Victory 'Octane'Robin Bradley takes a strategic look at what the new Victory 'Octane' could mean for the aftermarket and for Milwaukee
It is less than a week since the new Victory Octane was finally unveiled online, and already word has spread far and wide.
All the industry blogs have carried it, though mostly just by repeating the basic information released by the company at the time - so we won't be doing that here, because this is a platform about which so much more can be said, strategically and technically.
The aftermarket as we know it can no longer depend solely on Harley's XLs and Big Twins. With peak-bagger having been passed and uncertainty surrounding the future strength of demand for Harley's core offerings, the advent of the "New Indians" have already represented a much needed shot-in-the-arm for aftermarket prospects - as well as an unwelcome, though surely predictable, shot-across-the-bows for Milwaukee.
With the Octane, Polaris has done it again - but on steroids.
From an aftermarket perspective the platform is a gift that will just keep giving. While it would be impossible to speculate at this stage about just how high the production numbers will climb (they don't need to be huge for the bike to be nonetheless hugely significant), the one thing that we can be sure of is that at the kind of retail price point it has been introduced, the scope for aftermarket opportunity will be immense.
What is more, we are not talking (only) bolt-on here. The Scouts and the Chiefs are all begging to be dressed and re-visualised, but the Octane is begging to be engineered and retuned.
For a start, it is a raging certainty that it won't be long before that front end gets beefed up (48mm upside downies?) and the rear suspension gets piggy-backs. It is crying out for lightweight wheels, sports brakes, replacement pipes, titanium valve-train, fuel-injection tuning, new bars, instruments and controls - to say nothing of an improved seat (something from the Le Pera studio perhaps?).
Victory's launch info already details a stage one replacement exhaust, piggy back shocks, drag bars and a tach with shift light, so they are clearly aware of the machine's destiny at the hands of the market's tuners, and I can't wait to see what the likes of Brock's Performance, 'T-Man' Riser, Dan Fitzmaurice, Hoban Brothers, Scott Sjovall and so many others are able to make of it.
Victory in particular, and Polaris in general, have a much more enlightened attitude to seeing the aftermarket as a potential partner rather than as their enemy. They have an established modus operandi that has not only seen them buying third party candidates for the PG&A programs, but also sees them working with aftermarket vendors on an independent basis. They understand that doing so, making it worthwhile for other vendors to market their products, is an opportunity for brand profile development - in stark contrast to Harley's always inappropriately short-sighted and insular track record in such matters.
The whole point about the concept teaser campaign, about working with the likes of Urs Erbacher and Zach Ness, was to demonstrate the versatility of what was about to be unveiled, and that the company understands that it doesn't hold a monopoly on design and engineering intelligence, creativity and experience.
This is clearly a platform that is going to exploit the market opportunity that Harley-Davidson singularly failed to make their own with the V-Rod, and one that will no doubt spawn variants a-plenty in the coming months and years.
Convincing as a stock showroom floor offer it no doubt will be, in sales terms, this first production model is clearly designed to pull a double shift - create sales, yes, but also to create a volume niche (if that's not too much of an oxymoron) that mainlines straight into one of the riding experience spaces where the mind-set of mainstream consumer thinking is headed.
The stock bore, stroke and compression ratio of 'Octane' look like they offer plenty of scope for seeing the stock 104 bhp and 76 ft.lbs torque being taken up a few notches, and the near optimum 60 degree v-twin layout provides the space (and, presumably, the metal) to play with.
The chassis configuration is certainly going to be capable of taking more power as the use of the solid mounted powertrain as a stressed member to tie together the cast-aluminum semi-double-cradle tubular-steel backbones frame has "robust" stamped all over it just as assuredly as the fuel-injected, liquid-cooled DOHV 4-valve per cylinder wet clutch 6-speed configuration screams "tune me".
At under 600 lbs, this first foray into proper temperature control and 21st century engine and gearbox technology can hardly be expected to be Polaris' last.
The much speculated upon new liquid-cooled engine that Harley may (or still may yet not) be about to give some kind of debut to later this year has probably already been ambushed.
If it turns out that, initially, it is only a solution to better pushing their tourers along in straight lines, then fair enough, that isn't what this new Victory engine is about.
But if Milwaukee harbors fantasies that it could be the start of something more strategic, then it may turn out to be too little too late. The pavements of the motorcycle industry are littered with missed opportunities - having had multiple opportunities to be way ahead of the curve (Eric Buell, MV Agusta, Project Nova/Overlord etc), are Harley now likely to be permanently consigned to playing catch-up where "American Muscle" is concerned?