ROAD TEST VICTORY HAMMER
It’s Hammer time! Victory’s Hammer combines currently fashionable wiiiiide rear end with sportsbike-spec front end.
YOU CAN’T TOUCH THIS (WITH APOLOGIES TO MC HAMMER!)
WORDS & PICS: Big Dave (and the Co-Pilot)
Victory is back. And joining the fulldress Vision in the American company’s local lineup is the custom Hammer cruiser. Which Big Dave has just spent an enjoyable weekand-a-bit riding.
The sales literature that came with Victory’s hard-hitting (had to get that one in early) Hammer is peppered with the use of the word ‘unconventional’. Maybe it is that lack of convention that attracted me to it, or it was the absolutely gorgeous growl from its aftermarket exhausts or the extremely tasty motor, the comfort . . . or the Arlen Ness inspired lines . . . or . . . that it takes an extremely nice cruiser rear end and hangs a tasty sports bike front end on it. I had mates who were grafting GSX-R front ends onto American bikes 10 years ago and they made fabulous road going motorcycles. With the standard Hammer off the showroom floor I had all that, and I didn’t need to be an engineer like Rusty to achieve it. The cruiser rear end and sports front end intersect at a 1,634cc (100 cubic inch), air and oil cooled, SOHC, 4
valve, 50º V-Twin that is simply a big ol’ torquey pleasure. It revs slightly harder than its bigger brother, the 107 cu. in. Vision, but it’s as smooth as a big V-twin can be at cruising speeds. Like big brother, there is a very reassuring pulse when its 92 horsepower and 109 ft lbs of torque are called into play. LOOKS GOOD, GOES GOOD! Despite eschewing liquid-cooling Victory hasn’t exactly stinted technically inside either, the big ol’ engine featuring self-adjusting camchains and hydraulic lifters, all fed by a smooth EFI system with 45mm throttle bodies. It really is a lovely motor. To look at as well as ride. There is a nice symmetry to the whole setup. Look forward and aft. The overall lines of the bike worked really well for me and I found it was a KIWI RIDER 29
ROAD TEST VICTORY HAMMER
great model for the photo sets. Fit and finish was befitting a $26K bike. Part of the line is owed to the 250 section rear tyre and style of the rear end. It’s phat, real phat, uncluttered and features a smooth belt drive. It has a 300mm 4-piston rear brake and the rest is minimalist, mono tube and very wide. The belt runs from a gear-driven primary drive and a six-speed gearbox that includes a genuine overdrive (better than 1:1) sixth gear. For a bigger unit the gearbox is easy and precise. It’s all very, very cruisey. FRONTING UP Up front there are dual 300mm, four-piston stoppers, upside down forks with 130mm of travel and a 130/70R18 Dunlop Elite 3 tyre – on a custom looking wheel. The whole front end looks similar to a sports bike, till you get to the headlight and instrument cluster and we’re back at old-skool custom (with hi-tech flourishes). I thoroughly enjoyed riding it too (what don’t I? – but this one’s a BD special). The first few corners I put it through I thought, ‘Hang on, what’s going on here?’ Simply because of 30 KIWI RIDER
THIS PAGE: Best thing Victory ever did was plough its own furrow meaning Hammer has a kind of ‘midPacific’ look and feel which positions it half way between retro-style Harley-Davidsons and tribute-style ‘metric’ models from Japan FACING PAGE: Phat rear end requires rider to adapt to almost scooter-like dynamics at slower speeds. Up and running there’s less of the rear-end-leading-the-front feel but you do pay a premium for the J-Lo look
the amount of effort it takes to haul that 250 section rear end through a bend. Which is something you both have to get your head around, and get used to. BOOTILICIOUS The upshot of having the bum look like a million dollars is that it takes more effort to lug it around. The super-wide rear end takes more effort to turn than a conventional 180. Far more, and more body English. Subsequently I found all this makes it outstandingly good fun to ride without pushing too far beyond the speed limit. It all becomes very grininducing and really good fun at less than light speed.
ROAD TEST VICTORY HAMMER
The front end steers like a sports bike front end would, but the rear end tracks around like a cruiser. It also has cruiser-like ground clearance. The folding pegs hit the tarmac – though there is a fair bit more to go after the skritchin’ starts. In several ways a 250 rear lowers the performance bar for on road riding – but for an experienced rider it also raises the enjoyment factor at legal speeds. No doubt someone ‘green’ jumping off a Gixxer would hate it. But I thought it was excellent. ALL-DAY SADDLE The ergos for a big man are more sit upright than lean back and I had no trouble spending all day in the saddle. However ‘pfheooow’ was about the closest I could get to the noise the Co-pilot made when I asked her about pillion comfort levels. ‘. . . But it’s almost worth it to listen to it’ was her final word. Which if you have trouble reading between the lines means . . . there are better choices in the Victory range if you do a lot of twoup, but as a solo unit I couldn’t get
enough of the Hammer. I took it over my scratcher’s loop, did all-day rides and spent a ton of time cruising the city. I enjoyed the refined nature of the cruiser ride, mixed with the need to really put that input into lugging it around when sports riding. It’s real ‘essence de motorcycle’ stuff. No extraneous bodywork or screens to get in way of the wind rushing by. Instruments are minimalist and very stylish and the handlebars form a unique V for Victory. PLENTY OF OPTIONS There are plenty of customising options available from the extensive accessory catalogue to bling things up. There are easy options like the footpegs and grips which have been left reasonably plain so it’s easy to personalise the bike to suit. It’s very comfortable (for solo use), it looks like an exotic custom right off the showroom floor and it’s really great fun to ride around near the speed limit. In other words, another winner for Victory. KIWI RIDER 31
ROAD TEST VICTORY HAMMER
SPECIFICATIONS VICTORY HAMMER ENGINE Type: Air/oil-cooled SOHC 8-valve 50° V-twin 4-stroke
Brakes: Twin 300mm floating rotors discs w/ 4-piston caliper front & single 300mm rotor disc w/2-piston caliper rear
Displacement: 1634cc (100 cu in)
Wheels: 18 in. dia front & rear
Compression ratio: 8.7:1
Tyres: Dunlop Elite 130/70-18 front & 250/40-18 rear
Bore x stroke: 101 x 102mm Starting system: Electric Engine management system: CDI Fuel system: Electronic fuel injection w/ 45mm throttle bodies Clutch: Wet multiplate Transmission: 6-speed Final drive: Belt FRAME Type: Tubular steel Swingarm: Steel Front suspension: USD-type 43mm telescopic fork Rear suspension: Linkage-type single coil-over shock absorber
DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 1669mm Rake: 32.7° Trail: 140mm Seat height: 673mm Dry weight: 308 kg Fuel tank capacity: 17l RRP: $26,995 Test bike: Victory & Silver Fern Motorcycles GEAR Helmet: Davida Jacket: Arlen Ness Pants: Triumph Boots: Johnny Rebb
Victory engine combines finned, narrow angle (50°) look of old-skool V-twin with state-of-the-art OHC/4-valve heads and fuel injection. Result is a distinctive ‘lite’ feel from idle to the redline which errs on the side of sporty rather than staid. Detailing is excellent and build quality is first-rate albeit with the almost limited edition look and feel of a bike from a smaller manufacturer.
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