Doesn’t matter to me and to most of you the label you put on on the brand new Victory Hard-Ball model. Just make it both your bass ass cruiser and tourer. Hit the street, the road or the highway with the long (65.7 wheelbase), low platform (26.5″) that let you either carve sharp corners or do comfortable long riding. For sure, the Hard-Ball is the big brother of the successful High-Ball model for all those who always want more of a good thing. Same stance, same powerful 4-stroke 106″(1731 cc) / 6-speed 50˚ EFI V-Twin with dual 45 mm throttle bodies, same height-adjustable ape hangers, but of course with the benefit of all the space you need, and probably more most of the time, in a pair of hard bags.
Darker end to end than his High-Ball little brother (Victory keeps the red pinstripes so that you can find your bike in the dark of night…), it seems to me that the Hard-Ball could fill a big market segment, the one of riders wishing a dual purpose bike but refusing the candy/over chromed/over gadgeted big cruiser/tourer.
Could the Hard-Ball become the new “Hard Core Dresser”. I thing that it’s a very good play by Polaris. This new 2012 model will appear at your Victory dealership first week of January.
Full tech sheet is below. MSRP: $18,999 (48 US states), 19,429 (California), $20,699 (Canadian dollars) Victory Motorcycles.
Change the fuel tank and there is the new Indian!
FUGLY
Like it. Good competitor to HD “lower” touring.
Thanks Cyril for going out of your way to post this
It’s nice to have options. Thanks Victory.
Why do they show a rider who looks like he just escaped from the slammer?
no fairing no stereo and $18,999 wish em luck but hd still has em beat
I Like it! And like the fact that our new Top Shelf Saddlebag Organizers fit this model!
I think I might swap out the front Turn Signals for something bit more subdued..
Nice finish!
Miltrane. Like you I am surprised by the guy they chose to ride this bike. Victory should project a clean image…like Cyril. Except this I like the bike. The high-ball was a little bit too proper for me. But like this one, a little bit more matcho. But get rid of this headlight!
I like it! I want to see one in person…….
Don’t think H/D stock will dive Monday!
He’s another one of those Hells Angels wannabees like those Jesse James types.
I’d be extremely careful about knocking the guy pictured on this bike though. I doubt anybody around here is interested in an Asshole Cake for Christmas.
Good to see Victory showing Harley what they could have been building five years ago if they’d embraced the custom bagger boom. Cheaper than a Road King Classic, but with masses more attitude and whole new vibe, it will take a screen easily enough and still cost less and offer more if you can live with the more modern style. Would have preferred to see it with the slimmer ‘soft’ bags, which tuck in tighter at the back.
C’mon Harley-Davidson, this needs a response! If you can’t keep pace with the New American Motorcycle – and we know that you can easily meet this challenge mid-season from the parts bin without any retooling or investment beyond a website update and a paintjob – how will you cope when Indian relaunches, assuming they successfully carry off the whole heritage brand thing?
Please, junk this headlight & turn signals. Is there a designer at Polaris?
What kind of drugs are they on over there? What a godawful looking motorcycle.
Just because it’s ‘different’ doesn’t mean it’s good.
Wow hype for a flat black crossroads…Hey is that the fomz jumping a shark i see
Can you say “Dark Custom”? This is right out of Harley’s playbook! I’m disappointed. And that tease made it even worse. Victory has a couple of class acts with the Cross Country and the Cross Roads. The Vision,,,well no middle ground there, you love it or hate it. This one is just lame to me. I really would like to see VIC become a MAJOR player. I think they have the talent in place as far as engineering and manufacturing capabilities. But marketing is out to lunch. Keep swinging the bat guys. I’m happy your in the game but this just isn’t a hit. More like a sacrifice, to keep the name in the news. And that IS important.
@ Dave G …. I agree about the signals, maybe some smaller mirrors too.
Good job, Victory
Love the colour combo. But lines of the bike don’t flow.
Who the F#@^% pays the guys in the design dept ?
The guy should be canned.
Interesting, the front & back look like two different bikes. You’ve got the dainty little front turnsignals and big slabs of saddlebag in back. I’m afraid the headlamp just doesn’t work for me, but perhaps it’s just the dinosaur in me wanting round headlamps. The middle of the bike looks nice.
Between the headlight, turn signals and the pointy bags they missed me completely.
Rat rod derivative does not a legend make.
Victory knows how to build good bikes but doesn’t know how to design them. It’s an “enginneers” company doing functional stuff, but with no design sensibility. What a shame to lose so much because of poor design. It would not take much to improve it…
the arlen design theme is dating pretty rapidly.
What an Ugly piece of snot.
The mexican’s will love it.
Looks like hell-
Where has the “style” gone? Looks like the let the engineers loose on that one.
I agree with C Martinez in that Victory can engineer bikes but have no designers of value. That headlight they carry throughout most of their line is just ugly. The bike doesn’t flow properly in terms of aesthetics. It’s a shame because a designer has quite a bit to work with in Victory in that they trump pretty much everything the Mo Co has done in terms of engineering and functional aspects. In fact, Victory has certainly left potential sales at the door because of their designs.
Hard-Ball….? LMAO
Wow.
That’s certainly a disappointment.
If Victory wants Harley in their sights at least use some viable ammunition.
Different… they gotta do something about the appearance of the upper part of the motor, to blan, the jugs look like something off a blender, gotta give it some personality.
Turn signals and the head light need to go, they just don[‘t jive. The petrol tank could be redone, but still not as bad as the signals.
Hopefully the bike looks better than in the flesh than in the photos. I don’t need to see any more of the beef cake.
I like LOUD pipes!
Leave it to Victory to always come out with something that completely polarizes opinion. Despite if it is your style or not I think it’s smart idea to take two of the two most popular bike categories (Bobber & Touring) and combine the two into a kind of hybrid. My only real complaint about it would be that the price could probably stand to be chopped about a grand or two but if you like the Highball (which I do) and want to rack up the miles with the ole lady then it’s hard to beat the Hardball.
It is definitely unique, I kinda like it, You can’t really compare it to anything HD makes.
Imagine one in Gloss Black.
Nice try.
A step up from the High Ball and more practical for the same type of customer. Hope it sells.
Well HD what you got? Another Crossbones? Rocker? Blackline? Nightrod? None were comfortable, this bike will be though.
The design comments make me think back to when BMW redesigned there automobiles and made them more cutting edge looking, everyone hated that look then but now every car company is trying to imitate it.
P.S. looks a lot better on video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv4IBT18xxo&feature=player_embedded#!
dont like it much at all ,like anything it would look better with less stock junk but then so does a LADA .ha
I think it looks like ass like all Victories…Makes me worried what they are going to do to Indian when they roll out their own models in 2013.
Looks like a lot of plastic…. Design is certainly very “Victory” looking.
Give them a B for trying. Without cool accessories (outside reject parts from Ness), it will be hard to make it your own. Wondering when Kuryakyn is going to start looking at some stuff for those bikes.
Man, they definately need a designer at Polaris Victory. Sorry it just doesn’t make the grade. Lots of others out there with great design. However, they don’t work for Polaris, Indian, or for that matter, HD. I will say though that HD still beats Victory. Just my 2 cts.
This is what the “Sons of Anarchy” will be riding in the new season of the TV show !!!
Flat Black Testosterone!!!! Go Get’Em…Boys
SSDD;David
Just ugly…
So this is what all the hub-bub and secrecy was about? Give me a F’n break, it’s nothing more than a Cross Roads with apes – how innovative and original ! *yawn* Just what the world needs, yet another huge overweight cruiser with an over inflated price.
You can buy Victory Motorcycles at Eddie Trotta`s Thunder Cycles in Ft Lauderdale, Florida!
Yesterday, when Cyril published, didn’t like what I saw. This morning, I like much better. So I don’t know anymore what to think. Do we all need time to adjust to Victory new designs?
I think most people forget about Cyril’s headline. It’s both a tourer and a cruiser. It may be why it is going to sell.
For the Hard-ball rider casting they picked the wrong guy. It’s not at all the Victory clientele and will never be. Even Harley picks more gentle looking models! Victory = good engineering, poor design, poor advertising. What a shame. How many lost sales?
mere words cannot describe my disappointment
A big miss by Victory. The idea to cover the market cruiser/tourer with the same model is a good one. But execution is so so. I hope they will learn from the comments above.
If you add dd cruise and ABS to a Road King standardits the same price. At that point its a matter of style preference and I’d choose HD hands down.
If you add ABS to a standard Street Glide, the glide is $1700 more but you get a fairing and a stereo, again, I’d choose the glide.
I don’t like the flat black w/red pin stripe thing, but it’s a good looking bike. Price is too high, it would be a great bike for 14-15k.
The only thing I would change would be the crash bars, I like the forged ones much better.
I hope they sell alot of them.
It sounds like alot of the naysayers expect too much from a company, Victory can’t build a new, from the ground up, bike every six months
.
I would choose this bike over the street glide, road king, and anything that Honda or the other Big Three put out that is in the same class.
USD forks with apes on a bagger just doesn’t balance out. A heavier front end like the covered forks of a HD touring bike would fill in the front, giving it the right proportions in relation to the rear. I agree with the comment that the bike looks like two designs front and back, better from the seat back than tank & forward.
But like the last two new HDs, the Blackline and the Switchback, these are parts-bin models. Nothing new, just a reconfiguration.
I want to see something new, not just reworked.
I also think it looks better than anything those three guys did on TV just the other day, and more practical too!
I never get tiered reading the dribble coming from the cool-aid drinking if it isn’t a Harley group. Like it or hate it, Vic has got HD looking in the rear view mirror and is creating a buzz. Just look at this and every other Vic bike release through out the Cyril blog. The cross series in a fantastic bike, this is not my cup of tea, but it adds another option to buyers.
Add me to the negative impressions list.. I was really looking forward to this unveiling as the “X” bikes made good progress in looks, equipment, performance and value when placing HD and Vic side by side. I applaud them for not making clone bikes, but was looking forward to this new bike having some “new”/classic design influences from Indian and their own 92C offerings blending into a different theme.
Never say never as to buying a Vic and I will continue to look at them, but this new bike was def a lost sale and worse, a lost opportunity to peak interest on where they’re headed, hopefully it’s not staying where they’ve been. Ness is not helping IMO, but that’s just me subjectively saying use his contract $ to bring in new design talent to join the team of engineers as it can be both “pretty” and work like a real motorcycle should.
Cutting edge ‘sharp’ styling on an incredible proven platform. An open and well laid foundation to add some personalization and have something truly different from the masses. Built in the USA by true Americans who are not scared to push the envelope to build special bikes for special people. Not for everyone, and that is the greatest appeal, looks like an early start to what will be a great and pivotal new year at Polaris.
A heartfelt congratulations to the Victory team, keep your head down and your focus high…
Not a fan…I am too HD bias
Nice, currently own two Victorys, rode HD for thirty years. Twin cam is a boat anchor. My 92 inch Kingpin eats 110 HDs a new butt. Faster, better built, twice as American made. The yuppie glut is over and the new kid in town in kicking ass.
Whatever they try, they produce ugly bikes…
You know guys…. it seems that most of you are hardcore HD riders and fans… So you will never like the Victory design. They do have designers in-house that are working towards the company overall view of what they think a Victory motorcycle should look like. If they had copied HD and make it look like a Softail, most of you would have said they still suck because they copied HD.
It’s their design and their approach of motorcycles. Their sales are up and they are starting to mess around with HD pretty well. This means, most of the customers they have talked to are probably finding this bike pretty nice. Obviously they are not reading this blog.
It’s just like releasing a new Lamborghini model on a Ferrari Forum…. you know what I mean?
FWIW-my last h-d was a ’79 FL. I currently have 3 Hondas & a. BSA. I still don’t think that bike works. Looks like committee Dod it, with the occasional sketch from Mr. Ness. Got nothing to do w/Harley.
It’s the problem with all big corporations. What is accepted is the average of what is acceptable by the majority. So, it’s never the best a company can do. Just average. Exceptions? Steve Jobs at Apple because of his strong personality, talent to know what is right or wrong, and the power to impose his decisions to all. Now, I am curious to know if the top 10 polaris executives have any proven qualification in design. In finance and engineering, yes I am pretty sure.. But I bet not in design. I bet Polaris designers are just top employees, not decision makers. To conqueer larger market share will now require that Victory understand more engineering and finance. Motorcycles are not ATV’s and are sold for other reasons. Two of them are product image and aesthetics.
Harley Davidson R.I.P.
Keep the black accents, change the matte black on the tank and fenders with some basic one or two tone, and you’d have a damn fine looking bike.
Change to a black inverted fork 63mm front end, old school 7′ headlight ,old school blinkers and mirrors would make a better marketable bike. Still got to give them some credit for the change.
Still too “Arlen Ness like”. Too “swoopy”. They look like something the Jetsons would ride. I hate to knock an American MC builder but I’n NOT going to buy one of their spaceship styled bikes. Whenever one of their touring bikes pass by, I hear most people voice dissatifaction (I’m trying to be polite here) with the styling.
Looks like it’s covered with cheap plastic
It looks like a gray market Chinese or Korean POS.
I’m a little disappointed as it turns out to be a “blacked out Cross Roads with the
High Ball “apehangers”. Gee I think the regular bars on both of the “Cross” bikes are adjustable.
So you could have your “apehangers” anyway. I still think the “Cross” bike are awesome, and
I’m a hugh Victory fan. I’ve said it before, I think I know what my next “Bagger” bike is going to be,
but this one does not impress me one little bit. It’s the same as what H-D does all the time, tweek it and call it a new bike. C’mon Victory? You’re better that this !!!!!!!
I would suggest that all motorcycle manufacturers propose less models, only the ones with unique designs, instead of recycling in a different package parts used on other bikes of the lineup.
I don’t think they’ll change the lights,it’s their design. They make a good bike,but they’re too expensive to compete.The other thing is ,if ya buy one,you better love it cause it won’t have much resale…………
Victory: Ahh No
Pedro, thats some funny s***, i don’t care who you are
Gee, What a concept! Let’s see…Hmmm, How about make it White Pearl with 24-carat Gold accents, a 120 c.i. Diamond cut engine [only made 5 of ’em], White Buffalo seat, doowa ditty bag, ‘an streamers, saddlebags, all switches built into the bars, with white bling lights etc. Check out “Purity” on http://www.freebirdcustommotorcycles.com Yuk-Yuk!!! Wiz
Negativity, Guys I have rode Harleys since 1973 and currently own 08 FXSTC, 04 FXSTSI,03FXSTDI & 87 FXLR. All great bikes. BUT I wanted something different. Harley has their Screaming Eagle 110 models, test rode them and while I liked the 09 FXSTSSE3 a LOT, I did not care for the 30k + price tag.
I have been test riding Victorys since 08 and was impressed with their 100cc 6 speed and then they antited up with a new 106 / 6 This is one nice motor and smooth over 85 MPH,BE HONEST Guys Harleys are NOT fun to ride over 85.
I too hope Harley comes out with new machines, The 103 is a reaction to Victory’s 106, but they do not have a bike to put it in that is new / fresh. IMHO
I purchased a new 2011 Jackpot and the only bad thing I have to say about it is, uh nothing , it is a really nice machine. and custom right out of the box.
When I pull up to a group of Harley Riders, I get all good comments.
Do yourself a favor take Victory for a ride, but then again, many you better not, your Road King ain’t worth as much as ya think sailor.
And to the guy who thought this new bike should be 14k new, Please keep your Sportster will ya. Too funny.
I agree with the comments that Victory models all have terrible styling. I see that as their only real shortcoming. The reason Harleys remain desirable is that they have classic styling, specifically the lines established by Milwaukee industrial stylist Brooks Stevens in the late Forties.
Weird Harley models like the Deuce, Rocker, etc. will come and go but as long as the MoCo continues to make models that retain Stevens’ basic styling cues, Harleys will always be considered stylish.
The formula for making a “custom” Harley has always been (and will surely continue to be) to create a bike that looks as little as a Harley Big Twin as possible, based entirely on the exaggeration of certain dimensons, i.e. longer fork, wider rear tire, stretched frame, wider/narrower handlebars, etc. Exactly as most humor is based on exaggeration of certain elements, so is the creation of a “custom” V-twin.
In other words, the less it looks like a Harley, the cooler it is perceived [by some] to be. Personally I like the classic Harley look.
Victory is using the “exaggeration formula” to try to appeal to those who for whatever reason don’t care for the classic Harley look. Unfortunately what they don’t seem to realize is that more people do like Stevens’ timeless designs than don’t, so Victory sales suffer (compared to what they could be).
The Hydra-Glide had pleasing, balanced lines that had a definite “flow” to them. Victory’s styling features lines that are stark, oddly skewed and unbalanced; different merely for different’s sake. And just like so many failed “custom” bike builders, Polaris seems oblivious to the fact that different does not automatically equal better. Better is always different, but different is NOT always better.
If Polaris were to hire stylists who understand the value of classic lines, they could actually be a contender against Harley.
who is the the designer,, is he coming from another planet,,,,ugly
I always try to be honest. Although sometimes I try to write something that is original. I also read all the postings before I post. this is the most reasonable reaction and the fairest way to be sensible and get some respect from the regulars that post with Cyril ! I like what Mike said, very grow up , Try one out Mikey we might just like a Victory , great Idea. I know the Dude riding……..he is a Sales Mgr. of a Miami Dealership. He Is Ugly !!!!!
It’s funny how the Victory models that envoke the strongest responses (good and/or bad) are usually their best sellers. Polaris maybe on to something here.
Good post Todd8080 and I have an 80/80 also.
agree… fugly.
Doesn’t matter what it is,it is a cool bike.
It looks better without the bags. Looks really wide in the ass with them on.
I can imagine that there were a lot of high fives at Harley Davidson world headquarters.
You know at least you’re always able to use fugly Harleys for parts, but this creation….
Yes! Another flat black bike.
its good that we have another American bike
but this one was seems to have been in the “how can we hit all the groovy things at once” committee way too long and
it should be named the camel
the motor like the motors in the new Triumphs are just too massive and unattractive
when viewed in real life-the camera is magical sometimes-
a harley motor and a pre 74 Triumph motor is just a work of art to the eye
and sadly this bike just does not give me that Oh I gotta have it feel.
I tried to switch to Victory in 2001… I was sooooo tired of Harley and the people on them, who at the time was every doctor and lawyer in town on his new Fatboy or Road King. It did not take very long to go back to HD. Victory is a superior machine on an engeneering level but to me they are kinda like a test tube baby(no soul). Since 2002 they have added more and more plastic and safety decals. I just can’t get into them. I thought they were going to be the next big thing in 01/02 but they went off in the wrong direction. I do like Zacks sled he built a few years ago.
I have to laugh at all the nasayers. Only a few years ago those same folks wondered where there was another American maker. Well here they are and they are bitching. Must be in their blood to do just that. It looks good. From a loyal HD rider.
Hope this thing evades radar! Even the Stealth fighter is sexier than this.
POLARIS- Invest in a design dept.!
Nevermind.They did invest the Nessmen………….
Rider2…Couldn’t agree with you more
I wonder if I’ve ever seen a good looking Victory…This thing is ugly as hell.
I’m British. We have a cheerfully smutty sense of humour in the UK. You would not believe the amount of joy that the name ‘Hard Ball bagger’ has brought to us. We’ve not laughed so much since the halycon days of the Abingdon King Dick motorcycle. 🙂
For those who hate the Hard-Ball, there is the Cross Roads and Cross Roads LE (The latter is the one I really like). Check it out – the same core motorcycle can have a completely different presentation – of which many of you will still hate, but have the energy to write up that hate and present it! We just wanted to offer a wide variety of options to the basic touring package – and looking at the whole touring line-up at once, we have an answer for almost any person interested in an American Touring machine.
Have a cool weekend – hope you get to ride a bike.
http://www.polarisindustries.com/en-us/victory-motorcycles/touring/cross-roads-classic-le/pages/photos.aspx