As we touched upon last month, Victory Motorcycles unveiled its full 2011 lineup to the world press in the beautiful mountains of western Colorado. Our homebase for the three-day test ride was the Gateway Canyons Resort roughly 60 miles from Grand Junction. It was a great opportunity to throw a leg over all of Victory's newest bikes and get to put the machines through their paces on relatively deserted, well-maintained roads through postcard-perfect red-rock canyons and passes.
Although there was noteworthy news regarding the non-touring models we will give a rundown on the roughly 6 touring platforms. The exact number is difficult to state with Victory's new Cross Roads (CR) CORE Custom Program. The Cross Roads is the stripped down Victory touring bike that debuted last year with hard saddlebags and a bare-bones windshield. Now, customers have the option of getting a customized CR by working directly with their dealer on the options they want. The customer has 48 different combinations to tailor their new CR their own way. Options include paint choice, saddlebag style, highway bar configuration, and windshield. On the saddlebag front, in addition to the hard bags that were standard last year (and on the Cross Country (CC)), a rider can now choose the new soft saddlebags. The new Deluxe Soft Saddlebags have a more classic appearance with a formed interior to keep their shape and covered in grained vinyl and leather. For the highway bars, a rider can choose none, the stylized Forged Chrome Highway bar (standard on the CC), or the traditional tubular Chrome Highway Bar. It's up to the rider whether they want a windshield or not and a Mid-Height Windshield with dropdown sideburns to deflect wind from the rider is the standard option in the program; other heights are also available through the dealer. What's great about this program is the rider gets exactly what they want directly from the dealer that suits the style, preferences, and riding style of the new owner. It's more economical too, as you won't have a corner in your garage with takeoff parts you may not want or need.
Power Power Power
Every Victory motorcycle now comes with the 106ci 50-degree V-twin engine that's paired with a brand new, overdrive, Six-speed transmission. The Touring models receive the Stage 1 motor that pumps out 92hp and 109 lb-ft of torque. The motor has brand new engine cases to accept the newly designed transmission that increases oil changes to 5,000 miles; this equates to less maintenance.
As has become typical for Victory, they listened to its customers regarding the transmission. Past owners had mentioned the overdrive tranny had gear whine, particularly in 4th and 6th gears. To address this the engineers came up with an entirely new engine case to accept the new, beefier transmission with helical gearsets, and gear tooth geometry changes to reduce noise. Driveline lash was also reduced for a crisper feeling transmission by redesigning the engagement dogs on the gears. Additionally, the size of the transmission gears was increased as well as the shaft center distance; beefier bearings help keep everything spinning. Primary gear noise was also reduced with additional geometry changes.