Indian - Page 4
Page 4 of 7 FirstFirst 1234567 LastLast
Results 31 to 40 of 64

Thread: Indian

  1. #31
    Senior Member ths61's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    So Cal
    Posts
    1,815
    Quote Originally Posted by Old Ryder View Post
    Victory was making money. The design and product was top of the line--it was a quality product. It was the poor support by Polaris and the sudden purchase of the Indian brand that caused them to dump Victory. I owned 2 and was a on the different boards for a few years. They had very loyal customers in spite of refusing to back their warranty. Most bikes gave very little trouble and ran forever.

    They didn't even try to sell of Victory---probably because somebody else would grow the company---like they refused to do---and make them look foolish, so they just killed it off and left thousands of loyal customers and vendors up the well known waterway without any propulsion device. I sold mine and got a B about 2 years before all of that happened.

    Not gonna say I will never buy an Indian---but it won't be a new one and it will have to be a heck of a deal.
    You pretty well summed it up for the uninformed. You shit on your loyal customer base and you lose your loyal customer base. Simple economics. They didn't even have the professionalism to give their dealers a heads up beforehand. Their dealers had to find out the same way the customers did.

  2. #32
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Leander, Texas
    Posts
    598
    Quote Originally Posted by Old Ryder View Post
    Victory was making money. The design and product was top of the line--it was a quality product. It was the poor support by Polaris and the sudden purchase of the Indian brand that caused them to dump Victory. I owned 2 and was a on the different boards for a few years. They had very loyal customers in spite of refusing to back their warranty. Most bikes gave very little trouble and ran forever.

    They didn't even try to sell of Victory---probably because somebody else would grow the company---like they refused to do---and make them look foolish, so they just killed it off and left thousands of loyal customers and vendors up the well known waterway without any propulsion device. I sold mine and got a B about 2 years before all of that happened.

    Not gonna say I will never buy an Indian---but it won't be a new one and it will have to be a heck of a deal.
    My best bud is a director at Polaris; it's interesting that you think they were making money on Victory, as he's told me for awhile they weren't. I guess you would know more than he does; after all, you owned 2 of them...

  3. #33
    Senior Member Old Ryder's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Snow Hill, NC
    Posts
    1,300
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdaniel View Post
    My best bud is a director at Polaris; it's interesting that you think they were making money on Victory, as he's told me for awhile they weren't. I guess you would know more than he does; after all, you owned 2 of them...
    Yea--I owned 2 of them and was on the forums and talked to the guys at Daytona every year. May have even talked to your buddy, you never know. BTW---did you ever own or ride a Victory? Just curious. If you had, I think your view would be different.

    It was easy to see after the purchase of Indian that all of the focus and attention was going somewhere else. Again, no support from Polaris. All of the Cross bikes AND steel frame bikes got their choice of 1 single backrest and luggage rack from Victory and the Cross bike were about 1K for the combo. It was left up to Witchdoctor and other aftermarket companies to give owners what they wanted and needed---Polaris wasn't gonna do it! Now, you can outfit an Indian Scout 50 different ways with ALL Polaris parts---bars, seats, bags with fringe and bags without fringe hard and leather--take your choice. Then you get into the Chief models and the choices explode. I remember when Victory dropped the Kingpin and started with the new Boardwalk----same bike with different tins. Now that is real promotion.




    When you buddy said they lost money the last few years, he was probably correct in that Victory offered nothing and current lines were left to die on the vine---UNLIKE INDIAN. It is more about where you put your effort and energies. They can't build Indians fast enough and the factory can only make so many bikes per year---- I get it! That still don't make it right to the guys that owned them. Of course if you never owned one, you could never relate. JMHO as always.
    "Life is hard. Harder when you are stupid"-- John Wayne[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  4. #34
    Senior Member VStarRider's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Location
    Penfield, NY
    Posts
    941

    The 30,000 foot view

    From up above, the purchase of Indian made sense for Polaris.

    The Victory brand was meant to compete for HD buyers. Pretty obvious in their badging of their products, and their marketing.

    HD buyers are fiercely brand loyal, and are buying an image and/or reputation as much as a motorcycle.

    Victory, starting from scratch in 90s, had quite an uphill battle to make a dent in the V-twin domestic cruiser market.

    Here comes Indian, with a for sale sign on it, an established name, distinctive features, offering Polaris the package they always hoped to establish with Victory (and probably would have with enough time) a brand and reputation already developed over many decades. I bet the day Polaris closed the deal to buy Indian, there was a conversation in the board room about dropping the Vic line.
    Former Ride:
    2013 F6B Standard, black; sold 7/2019
    Latest Addition:
    2016 Gold Wing Level 3, red; SCT transmission stuck in manual mode
    2019 Miles:
    7,900 as of 10/6

  5. #35
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Leander, Texas
    Posts
    598
    Quote Originally Posted by Old Ryder View Post
    Yea--I owned 2 of them and was on the forums and talked to the guys at Daytona every year. May have even talked to your buddy, you never know. BTW---did you ever own or ride a Victory? Just curious. If you had, I think your view would be different.

    It was easy to see after the purchase of Indian that all of the focus and attention was going somewhere else. Again, no support from Polaris. All of the Cross bikes AND steel frame bikes got their choice of 1 single backrest and luggage rack from Victory and the Cross bike were about 1K for the combo. It was left up to Witchdoctor and other aftermarket companies to give owners what they wanted and needed---Polaris wasn't gonna do it! Now, you can outfit an Indian Scout 50 different ways with ALL Polaris parts---bars, seats, bags with fringe and bags without fringe hard and leather--take your choice. Then you get into the Chief models and the choices explode. I remember when Victory dropped the Kingpin and started with the new Boardwalk----same bike with different tins. Now that is real promotion.


    When you buddy said they lost money the last few years, he was probably correct in that Victory offered nothing and current lines were left to die on the vine---UNLIKE INDIAN. It is more about where you put your effort and energies. They can't build Indians fast enough and the factory can only make so many bikes per year---- I get it! That still don't make it right to the guys that owned them. Of course if you never owned one, you could never relate. JMHO as always.
    I've known my friend since 1985, and he's worked for Polaris for over 20 years, so yeah, I've ridden a few Victorys. Attached is a picture of the year we rode the brand new Visions, which I named the Bozo bikes, due to their appearance from the front. I'm not a V twin guy, just like I'm not a guy that sticks baseball cards in my spokes to make the vroom vroom noise, so I was never impressed with Victorys. I'm pretty sure I rode more different Victory models than you did, over the years, but is was simply because I didn't want to haul my FJR from Texas to Minnesota, just to ride. Instead, I flew up, he grabbed one from company stock, and away we went; beggars can't be choosers. They did improve substantially from the first year to the last one that I rode; a Cross Country in June of 2016. The transmissions no longer felt and sounded like the ones in the old Farmalls I drove as a young lad in Minnesota, but am I damning with faint praise? Yah, youbetcha.




    My whole point to people that piss and moan about Victorys; specifically how Polaris shut the brand down, is that it's just business. If you don't like the way business works, be sure and pull any money you may have in the stock market out, because all businesses operate the same way. Victory had less value to Polaris than Indian did, so Victory was killed off. You bought two Victorys, and that entitled you to ride two Victorys. That's it; no more and no less. You didn't have a relationship with Polaris, you weren't buddies, you simply bought two motorcycles, and were able to ride them.

    I'd hate to see how the folks that whine about Victory handled their first breakup...


  6. #36
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Leander, Texas
    Posts
    598
    Quote Originally Posted by VStarRider View Post
    From up above, the purchase of Indian made sense for Polaris.

    The Victory brand was meant to compete for HD buyers. Pretty obvious in their badging of their products, and their marketing.

    HD buyers are fiercely brand loyal, and are buying an image and/or reputation as much as a motorcycle.

    Victory, starting from scratch in 90s, had quite an uphill battle to make a dent in the V-twin domestic cruiser market.

    Here comes Indian, with a for sale sign on it, an established name, distinctive features, offering Polaris the package they always hoped to establish with Victory (and probably would have with enough time) a brand and reputation already developed over many decades. I bet the day Polaris closed the deal to buy Indian, there was a conversation in the board room about dropping the Vic line.
    Thank you...

  7. #37
    Senior Member Old Ryder's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Snow Hill, NC
    Posts
    1,300
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdaniel View Post
    I've known my friend since 1985, and he's worked for Polaris for over 20 years, so yeah, I've ridden a few Victorys. Attached is a picture of the year we rode the brand new Visions, which I named the Bozo bikes, due to their appearance from the front. I'm not a V twin guy, just like I'm not a guy that sticks baseball cards in my spokes to make the vroom vroom noise, so I was never impressed with Victorys. I'm pretty sure I rode more different Victory models than you did, over the years, but is was simply because I didn't want to haul my FJR from Texas to Minnesota, just to ride. Instead, I flew up, he grabbed one from company stock, and away we went; beggars can't be choosers. They did improve substantially from the first year to the last one that I rode; a Cross Country in June of 2016. The transmissions no longer felt and sounded like the ones in the old Farmalls I drove as a young lad in Minnesota, but am I damning with faint praise? Yah, youbetcha.




    My whole point to people that piss and moan about Victorys; specifically how Polaris shut the brand down, is that it's just business. If you don't like the way business works, be sure and pull any money you may have in the stock market out, because all businesses operate the same way. Victory had less value to Polaris than Indian did, so Victory was killed off. You bought two Victorys, and that entitled you to ride two Victorys. That's it; no more and no less. You didn't have a relationship with Polaris, you weren't buddies, you simply bought two motorcycles, and were able to ride them.

    I'd hate to see how the folks that whine about Victory handled their first breakup...

    I am not exactly sure why every one of my comments seems to get a sarcastic arrogant response. I am just trying to express my thoughts on bikes that I owned and a company I dealt with. I have my opinion and you have yours. I respect that.

    I don't give a rats rectum about Polaris. I bought 2 used bikes and just made the point they were quality machines in my opinion. I sold them and did not do too badly. But I do have forum buddies that bought high dollar Magunums and Cross Countrys that got hosed big time by a company that said over and over they were not going anywhere after purchasing Indian. They feel deceived and I agree with them.

    Going to the prom and getting dumped for a better person is funny to a lot of people---unless it happens to them. That is all I am saying.
    "Life is hard. Harder when you are stupid"-- John Wayne[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  8. #38
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Leander, Texas
    Posts
    598
    Quote Originally Posted by Old Ryder View Post
    I am not exactly sure why every one of my comments seems to get a sarcastic arrogant response. I am just trying to express my thoughts on bikes that I owned and a company I dealt with. I have my opinion and you have yours. I respect that.

    I don't give a rats rectum about Polaris. I bought 2 used bikes and just made the point they were quality machines in my opinion. I sold them and did not do too badly. But I do have forum buddies that bought high dollar Magunums and Cross Countrys that got hosed big time by a company that said over and over they were not going anywhere after purchasing Indian. They feel deceived and I agree with them.

    Going to the prom and getting dumped for a better person is funny to a lot of people---unless it happens to them. That is all I am saying.
    Actually, you do give a rats rectum about Polaris; if you didn't, you wouldn't be here bashing them. Polaris is Victory, just like Polaris is Indian. To say you have no feelings on Polaris is simply disingenuous. And we've all been dumped by a gal, my point is that that isn't business, but what companies do with their product lines are.

  9. #39
    Senior Member Brewdog's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    NW - PA
    Posts
    157
    That's a nice bike and I've ridden them. The power in the Indian's engine blows the HD's out of the water.

    I can't give up my six cylinder B after having 4 Harleys. Enjoy, that's a beautiful Indian.

  10. #40
    Senior Member willtill's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Maryland
    Posts
    4,622
    I must say that the quality fit and finish of the Indians is much better than the Victory's. They definitely have made the Indian one of their premier product lines.

    I do miss my Vision.. it definitely had some quirks though... did any of you guys ever try to change out a headlight bulb on one of them? A serious pain in the azz for sure...


    21 years Army (retired)
    ...been everywhere, seen everything, done almost everything.

    IBA 80537

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •