As some of you know, I've got a part-time job in addition to my duties at Super Streetbike serving as an occasional road-tester for our sister publication, Motorcyclist magazine. Motorcyclist is a general interest moto mag, and my work for them allows me the opportunity to ride all kinds of bikes-not just the sportbikes worshipped on the pages of Super Streetbike but also cruisers, touring bikes, standards, dual sports and other types of two-wheeled conveyance that I'm willing to bet most card-carrying SSB readers wouldn't be caught dead on.
Confession time: even though I'm a sportbike guy to the core (the only modern motorcycle that I currently hold the title to is a Suzuki GSX-R750), I enjoy riding all types of motorcycles-especially cruisers. There, I said it. I was reminded of this fact a few weeks back when I was on assignment in Minnesota for Motorcyclist, handling the first-ride road test of Victory Motorcycles' new Jackpot custom cruiser. There's a lot to like just looking at the Jackpot, with its extra-fat, 250mm rear tire, acres of chrome and candy paint, but what really drove it home for me was the ride. With a massive, 100-cubic-inch, four-valve, overhead cam motor, the Jackpot hauled ass unlike any production cruiser I'd ridden. OK, it lacked the top-end speed and lithe handling of a sportbike, but it had definitely had the right brutish, muscular attitude that excited my inner hooligan in much the same way that a tricked-out sportbike does.
The most exciting part of the Victory visit, however, had nothing to do with the Jackpot. The destination for our ride that day was Victory's all-new (and high-security) Wyoming Technology Center in Wyoming, Minnesota. This is a $32 million new-product development center where all of Victory's design and engineering services are now consolidated. There we met Victory's product designers and had the opportunity to discuss with them some of their views about the future motorcycle design trends.
The first indication that Victory isn't your typical cruiser company came as soon as we entered the Wyoming facility. There were two bikes on display in that lobby, both of which were the last thing you would expect to see at a company known exclusively (to this point) for traditional heavyweight cruiser motorcycles. The first was a purpose-built roadracing machine fitted with a Suzuki GSXR tailsection, fork and wheels, a Ducati 998 upper fairing and a massive, Victory Freedom V-twin engine that a group of Victory engineers had been competing with in Central Roadracing Association endurance racing events. The second bike was the Axe, the "design exercise" pictured on this page. The Axe is clearly a chopper but with undeniable streetfighter influences showing through in the hacked-off tailsection, the trio of projector-beam headlights and twin chromed nitrous bottles attached to the fork. Victory is not, in other words, your father's cruiser company-and apparently I'm not the only guy out there who appreciates the crossover potential between the chopper/cruiser/sportbike cultures.
It all made sense when we met Victory's industrial design group. These guys definitely weren't the typical crusty, bearded-and-beer-gutted chopperheads you might expect to meet deep inside a "cruiser" company. These were surprisingly young, well-educated and accomplished designers with impressive credentials (degrees from the famous Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and real-world experience at high-tech firms like BMW and Rolls Royce). More important, these were serious performance junkies (and oftentimes, sportbike owners) who were very enthusiastic about designing killer, cutting edge motorcycles. That these guys would spend their spare time mashing up cruisers and sportbikes seems almost inevitable.