Despite over a hundred years of reasonably successful production and sales figures that many firms (Triumph for example) would die for, there is never any shortage of people to 'knock' Harley Davidson...

Part of that is the regular forecasts of Harleys demise as new models from other manufacturers or new manufacturers try to move into the 'cruiser' market which HD still dominate so successfully...

One such company was 'Victory Motorcycles', an arm of the giant Polaris manufacturing group (also the current owners and manufacturers of the Indian marque)...

Victory, however, is no more, as production has been halted after 8 years due to a failure to make sufficient impact in the market...

No doubt that will be a cause for celebration in the Harley boardroom...or maybe not...Perhaps Victory wasn't that much of a threat after all in the end...

As for Indian...The jury is still out on that one IMO and I personally think breaking Harleys grip on the market they basically created and dominate isn't going to be easy for any company..Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Indian was recently acquired by Polaris, some have suggested the demise of Victory is actually rationalisation by Polaris now they have the other best known American cruiser brand.
REgards, Mark

I do think it a shame that Victory did not pitch their bikes at similar price levels that the Japanese cruisers do.
I had a Suzuki Intruder 1500 twin for a while which was a joy to ride, the only reason I swapped it was the range was pants, but it cost peanuts compared tot he likes of Victory and Harley.

We all understand that Harleys hold their prices and command top dollar as a marquee brand name, but I think Victory just expected that the name alone would be enough to demand the same figures and I just hope that the same attitude is not apparent with Indian, although I suspect it will be.

So if you had 15K to spend on a custom cruiser, would you choose the benchmark, or risk being different?
Darren

email (option): dwrudd at lineone.net

It failed due to a lot of things , and image was the big one.
Ask any one what is a Victory & you get a cheap HD knock off.

16 different wrappers for the same flavoured piece of candy is never going to make a box of chocolates.
Because the engine is too big for learners, you have to poach riders from another brand of the one & only style machine.
Except in the USA where a road with 1 corner every 25 miles is called twisty, cruisers, or to give them their full name Boulevarde Cruisers are not a big class.
BSA , Triumph & Norton all learned too late that brand loyality starts with your L's. Even HD worked that one out so they introduced the 400 which is a really big seller down here.

Then there is advertising, HD sells FREEDOM & REBELLION and they flog it hard.
Down here where HD came in 4th in sales volumes and 2nd in street bike volumes you can not turn a corner without an HD add and they targeted places where the traffic moves 4 cars every 2 minutes.
Every sex magazine had a feature add for whatever was not selling so all the "playboys in their own mind" trotted down to the HD shop, bought a bike then sat outside for 10 minutes waiting for buxom blondes to beg them for a ride.

Victory has no image other than being a cheaper HD look alike, almost no dealer network and you have to get the touring versions before you get the extra seat ( ? ) and pillion pegs so who was their target audience ?
Cheapskates who love themselves and get their rocks off by checking out their own reflections in shop windows as they wobble past cause they are a pig in slow traffic.

Watch out for a cheaper , smaller Indian sports turning up in the near future with a slightly modified Victory engine, clip ons & rear sets which is one of the body options they should have offered from the get go to suck in the sprts bike riders who always ride one up.

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au

Trevor! You should write for the 'Mooney Pond Gazette' I liked that.

Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

The other thing Harley trades heavily on is its history and heritage..and that is undeniably a long and relatively successful one...

With the Indian marque, Polaris have a 'heritage' brand that Victory wouldn't have been for another 75 years...

I think companies either have to offer a new but different approach to the cruiser market, thus trying the difficult trick of creating a new 'niche' for themselves..or...copy the formula that works and offer a compatible product to the HD one into the same niche...

The reason most 'alternatives' in the cruiser market have consistently failed to impact on Harley Davidsons position is that Harley are actually making what people in that sector want...or rather they created the sector (and customers)for their product by astute marketing...

These people have a completely different set of criteria to the rest of the world where performance and constant change and innovation are the measure by which bikes are judged....That is the diametric opposite of what most Harley owners want...

The reason the Sportster, for example, has barely faltered against the opposition in its 60 year history is that it gives the impression of slow change and only gradual incremental development...

There have been plenty of faster, better braked, better handling, cheaper and more modern contenders but they have all failed..That should say something...and ,of course, Harley are the masters of marketing...

Certainly to succeed in the American market any manufacturer is going to have to displace HD....I'm not convinced yet that Polaris can do that with Indian....Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

With the Victory brand Polaris attempted a modern take on the Harley. They've done something very different with the Chief. It's design cues strongly maintain a thread with the past. The Scout is quite different but appears to outperform the Sportster. Sales of both though encouraging have not much dented Harley.
Polaris have more recently employed european designers to make a flat track bike. They've contracted arguably the top three flat track racers. The bike showed enormous promise last autumn and already has speed; enabling the resurrection of the old rivalry in a manner likely to benefit Indian.
Harley have sat on their arse for 45 years. They didn't bring out a new design of race motor. They didn't need to. Now they need to they've worked with Vance and Hines. It may not be enough.

Ah well, My friend has an 01 victory V twin and the starter relay went out, The dealer wanted like 220.00 dollars for a new one! I went on ebay and searched to no avail for cheaper price. Then I got the wild idea to search for a polaris relay. It looked different but the connector in the photo looked the same. Well 8 dollars later and its not had a problem in the last year LOL!!!

Adam