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 and decided it was time to slow down so brought a Harley Nightster. In short, hated the Nightster so I traded my Harley for an 08 Victory Vegas. 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. The heels touch down letting me know Im running out which is ok, but I can see I am going to have to watch going too hot into corners or I will come unstuck.

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

[DMNTD:Me]

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 and decided it was time to slow down so brought a Harley Nightster. In short, hated the Nightster so I traded my Harley for an 08 Victory Vegas. 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. The heels touch down letting me know Im running out which is ok, but I can see I am going to have to watch going too hot into corners or I will come unstuck.

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

[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

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.
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 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.

[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

[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.