American Performance

AMERICAN PERFORMANCE

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EDITOR'S LETTER

WILL VICTORY BE THEIRS?

America was founded on big, shiny ideas that were brought to life with massive amounts of torque used over vast expanses of territory. Our three “America Beef” contenders are fine examples of this. There are other kinds of touring bikes that can cover miles with a similar level of comfort, and many can do it faster, but none accomplish it with the same quality of movement and the relaxing cadence that US bike buyers continue to choose in huge numbers.

The only bike that comes close is the Honda Gold Wing. And, in fact, the only reason the Gold Wing exists is because Americans are so...American.

No other culture in the world wants to tour the way we do, and few have the vast expanses that make these machines so right. The Wing successfully melded most of our ideals (excepting the animal-beat cadence of a twin) with that awesomely relentless Japanese drive for refinement of ideas and machinery and became its own new segment.

Of the three American cruiser brands, Victory has the most interesting position in the market. Harley, with its hugeness, and Indian, with its newness-foundedon-oldness, are both so traditional that we have a clear idea of where they’re headed.

It’s different with Victory. When news broke that Indian had been bought by Polaris a few years ago, a chorus of pundits sang a many-part harmony that the end was near for Victory, which was now the other, other cruiser brand.

At the time, VP of Motorcycles Steve Menneto told me in no uncertain terms that Victory would continue to compete in the market on its own merits.

So while Indian grabbed a lot of press last year, Victory was holding its breath a bit. But it’s starting to breathe again.

In January, the company announced the formation of a factory-backed NHRA Pro Stock dragrace team to be run by rider Matt Smith and wife/co-rider

Angie. Smith has won two motorcycle championships in NHRA, beating defending and three-time champ Andrew Hines in 2007, taking his second series win in 2013. This past season he remained highly competitive on his Buell-labeled effort and says that was a big part of why Victory went with him.

The bike will wear the Gunner name and, like the Harley-Davidson V-Rod campaigned in the series, have zero stock parts. Victory engineering, the company says, is working with muchexperienced S&S Cycle on the race-legal and successful i6oci, 60-degree V-twin and will hit the strip in anger for the first race in March.

“We sent them a rolling chassis, and they’re putting a body on it,” Smith says. “The bodywork is all together, and I saw it on the bike last Friday. We’re getting the shell done to go to the wind tunnel so we can make our first test in late February.”

This is a significant financial commitment but also a spiritual one. Victory’s goal is to become a “performance” brand, and this is a clear step in that direction. What makes this even more interesting is that right about the time of this announcement, I was chatting with a Victory PR rep who dropped hints about a new performancebased prototype engine being developed.

What form this prototype will take gets the imagination running. V-Rod? Diavel? Sport standard or street-tracker? My mind wanders back to the Victory Core concept bike of 2009, which would inspire an exceptionally cool performance cruiser that borrows very little from traditional cruiserdom. True, it had an air-/oil-cooled twin, but if you’re going in a new performance direction, the bike can be anything they want it to be.

We’ll be there when they drop the clutch.

MARK HOYER

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

THIS MONTH'S STATS

330

PROJECTED HORSEPOWER OF THE VICTORY GUNNER NHRA DRAGBIKE

1

LICENSE PLATES LOST DURING OFF-ROAD TESTING

POUNDS OF USDA PRIME BEEF CONSUMED DURING THREE DAYS OF TESTING