Quick Ride
Quick Ride
VICTORY KINGPIN TOUR
A better bagger
EVER HEARD THE OLD adage, "There's no replacement for dis placement"? It's an expression that may be familiar to many riders of large V-Twinpowered cruisers. It's also an ideal catch phrase in describing the treatment Victory has given its Kingpin Tour for 2007.
If you thought we were referring to an increase in bore or stroke, hold your horses, as the same fuelinjected 1634cc Freedom 100/6 V-Twin still resides in the Kingpin’s double-cradle tubular-steel frame. Rather, the big news this year comes in the form of a major increase in storage capacity, effectively boosting the Kingpin’s touring potential.
To be more specific, a new 13-gallon locking tail trunk now complements the preexisting pair of 4.5-gallon
saddlebags (previously fitted to the ’06 Kingpin Deluxe), offering enough space to hold both a full-face lid and halfhelmet. Constructed of durable vacuum-molded plastic with leather-like covering to match the saddlebags, the sturdy rack-mounted trunk also incorporates a passenger backrest. Along with the
bags, Victory’s touring treatment includes windshield and lower air deflectors, fender trim, touring passenger seat and passenger floorboards. Additional updates for ’07 consist of a new custom-inspired headlight and a cast-aluminum swingarm. Base MSRP is $17,999.
Attending Victory’s 2007 product launch held near Palm Springs offered me an opportunity to put a couple
hundred miles in the Kingpin Tour’s comfortably dished saddle. The bike I rode had a Pure Victory Stage 1 engine hop-up consisting of freer-flowing slipon mufflers, perforated airbox lid and revised fuel map. Victory says some 80 percent of its buyers perform this mod that’s
claimed to offer a 10 percent power gain. Having recently tested a stock 2007 Harley-Davidson Softail with its 96-cubic-inch mill,
I was impressed with this Kingpin’s punch, particularly when pulling out to pass while remaining in the overdrive sixth gear. But I also found its poppy exhaust note a bit annoying after an hour on the road.
I had no complaints with the bike’s straight-line stability or the degree of comfort and bump absorption felt through its fairly taut (for a touring-class mount) suspension. The fork never bottomed under braking, and cornering stability encouraged floorboard-bashing bank angles. Chassis weave only developed when the ’Pin was pushed hard while cornering fast on the climb from the desert floor into the neighboring San Jacinto mountains.
While the Kingpin Tour exudes plenty of that rumbling big-Twin character, it does so without producing an obtrusive level of vibration. If this long-distance mount has a shortcoming,
I’d say it’s the rather spartan instrument cluster. While the absence of a tach is no big deal, having only one trip odometer and not so much as a clock truly pales compared to the sophisticated trip computers found on certain competing models.
Enough said. Touring is about viewing the passing scenery, and the Kingpin Tour’s new bags make an already good open-road bike even better. -Don Canet
