Visionary
Posts: 1324
So Cal | Let's face it. The standard that all of the manufacturers are trying to compete with came from HD. When japanese and european manufacturers were excelling in inline 4's and 6's, the bike to have was a HD v-twin. Marketing is a strong tool. Indian was the better of the two but failed to capitalize on the right market. (some think the HD v-twin was a stolen design) Had things gone diffrently, we would be comparing all other bikes to the Indian. They were a leader of inovation when this country wasnt ready. The japanese saw the appeal of the v-twin and changed their product to appeal to that market. Standards are set by those that started things first. Elvis, microsoft, apple, etc... They are icons. Can others do better? Of course. Microsoft was the icon, Apple is now the favorite. Its not impossible. The benefit? Competition designs a better product at a cheaper price to compete with the standard. We win! HD went from traditional to the V-rod in one step. Took many a long time to warm up to it. Too much too soon. Victory found that gap and seems to have found a way to fill it in. I grew up in a steel town. Buying foreign products goes against all I was taught. The parts inside may come from japan, china, mexico... but it's AMERICAN. We taught the world, then lost our way. Our icons have lost their edge. Victory, and a few others are surviving this economy through inovation and quality. Victory is on it's way to being an ICON. |
Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | cj I'm sure others might argue another point or angle, but I see it the way you see it. It is the people that drive the market and changes and McDonald is also an example of that. While Ray Kroc was alive he vowed never to sell anything but burgers. But after he passed the corporation saw it differently and had to be innovative to stay on top with appeal.
Indian today is still my "favorite" bike. I'm on the ride that I want and will stay on it until something better comes along. But I'm finding myself wanting an Indian more and more, and not a new, one of the older ones. I figure the day I can afford a new Indian, I can find an older one that is relatively in good shape. I like the looks, it has the a lot of history of being an innovator and it is not a cookie cutter HD. I'm thankful that HD has held the motorcycle market for so long and so well as it has given the motivation for others to buy anything to ride. Most of the niche in the foriegn bikes is not that it is of a better design, but they are cheaper, and more dependable. If you want to ride and can't afford an HD, the price will move you to the Asian made bike and the dependability will take away some of the guilt of not buying American. That is something that has never woke us up to fact that high dollar doesn't always mean quality.
You have to have quality as the driving factor in anything and Victory seems to be doing that very well. I'm pleased with the maintenance needed on my Vision, which is basically standard wear parts, tires, filters, belt, spark plugs... I've not had to make adjustments anywhere in the engine or have to tear it down to replace something in the motor. That is something that I hear from the HD fold that there is major maintenance to keep these things going. I don't know if it comes from the idea that you have to work on a motorcycle before it is a "real" motorcycle. But one of the things I find is I'm being left out listening to HDers talk about maintenance on their bike. At 48K in just shy of two years I'm more than pleased with the standard Victory is setting.
ICONic is a direction Victory is headed and to safely say they are iconic outside the little world of bikers will still take many years. Most folks today will still look at you in motorcycle attair and ask, "you ridin' your harley?" It will still be a very, very long time before you'll ever hear from joe q. public, "what you ride, a harley or a victory?" |
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