Victory Motorcycle to Wind Down Production

[Stichill_imp]

If you completely discount performance and handling, only ride upright at 55 mph, and look at chain vs shaft as an economic decision, perhaps. But if you're saying that sport, race, off road, and other forms of motorcycles would be better off with shafts, you are wrong.


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I believe the current discussion is regarding chain vs. non-chain final drive for frequent pleasure riding and touring.

[the Ferret]

If you completely discount performance and handling, only ride upright at 55 mph, and look at chain vs shaft as an economic decision, perhaps. But if you're saying that sport, race, off road, and other forms of motorcycles would be better off with shafts, you are wrong.


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yea nobody is saying that.

If you completely discount performance and handling, only ride upright at 55 mph, and look at chain vs shaft as an economic decision, perhaps. But if you're saying that sport, race, off road, and other forms of motorcycles would be better off with shafts, you are wrong.


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You don't have to ride like that to appreciate a shaft either. BMW's have always been known for their handling. Didn't Pridmore and Butler and Smith win some Superbike championships vs chain drive bikes with their shaft BMW? Hasn't BMW done alright off road with their GS series? FJR's are pretty good in the curves, Even Goldwings have been called 800 pound sport bikes and there's a guy in NC that outruns serious sportbikers on the Dragon with his wing. ST Hondas go pretty good in the curves. Moto Guzzi's have always been acknowledged for their good handling too.

Doesn't the Tenere' have a shaft?

[curlyjoe_imp]

I'm with ferret on this one. I hate every aspect of chain maintenance. I clean it twice a year and lube it every 500-600 miles according to recommendation in the manual. More than once since I got the ST as a second bike, I'd go out in the garage intending to take the CB out for a ride and take a look at the chain and say "guess I'm taking the ST out today".

That motus certainly has a ton of "chain snapping" torque though. For the price I could buy a new FJR and a Concours with money left over (both with shafts).

If you completely discount performance and handling, only ride upright at 55 mph, and look at chain vs shaft as an economic decision, perhaps. But if you're saying that sport, race, off road, and other forms of motorcycles would be better off with shafts, you are wrong.


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yea nobody is saying that.

If you completely discount performance and handling, only ride upright at 55 mph, and look at chain vs shaft as an economic decision, perhaps. But if you're saying that sport, race, off road, and other forms of motorcycles would be better off with shafts, you are wrong.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You don't have to ride like that to appreciate a shaft either. BMW's have always been known for their handling. Didn't Pridmore and Butler and Smith win some Superbike championships vs chain drive bikes with their shaft BMW? Hasn't BMW done alright off road with their GS series? FJR's are pretty good in the curves, Even Goldwings have been called 800 pound sport bikes and there's a guy in NC that outruns serious sportbikers on the Dragon with his wing. ST Hondas go pretty good in the curves. Moto Guzzi's have always been acknowledged for their good handling too.

Doesn't the Tenere' have a shaft?

Yes and so does the new Honda VFR1200X. Sweet V4 too.

[Capo]

Yes, they all do 'pretty good' and if the guy on the Goldwing was on a Sport bike, with a chain drive, he'd probably do a little bit better. I just read a story about a guy who went round the world on a Bonnie with zero failures of any sort, so it's not hard to find anecdotes to support virtually any position.

I am and I know plenty of people who enjoy a whole lot of motorcycling miles who don't pine for a shaft or belt on anything other than a 700 pound lounge chair, and who feel that any potential cost of chain versus catastrophic shaft failure isn't worth splitting hairs over if the far more common, proven and easy to change gearing and breeze to fix chain drive delivers the superior performance they're looking for. The motorcycle industry isn't exactly running to shaft drive, is it? I'd like to think that the CB, with its Air cooling, chain, wire wheels and lack of any mod cons, isn't completely outmoded and unsuited for anything but pushing around the garage! At least it doesn't have points!


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[Stichill_imp]

The reason there are three popular final drives is that they all have advantages/disadvantages in various applications. I'm not sure we can productively compare them in a theoretical vacuum.

Ferret I must say that a CB1100 is a rather odd choice of bike for a guy who dislikes chain/sprocket maintenance and upkeep as much as you do.

[the Ferret]

Yes, they all do 'pretty good' and if the guy on the Goldwing was on a Sport bike, with a chain drive, he'd probably do a little bit better. I just read a story about a guy who went round the world on a Bonnie with zero failures of any sort, so it's not hard to find anecdotes to support virtually any position.

I am and I know plenty of people who enjoy a whole lot of motorcycling miles who don't pine for a shaft or belt on anything other than a 700 pound lounge chair, and who feel that any potential cost of chain versus catastrophic shaft failure isn't worth splitting hairs over if the far more common, proven and easy to change gearing and breeze to fix chain drive delivers the superior performance they're looking for. The motorcycle industry isn't exactly running to shaft drive, is it? I'd like to think that the CB, with its Air cooling, chain, wire wheels and lack of any mod cons, isn't completely outmoded and unsuited for anything but pushing around the garage! At least it doesn't have points!


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Possibly... but it really boils down to rider ability and not drive system doesn't it?

I'm not going to beat Marquez around a racetrack even if he were on a 800 pound Goldwing with a shaft and I was on a 420 pound RC213VS with a chain and "probably" most wouldn't either.

Admittedly around a race track with 2 equal riders and 2 equal bikes, 1 shaft driven, one chain driven, the one on the chain would probably win, but we aren't riding on racetracks, we are riding on public highways.

Yes, they all do 'pretty good' and if the guy on the Goldwing was on a Sport bike, with a chain drive, he'd probably do a little bit better. I just read a story about a guy who went round the world on a Bonnie with zero failures of any sort, so it's not hard to find anecdotes to support virtually any position.

I am and I know plenty of people who enjoy a whole lot of motorcycling miles who don't pine for a shaft or belt on anything other than a 700 pound lounge chair, and who feel that any potential cost of chain versus catastrophic shaft failure isn't worth splitting hairs over if the far more common, proven and easy to change gearing and breeze to fix chain drive delivers the superior performance they're looking for. The motorcycle industry isn't exactly running to shaft drive, is it? I'd like to think that the CB, with its Air cooling, chain, wire wheels and lack of any mod cons, isn't completely outmoded and unsuited for anything but pushing around the garage! At least it doesn't have points!


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Wow 25,000 miles around the world on a single chain. If he'd have had a shaft he could have kept going and gone around the world 3 more times or more and not worried about it

[Stichill_imp]

[url=https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/indians-victory]Indian's Victory

This pull quote certainly hits the mark:

"Motorcyclists are a picky lot. There have been a boatload of motorcycles that just didn’t resonate with buyers for the most arcane reasons. Motorcyclists will happily damn a great bike for some trifling matter."

[the Ferret]

The reason there are three popular final drives is that they all have advantages/disadvantages in various applications. I'm not sure we can productively compare them in a theoretical vacuum.

Ferret I must say that a CB1100 is a rather odd choice of bike for a guy who dislikes chain/sprocket maintenance and upkeep as much as you do.

Well the reason we got into this is back in post 47 AZbob said he liked everything about the Motus but for a bike that was supposed to be a long distance bike the chain was a deal killer, and off we took.

As for me I LOVE my CB1100 but I didn't buy it as a long distance mile eater (I just roll up a lot of miles lol) and if shopping for a touring/sport touring machine would never have considered the chain drive CB 1100. For a long distance mount I agree with AZbob.. I want a shaft drive machine.

For local riding and maybe a couple states trip for a week I don't mind the CB, but I wouldn't want to spend weeks at a time covering tens of thousands of miles on it. Rather have an ST or a FJR or something.

[Stichill_imp]

Alright. Bringing this discussion back around somewhat to the thread topic:

Now that Polaris management has made the decision to end the Victory brand, what should be their next moves to bolster Indian as their flagship street motorcycle brand? Personally I'm trying to understand the future of a brand making nothing but bikes that look like they are from the 1940s.

[the Ferret]

Isnt that what Harley makes? And they are #1 in the US big bike market