Looking at the XYZ by Allmond Cycle Designs makes a person wonder, as I asked at the end of the post, why manufacturers are not doing that sort of thing themselves. Well, it sounds like Victory may be thinking along those lines, already.
Scanning the October issue of Cycle World, I came across a short piece called Victory’s Next Step. That article was looking at future designs for big luxo-touring rigs and several futuristic designs are shown from the Victory press introduction earlier this year. But, what was interesting were comments at the end of the article from Victory VP, Mark Blackwell and PR man Tony Meirovitz. They were discussing some potential influence coming from KTM when Meirovitz said:
Believe me, there are a lot of people within the walls of Victory that want a competitive American sportbike, and there is definitely a possibility in that regard.
Now, suppose you want to test the opinion waters and get some outside ideas for a Victory sportbike, maybe based on a V-Twin. One quick way would be to donate a Victory engine to a custom builder and let him play with it, maybe someone like Roger Allmond. Hmm …
Doug says
another quick way to test the opinion waters would be to solicit sites like this one for direct feedback. A collaborative approach with marketing & R&D and websites.
Kneeslider, what do you think about conducting an opinion poll of what an “American sportbike should be?” For example:
1. What displacement?
2. Engine configuration: should it be a single, parallel twin, boxer, v-twin (include degree of v), triple, v4, in-line 4, v6, in-line 6, or any of the circular engine designs, etc. ?
3. Would you expect this sportbike to be raced or not? If yes, what class?
4. Do you expect a naked version available?
“Opinion poll results” always seem to be published while no one ever seems to be part of them….
todd says
I’m good at opinions.
First off I think starting with their existing twin and competing directly against Buell is the first step.
Step two: Since a twin is two singles, use much of the existing components to design a range of lightweight singles. Victory (Bombardier) is no stranger to off-road so a trailie much like a KLR or F650 (albeit a 50 ci air cooled unit) would be a natural step. Throw some sport radials and 17″ rims on it for a 800cc thumper motard. Lighten up the motard styling for a nice sporty commuter-standard.
Step three: find their own engine configuration. Even though the longitudinal inline-4 is an “Indian” thing, it still is very much associated with American bikes in general, though the idea was a french one with FN having a nice one in 1905. BMW also showed that is wasn’t an optimal configuration as it produced very long motorcycles.
Step four: work with Vetter to design a huge scooter…
-todd
Matt says
Polaris/Victory: PLEASE, MAKE A SPORTBIKE!
There, that’s my contribution to the market study.
While the V-rod powerplant has the potential, HD won’t give it to Eric. The VR-1000 was fast enough to make the podium a couple times, it surely would have been a great street bike, but HD had to insert it in a baby-boomer appealing layout. Too bad.
Victory needs to skip some of the R&D, get a hold of a decent Italian firm, such as Bimota, and put a decent OHC v-twin in a competent frame.
hoyt says
If Victory doesn’t have any preliminary intention to race their sportbike, and, instead, build a sportbike for the street, then I am all in for a big twin, naked cafe sportbike….
much smaller in overall size than an MT-01 with more style and more sporting components. Somewhere about the size of a Guzzi MGS-01.
Accessories/options include: cafe fairing and touring package.
kneeslider says
Keep it on the street, at least initially, maybe permanently. As soon as you start thinking racing, it’s too easy to forget what street riding is all about and you get a great bike for the track with all sorts of compromises. Then the factory begins to look at the other guy and tweaks a bit more high end power and we know where that leads.
Take another look at the XYZ from Allmond, forget racing, something close to that would sell. You could have fun, be stupid if you want to, look good, it would sound great, … yep, I like it.
todd says
right, Polaris, not Bombardier. What was I thinking?
-todd
Hugo says
Hoyt, if you would compare the MT01 concept and the production version you would notice that the concept MT01 was much smaller. But, as always, because of production demands the whole bike became larger (to get the amount of power, sound legislation etc.) and the designer did a very good job in disguishing that…
hoyt says
yep, the MT-01 concept was much smaller. I’ve also read that Yamaha experimented with that engine by shoe-horning it into an R1 chassis.
End result, the bike is still too big.
Wakan & Guzzi (and to some extent Buell) are good examples that a big engine can fit in a smaller, sport package.
John Bonanno says
I would like to see something along the lines of the Yamaha MT01 or a bigger Buell (longer wheel base) for us tall guys, I’m 6’2″ and look ridiculus on the City X but abolutely love that bike. I hope some one will listen and build a big v-twin, nothing sounds cooler and “American” like a V-twin. I love Roland Sands “no regrets” its sooo cool, finally form follows function not like the blinged out unride-able so called choppers. Don’t get me wrong they are beautiful in their own right but have to be riden a certain way, not what our motorcycling founding fathers had in mind.
hoyt says
another attempt to promote the idea of big torque sportbikes….
http://customtorque.blogspot.com/