You might not see eye-to-eye with Victory's new Vision.

Too bad for you.

Victory, under the Polaris umbrella, has been building offbeat big twins for a while now. All of these torquers, each with a cool name (Vegas/ Hammer/ Kingpin) has gotten good reviews with the cruiser folk.

And with serious brakes, supple suspensions and grin-inducing engines, they've even gotten kudos from the snooty, sport-bike types.

The fact they sport big-displacement, American-made v-twin power hasn't hurt, for those who run apart from the Harley herd.

Now, Victory is taking that magic to four flavors of the Vision, Tour, Tour Premium, Street and Street Premium.

But this ain't your old man's bagger or dresser.

The Vision looks more like a radical styling prototype than a road-going production motorcycle. Up front is a wide, edgy fairing, with electrically powered windshield, unique headlight arrangement, manual folding wind wings and huge, bat-eared mirrors.

Lowers curl down and around the riders legs, and huge, extended floorboards — without obscuring those lovely jugs that displace 106 cubic inches, or 1,731cc's.

But the Vision is not just eye shadow and mascara. That fairing provides a great pocket of still air from idle up to 90 mph, where a little bit of back pressure intrudes on the rider and passenger.

Unlike a Harley bagger at that speed, however, the air is calm, very unruffled. There's no blast up your pant legs into your boxers, no beard-flipping updraft on your chest. No face-slapping, eyeball drying gusts.

This is high-speed cruise you can use.

Traveling on a Tour model with Laura, who works at Townline Powersports, your initial impression is ... big. (The bike, not little Laura.)

This is a big, heavy bike. Pulling a U-turn in Townline's gravel backlot, nightmares of dumping the Vision and Laura played in my head.


• The Victory stripped of its exterior panels.

But once my size 12s were out front on the boards, linear throttle response and low-down grunt made navigating the rocky marbles a breeze.

Primary instrumentation is analog, and an index-finger switch on the left hand grip toggles between digital readouts, including my personal favorite, dual tripmeters. The big black number dead center on the digital display is your gear indicator.

Large buttons with good feel make operating the radio, cruise control and other items easy with gloves on. (Radio buttons are centered on the fuel tank, and duplicated on left side of the tiller of a handlebar.) The large-headed ignition key is front and center in the tank.

On this sunny, 54-degree day, we flew the electrically-operated windshield at full sail. That protected us both very well, but forced me to look through the plastic, something I don't find fantastic.

Taking it down to a plucked eyebrow level made for a much cooler cockpit, especially in town, and it was easy to see over. But that was too much wind for my pillion passenger, and her pudding-bowl helmet. (A later switch to a full-face helped.)

Those swoopy bags are a bit deceiving. Don't plan on stuffing dirty socks in the tips; the main compartment is shaped a lot like a standard saddelebag. The pod-like rear trunk will swallow two full-face helmets and other odds and ends easily.

All open with chromed, single-key, push-button access, easy to operate with gloves on. Nice.

Other odds and ends: Crank the handlebars to full-lock left to pop the little fairing door that reveals the gas cap. A small cupholder-like ring lets you set the cap inside the door, so you won't forget it on roll-out. Smart.

There's a similar storage pocket on the left side, where a little white tail with an MP3 jack lives for your iPod or Shuffle. Sweet.

We ran the Vision out on the gnarliest and curviest roads I know in northern Genesee and southern Saginaw counties, on a backroad Z-pattern to a photo shoot in Bay City. At no time did the Vision feel unsettled or unwilling, even with a passenger on board and some really nasty pavement.

On smooth stuff, the Vision was a delight. I didn't push too hard with Laura aboard, but nothing threw sparks or ground off.



The big v-twin pulls clean from way down low without shudder or complaint. It really punches in to work over 2,500 RPM up to a redline just over 5,000.

With six gears, a 65-70 range in sixth translates into a 2,500 RPM lope. Even up to 90, vibes don't intrude, other than a rumble between your knees.

Real-time readout with some serious throttle-wringing said we were getting about 35 mpg. That should get you 200 miles down the road, easy.



Clutch feel was good, but some downshifts gave a driveline growl. (I'm guessing this bike has been rid hard and put up wet, as a demo. Full break-in might change that noise.)

So, who will have 20-20 Vision? Good question. It's not a Wing. It's not a K1200LT. It's not an FLHTC.

And thank goodness for that. It's like nothing else. You either love it, or hate it. I love it — because I don't mind standing out from a crowd, and tend to judge things on how they work.

Which brings us to our second point: The Vision's fairing and bags and luxo passenger seating (especially with the Tour's wraparound backrest) just plumb work.

There's good weather protection, comparable to an LT or a Wing. You're still in foot-forward cruiser mode — but without Harley's annoying wind blast, or fuel-sucking motor motions, at high speed.

Finally, the little tricks and treats are there for those coast-to-coast runs. The radio can be heard, at speed, and is easy to operate. Heated grips and seats are available. There's 29 gallons of storage area.

And the bike handles just fine when the curves come around the corner, or a crosswind blows.

One thing the Vision shares with the competition? Moola.

The Street starts at $18,999; the Tour starts at $19,999