Dang. I liked Victory. Hopefully Indian sticks around for a while.
http://www.revzilla.com/common-trea...huts-down-the-victory-brand-post-010917-|tpfn
http://www.revzilla.com/common-trea...huts-down-the-victory-brand-post-010917-|tpfn
Polaris Shutting Down Victory Brand
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caseyjones955
Well-Known Member
Ive met an aweful lot of Victory fans but compared to Indian they are awkward looking. I hope its nothing more than GM killing Pontiac. Indian are some pretty nice machines.
I kind of figured this would happen after they started pushing Indian so much. I really don't think the Indian is going anywhere. I figure they are just shutting down Victory to focus more on Indian & maybe add something else to the Indian line. I do like a lot of the Victory's
I really liked their cruisers -- especially the Gunner. I wonder if they'll expand some styling options under the Indian line in order to keep some of that Victory styling. Some folks just aren't into the Indian styling.
Focus on the brand that has history and interest in it. Victory made a good product from what I saw, I never owned one, but you didn't see them talked-about on the internet as being poorly-designed, or breaking constantly. Victory got them rolling and now hopefully Indian will be a viable alternative to H-D. I like that Indian is promoting flat tracking, and their Bonneville effort. In marketing that creates a 'halo effect' which reflects favorably on their consumer offerings. They get publicity for the racing efforts, and that can help to draw customers into the showrooms. The slogan "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" reflects that line of thinking, and was a strong incentive for the push for racing that Ed Cole, head of GM in the 1950's, himself an engineer, championed. Ed Cole's interest in racing is what promoted GM's 'boy-wonder,' John Z Delorean, to come up with the idea to drop a tuned big V8 into a mid-size GM body, and create the 'muscle-car' whose position in the market also begat a smaller version, the 'pony-car.' We embraced them like free beer on St Patrick's Day.
I still recall Mickey Thompson's Challenger I four-Pontiac (supercharged) streamliner, we had a 389 c.i. Pontiac station wagon a year old when Mickey unveiled that monster. Supposedly his son is refurbishing it and running it again. Indian is going to bring more models to the market, that's for sure. Not everything is gonna be deep-valanced fenders and 1940's emulating style.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv9c5M22fDQ
http://www.cycleworld.com/2016/02/2...approved-for-ama-twins-pro-flat-track-racing/
I still recall Mickey Thompson's Challenger I four-Pontiac (supercharged) streamliner, we had a 389 c.i. Pontiac station wagon a year old when Mickey unveiled that monster. Supposedly his son is refurbishing it and running it again. Indian is going to bring more models to the market, that's for sure. Not everything is gonna be deep-valanced fenders and 1940's emulating style.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv9c5M22fDQ
http://www.cycleworld.com/2016/02/2...approved-for-ama-twins-pro-flat-track-racing/
Bill Seward
Well-Known Member
If Polaris is serious about really ramping up the Indian brand, I think it would be great if they came out with a new version of the Indian 4. 1800cc, cylinders running longitudally like the original, DOHC liquid cooling.. They'd sell tons of them!
BMW's K bikes of 1984 vintage were longitudinal, just a 'lay-down' horizontal design, much like the Porsche endurance racers, flat-twelves. Fewer cylinders, not horizontally-opposed, but inline. It took a long time to get people really liking them. I bought a BMW boxer after the K bikes had been out for awhile. Many people said the most-refined of the K-bikes from BMW were the 750 cc longitudinal triples.
An article on the Wiking/Dakota Four:
Alan Forbes isn’t a big player on this side of the Atlantic, but across the way in the U.K. and Europe, he’s a major face in the old bike world, especially the old Indian world.
A British-born transplant to Scotland, Forbes’ love of the brand was sparked while growing up in England next to an American Air Force base, where he was treated to a steady diet of fried chicken, rock and roll and Indian motorcycles. The rock and roll influence was as strong as the motorcycle influence, as Forbes studied music at Edinburgh College of Art before morphing into Eugene Reynolds, lead singer with late-1970s punk-rock band the Rezillos (later the Revillos).
His love of Indians made his music career possible, as he parlayed his enthusiasm for Indians into cash, providing parts and service to other U.K. Indian owners to support his college studies. And while the music industry was apparently good to him, Forbes’ passion for Indian motorcycles never left him. If anything, it just kept growing.
In 1992 he founded Motolux in Edinburgh, a specialty shop selling, servicing and restoring Indians. Around the same time, he acquired the U.K. rights to the Indian name, and a few years later came across Wiking, a Swedish company that had designed a Volvo-based, air-cooled inline four inspired by the Indian fours of the 1930s and 1940s. Forbes acquired rights to the Wiking design, and in 1999 announced the Indian Dakota 4.
The Dakota 4 was a minor sensation when announced, and it looked like Forbes had a winner on his hands. He planned an initial batch of 200 of the shaft-driven, 1,845cc Dakota 4s, with most targeted to U.S. buyers. A few prototypes were built and tested, and reaction to the 720-pound machines was generally favorable. Priced around $30,000 U.S. (where they would be marketed solely under the Dakota brand; Forbes didn’t have rights to the Indian name in the U.S.), they were considered a bargain for what was essentially a hand-built machine.
A U.S. sales office was established in 2001, Dakota Motorcycles USA, but unresolved production issues and other factors stopped the project before it really got off the ground. There’s been precious little press on the Dakota 4 in the last few years, although we understand that Forbes is still pressing forward, with hopes to produce the bike in the near future.
There was a longitudinal inline-four from I think Sweden that used a Volvo 240-series bottom end and I think a proprietary top-end. That's close to what Bill was thinking of. Here's one example: http://virtualindian.org/dakota4.htm
http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/c...ever-die-rally-scotland?pageid=3#PageContent3
An article on the Wiking/Dakota Four:
Alan Forbes isn’t a big player on this side of the Atlantic, but across the way in the U.K. and Europe, he’s a major face in the old bike world, especially the old Indian world.
A British-born transplant to Scotland, Forbes’ love of the brand was sparked while growing up in England next to an American Air Force base, where he was treated to a steady diet of fried chicken, rock and roll and Indian motorcycles. The rock and roll influence was as strong as the motorcycle influence, as Forbes studied music at Edinburgh College of Art before morphing into Eugene Reynolds, lead singer with late-1970s punk-rock band the Rezillos (later the Revillos).
His love of Indians made his music career possible, as he parlayed his enthusiasm for Indians into cash, providing parts and service to other U.K. Indian owners to support his college studies. And while the music industry was apparently good to him, Forbes’ passion for Indian motorcycles never left him. If anything, it just kept growing.
In 1992 he founded Motolux in Edinburgh, a specialty shop selling, servicing and restoring Indians. Around the same time, he acquired the U.K. rights to the Indian name, and a few years later came across Wiking, a Swedish company that had designed a Volvo-based, air-cooled inline four inspired by the Indian fours of the 1930s and 1940s. Forbes acquired rights to the Wiking design, and in 1999 announced the Indian Dakota 4.
The Dakota 4 was a minor sensation when announced, and it looked like Forbes had a winner on his hands. He planned an initial batch of 200 of the shaft-driven, 1,845cc Dakota 4s, with most targeted to U.S. buyers. A few prototypes were built and tested, and reaction to the 720-pound machines was generally favorable. Priced around $30,000 U.S. (where they would be marketed solely under the Dakota brand; Forbes didn’t have rights to the Indian name in the U.S.), they were considered a bargain for what was essentially a hand-built machine.
A U.S. sales office was established in 2001, Dakota Motorcycles USA, but unresolved production issues and other factors stopped the project before it really got off the ground. There’s been precious little press on the Dakota 4 in the last few years, although we understand that Forbes is still pressing forward, with hopes to produce the bike in the near future.
There was a longitudinal inline-four from I think Sweden that used a Volvo 240-series bottom end and I think a proprietary top-end. That's close to what Bill was thinking of. Here's one example: http://virtualindian.org/dakota4.htm
http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/c...ever-die-rally-scotland?pageid=3#PageContent3
Bill Seward
Well-Known Member
That would do just fine!
OKCVmax
Well-Known Member
Thats just great... Let's shut down one of the only American made bike brands that doesn't sell over priced turds, to invest in selling more over priced turds... If I had to pick the world's ugliest motorcycle, it would probably be from Indian. Bunch of slow mid life crisis bikes.
They should do it the other way around, shut Indian down amd invest in victory. I'd like that.
They should do it the other way around, shut Indian down amd invest in victory. I'd like that.
caseyjones955
Well-Known Member
They are both great bikes, its as if they figured either the retro flare of the Indian or the odd lines of the Victory would be a one or the other affair. Something for everything. Ill bet without any doubt that Indian introduces lines not so steeped in the retro. They already have their size 13 on HDs windpipe and this is going to be them putting some weight down rather than digressing IMHO. Any of the Polaris bikes are well ahead of HD. HD has traditionally been very slow to evolve with the times while Polaris is all over that shit as evidenced by this move. Im not a vtwin buyer but I remain excited to see the success of this company and i maintain my prediction of HD leaving mass production wirhin a decade or two as a direct result of Polaris offering superior American cruisers, often at very competitive prices. Actually I now think existing Victories will gain value as they have quite a following.
OKCVmax
Well-Known Member
I hope they gain in value... My dad just bought one last year. Haha
Barry barker
Well-Known Member
For me the sting is real since I own a 2012 Cross Roads. But in reality I love the bike, best bike I have ever owned. It's a sport bike with touring comfort. Since I keep everything forever, no issues for me currently. In a couple of years i will stock a few seals that are proprietary to the model, other than that everything I need should still be available. The Hot Rod shops like The Vic Shop, Southern Motor works should still be around repairing, enhancing, and maintaining existing bikes. It's been a used bike for 3 years now it's worth way more to me than it's retail value to sell.
So now I own two bikes that are no longer made.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-oCP72ZMfW6k/VdPERXUFt3I/AAAAAAAAAOA/3m1WwyIfZoA/w530-h396-p-rw/Victory%2BCR.JPG
So now I own two bikes that are no longer made.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-oCP72ZMfW6k/VdPERXUFt3I/AAAAAAAAAOA/3m1WwyIfZoA/w530-h396-p-rw/Victory%2BCR.JPG
