Project 156 Video: Is Victory Building A Sport Model?
I wish Polaris would just buy Norton. Then they could really build some interesting bikes that would challenge Triumph/ Ducati/ BMW/ Aprilia.
The following came from sportrider.com:
Victory Motorcycles has announced its intention to compete in this year's Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, with Cycle World's Don Canet riding a prototype machine built by Roland Sands Design and utilizing a new Victory engine. The company released Part 1 of a video series for what is called Project 156, named after the 156 corners on the Pikes Peak course.
While the engine is blurred out in some shots in the video, other shots show what look to be prototype plastic parts in a narrow-angle V-twin configuration with double overhead cams. The chassis features Ohlins suspension with the rear shock and linkage in a Ducati Panigale-like configuration. Victory has already ventured outside of its cruiser segment of the marketplace and into the performance world, competing this year in NHRA Pro Stock drag racing with a motorcycle very loosely based on its Gunner model and using an S&S V-twin powertrain. It's possible that Project 156 could be just the first use of an all-new Victory engine designed for a range of standard or even sport models.
In a previous post I indicated that if Polaris' balance sheet is as healthy as the industry says it is, they ought to buy EBR. I'm beginning to have second thoughts on that. There are too many motorcyclists that roll their eyes when they hear or see the name Buell. There's no way Polaris doesn't know that. Maybe Polaris will one day build sport bikes (from scratch) and give that line of bikes a new name.
I'm not here to bash Erik Buell but I once read an article where the author stated "Buell wasted all his energy developing alternative solutions to mundane technical problems that yielded no appreciable benefit in performance over traditional bike systems." I had been saying that to myself for years.
Wow, Don will be busy this year, I was just reading in Cycle World that they are going to be competing again like they did last year with the Multi.
I'm not here to bash Erik Buell but I once read an article where the author stated "Buell wasted all his energy developing alternative solutions to mundane technical problems that yielded no appreciable benefit in performance over traditional bike systems." I had been saying that to myself for years.
It's true though. While the bikes are unique items in terms of engineering, it is all really gee-wiz kinda stuff. I've had a few Buells in my garage over the years, but the only one that really stuck around was the damn Blast since it cost me next to nothing to own and operate. Not to mention if someone knocked it over, I wouldn't have cared. They handled well enough and acceleration was passable, but not better than most of the other sport oriented bikes out on the market.
looks like a direct response to Guy Martin's winning bike, that was hand made in a shed. oh, and as to Buells......they are great............in between motor re-builds.
Please be the engine that's going to end up in sporty, naked/semi-naked big twins that handle supremely on real roads, and that are lighter and with more horsepower than the Yamaha MT-01 (which has superb torque and a sweet motor, but begs for more up top, but is hamstrung in that respect by air cooling - especially with the rear cylinder tucked away out of the airflow).
Similarities, real or imagined, to the Indian motor are (predictably) being pointed out by the usual internet sleuths who thrive on being the first to 'call it', despite it being blindingly obvious that there may well be some shared design that was more than likely part of the design brief for the motor from the beginning.
They clearly refer to it as a 'prototype engine', which doesn't make it the least bit unrealistic to surmise that a custom bike for taking on Pike's Peak would need signifigant design work to that end in the engine alone, possibly including the aims of lighter, more compact and better countering of vibration towards the upper rpm range where it would visit more often thaan on the cruiser.
It might well share little other than the layout and at least some of the same engine castings, with much of the internals altered in the generally usual ways when chasing more HP and revs.
Given that Polaris don't do things by halves, having designed two completely new engines for the Indians, about the only questions that remain are if/when we'll see a production bike, and how light/powerful/well handling it will be, which given the runs on the board so far, would seem to come down to whatever their target is, with the chances of it being well executed likely to be pretty high.
Similar (pay attention to that word so the thread doesn't spear off into pointless arguments) weight to the current VFR800, at least as good handling in a 'does everything at least well, if not quite well, given the versatility', possibly enhanced by higher spec brakes and suspension, at a hopefully moderate price premium, with power characteristics not unlike the Triumph 1050 triple if you added torque everywhere. Or if you prefer, a VTR1000F taken out to maybe 1300cc, the extra capacity used to add 30% shove from top to bottom.
Somewhere around 130hp at the wheel with bags of torque in a narrow bike with a thundering twin that pulls smoothly from idle is pretty much my ideal road bike - one that can cruise, scratch, or hoon equally well as the mood strikes, and in any situation be as engaging as any livelier larger twin has ever been (Guzzi 1200, Yamaha MT-01, Suzuki M109), but checking all the boxes that those all miss on at least one count, be it weight, rev limit, peak hp etc.
It seems to me that there's a big hole in the middle between biggest light sporty twins like the Ducatis and KTMs, which are pricey to buy and maintain and are utterly mental, and the more cruiser-like offerings/re-tuned derivatives that carry a lot of engine weight and (mostly) air-cooling limitations as well as strong leanings towards low and midrange rpm usage, but are pleasant, low maintenance and offer decent to good fuel economy.
The Indian motor in its cruiser duties already falls in towards that middle ground from the cruiser end, and if Polaris is even half serious about taking the fight to the naked/sports-tourer arena with something for the riders that want both major grunt from down low right through to a lively top end that doesn't start to choke just as it feels like it's about to really get going, then what they could come up with could be very good indeed.
And yeah, that does sound a lot like what you'd kind of also have if Honda made a naked musclebike out of the VFR1200, with a worthwhile reduction in weight, non-Adventure styling, and more a agressive look than what they've been coming up with of late.
Then again, who says you couldn't just put flatter 'bars on the VFR1200X Crosstourer, lose the beak and some of the bodywork, and maybe lower the front a tad to get almost the same thing? An online image search with terms like 'VFR1200X Crosstourer streetfighter/naked/project/stripped' brings up next to nothing.
Check this out: http://www.motorcycl...anys-ambitions/
For those of you not wanting to read the article, here are a couple excerpts:
"With Victory already racing two distinctly different sport bikes (albeit, "prototypes") is there any question about the company's ambitions? We don't think so."
"So I think it is not a question of if, but when, Victory will debut its first production, high performance motorcycle to compliment its current line-up that exclusively consists of cruiser models (including baggers and tourers)."