2005 Victory Hammer
2005 Victory Hammer
CYCLE WORLD TEST
To Hammer rider, everything looks like lunch
ALLAN GIRDLER
WESTBOUND ON Interstate 8, somewhere between Austin, Texas, and Road Forks, Arizona, our man riding Victory’s new Hammer home from the press intro pulled onto the highway from a gas stop just in front of two big Harleys.
He set the needle on the legal limit and the Harleys caught up.
The man on the FLH would.. .not.. .look. Neck rigid, eyes straight ahead, he refused to acknowledge The Other American Motorcycle. The guy on the Super Glide managed a sheepish smile and furtive nod.
Our man pulled even and in International Manual Language suggested a comparison of torque curves.
Declined.
The folks at Victory wouldn’t have it any other way.
As a preface to the Hammer’s facts and figures, two points:
One, Victory has become a genuine, viable motorcycle company. Parent company Polaris got into the game with capital and commitment seven years ago, back when they weren’t the only people looking to fill the void created by H-D having more orders than it could fulfill. The early models had some teething problems, normal to all new products, but Polaris had the resources and the resolve to make good on the firm’s promises, and they did just that, in sad contrast to two other upstarts now defunct.
Two, all Victory models to date and including the ’05 line are cruisers.
With good reason. The definitions are vague here, but as a general rule, the fat rear, stretched front, high and wide bars, stepped seat, forward controls and frills from the past like big fenders and dollops of chrome are what’s been selling. The Big Four plus, of course, Harley and Triumph and Moto Guzzi, and even BMW, all offer versions of the ostensible chopper. Cruisers sell, so that’s where Victory started, and where they’ve done well, and where they still are.
Victory’s engine is a traditional narrow-angle, 50-degree, V-Twin, introduced with 92 cubic inches, in the Hammer’s case now bored to 100 (1639cc). Classic in the sense of aircooling aided by a generous oil radiator; contemporary with eight valves, one overhead cam per cylinder and electronic fuel-injection. Rear suspension is solo shock, concealed from view.
The first Victory, the V92C, was basic. There were touring options, and for the make’s second model year the firm introduced the 92SC. Yes, as in Sport-Cruiser. The ads said “cruiser style, sport performance,” but the SC didn’t quite meet either claim. The engine had some added power but not enough, the raised suspension made the bike look clunky yet things still touched down early. In sum, the SC didn’t offer much improvement and it didn’t sell.
That was then, thank goodness. Victory shifted some staff, contracted with custom mavens Arlen and Cory Ness and presto, there came the Vegas and the Kingpin and the 8-Ball, and Victory offered choices plural: full fenders or sport, basic features or extras, floorboards or pegs, all of which made the models attractive to a broader audience.
Which brings us, at last, to the Hammer.
Begin with the name. Hammer, Vegas and 8-Ball are evocative, as are Chief, Scout, Bonneville, Monster and Super Glide.
This time around, the promise is kept. The Hammer gets the punched-out, 100-cube V-Twin, with hotter cams for an honest 76 rear-wheel hp and 86 foot-pounds of torque. There’s a six-speed gearbox, with top being an overdrive. There’s a new cam drive, oil pump drive and primary gears, all tucked inside a revised frame, narrowed for the cornering clearance a sporting cruiser must have.
Surely, the most visible change/feature, though, is the rear tire, fully 250mm wide, and developed in partnership with Dunlop. The fork is an upside-downer, further announcing the Hammer’s sporting intentions. Ditto the two front discs.
And then there’s paint. It may be that dull, boring, 20thcentury black is finally out of fashion. The Hammer comes in red, yellow and green, plus an array of graphic checks and arrows, sort of vaguely Eastern mystic, albeit for all we English-speakers know, the design says “Go Sox.”
The Victory team cheerfully admits that this project is niche marketing.
The target is the experienced rider, someone who’s had sportbikes and has reached the stage of not needing to go quite so fast, nor suffer through the racer’s crouch on a long-term basis. The name for the market is Power-Cruiser; it’s a niche with lots of competition, as in nearly all the other motorcycle makers, so it’s Victory’s view that there’s room for one more, especially if the price, performance and style are right.
The style portion can’t be debated-well, okay, those who don’t like the chopper/cruiser notion or image won’t like the Hammer, but a glance at the TV ratings or the sales of West Coast Choppers T-shirts will tell you the public has already voted.
This was backed up by reactions on the road. At gas stops, bike nights and dealerships, there were crowds waiting to see the Hammer and they liked what they saw.
Price? Again, older folks who bought a house for the price of a Hammer will balk, but the MSRP here isn’t any worse than the stickers on the competition, and they sell.
Which brings us to what should (and isn’t always) the bottom line: What’s the Hammer like as a motorcycle?
Just as the humongous rear tire is the first thing the knowledgeable notice, so is the first question, i.e., how does it handle with that tire?
No problem. At parking-lot pace or inching thr hour traffic, the Hammer needs attention and some correction, but once up to road speed, there’s no sensatum of bulk and the steering is as quick and sure as a bike of th size and configuration can be.
With its higher-spec suspension, the Hammer rides well and seldom if ever bottomed crossing cattle guards and other features of the Texas Hill Country...oh, nearly forg The press intro was held in the Hill Country around A because it’s great riding, mile after mile of well-mairii and entertaining farm-to-market roads and not only that, the farm trucks ease to the shoulder when faster traffic appears. ' Drive Friendly, the signs say, and Texas folks do.
Are we talking pure sportbike here? No. There’s no such claim for the Hammer. Instead, they improved cornering cleat« ance and tucked the parts away, allowing for the brisk pace that should be enough for a skilled and sensible enthusiast.
The same judgment works with performance.
The Harley guys who declined a comparison made the right call, and skip the remarks about unauthorized contests.
Rolled on in top gear, the Hammer will pull away from a stock Evo or TC Harley, on the basis of power to weight or just because there is no replacement for displacement.
Had the competition been a Hayabusa, a 12R Kawi or even a 1200 Buell, the dust would have been on the Hammer. But again, Victory knows their power-cruiser is at the top of its class, “punching its weight,” as they say in boxing, but no better than that.
On the road, with results depending on headwinds and grades and traffic-say cruising at 70 or the practical interstate maximum of 80-our Hammer returned 35 to 44 mpg. Not bad. And with the Hammer’s 5-gallon tank, it’s normal to cruise for two hours plus on the 4 gallons that it’s safe to use between stops. If there’s a gripe, it would be that big Twins, turning relatively slowly compared to smaller Fours, used to do better than that.
The sporting version of Victory’s Freedom 100 engine is more comfortable than charismatic. EFI or not, there’s a choke control-okay, an enrichment device-and the engine starts hot or cold within a couple of spins. Once running, the idle is a boring pop-pop-pop with a bit of air-cooled clatter, but not a hint of the hot cams or tuned exhaust. The example shown was delivered with the optional slip-on mufflers. They’re not loud at low revs, but deliver an aggressive bark
under power, a good balance for daily use. The factory’s charts don’t show any performance gain with the change, but it’s worth it just for the music.
On the road in the higher gears, fifth and OD sixth, the engine isn’t happy at less than 2200 rpm. It will pull down there, but it protests. At 2500, everything gets good. Minor vibes-counterbalanced or not, this is a narrow V-Twin after all-but there’s a smooth flow of power and the engine comes on strong.
What we have here is a highway motorcycle. The added displacement doesn’t turn the engine into a slogger, and the hot cams don’t make it peaky. The power and torque peaks are both above the daily working speed: Victory’s market research says the potential owner doesn’t want to downshift for climbing and passing, and the Hammer will pull any interstate grade in sixth, from 60 mph on up.
More usefully, though, the engine’s gearing has been designed not as an overdrive in the classic sense-the revs reduced for economy and downshifts needed-but for genuine cruising. From 65 to 85, the mirrors are clear and torque is there for the dialing. Balance, that’s what we’ve got here.
Niggling complaints? Oh yes.
What’s with the lack of a fork lock? There are fittings for the owner’s own padlock, but that’s awkward. The only excuse here must be that until just recently, Harleys didn’t have fork locks, either.
And the lack of toolkit? For reasons not germane to this account, the test Hammer’s rear wheel had to come off. It took four guys and the dealer’s wife.
This isn’t to single out the Hammer, or Victory. Removing the rear wheel of a large, modem road machine is an effort, a project, no matter what make or model. Yup, Harleys and Indians used to come with rear stands and Vincent owners didn’t need tools to take off the wheels and your dad’s big Kawasaki had a centerstand.
But this is now. You can’t patch the tire, you can’t even break the bead, just as you can’t set an electronic ignition with the foil from a pack of cigarettes (heck, you’re barely allowed to have a pack on you), and you can’t cure a flooding EFI with a tap of a plug wrench. In sum, you can’t fix much of anything on the road, so what would you do with tools?
Enough cynicism. Topping the Hammer’s tank can be messy until the rider leams to aim the nozzle to the left front of the tank’s interior. And the new rider brushes his right thumb against the emergency flasher switch on the way to the starter button.
Niggles? More like quirks, on reflection, and not much in the way of drawbacks.
The lone, truly mechanical shortcoming was that our Hammer’s clutch, when hot, dragged just enough to make neutral elusive: At the light it was 1-2-1-2-N.
One identifying cruiser trait is the rider’s posture, the broad-shouldered, laidback stance dictated by the high and wide handlebars, forward pegs and controls and skimpy seat. This is a stance that looks and feels great on the showroom
floor, at stoplights and on short jaunts at urban speeds. It’s the profile seen on TV, as the ads say.
Problem is, at highway speeds, the rider becomes an air brake, propped up in the wind, knuckles white on the grips, neck strained, back kinked, legs cramped...all because fashion has interfered with function.
As can quickly be inferred here, there are motorcycle enthusiasts who think the cruiser thing is vastly overdone. And yes, our man at the Hammer’s introduction is one of those types.
His assignment, which in fact he’d been happy to accept, was to ride the Hammer back to the office, 1500 miles ASAP, headed into the winter’s first storms.
So. The Victory guys are motorcycle nuts. They know what it’s like out there.
Our man was checking the Weather Channel when Victory boss Mark Blackwell-yes, the same Mark Blackwell who was national motocross champion back when-suggested that perhaps the ride would be more fun if the Hammer was optioned up with a Corbin touring seat, some leather saddlebags and mirabilu dictu, a windshield?
Well heck yes, and the job was done.
The seat and bags took some wrenches, while the windshield is a quick-detach, some clamps and toggles, and it snaps on and off in seconds.. .well, maybe a minute.
The equipment worked. The touring seat has a backrest even, and more padding, while the windshield was the perfect height, directing the windblast
over the rider’s head yet low enough to be looked over. (The bags were sealed only by velcro, good for lunch and a rainsuit or gloves, but no place to leave valuables.)
All our man had to do was bungee his gearbag across the passenger seat and saddlebags, and head into the sunset for home.
The improvement was major. The broadshouldered stance and laidback posture were instantly workable, all day, headwinds not withstanding. The cruiser had become a useful, genuine motorcycle, all for pennies per day. Great stuff.
Better yet, anyone remember the late 1960 TV series in which the hero was really a good role model?
Early in the trip, the Hammer was being carefully topped off when a white-haired man walked from his car, admired the bike and asked, “What’s it like exploring the country on a motorcycle?” Question like that, you don’t get every day.
“It’s an adventure,” our man ^ said, and before he could 1 reflect that this nice guy had likely missed his chance, “It’s something everyone should do.”
And then, thinking of that old TV series, he added, “Hang in there.”0
EDITORS' NOTES
REACTING AS ONE WHO SURVIVED CHOPpers the first time around and has mocked cruisers since they became a fad. and judging on the basis that the fewer cruiser features, the better the bike. I have to admit this is a good motorcycle... provided it's equipped with the options that make it a daylong ride. It's plenty fast, the public is blown away and the features like that humongous rear tire don't seem
to hamper operation, at least not much.
What impressed me most, though, was the crew at Victory, who know the hows and why of motorcycling and who’ve
won the backing of parent Polaris. Victory execs know they must build what consumers will buy, so what I look forward to most is the day Victory has permission to offer some models for those of us who don’t watch cable television.
-Allan Girdler, Contributing Editor
I’VE NEVER BEEN MUCH FOR CHROME, BUT
what Victory has done with the Hammer. More motor, a six-speed box,
stout inverted fork, pie-plate Brcmbos,
the list goes on.
Shame about the fat rear meat, though. It looks good, particularly from down on the deck. But despite Dunlop’s
best efforts, all that rubber does affect
steering. Okay, response to hand'ebar
inputs isn’t as sluggish as on some of the long-nose choppers I’ve ridden, and as Mr. Girdler makes clear in his road test, it’s what’s selling. That doesn’t make it right. All the extra attention takes some of the fun out of the biking experience, unless your idea of two-wheeling is sitting on the sidelines at the local watering hole.
Personally, I’d rather ride. Which is why my Victory will be a Vegas 8-Ball bored out to 100 cubes and fitted with accessory mufflers. Who knows, I might even go for a little chrome... ? , -MatthewMiles, Managing Editor
COUPLE OF THINGS: DATA-PANEL DEVO tees will note that maybe this Hammer ain't all that and a bag of chips when. it comes to dyno doings. At 76 rear-wheel horsepower, it's only 4 ponies up on the 92-inch 8-Ball we tested in the ber issue. More surprisingly, is about the same. Blame it on our test unit's pre-production status. We'd bet on a few more hn and 90-nius
ft.-lbs. from showroom Hammers. Either way, it’s at the top of the big-inch V-Twin hill, and spanks the 8-Ball by a halfsecond at the strip, which is more like it. Just don’t go kicking sand at V-Rods or V-Maxxes.
About that big black donut out back? Speaking as a roadtester, I have to say I’d rather see a 200 fitted, maybe a 180. As AG states, no big deal at speed, but wheeling around town and threading through traffic, you’re aware of the disparity between contact patches. And the front-to-rear imbalanee isn’t going to get any better as the tire wears. But as a one-time 18-year-old who just had to spoon the widest rubber I could find onto my CB350’s back wheel, I pronounce it cool as hell. '% -David Edwards, Editor-in-Chief
VICTORY
HAMMER
$16,499
SPECIFICATIONS
