Victory

[skippa1]

I have been a sports bike rider for years, most recent bikes being Buell, R1 and 07 Speed Triple. I wrote off the Speed Triple 4 months ago:shit: and decided it was time to slow down so brought a Harley Nightster:laugh:. In short, hated the Nightster :no:so I traded my Harley for an 08 Victory Vegas:Punk:. Love the Victory, a great ride smooth, torquey, comfortable. Took her out for a run in the weekend, did a few kms, interesting having reduced ground clearance:confused:. The heels touch down letting me know Im running out which is ok:mellow:, but I can see I am going to have to watch going too hot into corners or I will come unstuck:bye:.

Anyone else done the transition? How are you finding the clearance?

[DMNTD]

I have been a sports bike rider for years, most recent bikes being Buell, R1 and 07 Speed Triple. I wrote off the Speed Triple 4 months ago:shit: and decided it was time to slow down so brought a Harley Nightster:laugh:. In short, hated the Nightster :no:so I traded my Harley for an 08 Victory Vegas:Punk:. Love the Victory, a great ride smooth, torquey, comfortable. Took her out for a run in the weekend, did a few kms, interesting having reduced ground clearance:confused:. The heels touch down letting me know Im running out which is ok:mellow:, but I can see I am going to have to watch going too hot into corners or I will come unstuck:bye:.

Anyone else done the transition? How are you finding the clearance?

After my Duc accident I thought it a good idea to try and do what you've done.
I took a Rocket 3 out from work for a decent ride. Long story short, it looked like I'd end up in the bushes or a drain sooner than later. My fault...no the bike or its style.
I chose to go back to a naked bike to at least slow my top end right down (it has worked).


PS...love those Victorys!

[TIBLE_90]

Victory's are beutiful bikes. Just curious, why didn't you like the nightster? I havent ridden one but I've allways liked them. Do they not ride well? Also I ride sports bikes and my dad has a cruiser, i took the cruiser out a few times and found that i was scraping the foot pegs consistently. So I wasnt to impressed with the clearance:no:

[skippa1]

Victory's are beutiful bikes. Just curious, why didn't you like the nightster? I havent ridden one but I've allways liked them. Do they not ride well? Also I ride sports bikes and my dad has a cruiser, i took the cruiser out a few times and found that i was scraping the foot pegs consistently. So I wasnt to impressed with the clearance:no:

Loved the look of the Nightster but three things really put me off. The rear end is hideous. It was hard, no travel and a poor choice for any serious kms. The front end was soft, so soft you could push the forks through 2/3 of their travel at a standstill. The seat was crap. Again, travel over a lot of kms was hopeless. The whole look is achieved by having hard shocks with no travel and soft front end. It gets the low look but sacrafices your arse and spine as a result. You can get after market kits for both and an after market seat however you ruin the look at tyhe back end and it all costs big $.

[Road kill]

The only Victory that has made me look twice has been the "Hammer" in black an white,,,,that's one real stand out in a crowd machine.:yes:
I had an XL1200 for some time,,,heaps more comfortable and better handling than the Hugger which was the 'low option" at the time "so I can certainly understand the comments about the Nightster.

[Vacquer0]

We just two days of demo rides at the dealership from the Victory Fuel It Demo Tour. Wild weekend at work. Posted some pics in an album on here. Comfy bikes but not my style yet. Kinda like that "Hammer" meself.

[Vacquer0]

Here's more.

[skinman]

nice:yes: but imo exhaust is too big, maybe look better with straight pipes.

[Vacquer0]

I agree. Never liked anything that scraped in a turn. Would have to put drag bars on that battleship. Still prefer light and agile I guess.

[skippa1]

yeah it took me a while to warm to the look, especially the exhaust. Mines not got the "bagger" look and interestingly its not the exhausts that rub first. Now I really like it and the look has really grown on me.245316

[AD345]

Good choice of bike mate

'course I would say that. A good place online to pick up some tips is here:

http://www.thevmc.com/start.html

We have a good sized club up here, there's a few rolling around down in CHCH and theres another KB'r called kram in your neck of the woods who also has a Vic (or did anyway).

I'm happy to answer any questions you might have


oh yeah - this is mine

<IMG SRC="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/AD345/NewYearsDay4.jpg" ALT="Kingpin">

[Vacquer0]

Nice bikes you have. Love the pics. I'll be showing them at work.

[skippa1]

Good choice of bike mate

'course I would say that. A good place online to pick up some tips is here:

http://www.thevmc.com/start.html

We have a good sized club up here, there's a few rolling around down in CHCH and theres another KB'r called kram in your neck of the woods who also has a Vic (or did anyway).

I'm happy to answer any questions you might have


oh yeah - this is mine



Very nice. I like the shotgun pipes. I take it youve done the stage one kit. Where do you get parts from?

[The Lone Rider]

It's not really surprising a standard victory was a better ride than a Nightster.


The rear end is hideous. It was hard, no travel and a poor choice for any serious kms. The front end was soft, so soft you could push the forks through 2/3 of their travel at a standstill. The seat was crap. Again, travel over a lot of kms was hopeless. The whole look is achieved by having hard shocks with no travel and soft front end. It gets the low look but sacrafices your arse and spine as a result. You can get after market kits for both and an after market seat however you ruin the look at tyhe back end and it all costs big $.

Slammed bikes with traditional swing arms generally have to have slammed suspension - there is little you can do about it. The front end most likely needed a thicker viscosity oil in the tubes, common enough change in harley baggers at least. Air hawk pad will most likely fix a bad seat.

[skippa1]

It's not really surprising a standard victory was a better ride than a Nightster.



Slammed bikes with traditional swing arms generally have to have slammed suspension - there is little you can do about it. The front end most likely needed a thicker viscosity oil in the tubes, common enough change in harley baggers at least. Air hawk pad will most likely fix a bad seat.

Yeah, poor decision on my part, cost me some $. I guess the biggest surprise with the Nighty was the build quality. Without trying to bag it too much, the HD selection of fastenings, corrosion resistance etc for a bike built in 2007 was poor. My old Buell was better than that.
In regard to the oil, that was going to be the next step but it seemed backward to complain about a soft front end and hard back end (no puns please) then make the front end stiffer.

[The Lone Rider]

Yeah, poor decision on my part, cost me some $. I guess the biggest surprise with the Nighty was the build quality. Without trying to bag it too much, the HD selection of fastenings, corrosion resistance etc for a bike built in 2007 was poor. My old Buell was better than that.
In regard to the oil, that was going to be the next step but it seemed backward to complain about a soft front end and hard back end (no puns please) then make the front end stiffer.

There's another thread somewhere about the finish quality on newer Harleys - particularly the chrome. Some suggest it's to meet EPA regs for the manufacturing. I personally believe its lowered quality control or cost saving.

Some people also say there is no drop in quality - that it's as good as always, or it's as bad as always. Depending on who you ask.

[Zamiam]

Considered the nightster before buying the fat bob. The research I did suggested nightster wasn't very comfortable to ride so didn't even ride one. Brother has a jackpot ness which I have done a few miles on. Not much difference comfort wise in my opinion. Victory has more rake so my bob is more nibble if you can ever call a Harley nibble :no:. Victory has much more grunt. Horses for courses - I prefer my Harley. Only down side with Victory is poor availability of after market parts.

[skippa1]

Considered the nightster before buying the fat bob. The research I did suggested nightster wasn't very comfortable to ride so didn't even ride one. Brother has a jackpot ness which I have done a few miles on. Not much difference comfort wise in my opinion. Victory has more rake so my bob is more nibble if you can ever call a Harley nibble :no:. Victory has much more grunt. Horses for courses - I prefer my Harley. Only down side with Victory is poor availability of after market parts.

Yeah I considered a fatty, I like em a lot. The down side for me was the price more than anything, though overhead cams, mono shock, ease of access to the stator, starter.....lets face it, technology wise the Victory seemed to be way ahead. The Victory is streets ahead of the Nightie in the comfort stakes, though mine has an after market seat. Even with the OEM seat the Victory would be streets ahaed of the Nightie. The Nightie bottomed easily and I havent found that point yet on the Vegas.
Im not too worried about after market parts, they already have a custom look and some nice styling

[AD345]

Very nice. I like the shotgun pipes. I take it youve done the stage one kit. Where do you get parts from?

Those are actually the drag pipes, longer than the shotties and packed full of more go-faster goodness (I tell myself)

I got the parts and the work done for the Stage 1 from the dealer up here, which is the only one:

http://www.teammotorgroup.co.nz/

A lot of the aftermarket bits you can buy from them or overseas, LLoydz for REAL go fast bits, Kewlmetal was where I got my rake kit from, Witchdoctors and CycleOps for bling and the like. The thing with the Stage 1 is that you need the dealer to tune it in properly using the Digital Wrench, which is Vic proprietary. Because you have an 08 with the closed loop fuel injection system you have lost a bit of backyard mechanic ability as a trade off for the better stock performance and bigger range of tune-ability using the aforesaid Digital Wrench

Having said all that however, anything that isn't performance related can be bought and bolted on from anywhere and a lot of guys just whack pipes on a rumble around quite happily. It just won't be as good as it could be

Maybe a ride up to the big smoke is on the cards?

On another topic, theres a club member (VictoryMotorcycleClub) from the States coming down your way in November. He's hiring a bike out of Nelson mid-end November and doing the big tour. He'd probably be keen to meet another Vic owner and have a beer or 2

[skippa1]

Those are actually the drag pipes, longer than the shotties and packed full of more go-faster goodness (I tell myself)

I got the parts and the work done for the Stage 1 from the dealer up here, which is the only one:

http://www.teammotorgroup.co.nz/

A lot of the aftermarket bits you can buy from them or overseas, LLoydz for REAL go fast bits, Kewlmetal was where I got my rake kit from, Witchdoctors and CycleOps for bling and the like. The thing with the Stage 1 is that you need the dealer to tune it in properly using the Digital Wrench, which is Vic proprietary. Because you have an 08 with the closed loop fuel injection system you have lost a bit of backyard mechanic ability as a trade off for the better stock performance and bigger range of tune-ability using the aforesaid Digital Wrench

Having said all that however, anything that isn't performance related can be bought and bolted on from anywhere and a lot of guys just whack pipes on a rumble around quite happily. It just won't be as good as it could be

Maybe a ride up to the big smoke is on the cards?

On another topic, theres a club member (VictoryMotorcycleClub) from the States coming down your way in November. He's hiring a bike out of Nelson mid-end November and doing the big tour. He'd probably be keen to meet another Vic owner and have a beer or 2

If you dont mind me asking, what did stage 1 cost and was there a lot of difference? To be honest I am not really looking for more pwer, if I was I would just go back to a sports bike. I would like more rumble out of the pipes without being obnoxious however I am concerned that messing with baffles etc can and does result in tuning issues generally.
I may head your way later this year, November time.

Im pretty happy with the look overall and not sure if I would bling it up too much so bolt ons are not too important to me.

I joined the forum and see that guy is heading my way, I will PM him.

[The Lone Rider]

1. There are shit load of aftermarket parts for Victory; just not stocked on shelves in NZ.

2. Stage 1 pipes will have no real setbacks on performance if you don't tune it. And if you do tune it, there will only be minimal difference.

3. A number of aftermarket pipes come with removable baffles. Some even have tunable baffles. Most likely you won't have to fiddle around with the baffles to get it louder (ie.. no drilling needed), as it will be a single bolt and then you slide it out. If you find it too loud with the baffle in, slide out the baffle, insert 1 ball of stainless pot scrubbers into each pipe, replace baffle. Add and subtract scrubbers to suit.

Should you get drag pipes (proper drag pipes, not wide I.D. shotguns) there is a simple tunable baffle trick using a small eyebolt that you might like to google.

4. On a cruiser, there will be marginal performance difference in open pipes, and baffled. You probably wont notice to much of a change, although I personally have experienced loss of power from exhausts that were way to open (and tooooooo loud) which was fixed as mentioned above with baffles and scrubbers.

I have been told Supertrapp 2 into 1 pipes are tops if you want performance.

I believe on a modern Harley, the difference between tuned and not tuned stage 1 is about 2 - 3HP, which you won't notice.

[AD345]

If you dont mind me asking, what did stage 1 cost and was there a lot of difference? To be honest I am not really looking for more pwer, if I was I would just go back to a sports bike. I would like more rumble out of the pipes without being obnoxious however I am concerned that messing with baffles etc can and does result in tuning issues generally.
I may head your way later this year, November time.

Im pretty happy with the look overall and not sure if I would bling it up too much so bolt ons are not too important to me.

I joined the forum and see that guy is heading my way, I will PM him.

Well me being me I didn't do it the easy way. I had the stock pipes for a while and then changed to the slip-ons. Same style as stock just with a wider exhaust. The sound was really cool and I actually sold them to another club member when I went to the drag pipes and he still runs them.
Stage 1 is a set of pipes, new air box and cleaner (branded Victory but actually K&N) and a reflash from the Digital wrench. The variable cost is the pipes, slip ons being cheapest and the Ness swept being the most expensive. From memory the slip-ons cost around $700 with fitting, new airbox and reflash was about $500 or so. I did notice a difference so it was probably around 7 - 10 HP improvement.

A drawback with the 08 and 09 models with the Stage 1 reflash is that you get decelleration pop through the exhausts due to the fuel shut off being a little too exact. It's never done any damage but it does snap, crackle and pop.

if you just want the sound and don't mind the looks of the stock pipes then just go for a set of slip-ons. I'll ask around but I don't think anyone up here has got any left so it would have to be through TMG (dealer).

If I was doing it again I would still fork out the extra for the full Stage 1 with airbox and reflash as the bike "feels" better but I might bring the pipes in from overseas. Through the VMC you will see that a number of vendors now offer pipes for Victorys so you will have a few to choose from. Don't fall into the trap of "it fits a Harley so it will be OK for a Vic". The engines and, more importantly the management system ,are quite different. Get Vic-specific, they're out there.

[The Lone Rider]

2,718 products found matching at J&P Cycles for a 2008 Victory Vegas Standard

http://www.jpcycles.com/victory-motorcycle-parts/2008-victory-vegas-v08gb26d

1,2320 products found at Cruiser Customizing

http://www.cruisercustomizing.com/VictoryVictoryVegas-Accessories.cfml

And a shitload at Victory Direct Line Parts

http://www.directlineparts.com/store.asp?str=270


Some places to start.

Or make friends with a local tig welder and turner fitter, and get some stuff custom made.

[bluebird]

I think the Suzuki M109R is the pick of the large cruisers, but being Japanese puts a few people off, they are fast, they handle(if you ride them as they are designed to be ridden) and they are full of great technology especially the front end. Value for money is the added bonus.

[skippa1]

I think the Suzuki M109R is the pick of the large cruisers, but being Japanese puts a few people off, they are fast, they handle(if you ride them as they are designed to be ridden) and they are full of great technology especially the front end. Value for money is the added bonus.

yeah maybe but they look like a horse with its nose in a feed bag. I had a mate that brought one brand new and had it for the first servce and traded it on a Harley V Rod Muscle. Less than 1500kms on the clock.:laugh:

[The Lone Rider]

yeah maybe but they look like a horse with its nose in a feed bag. I had a mate that brought one brand new and had it for the first servce and traded it on a Harley V Rod Muscle. Less than 1500kms on the clock.:laugh:

For the price difference between the muscle and a 109R, you could have kept some change, chucked on a different headlight than the stock 109R light, bought some aftermarket pipes, and have a bike that performs better and is more reliable than a vrod muscle.

Give or take a few thou I suppose.

[avgas]

I will respect Victory when they do 1 thing.
Release the Kore.
Not a day sooner. All they are doing is suckling on Harleys teat.

[skippa1]

For the price difference between the muscle and a 109R, you could have kept some change, chucked on a different headlight than the stock 109R light, bought some aftermarket pipes, and have a bike that performs better and is more reliable than a vrod muscle.

Give or take a few thou I suppose.

yep, he could have....he couldnt get comfortable with having a japanese cruiser..:confused:

[skippa1]

I will respect Victory when they do 1 thing.
Release the Kore.
Not a day sooner. All they are doing is suckling on Harleys teat.

thats nice. i didnt notice harley leading the way with ohc, gear drive primary, mono shock etc etc .....I dont have anything against Harley but sucking their teat?

[The Lone Rider]

yep, he could have....he couldnt get comfortable with having a japanese cruiser..:confused:

I always find the anti jap bike thing amusing and pretty stupid to uphold in this country. Particularly in the case of "buy american!", given where the anti-jap bike thing originates and the fact NZers on the whole are pretty quick to comment how shit (fill in blank) ____________ in/about USA is.

[skippa1]

I always find the anti jap bike thing amusing and pretty stupid to uphold in this country. Particularly in the case of "buy american!", given where the anti-jap bike thing originates and the fact NZers on the whole are pretty quick to comment how shit (fill in blank) ____________ in/about USA is.

Yeah it doesnt particularly bother me either way, the nice thing is we all have a choice. Imagine if we all rode the same model bike. the cold kiwi would be a bit so so:laugh: