| Author | Message | ||
     Psychobueller |
Check out www.victory-usa.com It has a teaser with what looks like a sport bike. Could it be that Buell will have some company in the American sportbike market. August 5 is the unveiling. I'm definitely interested. | ||
| Anonymous |
Just what we all need...Another overpriced, overweight & underhorsepowered American sportbike  | ||
| Lake_Bueller |
Psycho: I went to the site and didn't see anything but a custom "drag" bike. Is that the new American sportbike you mentioned? | ||
| Racerx |
What we need another Anonymous punk | ||
| Turnagain |
Lake_Bueller, didn't see the Shockwave pop-up window? Here's two screen scrapes:  | ||
| José_Quiñones |
Polaris MSX...... Hmm.. The TULARIS is a Race bike with a POLARIS engine in it. maybe these two are related? Maybe Polaris will beat HD/Buell to the punch with this thing. Competition, gotta love it! | ||
| José_Quiñones |
 Two-wheeled Rocket Science | ||
| Lake_Bueller |
Turnagain, I have a pop-up stopper program running on my PC. Thanks for the pics Jose, Hot damn!!!! That things is smokin'  | ||
| Spike |
Did anybody notice the other picture in the teaser?  It looks like the front of a seat where it meets the gastank and it looks a bit cruiser-ish. Clearly the headlight/fairing is sportbike oriented. Sounds like a pretty wicked ride. Mike L. '99 Cyclone | ||
| Madduck |
If they could get on of their high ouptut snowmobile engines street legal you would have one hell of a street bike. Light weight and high hp with plenty of tuners that know how to wring more ponies out of em. Paul  | ||
| Court |
Anonymous: Before you rap too hard at the Victory people....take a very close look at this company. Known for innovation and advanced engineering, they have earned themselves a spot as a Wall Street Sweetie by steadfastly maintaining control of costs during the leanest of times. Earning history not unlike the Mothership. . . these guys decide to play, the rules change. Court | ||
| Elvis |
Here's an interesting link. Could offer some clues. Polaris Vision | ||
| Turnagain |
was in Arlen Ness's shop back in '99 and noticed a Victory in the back. Wonder if that bike turned into this:   | ||
| X1glider |
I remember reading about the Vision concept bike appearing at a show about a year ago touting all kinds of high tech gadgetry, gps, navigation maps, heads up displays (probably even included a Wall Street ticker display). And yes, Arlen Ness did have a hand in it's design then. Victory and Ness have made a partnership, which was confirmed in American Iron mag when they did a feature (earlier this year) on a Ness designed Victory body bike with a 98" engine I believe. I'm more inclined to believe the bike in question is this and not a sportbike, especially because of the stretched tank and seat joint so typical of custom cruisers. The gas cap would make some think otherwise but I see flush mounts on a lot of cruisers these days. Their V92 engine seems just as bulky as an HD big twin. Not conducive to a sportbike. Victory has talented designers and make a very good quality product with good power for less money than an HD sells for. It's a shame they typically lose money and Polaris keeps them afloat. Sounds like the HD/Buell relationship except that Polaris seems to be more enthusiastic about the Victory line than HD does about the Buell line. I'm guessing that even tho Victory isn't raking in the bucks, every bike on the road is a form of advertisement and one less of someone elses bike on the road, and that's a good thing. They do need to work on their marketing strategy. HD probably has the best marketing model on the planet. They don't just sell a product, they sell a lifestyle. I'd be excited about a Victory sportbike tho, I think they could do it well. If they really want to pick up some sales, they are best equipped to build an automatic. I've ridden their Scrambler 500 4x4 ATV with variable trans and it's pretty damn cool. If they built a Blast equivalent with that variable trans, they'd steal away quite a few people and bring in some new motorcyclists that are phobic of manual shifting. | ||
| Gomo |
Perhaps it will be a combo of their Concept Visions Cruiser, shown in a couple bike rags late last year/ early this year, and sport bike. They did try to do aSport Cruiser(V92sc), but lack of sales stopped production. It was mostly their V92c with a different muffler, seat, and bars (I believe). Maybe they got it right this time with the help of the Ness Family. | ||
| José_Quiñones |
Here's some more fuel for the fire  Looks like it's a cruiser, probably something like the Arlen Ness concept above. Hopefully a Street legal Tularis type bike won't be too far behind.... | ||
| Madduck |
Polaris has taken on most of the major players in every other market they've entered and beaten them soundly for lots of very good business reasons. I do not believe they can out harley H-D but I think they can out Harley their japanese competition. They enter a market with the intention of being in the market for the long haul and they do not compete unless they believe they can win. I would hate to be in a market segment they choose to enter | ||
| Court |
Victory is smart enough not to get drug onto Harley's playing field. Remember what they did when the Japanese cut off their supply of snowmobile engines? These guys and gals, from a corporate and engineering perspecitve, are to be taken as serious players. It sounds to me like they have developed a program that got the major squash-o-matic treatment at Buell circa 1997. Wherever gets there first wins.....TOTAL OWNER INVOLVEMENT from watching your bike assembled via webcam to scheduling routine maintenance on-line. I'm not certain the bike will interest me, but the process darn sure will. Court | ||
| Mikej |
In other words, they listen and pay attention. Sure hope it works for them, would be a great program. | ||
| Mid_Ohio_Jeff |
Polaris really has you guys going. That video is actually several products in one video. Check out the stock discussion board on yahoo for Polaris Industries. The MX5 is actually a new watercraft that is already in display in their corporate lobby. Thos headlights are off of a "Predator" which is an all new ATV soon to be released - they have a site dedicated to the Predator. The gas cap and seat however according to the Polaris folk are a motorcycle. Kinda sneaky how they took several products and slapped in one video to generate some talk..... | ||
| Elvis |
Respectfully Jeff, I don't think so. First of all it's MSX not MX5. While I'm sure the headlights are similar to the Predator, the idea of intentionally misleading potential customers in the manner you are suggesting would be (in my opinion) bad PR (Would they really want their customers to say "Oh, is that all" when they pull the cover off?). I suspect based on everything posted that it is a relatively radically styled, low slung cruiser with aggressive fairing. Should be interesting. | ||
| Elvis |
Jeff, My apologies, I went to the board and saw that it is MSX they are talking about. If they are pasting those different vehicles together just to get attention, I'm afraid it may backfire. It will certainly leave a bad taste in my mouth. | ||
| Mid_Ohio_Jeff |
There dealer show is next week in Orlando and they pasted all the vehicles together in one video as they will all be officially introduced at one time at the polaris dealer shindig. Not really trying to midlead people, just trying to get them thinking. If it would have been Victory only, it would not have said Polaris in the add as the Victory folk hate to be called "Polaris". alledgedly or so I am told. here is the predator link... http://www.predator500.com/default.asp I'd say those headlights in the video are directly off of the Predator. Sorry to rain on the parade, but looks liek we will probably get a cruiser and not a sportbike. The watercraft is supposed to be good though, turbo charged!!! | ||
| Elvis |
Jeff, It certainly does look like the fairing is straight off the Predator. You're probably right. Thanks for the info.  I hope if it is a cruiser it is at least an interesting cruiser. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think that Arlen Ness monstrosity is just about the ugliest thing I've ever seen on two wheels. A big bulky thing like that is just about the exact opposite of what I want in a motorcycle. | ||
| José_Quiñones |
Jeff, So the Bike, the ATV and the Watercraft all use the same GRAY paint scheme? I guess that's how Polaris saves money..... Anyway, August 1st will certainly be intersting. | ||
| Mid_Ohio_Jeff |
Don't know about that, but the Polaris guys say the video shows at kleast three products - a bike, a watercraft, and the ATV. Actually, if you go look at the Predator site, it is mostly red. If you watch the video, you are only assuming it is grey at there is no real color shown in the headlight shot other than the black "V". All other colors you see in the headlight shot are the reflector! Go look at the predator site, you'll see. The ATV already has it's own site and the watercraft is sitting in the corporate lobby. The motorcycle is the only thing not to be seen yet. Pretty good marketing idea actually to make that video showing pieces of 3 different products that actually trick the viewer into thinking they are seeing one product. It gets the ATV , watercraft and bike guys all pumped up for a new product and gets people talking.... | ||
| Mid_Ohio_Jeff |
nothing really out of the ordinary. Yamaha has a snowmobile, a watercraft, a dirtbike, an ATV, and a Sportbike all painted teh same color Honda has an ATV, a dirtbike, a sportbike, a lawnmower, you get the idea all painted the same color. Same goes for Kawasaki Green and Suzuki Yellow. I guess Ploaris is trying to get a brand image color like everyone else.... | ||
| Libnosis |
Elvis To some, that monstrosity is eye candy. I like collard greens myself. lib | ||
| José_Quiñones |
 See the rest HERE I like it! | ||
| Blake |
Very Nice! And with a capital "V".  | ||
| Dynarider |
A huge improvement over the old bikes, but its still no sportbike. |
