Well I have a buddy who has both Victory and HD in his garage and I spoke to him alot before making up my mind. I also spent time at both local dealerships Victory and HD. The Hammer was the bike I was considering at first and then I noticed the Ness Jacpot. I got a price quote of about 22K!! Holy Crap.. So I said well how much for the regular Jackpot 18K!! Holy Crap!! Well not too far off considering a price of a screamin Eagle HD was much more,but sumthing wasnt feelin right bout the Victorys. I had a hella time puttin my finger on it. I liked the HP numbers of the big Victory engine and they were definitely smoother and more powerful than any HD Screamin Eagle included. So I started watchin ebay prices and preparing to bid. I would have maybe ended up with a slightly used Ness Jackpot but every one I watched went to about 12,500 and didnt meet the reserve.plus I still wasnt sold on the victory. Still didnt know why. So I started watchin the Dynas on ebay and noticed that they could be picked up in the ranges of 5k to 10k slightly used depending on how new that I wanted. so I started nitpicking on both bikes, I noticed alot cheaper and more parts available for the HD than the Victory. I noticed that the quality of the OEM HD stuff seemed to have a more solid better finish on them. Plus better prices still. I noticed that it is impossible to get a vic with spoke wheels!! So what made me sway to the HD was well $$ I got my 06 Street Bob dirt cheap,second was the parts availability,third if the engine didnt perform well enough I will pull it apart and put in a 124 kit or sumthin I like workin on engines anyway.Third was the cheapness of the Victory from a assembly line standpoint. I have a GSXR 1000 and it was always great to me but no matter what they are cookie cutter bikes.See one and u seen em all. Thats a Victory to me. Line up the next 100 dynas you see on the road and I bet you that 95 of them are different due to owner customization. now do that with the next 100 Victory Jackpots you see and out of 100 I bet 95 of them would be off the floor stock maybe pipes. So I chose the HD because the heritage ( I dont give a crap if Victory is American) Because HD is American for 105 plus yrs!! The ability to express myself thru personalization, and well my Dyna is badass. I have never had someone say what is that? I appreciate the new V twin market, Star bikes with the 103 inch,raider with a 113 inch,Victory 106 I believe, respectable bikes. Ride what you want,and have PRIDE in YOUR RIDE. I choose HD because in my book seniority counts big time.

 

Over head cams , just like your car . Do you ever have to have the valves adjusted or the timing chain adjusted in your cage ? Usually a car can go for several hundred thousand miles with out a timing chain break . Same concept with the Victory motor.

 

thats right, i think it is a rotax design type technology i am a big drag racing fan and i know at one time they did a lot of head and motor work for the top fuel teams .

 

He said he can't get (passed?) past the Victory internal pushrods?? Victory uses SOHC with automatic cam chain tensioners and 4 valves/cyl. OHC engines by nature of their design are taller engines...yet Victory bikes still have a noticeable lower center of gravity. When I say noticeable the bike feels lighter and less top heavy...when compared to a Harley with an engine that is not quite as tall.

Tech23

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7xjjlUbpJ4

 

i hear you loud and clear good buddy, i am sorry if i mis posted as i was really tired last night when i did

 

seems like this debate will go on for a while - there are so many pros and cons on both - Think however HD will get the nod ahead of the Victory if not only for the history etc - Maybe Victory in another 10 years will have grown in stature by then

 

I also think Victory styling is a little "to radical" in honest opinion - Just my thoughts on same and I know they try to be a little different than Harley but they are different alright!

 

I've owned 7 bikes over the years. I've finally come to the conclusion that I like, no, love bikes with character. None of the Japanese bikes have character. There are several bikes out there that do - Harley, BMW, Ducati, KTM and yes Victory. I've owned 2 Harleys and one Victory, all 3 I loved. I've owned a '96 Springer, '06 Hammer and now an '01 Road Glide. Below are my thoughts from owning both brands.

Styling: Harley is very old school, nostalgic design. No matter how hard other companies try (read Honda, Yamaha, etc) their copies look, sound and feel cheap. Victory's designs are more modern, but very unique. Victory, with the help of the Arlen Ness brand, continue to push out some of the freshest, uniquely american muscle designs in the industry. I always said my Hammer was a "poor man's custom bike" Any time I turned off the ignition, people would gravitate toward it and start asking questions. What made it really funny was many times I was parked next to $40k Big Dogs or $29k Screamin' Eagle bikes.

HP and Handling: The Vic by far was faster and handled better than any Harley I've ridden (except for a Vrod, but I think the Vic handled a touch better). The only guys I came across that were faster were a couple Big Dog's and a 103 Screamin' Eagle Deuce. The Deuce was a touch faster. I only had a stage I setup and it Dyno'd in the high 80's (please note: by luck of the draw my Vic was faster then every similarly set up Vic I ran across). I had 2 friends with Vics that added a fuel management system, high performance air cleaner and had their bikes dyno-tuned and would torch me. I could get over 100 hp with just cams, fuel management, air cleaner and a good tuning. Can't do that with a Harley.

Cost: Everyone complains about cost. The reality is that Vics are comparatively priced, but include alot more than Harley's do from the factory. There is more chrome, less plastic, larger rear tires, custom wheels, etc. However, Harley has so much to choose from for aftermarket parts. I really love that. I call the Harley shop the $100 store - I walk in and I spend $100. Harley's clearly hold their value better also.

Quality: Fit and finish on a Vic is much better than Harley. I really didn't like the feel of the Victory transmission, nothing wrong with it, just clunky and noisy. The harley transmission is much better. Also the fuel management of the Harley was more advanced for fuel injection (Vic upgraded in '07 so maybe not the case any longer). I found that the chrome on the front forks of the Vic was less than stellar, it started to peel after 20k miles. I still tell everyone that the '96 Springer is the only bike I owned that never gave me a single problem.

So you may ask why I bought a Harley to replace the Victory? The reason is I've come to the conclusion is that one bike is not enough. In the perfect world I would own 5 or 6 bikes for all my desires. Since I'm not rich, I've decided to start working on a 4 bike "poor man's" stable. I have an '04 KTM 450 exc dirtbike for trail riding and a '01 loaded, customized Road Glide for putting lots of miles on (I normally ride 10k miles a year). My next addition will probably be a '00 or so Ducati 900SS for carving up the twisties on an afternoon. Finally I want to get a hotrod again like the Vic Hammer, but maybe get a used Big Dog or American Ironhorse pro-street type bike.

 

Yup, pretty much like a jap bike huh.