I was a young ‘un when I watched Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper’s ‘Easy Rider’ but it left an impact on me that still surfaces, every now and then, like a mist of wishful thinking. Two friends, their motorcycles, adventure at every turn and the call of the open road…What’s not to love?
Every time I got astride the Victory Magnum, these are exactly the emotions that the motorcycle invoked in me. The Victory Magnum belongs to a class of motorcycles, referred to as ‘baggers’. While the definition changes depending on who you speak to, the general agreed view is that a bagger is a cruiser with a set of hard saddlebags, a fairing and a windshield
Bagger riders therefore, tend to be those ‘one short of a deck’ individuals who love riding beyond the local café and really putting miles under their heels…or in this case, wheels! With 1731cc engine grunt, an amazingly cushy saddle, the largest front wheel of any production motorcycle and all the bells and whistles you’d need on inter-city cruises (and a few more), the Magnum is a fitting steed when you want to leave the lights and fumes of the urban sprawl behind.
The first impression of the Magnum is that it’s imposing, its LED headlights staring at you, challenging you to get on so that it can take you to destinations undiscovered and roads untravelled. Nice update I might add, as it’s adios to the old halogen number!
This looks like a bike that belongs on the Vegas strip, bathed in some of the most amazing paint jobs you’ve seen on a production bike. I had the metasheen black over super steel gray from SSE, their UAE dealer. And I’ve gotta admit – from my years in the automotive biz, I’ve come across some pretty ludicrous names for colours like ‘white’ or ‘black’. The Magnum’s paint jobs though, do justice to their fancy nomenclature.
Roll on to our own version of The Strip, the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Boulevard at night-time and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Prepare to have your own ‘30 seconds of fame’ moment when people around you whip out cell-phones hurriedly and make you the centre point of their camera flashes.
The downside is, it’s not you they’re interested in – it’s the Victory Magnum, bathed in its crystalline, gleaming paintjob that’s grabbing all the attention. The bike comes in a variety of colors, including my favorite – the Plasma lime with silver (pictured). Extra cool points for this version. Also, could someone please tell Harley that flames went out with mullets hairdo’s?
While it has less torque than a Harley Street Glide’s 156nm, at 142nm, it boasts a higher compression ratio, delivering the extra surge, I discovered in the mid range of 4000-5000 rpm. The Stage-1 exhaust on my bike added a little extra grunt and a really sweet guttural engine tune.
Although Victory established itself as a motorcycle manufacturer almost a century after its legendary American rival, the company’s bikes are constantly nipping at the wheels of Harley Davidson’s fleet. And in certain cases, such as this Magnum, they even surge ahead.
It’s easy to see the obvious wins over Harley Davidson’s CVO Street Glide. The paint job (va voom!), the comfort of the rider’s seat, the amazing 100 watt sound system (more on this later), smoother power delivery and larger, wider, more comfortable footboards make this a front-runner in the tricked out bagger class.
It was easy falling in love with this amazing motorcycle. For a machine this long and relatively heavy (600kg), it handles like a much lighter street motorcycle, once you ease up past 30kmh. People who know me will vouch for my chopping-block impatience, and as a result, I will lane-split on any motorcycle I ride (including trikes)…or at least try. I was surprised at how easy this endeavor was with the Victory Magnum.
The mini ape-hanger handlebars were very comfortable and not for a moment did I feel perturbed riding through lanes of cars. But that’s not what the Magnum was built for. The real joy of riding this motorcycle is when you hit the tumbleweed roads outside the city. That’s when you really appreciate the smooth pull of this machine as it breezes through the rev range confidently.
And if a camel were to interrupt your reverie of deep philosophical thought which only motorcycles and the barren stretches of road can inspire, fear not! For the dual 400mm floating rotor discs slow this behemoth down faster than you can say ‘Nietzsche’.
The 100 watt sound system was the icing on an already delectable cake. And it’s intuitive too; the volume automatically increases when you accelerate and decreases whilst braking. The saddle bags have oodles of space and I managed to fit a fair bit of stuff in. They won’t fit a helmet bigger than a beanie but are good for when you want to pack a few days worth of clothes in. Just don’t blame the bike if you start an argument with the wife (or husband), just so you can get kicked out and go riding!
All in all, the Victory Magnum is a superlative machine with excellent build quality, a great engine soundtrack, brilliant comfort and state-of-the-art gadgetry. It recognised my phone and connected to the audio system via Bluetooth unfailingly, every time. And man, was I thankful for this feature – radio stations here just don’t play Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Freedom’.
A very fitting track for the Victory Magnum, because it will make you want to slam shut your laptop, break out of your corporate shackles, get astride and see exactly where the horizon ends!
