Fountain Inn, SC United States | I got the chance to sit and inspect a production Vision last week. It was one of a few that were riding around the country, putting on 1000 mile days as they criss-crossed the country. Riding the Vision were the Victory engineers that worked on creating the bike.
While at a nearby dealership, I got to check out all the bells & whistles, open all the compartments, move the bike around, and hear it run. Alas, I was not permitted to ride it but I was able to come to some conclusions while the bike was on it's kickstand, hence my Side-Stand Review.
Initial Driveby Impression
As it arrived in the dealer parking lot, the first things that grabs you is the look of the front faring with its sweeping front lighting array. My eyes were led to the center HID "eye" (which was not on at that time). The bike makes its presence know with this futuristic front and forces your eyes to follow the flowing body lines to the sweeping back hardbags, and then get captured with what I'll call the "hollywood ending", or in other words, the taillight/fender panel.
Closeup
As I moved from front to back, taking in all the curves I could, I was struck with how plain the front fender was in relation to the rest of the bike. Starting with their 1st model and continuing through the Jackpot, Victorys have always celebrated front fender design. Whether it be the tasteful flare of the v92c fender, or the bold ridge of the Vegas/Jackpot, their fenders always made a statement. The Vision front fender is unable to compete with the futuristic faring and cowl, disappearing below it.
The gauges are nicely layed out and close to the line of vision. The button controls, whle numerous, are thoughtfully laid out. Clustereed by similar functions, it took only a minute to memorize where each control was. There was an attached iPod in one of the tank-top compartments. It was attached with the actual interface cable (optional) that allowed the rider to use bike-based controls to cycle through songs. If you have an mp3 player other than an iPod, there's a standard stereo mini plug to hook into tthe onboard stereo. Speaking of stereo, I was only marginally impressed with the sonic quality of the built-in speakers, of which there are 4 on the Tourer – 2 in the faring, 2 in the passenger "throne". My immediate response was, "It needs a subwoofer!" OK, OK, I know, when you're riding around with the wind in your hair, sonic quality from the radio is a moot point.
Stay tuned for my next installment coming soon!
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Side-Stand Review
