Victory's Out Of Here

scootac

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Clearing out inventory might mean time to buy one....to some people. HD will be cheering about this I spose.
 

Bones

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Should have used the Victory brand name to launch something radical like a non-V-twin engine without push-rods.
Nope...anything new and radical should be attached to the Indian brand, which took off quite well when reintroduced by Polaris. Victory never enjoyed such success. Would be nice to see Indian compete in market segments other than heavy cruisers.
 

amorley

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Shows that the market for big touring motorcycles is tough and that keeping up with the new EU emission standards requires a significant investment in new engines.
 
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Someday, those Victory Visions will be collectors items.
BWAAAAHAAAAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAAA!! You mean like the Ford Edsel?? That's exactly what those bikes reminded me of with that huge horse collar looking front end!

One less cruiser maker on the market is a good thing, in my book.
 
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dduelin

dduelin

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People out of work from suppliers all the way to salesmen is not a good thing IMHO. American jobs too.
 
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BWAAAAHAAAAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAAA!! You mean like the Ford Edsel?? That's exactly what those bikes reminded me of with that huge horse collar looking front end!

One less cruiser maker on the market is a good thing, in my book.
No, that is not what I mean. More like a Vincent Black Prince. Plus we need more manufacturing jobs here in the US, not less.
 

Muchmore

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People out of work from suppliers all the way to salesmen is not a good thing IMHO. American jobs too.
Nobody was buying them so not really a big job loss there. Hopefully they can focus on Indian and maybe introduce more Indian models with Victory parts to keep the supply up.
 

ST Gui

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amorley said:
Shows that the market for big touring motorcycles is tough
Which should also provide perspective on why there is no new ST.


MajorTom said:
Less choice is rarely a good thing.
+1 Choice is good. Just because any given bike isn't my choice doesn't mean it's a bad choice. More often that not providing choice means competition can improve the competition's products.
 

catcher

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the market for big touring motorcycles is tough
Indeed. Lots of competition - we consumers benefit.
Tradition is a powerful marketing tool. Consider BMW's RT and GS, both have been around for years, and continue to sell well. Also Honda's Goldwing, there's a benchmark for you!

Which should also provide perspective on why there is no new ST
Actually, since the sport-touring market has been leaning toward adventure-touring of late, (riders find it preferable to sit more upright, less leaning forward) Honda's much admired V-Four has been redesigned as the Unicam version, and installed in a new and better chassis. Hence the VFR1200X. Try it, you'll like it!
 
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Victim of market saturation in the heavyweight segment.
The market for these is shrinking and their riders are aging out.
Unless there's a big influx of younger riders the market for heavyweight bikes will continue to shrink.
The same will happen to the Sport touring segment as well, we need younger riders!!
 
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dduelin

dduelin

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Selling well is a relative term. The RT and GS sell in small numbers in the US. It's hard to find Victory unit sales but it wouldn't surprise to find across their model line they barely outsold BMW unit for unit in the USA. Victory is reported to have a 2% market share in the US and BMW holds about 3%. For the last full year of figures, 2015, BMW sold 16,330 motorcycles and scooters in the US out of approximately 500,000 of all brands sold. The #1 model was the S1000R at 2172 units sold, #2 was the R1200GS Adventure @1992 units/1878 "regular" R1200GS @1878. The RT numbers, behind the 800s and C650 scooters, did not make mention in the sources I checked - possible sales of just a few hundred units in 2015.

In Victory's case I think the resurgent Indian brand was the death of them. Two competing cruiser brands in the same house against Harley Davidson was one too many.
 
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