Victory demo truck

[fudge12]

So the Victory demo truck came the other weekend so I decided to make a day of it.  Nice hour long ride to get there on the fudge, arrive to find a buddy waiting for me with coffee.  They had their entire 2017 lineup, both in stock and modified versions.  I rode the Octane with some hopups, the Magnum X-1 with some hopups, and the Empulse TT.
Let me start by saying I'm not a cruiser guy.  I had a shadow 600 that was eh and desperately needed more gears, and earlier had a VF750F Magna which is the VFR750 engine in a cruiser frame.  The magna was fun, and had scads of power, but a single front disc, skinny tire, crap suspension, and a teacup gas tank all colluded to make it go away.  Anyway the ride was a 15 minute mix of surface street, a little bit of 55mph, the occasional curve.
Octane:  Crazy low seat height.  I don't know why this is such a big selling point for cruisers.  My Versys had a tall seat to begin with, and I jacked the rear up even higher with an R1 shock.  I have no problem.  Anyway, crazy low seat.  Handlebars have a huge pullback but are fairly comfy.  This one had the upgraded suspension with adjustable clickers which I started at 4 clicks out from hard (out of 12) then turned to full soft as soon as we hit the road.
Brakes:  Strong, two-finger. Nice.
Suspension:  No.  Just no.  Nowhere near enough travel.
Handling:  Scraped the peg regularly, which just shouldn't happen on such a slow ride.  Other than that it handles pretty good.
Ergos:  I hate the feet forward placement.  Otherwise pretty nice.  I'd love to see it as a standard with footpegs in the middle and a slightly higher seat.
Engine:  This is the gold standard for what an engine should be.  120HP, 8K redline.  Huge torque everywhere, very little vibes.  Every time I whacked the throttle it launched forward and planted me against the hump in the seat.  Every single time.  I love the engine.  It should be in everything.
Trans:  smooth, Japanese feeling. Very nice, snick snick.
Overall, not a bad bike for the price.  I don't like it as a cruiser though.  I'd love to see it as a standard or scrambler.  Also it roasted my right thigh every time we stopped.  As a corollary, the FJ is a 1.2l air-transfer thigh heater in any kind of traffic when it's hot.

[fudge12]

Magnum X-1:
Brakes: They existed.
Suspension:  Overwhelmed with the weight.
Handling:  I didn't scrape the floorboards, I aggressively ground them off.  Every turn.  Worse, they only fold up so far so I levered the back tire off the ground once.
Ergos:  I truly hated everything about this bike.  The ape hangers felt ridiculous.  The floorboards were plastic.  The button for the trip computer is on the clutch perch, right where you can't get to it if you're stopped with the clutch pulled in.
Engine:  Supposedly high horsepower, but ugh.  It felt weaker down low than I though it should, and didn't have enough revs on top.  One time I mashed the trans down a gear and whacked the throttle and was immediately bouncing off the rev limiter, which is frowned upon (literally) during a demo ride.  Loud too.  Didn't vibrate much though.
Trans:  Very agricultural.  Huge clunk going into gear from neutral, long heavy pedal for shifting.
Overall, the paint was very nice.  I just don't get this kind of bike, but if it's your thing you do you man.  It handled badly, was too heavy, the ape hangers are ridiculous, and the engine just wasn't enough to make up for all of that.

[fudge12]

Empulse TT:  Ok, so the service manager was telling me that with the $5000 rebate from Victory, and the $2000 from the government, plus the $750 off special for test riding them, this was 'only' a $13K bike.  It is not a $13K bike.  It's awesome, does great things, is the way of the future.  But it is not worth $13K, much less the $20K they want before all the rebates.  That said:
Brakes:  Very strong, one finger.  Also mostly unused, as rolling the throttle all the way forward activates regenerative braking which slows the bike handily, and increases your range to boot.  I do however wish that the regenerative braking was variable.
Suspension:  Very nice.  It's a sporty bike, but not a sport bike.  Rides firm but not jolting.
Handling:  This ride was nowhere near the ability of the bike so I can't really comment other than to say that it handles far and away better than the other two.  I also got stuck behind someone on the Hammer who was afraid of everything so I had to keep falling back to get to any speed at all.
Ergos:  Very nice.  Sporty without feeling like I'm humping a football.  I don't know that it'd be comfy for super long rides, but since it has a hundred mile range that's kind of irrelevant.
Engine:  Ok, it's a motor.  Still, anyone who's driven electric vehicles will feel familiar.  Instant torque.  Smooth, never a hit of power.  The thing has gears, and a rev range where it puts out max torque/max efficiency but honestly you could just drop it into third and drive around all day, including takeoff from stop.
Transmission:  They dropped the ball on this.  Long travel, heavy shifting, mashing gear noises.  I don't think they expect people to use it much.  Very weird to stop and start, and not use the clutch.  I had to physically tell myself each time 'Let go of the clutch"  Huge driveline lash though, as if all the gears were worn out plus worn out chain and cush drive.  That bad.
Overall, it's a very interesting experience.  The ride is nice, the motor is nice, everything about the bike is pretty good.  But the experience is totally different.  Being a single electric bike in the middle of a bunch of hotted up cruisers was bizarre.  At a stoplight, the bike makes no noise and does nothing.  It's like you're straddling a heavy bicycle.   All around, all the other bikes are burbling, barking, making noises and movements.  Light turns green and you can hear every bike clang/mash into first, hear the revs rise and see them start to move.  The empulse though, just sits there flashing 'on' on the dash to let you know it's alive.  Roll on the throttle, and it picks up the driveline lash and accelerates with a slight whirr.  So different.  I truly did like it though.  Just not $13K.  Heck, for that I could get a matching set of an RC390, a Duke 390, and a Grom as a spare.  I'm sure that if I rode the empulse continuously for some number of years the gas savings would break even, but that's not what this bike is about.  It's about the experience and the difference, and establishing technology so it can be improved and the price brought down.  I won't buy one but I hope lots of other people do, so they can make the bike cheap enough that I will buy it.

[fudge12]

Anyway, this is the first time I've ridden a 'new' bike since 1989.  The octane was the first bike in a long time that I actually wanted to ride, and thought I could maybe justify the price of (they're reasonably priced for what you get) but it's not for me.  Quite interesting experience though, and I highly recommend taking advantage of the demo trucks when they come through.
Forgot to mention:  It was pretty amusing, having fudge parked next to that much money worth of new bikes, and having quite a few people come and ooh and aah over the FJ.  One guy tried to convince me that I needed to leave him my keys just in case I died on the demo.  Once again, everyone has a story about this bike.

[fudge12]

Ok, another thing I didn't like about the magnum was weird happy robot face dash.

[fudge12]

Also I would be remiss if I didn't point out that despite the advertisements all saying "Victory Demo Truck" they wouldn't let me drive the truck. Bait and switch, clear as day.

[Pat Conlon]

Thanks Fudgerino!

Good insight, great descriptions, well done

[PaulG]

Ok, another thing I didn't like about the magnum was weird happy robot face dash.

Yeah... kinda creepy.....

[Dads_FJ]

Get yours now before they are gone.

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2017/january/victory-motorcycles-cease-trading/

[FJ1100mjk]

Oops. Old news.

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