FIRST LOOK: Victory Octane
Rennie Scaysbrook | February 19, 2016
Victory’s new Octane is the first bike to come from the Project 156 platform.
Raw American muscle. That’s how Victory are describing their brand new Octane, the company’s first go at a sport power cruiser. The Octane is the first new bike to come from the Iowan Spirit Lake factory since the company’s much publicized Project 156 Pikes Peak venture of 2015, where Cycle World Road Test Editor Don Canet campaigned a prototype racer build by Victory and renowned custom builder, Roland Sands.
That race ended in a mechanical DNF but the exercise has given light to a new production bike (with a few more apparently in the works) in the Octane, a machine Victory says houses their most powerful production engine ever created. The company is claiming 104 hp and 76 lb-ft of stump pulling torque from their DOHC four-valve, 1179cc V-twin, with a 12 second quarter mile time and 0-60mph in under four seconds.
The chassis is your traditional tubular steel backbone matched to non inverted forks and twin shock out back. Victory says you can crank this bike over to 32° lean angle, which is pretty impressive given most cruisers (not including the Ducati Diavel and XDiavel), won’t go past 28°.
The specs put the Octane in the realm of Harley-Davidson’s V-Rod Muscle, but the best part is the price. Victory has given the Octane a sticker of $10,749 – $6000 less than the Harley, and almost half the price of the standard XDiavel!
If the Octane goes as good as Victory says it does and with a price like that, Victory could be onto something big with the Octane.
Check out the gallery below of Victory’s new beast.
