WORDS: Big Dave PICS: BD & Co-pilot

YOU CAN’T TOUCH THIS

(WITH APOLOGIES TO MC HAMMER!)

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
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
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
grin inducing
and really good fun at less
than light speed.
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.

KR