Victory anniversary bike launch this month
15 years not out for America's other bike firm
VICTORY is to reveal a limited-edition bike on January 18 to celebrate the firm's 15th anniversary.
No details yet, but it's likely to be a paint-scheme-and-trinkets special rather than a truly new model. At the moment, parent firm Polaris has its focus firmly on developing a ground-up new machine for its second bike brand, Indian, rather than further additions to the Victory range.
That's not to take anything away from Victory's achievement. Simply surviving 15 years – five of them in a financial crisis – while competing head-to-head with Harley-Davidson is a pretty impressive feat. Harley, with 110 years of history behind it, is still leagues ahead, outselling its rivals by several orders of magnitude, but in the small market for bikes over 1400cc Victory is now number 2, way behind H-D but ahead of all the Japanese and European manufacturers.
The early appearance of the new Victory is partly to make the most of its anniversary year but will also ensure that it doesn't get swallowed in the storm of publicity that's sure to envelop the new Indian V-twin that's due to be launched this summer. With a clip of the engine sound already revealed the first pictures and videos are sure to appear soon – no doubt part of a seemingly-endless teaser campaign in the run-up to the unveiling.
