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Lee Johnston Talks Electrics & The IOMTT with Victory

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Victory Motorcycles will be at the 2015 Isle of Man TT, and while that brand name is certainly a shocking one, no matter what class the American motorcycle manufacturer enters, and the fact that it will be in the electric TT Zero race at least makes for a good use of the word “shocking” in a punny sort of way.

Jokes aside, it’s a big announcement for the IOMTT, electric racing, and Victory Motorcycles itself. The evolved Brammo Empulse RR race bike that Victory will be using is certainly a well-sorted race machine, capable of giving Mugen a run for its money — not mention,William Dunlop and Lee Johnston are certainly some of the top riders around the Manx road course.

Testing with Brammo Victory at what looks like Thunderhill Raceway, Lee Johnston gives his first thoughts on riding an electric race bike, and what competing in the TT Zero class will be like at the 2015 Isle of Man TT.

We will be excited to see what Victory can accomplish this year at the TT. Hopefully this is what reignites the interest in electric motorcycle racing, and electric motorcycles in general.

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Victory Entering an Electric Race Bike at Isle of Man TT

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It looks like we were only partially correct in our news that Brammo would be returning to the Isle of Man TT, as the brand’s sister company, Victory Motorcycles, will in fact be racing an electric entry — one that looks like a rebadged Brammo Empulse RR — in the TT Zero event at the historic road race.

According to its press release, Victory Motorcycles will field a two-rider team, comprised of William Dunlop and Lee Johnston (a photo of “General Lee” testing a Brammo superbike is what initially sparked this news).

While Victory is calling its racing platform a “Victory electric race prototype motorcycle” the chassis and fairings give way to a shape we recognize as the Brammo Empulse RR electric superbike.

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Ducati Dealers Top Pied Piper Rankings, Again

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Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) is one of the major ranking systems out there assessing the US motorcycle industry and its dealerships.

To give you a quick primer on how scoring works, Pied Piper takes into account a mixture of “mystery shopper” experiences, along with actual sales success for each brand, thus giving a mixture of subjective and objective measurement.

For this year’s assessment, it comes with little surprise that Ducati is once again taking the top honors, followed closely by Harley-Davidson and Victory — two brands that have high customer satisfaction, according to Consumer Reports.

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Consumer Reports: Victory Owners the Most Happy, But Yamaha the Most Reliable

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Consumer Reports has taken another polling from motorcycle owners, a part of the publication’s continuous assessment on the value of various motorcycle brands and categories.

As usual, the Japanese brands dominated the reliability segment, though that did not automatically translate into the happiest of owners.

Victory Motorcycles takes the cake for keeping its customers happy, which stems from having fairly reliable motorcycles, coupled with good customer service and dealer interactions.

As such, 80% of Victory owners said they would buy a Victory again. Compare that figure to 72% for Harley-Davidson, and 70% for Honda (all other OEMs were below 70%).

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Polaris Trademarks “Victory Charger” – An Electric Cruiser?

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Trademark applications with the USPTO show that Polaris has registered “Victory Charger” as a mark to be used with “electric motorcycles and structural parts therefor.”

The application is a strong hint that we could see an electric cruiser from the Victory brand, which is owned by Polaris, in the coming future.

The news is especially timely, as Polaris just acquired Brammo’s electric motorcycle business, and plans on building electric motorcycles at the company’s facilities in Spirit Lake, IA.

As if there wasn’t already enough fuel for the fire, on a product roadmap for investors, Brammo listed an “eCruiser” as a possible future model — a model that could easily be repurposed for the progressive Victory cruiser brand.

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US Motorcycle Sales Up 4.0% in Q2 2014

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The US economy has been slow to recover, and so too has the US motorcycle market. With first-quarter sales down 0.3% this year though, it looked like the US motorcycle market was about to flatline.

Thankfully, that has not been the case in Q2 of 2014, as the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) is proud to report that US motorcycle sales are up 4.0% in the second quarter of this year.

Selling 169,111 units in Q2 2014 (6,585 more than in 2013), motorcycles sales in the US so far this year are now up 2.6%, with 263,833 units sold so far in 2014.

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US Motorcycle Q1 2014 Sales Flatlined

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How Is that rebounding economy treating you? If you work in the motorcycle industry, probably not so well according to the Motorcycle Industry Council’s latest sales report, which highlights sales from the first-quarter of 2014. Down 0.2% (or 118 units) from Q1 2013, the slight decline over last year’s numbers are primarily due to a 10.7% sales drop in scooter sales.

Dual-sport motorcycles were up 3.9% (7,644 units), with on-road bikes holding at 0.9% growth (65,301 units). Dirt bike sales were down 2.7% during the same three-month time period (16,597 units).

In total, 94,524 two-wheel vehicles were sold in the US (94,772 units were sold in Q1 2013) according to the MIC, which tracks Can-Am, Ducati, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Kawasaki, KTM, Piaggio Group, Victory, Suzuki, Triumph, and Yamaha.

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Analyst Predicts Indian Will Outsell Victory in 2014

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According to an analyst from UBS Investment Research, Indian Motorcycles is on track to outsell its sibling company Victory Motorcycles in 2014, its first full year of sales since the company’s recent rebirth.

If this prediction turns out to be accurate, this will be a huge feat for Indian, considering the fact that the American brand only sells three models since its relaunch in August of last year, compared to Victory’s current 15 model lineup.

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Video: Josh Herrin’s First Superbike Win

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Getting his first AMA Pro Superbike victory right-off-the-bat at Race 1 of the season-opener in Daytona, Josh Herrin got his 2013 season off to a solid start. A coming out party of sorts for the other Josh in the Monster Energy Graves Yamaha team, Herrin is showing himself to be a real talent in the AMA paddock, and at only 22-years-old, the Yamaha rider has quite the promising career ahead of him.

Our buddy John Shofner at Shofner Films got to follow Herrin around the Daytona paddock for the Daytona race weekend, and has produced an excellent video that captures Josh’s first win. We think you will enjoy it, and who knows, maybe we will get some more AMA Pro Superbike goodness on the site in the coming months. God knows the sport needs get productions like this one.

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New Victory Motorcycle to Debut at IMS Long Beach

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Victory is set to debut a new motorcycle at the Progressive International Motorcycle Show at Long Beach next week, and is teasing the new model on . What will the new model be? Your guess is as good as ours, though it appears to have spoked wheels and a pinstripe paint job.

Judging from the imagery in Victory’s teaser video, we imagine a flat black murdered-out urban warrior on two wheels is the flavor du jour. The bigger question though is whether the new bike will take Victory into a new model segment, or just bolster its current offering. We hope it’s the prior, though we’ll have to wait until December 9th to find out.

Source: Victory (Facebook)

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Polaris Q3 Sales Up 23%

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Polaris has just released its third quarter figures, with the American brand reporting a 23% increase ($35.6 million) in sales revenue for the months of July, August, and September when compared to the same time period last year. Those Q3 numbers continue the company’s upward trend this year, as year-to-date (YTD) sales for Polaris, when compared 2010, are up 37% overall ($111.4 million).

While sales have risen across all of Polaris’s market segments, its on-road vehicle segment, specifically its Victory Motorcycles line, has lead the growth for the company. With Q3 sales up 77%, and YTD sales up 83%, Polaris has been making strides against a market that has seen a massive decline from its Japanese competitors.

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