Victory stopping production

[kyzrex]

Polaris Industries has just announced that they are ceasing production of the Victory line of motorcycles.  They do plan to provide parts, service, and warranty coverage for up to 10 years into the future.  In the meantime they will be helping dealers to sell out stock.

They will continue to manufacture the Indian brand and the Slingshots.



 .   I was really hoping they would develop and sell a lineup of sport/standard bikes in the future and am very surprised by this announcement.

[Sport-Touring]

[SLK50]

Rather continuing to be bold and innovative,
Polaris has instead chosen the path of least
resistance, becoming another dead fish and
going with the flow.
A real shame as Victory had some real strengths
compared to its competitors.

[DosEquis00]

This will be a big bump for Indian as this is where they see the growth.  

[Baz]

It actually may harm Indian with potential customers worrying about another failure of the brand.

[PatM]

It actually may harm Indian with potential customers worrying about another failure of the brand.

Maybe, then again Polaris had to chose between an iconic brand that is growing vs a brand that isn't.
Never mind that Indian is (was) canibalising Victory's sales. Boards and investors have little patience for business units that don't show healty growth or profits.

[Blue is Best]

That is too bad. The bean counters couldn't see taking money out of the left pocket to put it in the right pocket. Speaking of sales here.

[Stripes]

I personally feel that this is GREAT news!  

[Sport]

Rather continuing to be bold and innovative,
Polaris has instead chosen the path of least
resistance, becoming another dead fish and
going with the flow.
A real shame as Victory had some real strengths
compared to its competitors.

Agree.  If I wanted a bike that does what the Victory does I'd certainly choose one over HD or Indian.  I love the looks of the Indian motor, like fine art, it's beautiful but, the Indian and HDs all weigh 900 pounds before you even sit on them much less pack them for a tour.  Sad seeing any brand go under.

[Sport]

I personally feel that this is GREAT news!  

Why not enlighten us as to why this is "great" news?

[Delegate1k]

Here's an article on this announcement

Polaris says it's the end of the line for Victory Motorcycle brand

and here

Victory Motorcycles cease production

[rajflyboy]

I was sad to hear this.  I have had a chance to ride a few Victory motorcycles and I appreciated the brand.  I love the motors on the Victory over the HD's.

I hope they expand the Indian Brand with a few of the victory models although I realize that will likely not happen.

Slingshots ?   I guess people are buying these things?

[FJRider]

Breaking news ....

[PatM]

https://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,120025.msg2648338/topicseen.html#new  

[motrhead]

Sad. They were good bikes not just trading on an old name. Harley buddies that bought Victory bikes raved about the handling and power. It's just sad that people are taken in by an old name with zero connection to the current bikes. Indian died 60 years ago...

[BobW]

Rambling thoughts of an old swiss cheese mind

Not sure why it's good news as it speaks to the overall (poor?) health of motorcycling in general.

Baz has a point that mirrors my thoughts. I may be wrong (often am  ), but they display no depth of motorcycling knowledge or interest and I question will they pander to the Indian Brand just long enough to recoup costs for R+D and Certification on the two new engines and then pack their toys and return to their very profitable roots? What they have was great to see get started, but moving forward this may be a chicken or egg thing as this focus on one Brand they think will cause better profit may be offset by people like me that will look elsewhere because they are not worth risking my $ with an unknown long term vision (no pun intended) as a motorcycle company.  

 I just sold (good timing?) my Victory Cross Roads and got another BMW as I wanted something more agile, but believed this year or by next all their 156 Pikes Peak bike teasing would lead to an offering on the showroom floor I would be "first in line" for. Obviously not going to happen unless Indian expands their line greatly from their Sportster and 'Glide competitors. The styling on the Chiefs is polarizing and they don't fit tall riders as well and the Scout is teeny, this leaves a huge gap in market coverage where standard/roadster/scrambler/GS demographics are enjoying huge interest.

I bought the Victory as I wanted to "buy American" and after renting a Road King (very nice!) I found that even though the Victory wasn't as "polished" as the Harley it was a much better "motorcycle" for me.  I rode the Victory all over the U.S. for 30,000 trouble free miles and it was beyond easy to service, had a great frame, suspension, brakes and performance. I was pleasantly surprised what a good motorcycle it was/is be it cruising at high speeds out west or taking on our local mountain roads. RIP  

[Oilhed]

I liked the Vision and the Octane.  Granted some will say the Octane was a rebranded Scout but actually it was designed as a Victory and branded an Indian only when it went into production!  The Vision needed a make over visually.  The rest of the line I was not excited about.  Maybe that Scout/Octane motor in a Standard & Adv. Tourer frame....

[rajflyboy]

Rambling thoughts of an old swiss cheese mind

Not sure why it's good news as it speaks to the overall (poor?) health of motorcycling in general.

Baz has a point that mirrors my thoughts. I may be wrong (often am  ), but they display no depth of motorcycling knowledge or interest and I question will they pander to the Indian Brand just long enough to recoup costs for R+D and Certification on the two new engines and then pack their toys and return to their very profitable roots? What they have was great to see get started, but moving forward this may be a chicken or egg thing as this focus on one Brand they think will cause better profit may be offset by people like me that will look elsewhere because they are not worth risking my $ with an unknown long term vision (no pun intended) as a motorcycle company.  

 I just sold (good timing?) my Victory Cross Roads and got another BMW as I wanted something more agile, but believed this year or by next all their 156 Pikes Peak bike teasing would lead to an offering on the showroom floor I would be "first in line" for. Obviously not going to happen unless Indian expands their line greatly from their Sportster and 'Glide competitors. The styling on the Chiefs is polarizing and they don't fit tall riders as well and the Scout is teeny, this leaves a huge gap in market coverage where standard/roadster/scrambler/GS demographics are enjoying huge interest.

I bought the Victory as I wanted to "buy American" and after renting a Road King (very nice!) I found that even though the Victory wasn't as "polished" as the Harley it was a much better "motorcycle" for me.  I rode the Victory all over the U.S. for 30,000 trouble free miles and it was beyond easy to service, had a great frame, suspension, brakes and performance. I was pleasantly surprised what a good motorcycle it was/is be it cruising at high speeds out west or taking on our local mountain roads. RIP  

Very well said     And my thoughts after just a few short rides on a few different Victory models

[DosEquis00]

It actually may harm Indian with potential customers worrying about another failure of the brand.

Indian is growing rapidly while Victory never achieved the potential that was expected. Harley vs Indian is where the money lies and Polaris will get a much larger share of the market than Victory could have achieved. Time will tell but it makes sense to concentrate on one brand.

[rajflyboy]

Indian is growing rapidly while Victory never achieved the potential that was expected. Harley vs Indian is where the money lies and Polaris will get a much larger share of the market than Victory could have achieved. Time will tell but it makes sense to concentrate on one brand.

I wonder if the Indian brand line of motorcycles will be expanded with more models?

[kyzrex]

I wonder if the Indian brand line of motorcycles will be expanded with more models?

My ability to see into the future is nonexistent, but my gut feeling says probably not.  I read an interview of the head of the motorcycle division for Polaris a year or so ago.  In it he talked about the difference between the two brands...Victory and Indian.  He described Victory as being the brand that would be used to try new things and bring out cutting edge technology and design, and that Indian would be for the person looking for traditional style, but still wanting an alternative to the Motor Company.  It looks to me like they have decided that there is not enough of a market for those wanting a cruiser and still wanting modern technology.  

On a side note......I thought I saw a report that Yamaha was dropping their "Star" line of marketing for their cruisers and was bringing them back into the "Yamaha" lineup of bikes.  Seems that companies have decided that they just aren't going to be able to overcome 100 years of established history by HD, so why try?

[rajflyboy]

Maybe they need to sell more apparel to pay for selling the bikes

Like the motor company

 

[kyzrex]

Maybe they need to sell more apparel to pay fir selling the bikes

Like the motor company

 

I've heard that they make more profit on their apparel than they do selling the bikes, but I bet they make the most profit on selling "official HD" accessories for the bikes.  Give them credit, they took a brand that was on its last legs and was losing money hand over fist and compeletly turned it around.  We (this group of people here) may not be fans of their products, and may not care for the people that buy them, but we should be adult enough to give credit where credit is due.  They do make money.  There are a lot of motorcycle companies that have come and gone that wish they could have said the same.  

Indian does sell apparel and accessories too.  In fact, they sell some pretty high quality gear.  They also build a pretty high quality bike.  I've always been a fan of Indian over HD and did consider buying a Scout.  But after sitting on the bike and looking at it very closely I decided it just didn't fit me or speak to me the way I thought it might.  I think that their heavyweight cruisers are beautiful bikes, especially the paint jobs, but they aren't MY kind of bike.  They don't fit me or the type of riding I enjoy.  Others may find them to their liking and I say "good for them".  I don't hold it against them, or make fun of them (much), or find it a reason to insult them.  I'd rather they just go their way and I'll go mine.  I still find it a shame that Victory is shutting down because I saw it as the best chance for an established and well financed US company to bring new products that I would be interested in buying, to the marketplace.  It's not the end of the world,  but it is disappointing.

[Blue is Best]

The economy is pretty tough now for selling motorcycles. Try selling your used bike right now. The manufacturers have new left over bikes sitting around. Polaris seems like a smart company and having two brands selling very similar products in this market just didn't make sense. IMO.

I really, really want a US made sport-touring bike!!!!!!!!!!! Motus? WAY too much green for me. Buell? Ain't gonna happen. Indian? Why not? Put one of those torquey, but tuned for HP, Vtwins in a sport-touring chassis with bags and I'll look very closely. They may not want to go that direction in fear of scaring off the bar to bar crowd.

[kyzrex]

I spent sometime today talking with with a friend of mine that used to be a Toyota exec., retired, and started working with a combined Victory/Indian/Slingshot dealer.  He also has a small collection of immaculately restored early Honda's that he restored himself and puts in shows all over.  I asked him if was surprised by this announcement and he said, "not really".  

He made the point that "Victory" as a brand had no history and therefore it was not a product that generated any passion in people, unlike the HD or Indian brands.  He added the observation that when the dealership had done a weekend demo ride event for Victory that they were busy with people riding them the whole time, and people liked the bikes, but that people didn't buy them.  However, when they did the same thing for Indian, people rode the bikes, and people bought the bikes. He also said that they sold Indians over Victory by a 10-1 margin and that in the last year they had sold less than a dozen Victory bikes all year.  He thinks that it will be a good thing for the dealership because it will open up floor space for USED bikes and allow Polaris to concentrate capital on Indian development.  He also said that unlike some dealers, they were not going to just discount the bikes and lose money on each one.  Any incentives that Polaris sends their way they will pass on to the buyers, but they don't plan to just sell bikes to get them off the floor.  

[rajflyboy]

Very good thoughts K

The motor company does a very good job with building their Brand

Social branding

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathansalembaskin/2013/07/12/harley-davidson-will-be-a-case-history-in-social-branding/#330e7f115b85

[Baz]

I was at the local motorcycle show last night & spoke with a Victory rep.

To round things up, Polaris decided to kill the Victory name. They were having a hard time competing with that big company, with a bike that admittedly to them was a bit too vanilla.

Polaris is however putting forth all their efforts into the Indian brand name now, with its pushrod engine and more arts like designs. He admittedly stated that the cruiser world does not like vanilla and loves rough edges. He also stated that the Indian name probably has more popularity with the cruiser masses.

So it is sort of like GM killing the Chevrolet brand to concentrate more on Buick sales. (They sort of did this last bankruptcy with Oldsmobile)

On that note I crossed over to the Indian booth, which has some very good looking models, oh and the gear end of things came along from Victory. (Not that I am a fan of the cruiser world however)

So the death of Victory appears to be a marketing decision. Polaris might have made a pretty smart move here realizing that carrying the two brands might very well hurt them more than helping them. Like Victory the Indian name really does go back decades so I am not sure its going to be any more popular with the new age cruiser crowd.

And I am sure some group of Liberals will demand Polaris kill the "Indian" name because it will insult someone.  

Oh, on another note, used Victory's selling locally on Kijiji here now have a "Collectors Bike" name attached to their classified adds.





 

[mugwump58]

Very good thoughts K

The motor company does a very good job with building their Brand

Social branding

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathansalembaskin/2013/07/12/harley-davidson-will-be-a-case-history-in-social-branding/#330e7f115b85

Love the cmoments from "the faithful ".

[Legend]

Wonder what there going to do w/ Indian !

[kyzrex]

Wonder what there going to do w/ Indian !

There's no reason to go THERE, no matter what THEY'RE going to do with THEIR company.


 



Damn autocorrect, right?