Be willing to switch your intellect

Printed: 21 July 2000

Up to date: 19 November 2014

IT’S just right to problem your self, to take your self apart and query your ideals once in a while. It’s even higher if you’ll be able to do it in wonderful sunshine. As I take a seat reflecting on my newly-shifted fact I’m watching, nearly adoringly, at a cultured American good looks. Daylight glinting from its chrome, the large

V-twin engine pink-pink-pinks, cooling in a steady summer season breeze. Now we have simply accomplished some very arduous miles. I’ve proven the large cruiser no mercy. And it has left me smiling.

I’ll be truthful with you. When any person makes use of the phrase motorbike my intellect’s eye has an image of a fully-faired, kneeslider-destroying, soft-rubbered sports activities motorcycle. Those heavyweight chrome collections may well be an ideal pose, and one thing of a girl mystery, however they hardly ever gentle my candle.

However the Victory V92SC has taken my comfy international and given it a handy guide a rough and efficient shake. It began once I flicked the under-fuel tank ignition transfer to ” run ” and the integrated engine diagnostic gadget went via its tick list…

In entrance of me there’s a caution gentle fixed at the sprint to show any faults. A tiny LED panel sits centrally within the round-faced speedometer exhibiting a tripmeter decided on from switchgear-mounted buttons.

The engine’s rev-counter rests within the decrease part of the show. Hit the button and the starter motor chugs the 1507cc V-twin lump into immediate lifestyles. At idle the beat sounds lazy… lazy however menacing.

Choose first tools, and with a handy guide a rough blip at the throttle I begin to slowly clear out of the automobile park. At this pace you are feeling the burden – 317kg (697lb) with its 22.5-litre (4.95-gallon) gas tank stuffed to the brim.

The saving grace is the V92SC’s low seat top. Even with my little legs, my toes leisure very easily at the flooring. You take a seat low-down like on a ’70s superbike – whole with the relatively raised handlebars. And once you get above waddling tempo and leisure your toes at the footrests, the burden turns out to soften away.

There’s one thing about driving in a gaggle of 10 giant cruisers: Youngsters wave, OAPs forestall to crane wizened necks. Simply attempt to forestall Born to Be Wild from beginning in the back of your intellect.

As we in spite of everything transparent the congested streets and head out into the rustic, I am getting a primary probability to show up the wick at the fuel-injected motor. Each upward gearchange is rewarded with no longer just a ” clunk ” however a lunge ahead. The Victory turns out to lighten-up because of its neatly matched Marzocchi 50mm entrance fork meeting and adjustable Fox rear monoshock. That is high quality stuff on this planet of cruisers and in combination they care for the large torque being spat out on the again wheel and with each undulation of the street.

And because the pace will increase I recall that alien spaceship in The Navigator. It’s nearly as though it adjustments form to move sooner. It feels nimbler, extra in a position to chop throughout the air. The tortoise has ditched its shell.

I begin to experiment with the chassis and the brakes as we duck and dive throughout the again roads. The one factor letting it down is that outdated cruiser bugbear: Flooring clearance. And it’s no longer only a footpeg factor. Chuck the V92SC in arduous and the body rail will quickly be at the deck. Horrifying stuff.

It calls for a distinct taste of driving, and one that may be simply as a lot amusing. You quickly learn how to make the most productive use of the suspension and the very good Brembo four-piston twin-disc entrance brakes and the charging grunt from the engine.

Crank it somewhat, then seize a handful to ship the large pistons up and down in double-quick time and also you get a wonderful kick within the guts and your neck is snapped again. Now, with many cruisers, I wouldn’t really feel the wish to give it an intensive pasting. Thrashing is, in any case, for extra sports-biased motorcycles. Those machines are supposed to be laid-back, aren’t they?

Smartly, Victory doesn’t name this motorcycle a cruiser, they name it a Game Cruiser (therefore the SC designation). There’s undoubtedly it may possibly cruise, however how arduous can it recreation? Permitting the pack to get a long way forward I get ready for an intensive work-out.

Exiting a sluggish nook, and with a transparent street forward, I wind the large V-twin up nearly to the purple line. During the five-speed gearbox, I watch the speedo needle climb towards 85 then 90 mph. Then I’m arduous at the brakes and, the usage of a much wider line than standard, grind it via the following flip. It’s a atypical feeling on a cruiser the place you’ll be able to in truth really feel the suspension transferring and absorbing the bumps in any respect speeds. I wasn’t the one one to be enjoying this sport.

For the following 20 miles a pack of V92SCs have been neatly and in point of fact thrashed. The ensuing large smiles counsel Victory might not be thus far unsuitable with that ” SC ” designation. Simply don’t pass difficult R1s…

VICTORY V92SC

Value: £12,449

Availability: Mike Pedlar: 01869-363640

Colors: Black, silver/gray, blue/gray, black/gray, yellow

Specification

Engine: Air/oil-cooled, 1507cc (97mm x 102mm) 8v sohc four-stroke 50° V-twin. Digital gas injection. 5 gears

Chassis: Metal double-cradle

Entrance suspension: 50mm Marzocchi forks, no changes

Rear suspension: Unmarried surprise, changes for pre-load handiest

Tyres: Dunlop D205F; 120/70 x ZR17 entrance, Dunlop D205; 180/55 x ZR17 rear

Brakes: Brembo; 2 x 300mm entrance discs with 4-piston calipers, 300mm rear disc with 2-piston calipers

Efficiency

Claimed energy: 72bhp

Weight, energy to weight ratio: 286kg (630lb), 0.252bhp/kg

Claimed most sensible pace: 110mph

Geometry Rake, path, wheelbase: 30°, 11.9cm, 164cm

Gasoline intake/Moderate mpg/tank capability/vary: 35mpg, 22.5 litres, 173 miles