Victory Octane First Ride - MOTOR GERR

The rebirth of historic yankee trade name Indian by new house owners variable might are a large success (its Chief and Scout models have already taken a giant enough chunk of the America market to create Harley stay awake and take notice) however it’s conjointly meant that its variable sister whole, Victory, has recently had to require one thing of a back seat.

Not any longer. The launch in the week of the new finish hydrocarbon, the primary all-new model from the Minnesota-based trade name in years, heralds, they’d have America believe, a tabula rasa for the V-twin cruiser firm. From currently on, variable say, finish has been repositioned slightly to take a seat higher aboard resurgent Indian. So, whereas Indian is that the ‘heritage’ whole, the classic rival that dates back to 1901 and has Harley’s America dominance considerably in its sights (Indian currently conjointly with pride calls itself ‘America’s initial motorbike company’), Victory, from currently on, stands merely for ‘Modern yankee Muscle’, and therefore the hydrocarbon is that the initial result.

Except that it’s not ­– not ‘quite’ a minimum of. The longsighted among you'll have already detected the 1200cc hydrocarbon bears quite a passing alikeness to the 1200cc Scout launched by sister company Indian in 2014. It’s no coincidence. though finish themselves prominently create no mention of the association in their official packaging, the reality is that the hydrocarbon is effectively a Scout that’s been tweaked and restyled to suit Victory’s new mission.

To their credit, though, finish have done a reasonably smart job and therefore the result's sufficiently totally different|completely different} – there’s much more thereto than simply different badges ­– to merit being thought of as a worthy bike in its claim.

So, though the essential 60ยบ, liquid-cooled V-twin engine design is that the same, its bore is up from ninety nine to 101mm however with same seventy three.6mm stroke to require capability up to 1179.3cc from 1133cc. Compression is additionally up from ten.7:1 to 10.8:1 with the combined result being a small boost in peak power from the Scout’s 100bhp at 8100rpm to the Octane’s 103bhp @ 8000rpm, enough, slightly artfully, for finish to with boldness claim the hydrocarbon is its most powerful bike ever.

It doesn’t finish there: Engine barrels Associate in Nursingd heads area unit cosmetically restyled; in situ of the Scout’s retro 16-inch wheels front and rear there’s an 18/17-in band with fenders to match, there’s a neat nose protective cover and every one the description and badging currently, inevitably, says finish.

It’s a sweet enough ride, too. The seat is preposterously low, the riding position novice-friendly, the read ahead takes in a very single dial that, just like the Indian, oddly blends Associate in Nursing Associate in Nursingalogue speedo with an digital display digital tacho (rather than, additional usefully, the opposite manner round) and therefore the controls all simple.

It’s been aforesaid before however that Indian, sorry, finish V-twin may be a peach: usefully memorizing from as very little as 2500rpm before building in a very linear fashion and terminating from 5 large integer and up. motion is easy and pleasing (a 70mph cruising speed comes up at simply 4000rpm in sixth); get additional aggressive with it and, as we have a tendency to found at our check at city Speed World drag strip, and there’s enough to squeal tyres and do burn outs

What’s additional, at £9800 once the hydrocarbon goes on sale within the Great Britain in late Gregorian calendar month, it’s not simply additional powerful than the Scout upon that it’s primarily based, to not mention being arguably additional substantial due principally to its larger wheels, it’s cheaper, too.

Whether all that creates Victory’s newcomer a higher purchase I’m not thus certain. The hydrocarbon may be a good enough bike with a (slight) flavour of power cruiser. Materially, it conjointly makes additional sense than the already nice Indian Scout upon that it’s primarily based. Trouble is, I struggle to urge the ‘based on Scout’ bit out of my head and, quite that, the Indian whole resonates with Pine Tree State, is powerful and fascinating, while, within the Great Britain a minimum of, finish simply doesn’t quite cut it to identical degree.


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