NOT SO long ago Victory Motorcycles added the Vision touring model to its lineup of stripped down street hustlers. Joining the Vision in 2010 is the Cross Country and Cross Roads, giving the manufacturer of the ‘New American Motorcycle’ three distinct touring platforms. Not only does each model perform with grace, they also have plenty of space and are not short on pace.

Engineering

The 106 cubic inch (1731cc) Freedom V-twin air/oil-cooled engine is the heart and soul of each of the touring models. Victory does produce a 100 cubic inch engine which is very similar to the bigger capacity unit but thankfully Victory has decided to endow its tourers with the ‘big banger’. The bigger donk is not about extra power at the top end, it’s about torque, getting the power to the ground. On hand is 92 hp and 109 Flb of torque, plenty of go forward grunt for the real world. Even though the engine layout is what you might call, ‘old school’ it is modern in design, with four valves per cylinder, fuel injection, hydraulic lifters, six-speed overdrive gearbox and a carbon fibre reinforced drive belt. This sort of technology is nothing new really but the good thing here is it’s not a maintenance unfriendly mechanical package. Regular servicing will probably keep it going forever and won’t be wallet busting.

Each of the bikes essentially share the same engine and chassis, while there are some differences in suspension, brakes, detail, instrumentation and of course styling.

The Cross Roads is what you might call the ‘budget’ touring model. From the headstock back it’s the same as the Cross Country. Both bikes share the same 43mm inverted non-adjustable forks and air-adjustable single rear shock. Victory’s designers have kitted this bike out to cope with some pretty average road conditions, with 130mm of travel from the forks and 120mm from the rear shock. Victory says its tourers have the longest travel suspension in their class, and after riding the bikes we have no reason to doubt them.

Giving the Cross tourers some real bite in the brakes department are twin four-piston calipers grabbing 300mm discs up front, and a massive 300mm disc being stopped in its tracks by a twin-piston job at the rear. Mind you, these bikes aren’t exactly on the light side so a good set of stoppers is a must. Interestingly, the Vision has a twin three-piston caliper/300mm disc set up. You might ask why the heaviest bike in the group has smaller calipers, and it would be a fair enough question on face value. It’s all to do with the brake system on the Vision being linked (ABS is optional on the Vision too) while the two Cross tourers use a conventional front/rear set up.

While the Cross Country and Cross Roads make do with 43mm forks, the Vision uses 46mm forks, with the same length of travel. We can only guess it has something to do with the weight of the Vision: at 387kg (ABS equipped is 395kg) it is some 40 kilos heavier than the Cross country, and 49 kilos than the stripped down Cross Roads.

All three machines share the same 130/70R18 – 180/60R16 Dunlop Elite 3 tyre package. Both the Cross tourers have the same wheel design but the Vision has its own special polished rims.

Style and extras

It's amazing how a styling cue can change the overall look and feel of a bike. On the Cross Country a frame mounted half fairing – fitted with a very low screen – houses a comprehensive instrumentation package which has some nice touches like the gear indicator. Victory has been smart here too, no need for different speedos for different markets, the speedo can be altered for miles or kilometres, with a sign at the bottom of the dial illuminating to let you know what's happening. It might only be a little thing but it shows plenty of thought has gone into the design of these bikes. A stereo comes standard on the Country and the Vision, with the speakers set up high on the wings of the fairing. Up to 80km/h you can tootle along listening to music or talkback radio shows but over this the tunes start to get garbled a bit. It's loud enough of course, but any motorcycle stereo system we've ever used tends to be a bit like this, affected by wind blast.

One thing we loved was the style of the dual exhausts. The engine pipes go into one collector and then a crossover piece attaches the two tailpipes. They look like something straight off a mid ’50s Buick and sound good standard, and even better with the Stage 1 factory accessory pipes. Victory has a pretty big accessories book to customise your already custom motorcycle. Everything from different screen heights and shades, to exhausts, bling bits, cruise control and seats and backrests. It's important to realise you can change things so the riding experience is better suited to your height, build and panache, or lack of it. On thing you don't have to up-spec is the panniers; not only are they designed to be totally integrated into the the whole 'look' of the tourers, they come standard. The Vision, in particular, is one of the prettiest tourers ever made in our opinion.

On the highways and byways

With a low centre of gravity the tourers are easy to ride at town speeds. Sure they aren't light but once rolling are very easy to control. At town speed limits you are better off holding one or two gears rather than change up and down too much. Many big twins have clunky gear changes at lower speeds, it's just the nature of the beast so to speak, but out on the open road the gears slide home easier and quieter. The engine is so torquey you can just about take off in fourth gear, so rolling around a street corner in third is child's play for the big Freedom V-twin.

In town was where another of the design points hit a huge six for the Victory team: ground clearance is amazing for such a big bike, we only scraped once through a roundabout and that was when trying to actually find the limits of the floorboards. Out on the open road this was handy too. With the plush long travel suspension and high mounted footboards you can hustle these tourers along at a very quick pace, and one section of twisty 30km/h signposted corners saw our journo group cracking along without scraping the guts out of the boards, in fact neither ours nor the bike in front touched down once – impressive. If you want to have a bit of a play the brakes are up to the task too.

Even though sixth gear is an overdrive it never feels like it's too high. The secret here we think is the nicely spread gear ratios which see only around a 500rpm drop from fifth to sixth, and the torque spread is wide enough to be just where you want it when in top gear.

For us the riding position on the Cross Country and the Cross Roads was spot on. A nice bend to the ’bars, a very plush seat and long footboards had us just right, we almost felt like Goldilocks. We found the ’bars on the Vision came back further so we felt a little 'cramped' for space. It also goes to show how little touches can alter the 'feel' of a bike. On the Vision we found the screen height to be about right but on the Cross Country it gave too much buffeting for our liking, while the detachable screen on the Cross Roads amplified too much engine and transmission noise, although we could ride with our visor up with this screen fitted. We even liked the Cross Roads with no screen. This is where the accessory stuff comes into play. You can change it up to suit your own body. Thankfully we aren't all the same height, have the same head size and the same length legs. Just speaking to the other journos at the launch showed how opinions varied on everything from look to the feel of a motorcycle, and which particular model they preferred.

Verdict

Our favourite of the three was the Cross Country. We'd put a different height screen on it but other than that it was nicely set up for doing big miles in relative comfort or just heading off into the Sunshine Coast Hinterland for the day like we did. Prices for the Cross tourers start at $27,995 and go up to $36,595 for the Vision Tour, and $39,995 for the Arlen Ness Vision. So, you will pay premium dollars but these are premium products. Victory has been a big name in America for a long time and is solidly marketing its products in Australia. If you check out the Victory headquarters/dealership in Melbourne you'll see the company has invested big time and is here to stay in Australia. The brand is becoming more and more popular here too, and if you ride one you will see why.

Core Technology

WE WERE lucky enough to have Victory head man Mark Blackwell come out from America to give us the good oil on the new bikes. At the technical briefing he also unveiled a bike which had everyone assembled oohing and ahhing. Called the Core, the bike is a low and lithe machine which has the chassis and fuel tank made from one piece. Narrow wheels, big brakes and the big Freedom V-twin in the middle. It's a design project which is about minimisation and the use of 'Core Technology', using as many parts as possible to do more than one job. It's the first time the bike has been seen in the flesh outside of America but we hope, as did everyone in the room that night, it becomes a production reality.
We want one.