Motorcycle Test Drive
2006 Victory Vegas Jackpot

From Victory of Mesa
by Kirk Johnson

Feb. 2006

Price as tested $20,048.00
Base Price of Victory Vegas Jackpot $19,349.00

About the Bike

Victory’s parent company is Polaris. In the 1990s Polaris introduced the new American motorcycle, the Victory Motorcycle. The powerful Victory Cruiser was introduced in Planet Hollywood at the Mall of America in 1997. They have continued to expand the line of motorcycle and continue to grow in market share percentage. After riding the Victory Vegas Jackpot I now understand why they have been so successful.

The Victory Vegas Jackpot that I test drove with was equipped with a stock fat 250 mm rear tire – custom-designed for maximum handling specifically for Victory by Dunlop®. It has a fuel-injected, counterbalanced, torque-laden 100/6 Freedom V-Twin power plant. The engine has 4-valves with an overhead cam.

On the power side the 100 cu. inch V-Twin is frame mounted, counterbalanced and is coupled to a six-speed transmission. It’s air and oil cooled and features a silent chain-driven oil pump to reduce engine noise. It produces 104 ft-lbs of torque and 86 horsepower. According to the charts and feel of the performance from the test ride the torque of the engine peaks out about 2,500 PRM.

The seat height is 25.7” and dry weight of the Jackpot comes in at 644 pounds and has a 4.5-gallon fuel tank. Stock exhaust on the Jackpot is a staggered slash-cut dual exhaust with common volume. The test ride bike pictured and the one I rode was upgraded with Arlen Ness “Slash-Ness Exhaust” custom pipes.

Not being very familiar with the Victory line of motorcycles, I was impressed with some of the nice little surprises that I found as I looked over the motorcycle. One thing that set off the great appearance was that on all of the Vegas Jackpots they have the frame and swing arm powder coated to match the paint scheme. For the braking the Jackpot was equipped with two 300 mm floating rotors with a 4-piston caliper from Brembo on the front and a 2-piston Brembo caliper on the rear. Also, Victory has taken the extra step to assist the owner with a single tool for adjusting the handlebars, belt-tension and removing and replacing the optional windscreen and or bags. It has a very accessible oil filter and that same tool will remove the oil drain plug and can be used to access the headlight and signal lights. What more could you ask for?

Lastly if you can’t get the color options and upgrades that you want from the factory, they have a catalog full of parts and accessories from Arlen Ness for the Victory motorcycles. There are more, but enough about the features, how does this machine ride?


Test Ride

Not having a lot of background with Victory motorcycles, David Friend, GM with Victory of Mesa, gave me a very informative walk around on the Vegas Jackpot before the test ride. He was very confident that I would like the motorcycle. “If you ride it you will like it,” he said.

I did notice that the seat height was almost right for my short frame. I was just about 1 inch short of having both feet flat on the ground while stopped. He informed me that they have a lowering kit available for the bike. He also said that the controls and pegs could easily be adjusted for just about anybody. Not a problem, the controls seemed just right.

Starting out in Mesa for the test ride I headed north on Country Club and rode around some of the main streets for several miles so I could become more familiar with the new motorcycle and let the engine warm up. The first thing that I noticed was a slight whine in the engine. Not sure what that was – but remembering that this engine only had about 10 miles on it, so I was not too worried.

The exhaust sounded great and I did notice that the motorcycle had great low-end response. Turning, stopping and starting in traffic was a breeze, just what I expected. The little Victory was performing just great. I even had several cars come up next to me and give me the thumps up sign. That always makes your day.

After about 15 minutes I was sure the engine was warmed up so I headed towards the freeway. Just my luck – as soon as I get on the on-ramp there were about 4 cars going 10 mph. It seemed as though they were entering a parking lot not the freeway. Not to worry, after I got on the freeway, it was easy to make them appear in the mirror.

There was a lot of traffic on 60 at this time of day so I did not get a lot of time to play with the ride. I just rode for about 20 minutes heading towards Apache Junction playing in traffic as though I was on a commute. The bike had very little vibration and behaved about as well as you would expect. I felt very comfortable on this bike.

I only got into 6th gear several times. It seems that you have to be going 60 to 70 before you want to hit the last gear. Even with the great low-end torque, around 60 mph the bike is a little sluggish for commute type of traffic. But once in that gear and going 70 or faster, it is great. No vibration at all, I really liked that tall gear for cruising.

Now, someplace out east, I got to play with the on-ramps. I headed down and back on several on-ramps and was very pleased with the performance of the motorcycle. Again, even under full throttle the bike hade very little vibration. Performance was very good. I would put this motorcycle some place in the low thirteen’s in the quarter, not sure of the speed. Also remember, it was not broken in yet.

Now that I got to play with the bike for a while, I headed back to the barn, thinking that this is a pretty nice bike. I did notice that the upgraded exhaust pipes got a little warm on the right lower leg while stopped. You just learn to move your foot a little ways out from the exhaust. Small price to pay for this good-looking upgrade.

Summary

I spent about an hour on the motorcycle and came to the conclusion that it was a pretty darn nice ride. It rode somewhat like a sport bike, for performance and handling and at the same time was as smooth as some touring bikes that I have rode. I know I could easily ride this all day on a road trip.

Performance was about what I expected. I really liked the low-end torque. Not sure what the redline was for this engine, but I know I did not hit the rev limiter. That is one thing that I would like to change, and if you read any of my other test rides, you know that I like to have instruments to read, like a tach, for feedback. The 6th gear is great for cruising.

I was very impressed with the thought that went into thi bike on the manufacturing side with concern of the rider. By this I mean there were a lot of adjustments on the motorcycle to accomadate a wide variety of body sizes. Also the convenience and forethought of the single tool designed for the owner for making sometimes-needed adjustments.

Lastly, my thanks go out to David Friend at Victory of Mesa for the really great service and hospitality he provided. I do know that you will be in great hands with these people.