A Victory For Polaris
A VICTORY FOR POLARIS
ROUNDUP
HAVING ALREADY PROduced recreational vehicles for dirt, snow and water, Polaris will take to the open road next year with its first motorcycle.
In confirming what had been a poorly kept industry secret, the world’s largest snowmobile manufacturer announced it will enter the streetbike market in 1998 with a made-in-the-USA cruiser to be sold under the brand name Victory.
Tantalized by the unfulfilled demand for Harley-Davidsons, Polaris is pitching its bike as an alternative to Japanese-made cruisers-American iron that will be less expensive than a Harley and doesn’t require a two-year waiting period.
The Victory will not be a typical Harley knock-off, however. “We wanted to build a better mousetrap,” says Matt Parks, motorcycle division general manager at Minneapolisbased Polaris. “Our success or failure will be determined by the quality of the bike.”
The Victory’s specifications are being kept under tight wraps, but when it is unveiled later this summer, expect a classic-looking cruiser with a technically advanced chassis and a snappy V-Twin powerplant. “When somebody rides our bike, the word ‘barge’ will not come into play,” Parks proclaims.
The engine, to be made by Polaris at its Osceola, Wisconsin, plant, will be “extremely different” from Harley’s big Twin and the prevalent S&S aftermarket favorite. “The construction is different. The cooling is different. The valvetrain is different. The induction is different. This is very much a modern engine,” Parks explains.
The frame, which will be produced at the new Polaris plant in Spirit Lake, Iowa, also will not be typical cruiser fare, equipped with higher quality components than is common.
“It handles outside the market segment that it competes in,” Parks says.
In benchmarking the competition, Polaris engineers spent a lot of time understanding Japanese cruisers and contemplating why so many Harley owners modify their bikes to improve performance. The Victory team also conducted research to grasp what bikers dislike in cruisers: “What they didn’t like was ‘cheap.’ What they didn’t like was ‘fake.’”
As a result, Victory motorcycles will be high on function and short on frills. “There’s not a lot of covers, no bolt-on fins,” Parks says. “There are no covers to hide engineering flaws.”
Polaris engineers have been busy on the project for more than three years, using onboard computers to measure such details as braking efficiency, suspension travel and the heat of individual engine components on the Victory and its competitors.
Final testing is being conducted in an undisclosed area of the South. The project’s initial hideout in Columbia, Tennessee, was shut down last year after leaks made it something of a landmark for curiosity-seekers.
Among the secrets still intact is what the Victory V-Twin will sound like-a touchy subject given Harley-Davidson’s recent attempt to trademark its rumbling exhaust note. “They (Harley-Davidson) are trying to protect their sound as a musical score,” Parks says. “If that’s the case, then ours would be different.”
Though Parks admits the Victory cruiser is only the first of a new line of Polaris motorcycles, he says there are no plans to produce dirtbikes-the off-road market is too small and is already well-served by Japanese makers.
Still, don’t be surprised to see Polaris branch out beyond the street-cruiser market segment. “We’re entering the worldwide motorcycle market,” Parks proclaims. “It’s not just Polaris wanting to ride the wave of cruisers.”
-Tony Kennedy
