future. From 2010 it is going to be extremely difficult to homologate any air-cooled engine due to new regulations coming into effect. So whatever is next from Victory motorcycles or Harley-Davidson needs to involve liquid cooled engines at some stage. Harley-Davidson has got their own liquid cooled engine technology in the V-rod models, but Victory hasn’t yet. This is where the strategic partnership with KTM comes in handy. Even if KTM are buying back a big part of its shares, the partnership continues at a smaller scale than before. But being a big shareholder there is no reason to believe that Victory have not already acquired the technology it needs for the future.
So the future looks orange for Victory motorcycles and KTM even though Polaris might acquire another European brand to escalate developments by 2010. What will be for sale by 2010; Ducati, MV Agusta or Moto Morini? No one knows, but big things are bound to happen from a company as optimistic and forward thinking as Polaris and Victory motorcycles.
We spoke to Allan Hurd in Long Beach, the Brit that is General Manager for Victory Motorcycles. Speaking to Hurd it is obvious that Victory is disappointed in the whole KTM pullback from the original deal. This sets Victory back at a point where KTM have achieved a much stronger position in the US than before, helped by Polaris cash for homologation of the 990 Superduke and other models. Hurd told us exclusively that Victory will actively seek other partners than KTM -Because Victory will soon be at a point where it needs to expand in Europe. At the moment Victory keeps its head office in England for the European operation with an increasingly expanding dealer network. But England is a peculiar starting point really as Polaris are not as big in the UK as in France, Germany or even in Scandinavia. ATV’s and snowmobiles are the business and Polaris enjoys good knowledge of the markets in mountainous countries with snow in the winter. Even though the Vision Street and Tour will not be available in the US until next autumn, we asked Hurd, as we always do when we see him, about Europe again. Hurd said that the Vision models will be at least one year delayed into Europe. This is due to stricter and stricter homologation regulations with EURO 3 and whatever else to follow. Emissions are possible to control, but noise is the big struggle without a water jacket around the engine. You can probably still get a Vision Tour into Europe if you are willing to take the bother with singular vehicle registration, but the trouble will be finding a dealer to help.
Hurd said that Victory might launch the range into smaller countries such as Norway, Sweden, Holland and Belgium first, even before France or Germany, but the decision has not been made yet. We know that countries such as Norway are desperate for bikes as there already is a market to sell them in. There is some sort of demand and with a product like the new high-end luxury tourer as the flagship Victory will be firmly placed on the map also in Europe. The big question is whether the rest of Europe outside of the UK will ever get to buy a Victory with the big air-cooled V-twin engine filled with character. Is Victory waiting for KTM, 2010 emission/noise regulations or for a fuller range of perhaps smaller motorcycles? We can’t wait to find out!
Here are some more quotes from the Victory team: "When people first see this motorcycle, they're going to be blown away. I think it's going to be way beyond what most people expect." (Gary Laskin, Product Manager) "It's a groundbreaker - I would say very significant in the history of motorcycles." (Michael Song - Victory Lead Industrial Designer) "This will set a new standard in styling, set a new standard in comfort, it has all the features people want, and it will be a bike that gives each rider the ability to touch all of the senses." (Steve Smith, Product Manager) "When it comes out, it's going to change the way people perceive touring motorcycles." (Greg Brew, Director of Polaris / Victory Industrial Design) "I think it's going to fulfil the dreams of people looking to tour on an American Luxury Touring Motorcycle." (Greg Brew, Director of Polaris / Victory Industrial Design)
