Victory Vision: First (Unauthorized) Ride

Part 4: Busted!

By now the secret is out and to top it off, we were spotted by Victory test riders who knew there was supposed to be no other Vision out on the road. Of course they Rat us out to Victory Corporate and my cell phone goes crazy.

The first call is from Tim Blinkhorn, National Sales Manager for Victory who calls me "The Vision Thief" and proceeds to crawl all over me about riding the bike and what was I thinking. "Simple," I told him, "You sent me a fantastic bike and I enjoyed it and best of all we have a bunch of deposits placed on a bike that no one knows the price of." He was still not impressed. I also ask Tim how they could possibly challenge me by sending me a non-running Vision and expect me to face my peers and tell them I could not get a Victory working. Well, that did not seem to calm him down at all and then he brings up my post on the internet about my experience riding a Vision and comparing it to both of my Goldwings, (1500 and 1800) BMW 1200LT and HD Ultra and as my post says there is no comparison, the Vision has raised the Bar for touring motorcycles.

My Post on the VMC:
"A little background may be in order, having owned, ridden and serviced a 94, & 03 Goldwings, 99 1100 shadow, 02 VTX, 2000 Harley Ultra Classic. 2002, 2005 BMW 1200LT"s and 05 Hammer, 07 King Pin and a number of other non Touring bikes I have accumulated over 231.000 miles on these rides plus substantial seat time on the TC, Vegas and Standard Cruiser along with having spent more seat time than I care to remember on all of HD's so called touring Lineup, I would say that when it comes to Touring bikes I have gathered a little experience...
...Well I can tell you it is here, this bike not only compete's with them it will be in fact the new King of Touring. Victory's ride challange they have been so successful with on the rest of the line will be even more successful with the Vision with its low center of gravity, ride height, performance, cornering and power. If you get on a Vision you will own one. Victory has hit a home run on this bike and I can finally say the wait was well worth it and the next 2-3 years will demonstrate that this is the Benchmark for all touring bikes. There are a lot of great things on this bike that at this time I am not at liberty to mention but I would like all of you to know that while I was a little skeptical when the drawings first came out actual seat time has erased any and all doubts about this bike and it is far and above the Goldwing, BMW and HD touring bikes. "

In summary, the Vision breaks the mold of what we have all come to know as top heavy, hard to manage motorcycle motor-homes or road-sofa's, and given us a performance Touring bike that is just as comfortable in stop and go traffic as it is on the twisters and Interstates. One neat feature is if you drop this bike it will not damage any of the exhausts, saddlebags, fairing or anything, it has hard support points that you do not realize are there unless dropped. First time it was demonstrated to me the rider simply got off and let it fall over. I must have dropped the Vision over 70 times while we had it just to demonstrate that feature without a scratch. And for those Riders who were before a little challenged by their height or strength, the 26.5" seat height and low center of gravity will now allow them to own a Touring bike they can enjoy and manage.

See you on the road!

-- Mike Schultz, Arizona Victory