Victory unveiled their striking Vision 800 concept bike Friday at the Cycle World International Motorcycle Show in Long Beach, and we were surprised to see that it is a huge departure from the tradtional, cruiser-style bikes that are the company’s mainstay.
The first thing that you’ll notice is the styling – for good or bad, the Vision looks unlike any bike we have seen before. The organic-looking shapes seem to be something right out of a radical design school student’s portfolio, and indeed they may be.
If the styling is surprising, the specifications are even more so, especially considering their departure from the Victory norm. The Vision is powered by an 800cc liquid-cooled parallel-twin, and power is transferred through a fully-automatic CVT (constantly variable transmission) – the bike is devoid of both foot controls and clutch, with brake levers on both handlebars.
We’re not sure exactly what this bike means for Victory – it’s such a huge jump outside the realm of their typical V-Twin powered cruisers. It’s obvious that they are trying to emulate the major Japanese OEMs, who often unveil radical concept bikes featuring unusual new technology, and then incorporate these concepts piecemeal into their existing range. Is this Victory’s attempt to gain respect as a “real” manufacturer, or will we actually see something similar to the Vision in production form? Only time will tell.
