Plodding along Main Street in Winnipeg while fumbling with our limited amount of awkward baggage and helmets, we approached the intersection of Portage and Main, reportedly the windiest intersection in Canada. Whether that account is true or not, we felt the bite of the fierce chilly wind as it whistled up the street between the buildings, which function as a wind tunnel. It seemed the Weather Channel was wrong about the temperature, but I hoped that its prediction of no rain in the area for the next few days would be accurate. Although I was wearing my riding coat, I felt underdressed, and I hoped that the amenities of the 2011 Victory Cross Country would do a good job of blocking the colder-than-normal, early fall chill as we test-rode the bike for the weekend in rural Manitoba.
Victory Canada’s headquarters are located on the eastern edge of Winnipeg, just inside the ring road, and not the easiest to get to from downtown. The fact that our cab driver couldn’t really understand us and we couldn’t understand him was inconsequential, since we had given him a laser-printed address of our destination. Rather than getting lost, he got in touch with his office, and they tracked our location by GPS and fed driving instructions to him via his cell phone’s ear plug.
Never having ridden a Cross Country before, Gwen and I packed our bags according to the bike’s specs and photos and hoped that what we had brought would fit in the saddlebags. As a point of reference, Harley-Davidson saddlebag liners fit nicely; in fact, the saddlebags on the Cross Country are a little larger, about 22 cm wide, which allowed us to pack a few more things down the sides, the front and on top of the bag liners. The bag lids are easy to open with one hand and also remove easily for cleaning and to facilitate maintenance. Victory claims 79.5 litres of storage in the side bags. I wanted to fill them full of water to prove that number, but it would have taken too long to fill up a 500 ml water bottle 159 times, and we were under time constraints. In other words, I’d rather be riding than proving.
The folks at Victory were nice enough to attach a quick-disconnect backrest for Gwen at the last minute before we rode off into the chilly sunset. For those in need of even more storage on the Cross Country, there is an optional trunk that quickly mounts and dismounts without tools, according to the Victory brochure. This item was not in stock at the time, but the photos of it are not near as futuristic as the Vision’s trunk. While the Vision is not everyone’s cup of tea due to its futuristic looks, the Cross Country is a good-looking motorcycle in the traditional sense and should appeal to a wide range of riders in the touring crowd. It has pleasant lines and flows nicely from front to back, although the engine guard and rear fender are much bigger than they have to be.
My first impression of the bike as I initially sat on it was that the flat seat with a bum stop would be quite comfortable and the angular fairing should easily direct wind away from me. The windshield had been changed from the smaller stock windscreen to a massive piece of clear plastic that towered about 5 to 7 cm above my sightline. The windshield gained the affectionate nickname of the barn door. I much prefer the look of the shorter windshield and still like the wind on my face while riding, but I was thankful, because of the temperature, that the powers that be at the Victory office had chosen to change it to the optional larger version. Gwen, riding on the back, was also free of the windblast, which was deflected over her from the huge windscreen.
As I suspected, the riding position was very comfortable – back straight with hands and feet finding their home without stretching. With a seat height of only 667 mm (26.25 in.), it’s easy for a person of just about any inseam to touch the ground flat-footed. The flat, deeply sculpted seat doesn’t rotate your pelvis as many seats do, and therefore alleviates any stress on the lower back. Finding a relaxed spot for your feet is not a problem, as the floorboards are big – 457 mm (18 in.) long – I mean, move your feet just about anywhere and they are still supported. As long as the floorboards are, they taper at the end, so they are never in your way when you put your feet down.
Riding on the back for this trip, Gwen found it extremely comfortable, especially with the backrest mounted, and she never once complained of a sore butt. The passenger floorboards were at a comfortable height and allowed her some foot movement as well.
Instruments are easy to read and include an analog speedo flanked on the left by a fuel gauge. The speedo has the ability to change from mph to km/h for those travelling south of the border. An analog tach resides on the right side of the instrument cluster, with a battery voltage meter on its right. In between the speedo and the tach are a panel of idiot lights on the top with an LCD on the bottom. Your hands never have to leave the handgrips as the LCD, controlled by the left forefinger in front of the left switchgear, provides a wealth of information, including ambient temperature, gear selected, mileage, two trip meters, average and instant fuel consumption, average speed, range till empty and more. The stereo is plain Jane, at least in appearance, and resides under the gauges but all stereo controls are operated at the left-hand switchgear. What the stereo lacks in appearance it makes up in functionality. It is an AM/FM/Weather band/MP3/iPod/ Garmin GPS–compatible unit that will recognize the add-on components as they are connected.
Electronic cruise control is handled by the right hand with buttons on the right-hand switchgear.
Other than the safety of never having to take your hands off the handgrips, there’s another reason all controls are at your fingertips. The handlebars are long as they come back to meet you, making the fairing a long way away. It would be quite a stretch to reach any buttons if they were on the fairing. Reminiscent in scale of the Vision, the Cross Country is a little different in that the handlebar is round, not oval, allowing the easy mounting of a plethora of bracketry for electronic gadgets.
The fairing is well designed and kept the wind away from my hands and shoulders, while the fork’s wind deflectors did a fine job of keeping much of the wind from my legs.
The fairing is steering mounted, and while it’s common knowledge that crosswinds can affect the steering on a fork-mounted fairing, I blame the larger-than-life windshield, which acted like a sail during some of the gusts we experienced.
Leaving the Winnipeg area on the city’s ring road was a good test of the big V-Twin engine. Victory has ditched the 100 cu. in. engine in favour of the larger Freedom 106 cu. in. (1731 cc) in all of its models for 2011 – and what a sweet engine it is. The air- and oil-cooled, 50 degree, fuel-injected powerplant features self-adjusting cam chains, overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder and hydraulic valve lifters. The resulting maintenance-free top end is smooth and quiet, and helps the engine build an impressive claimed rear-wheel 92 horsepower and a peak torque of 109 ft-lb (147.7 N-m) at just 3000 rpm. The engine continued to pull hard right into the upper reaches of the rpm range, which redlines at 5200.
We were riding pretty hard at the beginning, firstly because I had to see what the engine would do, and secondly because it’s fun, but once the novelty of the big Twin wore off, we slowed things down a bit as we got out on the open highway. Over the course of 1500 km, our worst fuel mileage riding two-up with luggage was 6.7 L/100 km (42.3 mpg) and our best result was a pretty respectable 5 L/100 km (56 mpg). Averaging that out, you should expect to get about 375 km out of the 22 litre tank.
At a highway speed of 80 km/h in overdrive sixth gear, the engine lopes along at only 2000 rpm. While the engine produces much of its power that low in the rev range, clicking down a couple of gears to fourth brings the revs up to around 2600, putting the engine in the vicinity of its maximum power range and making it much more suitable for quick, efficient passing of anything in your way.
The Victory six-speed transmission – installed in all 2011 models – has received so many upgrades and modifications, it might as well be called brand new. The non-adjustable clutch lever is a little on the stiff side, while shifting is easy, albeit with a heavier engagement clunk in lower gears – a trait of a powerful V-Twin. The previous version was a little whiny in the higher gears, and I found that selecting neutral was troublesome in the Vision that I rode last year. At the time of picking up the 2011 Cross Country, I didn’t know about the revised transmission, but I immediately noticed how easy it was to find neutral. Victory calls this modification “Neutral Assist.”
While rolling to a stop, or during a stop when the bike is in first gear, simply flicking your toe up on the shifter will result in selecting neutral, no ands, ifs or buts. The function of Neutral Assist will not allow the transmission to go into second gear, thereby eliminating the exercise in frustration of watching the neutral-light flash as the heavy gears bounce between first and second, and vice versa. Very slick. Power delivery to the 180/60-16 Dunlop out back is via a clean and quiet, carbon fibre–reinforced belt.
Riding two-up with a backpack and saddlebags loaded, the rear suspension felt a little spongy. It’s adjusted through an air valve that is accessible by popping off the right-side plastic cover, below the seat. I didn’t have a hand pump and didn’t want to risk adding too much pressure from a compressor and air hose, so we just lived with the soft ride. As a word of warning, and I can tell you from experience, it may be in your best interests not to mention to your better half that you think the rear suspension needs more air when she’s riding pillion. Even though the ride was a little soft, the cast-aluminum swingarm, with its 120 mm (4.7 in.) of travel – and a unique constant-rate linkage to the rear shock – did not hit bottom. Thank goodness, this saved me from the “I think the rear suspension needs more air with you on it” comment.
