Exclusive First Ride Octane
EXCLUSIVE FIRST RIDE OCTANE
VICTORY OCTANE
VICTORY'S NEW 1,200cc CRUISER GETS INDIAN SCOUT BONES AND A SPORTING TWIST
Steve Anderson
For those of you who haven’t noticed, Polaris, the parent company of Victory and Indian motor-cycles, has been on fire. Having pushed past tough competitors such as Honda and Yamaha, it dominates the North American market for off-road four-wheelers (from ATVs to UTVs and side-by-sides), contends for the top of the snowmobile market with Bombardier, and has seen its earnings and stock rise in reward.
However, its road in the motorcycle market has been a bit more arduous. After introducing its first motorcycle— the oil-cooled V92C—back in 1998, Polaris saw its Victory motorcycle business launch, stagger, and walk in circles for much of the next decade, as the company
addressed both built-in technical issues (the V92’s oil-cooled engine didn’t really cool well at the power levels desired, so it had to be redesigned to shed heat better) and learned how to play in its new sandbox. As the 20-oughts gave way to the 20-teens, Polaris’ board of directors gave the motorcycle division an ultimatum: Get profitable or get out. The result was a renewed focus on Victory, the acquisition of the Indian brand, increasing investment in new engines and new products, and rapidly rising sales.
One of those new products you see pictured here is the Victory Octane, a motorcycle that Brandon Kraemer, Victory product manager, likens to a classic American muscle car: light, fast, and affordable. It’s also a machine whose coming has been telegraphed for most of a year in a series of customs by famous builders: Roland Sands’ Project
156 (as ridden by our own Don Canet at Pikes Peak); Urs Erbacher’s Ignition; and Zach Ness’ Combustion. All were built around the Octane’s new V-twin, and the later ones used much of its chassis. The Octane is very much what a lot of Victory customers and potential customers were asking for: a middleweight Victory cruiser. Its low, 26.9-inch seat height and forward pegs place it firmly in the mainstream of the cruiser class, but its 104 hp, relatively short gearing, and six-speed transmission give it performance that positions it closer to an original 1,130a: Harley V-Rod than a 1200 Sportster.
At its heart, the Octane has a new, 1479CC V-twin that’s very closely related on the inside to the 1433CC powerplant of the Indian Scout. It has a 2mm-larger bore, its own camshafts and tuning, and new cosmetics on its cylinder, cylinderhead, and engine-cover castings. Redline is up at 8,300 rpm, and peak torque is claimed to be 76 pound-feet, 4 more than the Scout. Wrapped around the engine
...THE VICTORY OCTANE, A MOTORCYCLE THAT BRANDON KRAEMER, VICTORY PRODUCT MANAGER, LIKENS TO A CLASSIC AMERICAN MUSCLE CAR: LIGHT, FAST, AND AFFORDABLE.
is a chassis that stretches out to a 61.6inch wheelbase. The front tire is a beefy 130/70-18, while the rear is a relatively sporty 160/70-17. A single disc brake is used at the front. The steering head rakes out at 29 degrees and works with 5.1 inches of trail, standard figures for a cruiser where good handling is more important than an extreme raked-out appearance. The fork allows 5.1 inches of wheel travel, while the twin rear shocks permit only 3.0 inches of rearwheel movement—again, not an unusual number for a cruiser where seat height concerns and “low” style can trump rider comfort on a bad road.
Kraemer freely admits that the Octane is a platform play and utilizes many of the designs and some of the components of the Scout. “They only share about 35 percent of their parts, however,” he offers, “either on a part-number or a part-cost basis. We wanted to leverage the parts that weren’t super customer facing, like the axle shafts. But anything that gives the bike its character is unique.”
The frame structure design is similar to that of the Scout, with large front and rear aluminum castings bolting directly to the engine and two smaller aluminum frame rails tying these together under the fuel tank. The front casting pro-
vides a cage where the radiator resides. The fuel tank carries 3.4 gallons of gas and hides an airbox underneath that displaces only 0.9 gallon less—essential volume to make good power while meeting sound regulations.
Our opportunity for the first ride of a production-validation-build Octane came in early December. The ride left from a secret Polaris garage in an industrial park in Lake Havasu, California, at the Arizona border and, seeking to stay away from phone cameras and curious people, ventured into Arizona while following the old Route 66 two-lane, a place where the Octane felt much at home.
As with the Indian Scout, the Octane’s engine makes the first impression: sweet! It demonstrates what engineers can do when allowed to design and tune an engine not for maximum performance per cubic centimeter (after all, Ducati puts out a similar-displacement V-twin that almost doubles this power rating) but are allowed to just design for torque spread and rideability. The bike charges through first gear, reaching the rev limiter at about 45 mph, and pulls hard through second and third. One hundred mph comes quickly. But even more impressive is how smoothly the bike pulls in the midrange and from low speeds; leaving it in sixth, you could lug it down to 1,250 rpm, open the throttle, and (assisted by ECU-controlled throttleby-wire) pull smoothly back up to highway speed. Similarly, this might be an i,i79cc twin with big pistons, but only the ghost of engine vibration ever reaches the rider. At 65 mph on the freeway, it’s almost glassy smooth. At 75 to 80 mph, that ghost of a buzz touches you lightly, mostly through the pegs and slightly
through the grips, but only enough to let you know you’re being propelled by an engine and not enough to annoy.
The transmission, too, shifts sweetly, with the klunk-thunk sound of the bigger Victory engines—thankfully—banished. While the belt-drive gearing is 8 percent shorter than on a Scout, highway rpm is still below 4,000 rpm and feels relaxed. The clutch requires a moderate 14 pounds of effort (Polaris claims) and engages smoothly. A lighter clutch effort might be the only improvement we could suggest to the driveline, and mostly that’s for the anticipated female Octane riders.
The Octane places you in a classic cruiser riding position, with feet stretched out ahead and forward controls. The pegs are slightly farther aft than on a Scout, so, if you’re 6-foot, you’ll have some bend in your knees. The bars come back a little bit, so straight-armed riding puts a tall rider upright to slightly aftleaning. The small windscreen breaks the blast a bit, but at 75 mph the inclination is to bend the elbows slightly and lean forward. Overall, the Octane feels nar-
row and low and light—Kraemer says the machine weighs 538 pounds in "shipping weight," with little fuel in the tank. It will be interesting to see how it comes out when we get one back to our own scales.
Instrumentation is simple and useful. A single classically shaped round speedometer also includes inset LCD displays that can alternatively show either a numerical rpm reading or multiple trip mileages.
Through the switchbacks up and down the hills of western Arizona, the Octane demonstrated competent handling. The handlebar position gives substantial leverage, allowing you to roll the Octane rapidly into a corner—something
that narrower, lower bars wouldn’t give you with this steering geometry. The Octane has enough power that—with the front wheel raked well out from the rest of the bike—the front end can get light accelerating out of a second-gear corner. The Octane can certainly lean farther than many cruisers, requiring roughly a 32-degree bank before the lower exhaust touches down on the right. That’s probably more lean than most cruiser riders will reach. A few of the heaves and pits on the battered old pavement of Route 66 hammered spinal discs a little too much like shock-absorber bump rubbers, even while smoother pavement presented a
comfortable ride. Could we maybe have at least 3.5 inches or even 4.0 inches of suspension travel?
Of course, according to Kraemer, Victory will help you tailor the Octane to your desires. There will be optional peg kits that bring the pegs backward somewhat and the bars a little lower or a little farther back or higher. There will be a rear passenger pad and pegs, soft bags, and performance parts. Victory certainly sees the Octane as the start of a new platform that will allow a range of machines to emerge—some through customization and others down the road from Victory itself. But what Kraemer seemed most proud of is this: The Octane will sell in the US for $10,500. “The thing about American muscle and pony cars was that they were affordable—that’s what we wanted with the Octane.”
Price © $10,499 Engine © liquid-cooled, 4-stroke V-twin Displacement © 1179cc Bore x stroke © 101.0 x 73.6mm Induction © 60mm throttle body Transmission © 6-speed Front © 41mm telescopic fork suspension Rear © dual shocks suspension Brakes © single disc front/rear Fronttire © Kenda Cruiser 130/70-18 Reartire © Kenda Cruiser 160/70-17 Seat height © 26.9 in. Wheelbase © 61.6 in. Rake/trail © 2975.1 in. Fuel capacity © 3.4 gal. Claimed © 548 lb. wet weight (no fuel)
