Most people have this impression of big American iron as motorcycles that are massive and lumbering, covered in tonnes of shiny chrome, but Victory Motorcycles, from Spirit Lake in northern Iowa, US, seems to have gone the other direction with the 2017 Octane. Drawing on the Project 156 Concept bike that competed at the Pikes Peak Hillclimb last year, Victory has promised the 2017 Octane will be a much more performance oriented bike with cruiser styling.
With a V-twin in the traditional style, a 1,179 cc, liquid-cooled, short-stroke lump taken from the Project 156, the 2017 Octane produces 103 hp and 98 Nm of torque at 6,000 rpm. Each cylinder has double-overhead cams and four valves fed by sequential fuel-injection through a single 60 mm throttle body, allowing the engine to rev to 8,000 rpm, out of the norm for American cruisers.
The one thing that indicates the 2017 Octane’s sportier intentions is the cast-aluminium frame that shaves weight off. The Octane weighs in at 240 kg dry, which is six kilos lighter than the BMW R1200R paultan.org tested last month. While 240 kg is nowhere near sportsbike territory, it is perfectly acceptable for a general-purpose litre-class bike.
Victory claims the Octane will do the 100 km/h sprint in four seconds, and the quarter-mile in 12. While this might not seem to be amazing numbers, bear in mind American cruisers rarely come with performance figures directly from the manufacturer. With the speed taken care of, handling is also on the sporty side of things, with a 1,570 mm wheelbase and 32 degree angle of lean allowing the Octane to handle fast riding on open roads. This is somewhat similar to Ducati’s XDiavel with 40 degrees of lean, and cruiser styling biased towards performance and handling.
Coming in only one colour, matte Super Steel grey, the 2017 Octane has several accessories packages to allow the owner to customise the bike. These include a Performance package that installs a pair of Stage 1 pipes, piggy-back rear absorbers, a tachometer, drag bars and a different brake rotor on the Octane. Other packages include extended or reduced reach controls and pegs, and options for solo or dual-seating. Items in the options packages are also available separately for the owner who wants to mix-and-match.
Pricing for the 2017 Victory Octane starts at US$10,499 (RM44,182) and the Performance package adds US$2,049 (RM8,622) to the price of the bike. No word on availability or deliveries yet, but it can be assumed that customers will be receiving their Octanes towards the later part of the year.
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Most probably 6-figures when or if it comes here but still a beautiful alternative for the cruiser types.