Victory Ride 2013

Victory Motorcycles

Once again the Victory Motorcycles demo truck rolled into Denver and once again I headed down to Grand Prix Motorsports to have my turn at the reigns of one of these machines. I really wish I'd arrived sooner and had a chance to give a couple of these machines a turn, but a friend came with me and that particular friend wasn't exactly moving at the speed of normal.

We finally arrived somewhere around 2PM and grabbed a complimentary philly cheesesteak from A Taste of Philly (mmm... complimentary yumminess) before walking over to the Victory tent and signing up for their demo rides. Luckily, unlike last year, there wasn't much of a wait and I was able to get in the next round of rides.

I signed all the blah-blah-blah legal mumbo jumbo: No, I won't sue you; No I won't race; No I won't change lanes or pass or pull off on my own ride, etc.

Shortly after I signed all their paperwork the bikes came in from whatever ride they were currently on and parked nearby. Choosing a bike was simple: stake your claim by putting your helmet on the bike. Fair enough. Since I wasn't exactly being picky, I put my helmet on the first bike I saw without a helmet:

 

Price Tag

It was called the Crossroads 8-Ball. Solid black: frame, engine case, pipes and accessories. I actually wanted the bike in front of this one: a Cross Country in titanium grey, but I could have sworn someone had already staked their claim on that particular bike. As I found out after we mounted up and rolled out, I was wrong.

For the most part, the bike was comfortable. I liked the placement of the handlebars and the seat seemed like something I could sit in for hours without my sweet ass going numb. The only drawback was how far the shifting peg and the rear brake were from where my feet naturally wanted to set. Coming from a sportbike, my feet want to sit below my center-weight, but on this thing, it felt more like sitting in an office chair and my feet wanted to sit out in front of me, but not so far in front as to reach their controls placement. Each time I had to shift or reach for the rear brake I really had to stretch out there and toe those levers. It was quite annoying, to be honest and not nearly intuitive.

106

Before rolling out we received a safety briefing: use your signals, don't pass the lead or fall behind the sweep, that sort of thing. However, some of their rules were a bit more arcane: always ride staggered (okay, I ride staggered all the time) and no passing even if the bike in front of you is going incredibly slow (which it was). The engine ran fine, smooth and without a lot of vibration found in a lot of v-twin motorcycles, even on those rare occasions when I had a chance to jump on the gas - which didn't happen often. Shifting was another story. Every time I had a chance to shift up or down the engine seemed to make a very loud thunk. O would have thought it was just my machine, but the bikes all around me made the same jarring noise when put into gear or shifted from it's current gear.

It seems the Fates weren't kind to me on that Saturday afternoon. The guy in front of me seemed incapable of taking the bike more than 50 MPH, even when the lead bike opened it up on the highway. Each time I had a chance to put that low end torque to work, I found myself nearly climbing into the tailpipe of the bike right ahead. Not only that, but the rider wouldn't ride staggered, instead taking up the center of the lane. I could understand taking a wide turn or not feeling comfortable in a sweeper or something, but he just stayed right there in the middle. Many times I thought about passing him and breaking the "rules" but being a good little boy, I didn't.

The route we took was only about 9 miles which meant I didn't get to spend a long time giving it a thorough review. If I lived in a state with less curvy road than Colorado, would I consider a cruising motorcycle? Absolutely. Would I consider a Victory? Eh... maybe, if the price was right. Maybe not, though. The loud gear changing worried me as did the yoga positions I had to maintain in order to shift those gears or use the rear brake.

Maybe you'll have better luck.

It's been a While

I know, it's been a while, right? The summer came (and went) and I didn't post a damn thing on this blog. For that, I'm sorry. It was never my intention to ignore this blog these past six months, but I have and there's no one to blame but myself. The truth of the matter is, I didn't ride this summer. As not a single one of you already knows my bike (the unstoppable SV1000s) has had some electrical issues.

• First I thought it might be the battery, but after a quick check the battery was fine.
• Then, after being checked by the guys at TFOG, I was told the regulator/rectifier wasn't doing it's job and therefore the batter wasn't getting the charge it deserved. So, I bought a new one and installed it, charged the batter up and took off for a ride. I made it nearly a couple of hours before the bike started having trouble starting again, the lights dimmed and the turn signals stopped working at all. I headed home quickly.
• After that I had no choice but to think it's the stator. Although I don't seem to have the "grinding noise" that seems to be prevalent in the SV's stator when they go out, I have no other options about what the problem is on this bike.

However a stator costs money, much more money than a R/R and that kind of money is something I don't have on hand at the moment. Ironically, had the bike been running then the money I saved on not putting gas in my truck all summer long might have bought a new stator.