Victory Vision Tour:

[painman]

This weekend our Christian Motorcyclists Association chapter Mounted Messengers went for a short ride to Arlen Ness store in Dublin Ca. for a personal guided tour. We were supposed to go last month but one of our members was killed in a car wreck and our trip postponed. The folks at Arlen Ness were very accomidating and bent over backwards to make our visit a good one. We toured the facility and saw where the Arlen Ness custom bikes are designed and built. Arlen is a Victory dealer, Texas Chopper dealer and sells Arlen customs and is a full design/build/service facility but has already out grown their 70,000 sq. ft. facility. Not only did we see the Arlen museum of customs he built over the many years of his career, but we saw some new proto-type bikes being built and the new Arlen Ness bikes that will be mfg. under the Arlen Ness brand to be released soon. We saw the Sammy Hagar bike that is up for raffle, (red of course) and also a bike built for the group Journey. Arlen Ness now is making over 83 million a year in parts sold alone and now has 20 dealerships across the country. There were custom bikes setting and wrapped up on skids ready to be sent to Seoul Korea, Japan, Austrailia and all over the world. He is also getting ready to open dealerships in many other countries. Custom cars also were present owned by Ness and personal custom bikes were stored at his dealership. But most interesting to me was I got to sit on a new Victory Vision Tour model that was actually built 4 years ago and is a test bike for Victory with over 100,000 miles on the odometer. The bike was very cool looking and spaceage to say the least. There currently are only 4 of these bikes produced with the new models suppose to come out in the fall of 2007. The dash seemed a little Goldwingish but the ergo's were pretty good with a seat height of only 25 inches. Needless to say I felt like a punk kid in a candy store. Well, happy Easter everyone and ride safe. PM. <><

Victory Vision Link

 

[GalaxyBlue]

Funny you mention this...

The Victory trucks were here yesterday and displayed the new Vision.

I think the Vision is confused about it's identity. To me, It looks like something designed in the 50's from the rear, And a Gold Wing from the front with it's direct competition being the HD Ultra Classic. Tough market there.

My dislikes:

The saddle bags were locked because they were not functional(prototype). :blink:

The drivetrain was hollow :blink:

I think VIctory needed to bring a functional bike to the shows. IMO

 

[timk]

A fellow from another site said there were 3 runnung around Daytona. Probably prototypes. A Venturer placed his order for one with all the bells and whistles, factory GPS etc, dealer said AROUND 26k. A I sat on one at the Cleveland MC show in Feb. They had the thing secured to the floor, so couldn't tell how heavy it felt. Trunk was big, bags locked like someone else said.

 

[Toecutter]

We were supposed to go last month but one of our members was killed in a car wreck and our trip postponed.

I thought we were all supposed to die on our bikes. How sad. :rip_1:

Thanks for the ride report. Sounds like a good time.

 

[painman]

Correcto mundo, only 4 bikes working at present, and yes proto- types but all functional models. And just from sitting on the tour model, minus the rear trunk which was sitting on a self nearby, pulling the bike up off the side stand it did indeed feel very light, and as mentioned it had 100,000 mi. on the odometer so I presumed it did have the fluid's in the bike. It did seem kind of chensey though like too much plastic feel. Maybe just me and not a real good test just sitting on it IMO., but personally I would keep my FJR especially if the price tag is 26K. The final bike in all it's showroom glory would be the real test and the ride. It's really hard to determine from a proto model that's been used and abused. PM. <><

 

[black mamba]

I got a real good look at the Vision while at Daytona....passed up an offer to ride it around the display area, didn't figure such a ride would tell me much. It's not my kind of bike but it sure is an interesting entry into that segment of the market. The looks of the thing are polarizing to say the least. My good buddy, a Victory dealer, thinks he can sell them if they will come in priced under $25,000. It will be interesting to see how it does, sales wise, once it's released.

 

[chornbe]

Bikes are just getting wicked expensive.