Victory Octane ( 2017 )

Base Price : $10'000

Victory motorcycles don't come cheap, and practically never go south of $10,000. But that changes this year with the new Octane. Although not an all-new motorcycle—it shares quite a bit of its mechanical makeup with the Indian Scout 60. But that's certainly not a bad thing because the Scout made our list of best buys last year. The 1200 liquid-cooled V-Twin is a modified version of what powers the Scout. It's also where it delivers 104 hp and 76 lb-ft of torque. The suspension has been calibrated for a sportier feel, too.

Because it weighs more than 100 pounds less than Victory's own Vegas, this lower-priced machine is also one of the quickest and most rewarding to ride in the company's lineup. Compared to the classically-styled Indian, the Octane looks more like a muscled-up street fighter—and we certainly liking that aesthetic.

For those of you who haven’t noticed, Polaris, the parent company of Victory and Indian motorcycles, has been on fire. Having pushed past tough competitors such as Honda and Yamaha, it dominates the North American market for off-road four-wheelers (from ATVs to UTVs and side-by-sides), contends for the top of the snowmobile market with Bombardier, and has seen its earnings and stock rise in reward.

However, its road in the motorcycle market has been a bit more arduous. After introducing its first motorcycle—the oil-cooled V92C—back in 1998, Polaris saw its Victory motorcycle business launch, stagger, and walk in circles for much of the next decade, as the company addressed both built-in technical issues (the V92’s oil-cooled engine didn’t really cool well at the power levels desired, so it had to be redesigned to shed heat better) and learned how to play in its new sandbox. As the 20-oughts gave way to the 20-teens, Polaris’ board of directors gave the motorcycle division an ultimatum: Get profitable or get out. The result was a renewed focus on Victory, the acquisition of the Indian brand, increasing investment in new engines and new products, and rapidly rising sales

One of those new products you see pictured here is the Victory Octane, a motorcycle that Brandon Kraemer, Victory product manager, likens to a classic American muscle car: light, fast, and affordable. It’s also a machine whose coming has been telegraphed for most of a year in a series of customs by famous builders: Roland Sands’ Project 156 (as ridden by our own Don Canet at Pikes Peak); Urs Erbacher’s Ignition; and Zach Ness’ Combustion. All were built around the Octane’s new V-twin, and the later ones used much of its chassis. The Octane is very much what a lot of Victory customers and potential customers were asking for: a middleweight Victory cruiser. Its low, 26.9-inch seat height and forward pegs place it firmly in the mainstream of the cruiser class, but its 104 hp, relatively short gearing, and six-speed transmission give it performance that positions it closer to an original 1,130cc Harley V-Rod than a 1200 Sportster.

At its heart, the Octane has a new, 1,179cc V-twin that’s very closely related on the inside to the 1,133cc powerplant of the Indian Scout. It has a 2mm-larger bore, its own camshafts and tuning, and new cosmetics on its cylinder, cylinder-head, and engine-cover castings. Redline is up at 8,300 rpm, and peak torque is claimed to be 76 pound-feet, 4 more than the Scout. Wrapped around the engine is a chassis that stretches out to a 61.6-inch wheelbase. The front tire is a beefy 130/70-18, while the rear is a relatively sporty 160/70-17. A single disc brake is used at the front. The steering head rakes out at 29 degrees and works with 5.1 inches of trail, standard figures for a cruiser where good handling is more important than an extreme raked-out appearance. The fork allows 5.1 inches of wheel travel, while the twin rear shocks permit only 3.0 inches of rear-wheel movement—again, not an unusual number for a cruiser where seat height concerns and “low” style can trump rider comfort on a bad road.

Kraemer freely admits that the Octane is a platform play and utilizes many of the designs and some of the components of the Scout. “They only share about 35 percent of their parts, however,” he offers, “either on a part-number or a part-cost basis. We wanted to leverage the parts that weren’t super customer facing, like the axle shafts. But anything that gives the bike its character is unique.”

The frame structure design is similar to that of the Scout, with large front and rear aluminum castings bolting directly to the engine and two smaller aluminum frame rails tying these together under the fuel tank. The front casting provides a cage where the radiator resides. The fuel tank carries 3.4 gallons of gas and hides an airbox underneath that displaces only 0.9 gallon less—essential volume to make good power while meeting sound regulations.