2010 Victory Vision 8-Ball

Action Photos by Mark Frankenfield

Cruisers, be they bare bones Main Street brawlers or dressed-up touring cruisers, are all about one thing; looks. Acceleration, handling, stopping and sometimes even comfort play second fiddle to that basic tenet of cruiserdom – looks. If its not hot, cool, a fit bird, a stunna, sick, fab, a cherry, or any other slang term for good looking, it just isn’t going to sell.

Victory learned this the hard way with the first bike it produced in 1999 – the V92C. Decent power, great ride and handling but a complete snooze in the styling department (and that’s being generous) all equaled-up to the bike being used mostly as a paperweight by the dealerships. Victory rallied somewhat in 2002 with the V92TC Touring Cruiser, guessing rightly that someone interested in actually going places isn’t quite as concerned about how they look as they are about getting there and being comfortable.    

For their next act Victory turned to Arlen and Cory Ness to provide the styling cues and the Vegas was born; Victory has never looked back. Which brings us to the 2010 Victory Vision 8-Ball. The V8, its nickname since Victory Vision 8-Ball is so tiring to say over and over, is born from the full-boat touring Vision but stripped-down to include less “touring frills”. While the looks scream “touring bike” the amenities, or lack thereof clearly define the V8 as a touring cruiser; albeit one with much better wind protection than one usually finds in this class.

When Victory adds "8-Ball" to the name of a motorcycle it means black; lots of black. On some bikes it makes a little bit of a difference but on the Vision it made a whole lot of difference. The one part of the standard Vision styling I never liked (the chrome and silver trim) is gone replaced by black pieces that, to my eye, allow the flowing lines of the design to be better appreciated.

I'm not the only one who thinks so, apparently, as I have never ridden a motorcycle that got more attention while stopped. Or riding. Or hiding behind a bush.

Even people that you wouldn’t think would be into motorcycles couldn’t seem to restrain themselves from commenting – mostly in a positive fashion; from the 5' foot tall Vietnamese man who thought the bike looked "very nice-big-very smooth", to the woman in the minivan who gave me a thumbs-up at a stop light. As a matter of fact the only negative reactions about the styling were heard from other motorcyclists; usually those that ride the “other” American brand. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions for the reasons behind their response.

In trying to create a bike that would completely break the mold when it comes to styling, Victory made one misstep; the saddlebags. Touring bikes and touring cruisers are about going places and going places means taking stuff with you; even if it's only a day trip you'll want stuff with you. If you ride the Vision 8-Ball you'd better be either really good at packing a lot of stuff in a little space, or willing to edit down what you have to have with you. To be fair, the saddlebags aren't really, really small, it's just that the bag doors themselves are so big that it's a shock to open them and find a smaller compartment. Plus the doors don't open very far. I kept looking for a secret latch, key turn, or handshake that would allow the bag doors to open fully - but if it exists I never found it.

Dropping off the V8 at Volusia Motorsports(great guys by the way), I started talking to Tom, a Victory rider who had bought the first Cross Country that the dealership got in - to replace his V92TC that he decided would look better wadded-up after being ridden off the side of a mountain. Turns out that he was wrong but it did pave the way for him to get a new bike so it wasn't a total loss. Plus he got an award that the Victory chapter gives every year for the person who trashes their bike the worst on the mountain trip - odd group those Victory riders.  After speaking to him for a while he told me that the bags were a driving factor in his decision to purchase the Cross Country instead of the Vision. Made me feel vindicated in thinking that the bags were a major "form over function" moment for Victory.