Victory Vegas
VICTORY Vegas
CYCLE WORLD TEST
you KNOW IN THE FIRST SERIOUS CORNER-THE COMpany that created the Vegas is not the same one that designed the 1998 V92C.
That first Victory’s claim to fame was to have more performance than competing cruisers, both in the engine department and particularly in handling. It may have initially underdelivered on the power, but it offered a solid feel and cornering clearance significantly greater than the cruiser norm. In contrast, the 2003 Vegas drags first its footpegs and then the peg brackets far earlier, throwing sparks where the V92C still had clearance to burn. Why, you may ask? Because Victory is a revised, reformed and re-personnelled division of Polaris, and its latest motorcycle couldn’t be more different than the one introduced just a few short years ago.
The engineers are no longer in charge-and that's a good thing
STEVE ANDERSON
Of course, you probably knew that as soon as you looked at the Vegas. No one ever described the V92C as handsome, but the Vegas is a stunning motorcycle. The low seat rides up into the split-tailed fuel tank, which Victory describes as “stretched and scalloped.” What that means is the tank has similar proportions not to a standard Harley tank, but to the kind of tank that might be fitted to a particularly sweet Harley custom. The entire bike is smooth, and fitted with subtle eye candy wherever you look, from the ridge down the center of the tank to the clean and simple speedometer to the triangular and dimpled “air cleaners” on either side of the VTwin. Even the engine looks better, with finning machined into an interesting profile.
What the Vegas represents is the new Victory division’s true comprehension of the nature of the American custom motorcycle business. The revelation? That American custom sales are-surprise!-style-driven. Yes, it’s important to have a machine that starts and runs and performs to expectation, but it damn well better look good doing it. Harley discovered that back in the Seventies and early Eighties with both its successes and its failures: style-steeped SuperGlides and Softails sold like crazy; functionally improved Sportsters and FXRTs that didn’t have The Look died. Perhaps nothing exemplifies Harley’s incorporation of that lesson better than the recent V-Rod; yes, it was to be the highest performance production Harley ever, yet the Styling Department dictated much of the design, down to the fork rake and details of frame joints-items that on sportbikes would be chosen for strictly functional reasons.
Victory had that same lesson hammered home by the V92C. The original Victory team didn’t appreciate the importance of appearance, hoping instead to distinguish their first cruiser through horsepower and handling. But the engineers designing its engine came with diesel rather than high-power motorcycle engine experience, and gave that first Victory an alleged oil-cooling system that didn’t. Instead, its oil-jacketed cylinders helped hold heat in, and during development, the engine was continually detuned to the point that by the time of production, the first Cycle World testbike didn’t break 60 horsepower. So much for any advantage that 1500cc and four valves per cylinder should have given the V92C over 1340cc Evo Harleys. It didn’t help that the shifting action felt and sounded as if you were hammering rather than easing the gear dogs together, nor that the cruiser world was changing rapidly. Twin Cam Harleys would shortly erase any of the minute power advantages that the V92C had over Evos, and Harleys, through Willie G’s and Louie Netz’s continual refinements, just kept looking better and better. The V92C ended up a homely cruiser without any substantial performance advantage-and Victory Motorcycles failed to meet Polaris sales targets.
Since then, all the natural things have occurred: Management at Victory has changed, with Victory’s early leader Matt Parks being replaced by Mark Blackwell, the former motocross racer ana top American at nusqvama ana su A real styling department has been added, with a chief designer coming out of the automotive world. Custom Bike builders Arlen and Corrie Ness have been hired as consultants, both to advise on the Vegas’ design and to create a line of accessories for Victory. A new chief engineer came out of the debris of the Excelsior-Henderson collapse. And the Vegas was created to be everything that the V92C was not.
It benefits greatly from its “Freedom” engine, introduced a year ago to resolve the power deficit of the V92C. Gone are the cylinders with oil jackets and much of the oil-cooling design of the original Victory engine; instead, air does most of the work, as can be seen by the much diminished oilcooler, shrunk from radiator size on the V92C to more traditional form on the Vegas. With cooling issues under better control, power has climbed to the level originally expected of the 1507cc engine: 70 horsepower delivered to the rear wheel with an exceptionally broad and smooth power curve, and that despite less voluminous mufflers on the Vegas than on the 92C.
On the highway, you can readily discern both the smooth power and the increased refinement of the Freedom engine. Away from a light, the Vegas pulls hard off the line and quickly reaches its first perceived shift point (when power starts to fall off; there is no tach) at about 45 mph. The heavily revised transmission slides from first to second with the smooth precision and mechanical feel of a rifle bolt snapping home, a world of difference from the first Victories. You can tap through the gears quickly, find fifth, and just torque along with power to spare. Roll-ons are strong, with 40 to 60 mph covered in 4.5 seconds, 60 to 80 in 4.7. Vibration is not quite a non-issue-this solidly mounted and counterbalanced V-Twin runs slightly rougher than rubbermounted Harleys, but far, far smoother than a Sportster or a pre-Twin-Cam Softail. It's not until speeds y illegal (90 mph-plus) that buzziness-felt mostly through the gas tank-begins to intrude.
The Vegas’ riding position is classic American cruiser. The pegs are well forward, allowing your legs to stretch with only a slight bend, and the seat is notably low. If you’re looking for a Harley equivalent, the closest thing would be a Softail.
The gas tank is just the slightest bit wide between your knees, but no air filter housing intrudes to force your legs out wider still. The bars place the handgrips a straight-armed reach away, reclining you slightly from a full-upright position. The seat doesn’t wrap up enough to give back support, as do those of some other cruisers, but it’s a comfortable enough place to sit through a tank of gas, as long as you’re not trying to set speed records. Push the needle much past 80 and the upright position and the lack of wind shielding will have you identifying a little too much with a spinnaker.
But even if you test your arm strength, holding on until you reach the Vegas’s 114-mph top speed, you’ll still appreciate the brakes. Calipers on both ends are by Brembo, with a single disc for the front. Stopping is a non-issue, with good control feel and powerful response (by cruiser standards) from both levers. The rear brake, in a case of intelligent development, has less leverage than that of a typical Harley, and requires a little more effort for a given stopping rate.
That may make a completely non-discerning owner question its power, but the benefit is that it’s far less likely to lock in a panic situation.
Retaining a little bit of the V92C handling emphasis, the Vegas is fitted with a slightly firm suspension, one that soaks up bumps smoothly, but doesn’t make them disappear. Cornering is limited only by ground clearance, as the steering feel is stable and reassuring. The wide bars provide more than enough leverage to toss the 640-pound Vegas into corners, but really, that isn’t what this motorcycle is about.
No, what the Vegas is, is a classic American cruiser, a road-burner with plenty of lazy power to pull from low speed to high in top gear, and the riding position to match. It’s a machine designed with passion from people who understand that the most important things about a cruiser are not objective measures of performance, but its look and feel, and how it makes you feel riding it. These are all horribly subjective categories, and the reason why foreign motorcycle companies with engineers and designers who aren’t immersed in American custom culture have had such a hard time building outstanding cruisers, and one of the reasons that Harley still leads the category. But Victory has gotten cruiser religion, and judging by the Vegas, Harley now has a worthy domestic competitor. □
VICTORY VEGAS
$14,999
