A passenger perspective

Laura has a view of the Victory Vision that most people don’t see:

From the passenger seat.

She has ridden dirt bikes since age 10, and weekends find her on a Yamaha Raptor four-wheeler. But she's a rookie on road bikes.

“I don’t have a lot to compare it to, but I feel like it was really comfortable,” she said after a road run from Mt. Morris Township up to Bay City for a photo shoot. (Summerfield works for the owner of Genesee County's Townline Powersports which provided the Vision for a lengthy test ride.)

The Vision Tour she was aboard has a large, sculpted two-helmet tail trunk that sports a wrap-around back rest that is wide and tall. The seat pockets the passenger in a fairly flat, but plush, spot. (Heated seats are an option on the Tour Premium.)

The passenger also has fairly broad, folding floorboards to boot on.

But the seat won raves from Laura.

“It kind of pockets it in there, so you are not confined, but I felt secure. I felt like I didn’t have to hold on,” she said. Larger women would probably find plenty of space to get comfortable, she said, and the breeze is calm enough to study a map or even do a crossword.

Laura started out on the 54-degree ride with a Harley-style pudding-bowl helmet and khaki pants, and shifted to a full-face helmet, fleece liner and armored overpants because of cool temps later in the day.

She said her pants were hardly ruffled, although there was some wind on her hands and arms. That was true from idle to above-legal freeway flying.

What she did notice was when the electrically-adjustable windshield was down.

The wind was so strong it took my breath away in the tiny helmet, she said.

In the full up position, passenger wind protection was great, she noted.

Rider's note: Laura was a good passenger, and a good sport. The Vision handled with ease, gliding over ragged pavement and proving more than capable in smooth sweepers. Even the warning speed bumps on I-75's construction zones didn't send the Vision into a shudder stutter; the bike glided over them serenely.