The bike was officially introduced this weekend at the New York IMS show, although there had been a fair amount of speculation about the machine rumbling around the blogosphere for some time. As a lifelong fan of bobber style, I have to say, well done. In it's press release Victory waxes; "It's new. It's bad-ass. It's the bike you want to be seen on - plus it's a Victory, so you know it's got arm-stretching American performance". Ah, touting that American hot rod theme.........very nice. Longtime Chrome Asylum readers (OK, two and a half months........a lifetime I can assure you in the rough and tumble of motorcycle blogs!) will remember that we had kinda hinted that playing up a performance rich hot rod heritage would be a productive strategy for Victory.........really, look it up. However, since I'm doubting that any of the OE cheeses are even aware that the Asylum exists, and given the lead times involved in developing product, we'll just call it a happy coincidence.
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| High rise bars and wide white wall tires.....cool |
Any color you want, as long as it's black, and flat black at that.........yes!! Staying true to bobber style, for many of us at least, means leaving in the "rough edges", keeping it raw, basic, honest. And Victory scores here........and you know there had to be folks in marketing just begging for a metal flake vente green and cocoa cream two-toned paint scheme, thankfully old school won that playground tussle. Along with the predominately black palette (including the exhaust) comes a refreshing lack of chrome. Other traditional bobber features include; highrise bars (adjustable), 16 inch lace wheels fore and aft, wide white wall tires, solo seat and single gauge instrumentation. The High Ball comes equipped with Victory's 106ci/6 speed, fuel injected, counter balanced V-Twin, which puts out a more than respectable 97hp and 113 ft-lb of torque. As with all Victory's, this one should scoot......as is fitting a hot rod.
Oh, almost forgot the best part, a $13,499 MSRP! How's that for an affordable drinking buddy.......I mean bar hopper, ah, I mean........well you know. At that price Victory might have to put in some over-time to keep up.......let's hope.
So in the end does the High Ball "work" as a Victory? Too soon to tell, but by all appearances they got it right, and that's saying a lot. Because frankly, I never saw this kind of bike as being something that would make the line-up. It's just not them, not really part of the Victory DNA. This is the company that prides itself on innovative, forward looking design, they had the vision to do the Vision for cryingoutloud. None of their machines, while all V-Twins to be sure, could be considered from a stylistic perspective at least, to be retro inspired. They went their own way, Milwaukee be damned, and I've always thought that was by far the best strategy.........be original, stake your own claim, don't be what you're not. With the High Ball, it will be interesting to see how the traditional Victory customer base responds, as well as, folks that are current or former Harley riders. Will a Victory with ape hangers and wide white wall tires, and styling cues that could have it mistaken for, gasp, a Harley Davidson resonate with the Victory faithful?? Think I'll need a couple more drinks to ponder that question.
And lastly, if anything, the High Ball ought to be a wake-up call for the Motor Company, a flat black shot across the old front fender if you will. I mean come on, a relatively cheap, rat bike inspired bobber, and it's not being built by HD......blasphemy!! This is a bike Harley should be building, but isn't, not really. I'm only gonna say this once, well OK, twice, I've actually already droned on about it in a prior article (you factory guys really ought to pay attention.....this stuff is free!), but HD needs to build a bobber inspired bike on a Dyna frame, with a 96ci motor, for an MSRP of $9,999. Impossible? Find a way..........there absolutely has to be another "gateway" to Motor Company crack that doesn't have "Sportster" in its name.......You want youth? They want style
and horsepower.......give it to them.
