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Vision/X Bike Blend - Mad Max

15K views 45 replies 32 participants last post by  eotsis1 
#1 ·
Max Ness Had A Vision. And Mixed It With A Victory Cross Country.

Published by Cyril Huze September 3rd, 2015 in Builders and Customs.
At 21, Max Ness is the youngest member of the Ness family, the other son of Cory Ness, and is already involved in custom bike building although he is still attending the University of Arizona where he is studying Retail and Consumer Sciences with a minor in Business administration. When we met in Sturgis, he told me about the bike he rode 2800 miles to the rally. A Victory Vision to which he grafted a Cross Country rear end! Surprised by such a concept, Cory Ness was the first to confirm to me that it looks very good, So, I asked Max to send me a few pictures for review…
In 2011 Max bought a 2011 Victory Vision with some rear end damage. At that time, his grandfather Arlen was already doing some Vision rear end conversions using the Ness Down-N-Out Fender And Stretched Saddlebags Kit. His father Cory had always been talking about doing the Cross Country rear section conversion, but never ended up getting it done. Max liked the idea and decided he wanted to be the first one to try it.
How difficult was it? Max tells me it took only 2 months, including paint and of course some customization using Ness Catalog parts. The build went smoothly, the most challenging part being the relocation of the ABS system and getting it to work and fit correctly with the cross country rear end. So why doing it, you may wonder? Evidently for styling reason, but also because of the advantage provided by the big storage capacity of the Victory Cross Country saddlebags. Max told me he had no difficulty to pack 2 weeks of clothing and of necessities for its 2-week trip and stay in Sturgis.
What’s next? I asked Max. He is not sure yet, but promised that he will ride to the 76th rally a brand new custom. And yes, after school he intends to work full time at Arlen Ness Enterprises. In his words: “It would be an amazing opportunity for me to be able to work with my family and to see them on a daily basis. I have been around motorcycles my whole life and have watched my family dedicate their lives to this company, I would love to be a part of it and contribute in any way possible.”
 
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#31 ·
That's the nicest looking bike Victory hasn't built.... :)
 
#33 ·
I'd like to know this from x-bike owners

Who takes off their bags? So why do they have to be quickly removable? Is your bike so loaded to the gills that the extra 1-2 cubes of space is needed? Maybe you need a car!
I can keep two helmets in the trunk of my vision with room for some misc. items. I like the sweeping body lines of my Vision.
I do like the colors of this bike
 
#34 ·
Who takes off their bags? So why do they have to be quickly removable? Is your bike so loaded to the gills that the extra 1-2 cubes of space is needed? Maybe you need a car!
I can keep two helmets in the trunk of my vision with room for some misc. items. I like the sweeping body lines of my Vision.
I do like the colors of this bike
I don't care to have a trunk on the back, so big bags is a plus for me
 
#36 ·
Who takes off their bags?
I wanted to answer this one separately.

Taking off the bags in an easy manner makes all the difference in the world when it comes to access the wheel, shock, belt, and all the other parts buried in behind the bags.

I have read, from Vision riders, the one thing that kinda irks them is having to take off all the cowling and other cover parts to get at the parts that need attention behind all that.

Maybe you haven't had to deal with that yet or you have a dealership do all that. I dunno. But for those who like to do their own work; all that extra time pulling covers can be very tedious.
 
#37 ·
What Bbob said about bag removal. I take mine off very frequently for maintenance issues like checking tire pressure, cleaning the belt, and cleaning the nooks and crannies. Also, I have more than once decided to hose ut the insides of the bags when inadvertent spillage of recreational beverages occurred .....:devil
 
#42 ·
Maybe there's a future for this or something else baggerish in the Vic lineup but why?

From a corporate standpoint Polaris has done the "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" thing since they started the Vic brand. They seem to coalescing around some kind of disjointed strategy but the current offerings reflect a lopsided (pardon the pun) vision.

The good news is that they are committed to electrics, are fielding a slew of Victory steel and aluminum models and have a whole other division taking orders for baggers quicker than they can build them, lest we forget about little old Indian.

There are holes in the lineup but not so much in the big honking road tank with room for a family of four segment. Sub 1000cc is sorely lacking, little commuter park it in the bicycle rack and use a milk crate for a tour pack bikes do not exist in the USA with a Spirit Lake pedigree, no streetable Polaris offerings are at home bouncing across a stream bed, you do not see any vids of urban fighters riding dirty on Vics with sprockets as big as the rear wheel. The factory competes on Pikes Peak but not Joey Meatball and Son Garage. They have other brands of bikes available that they can get on the hill for lunch money.

So many unmet opportunities for this company but all of us silverbacks wondering why Ma Vic has not stepped up to provide us with yet another flavor of Barcolounger.
 
#43 ·
Thing is, Pop, there would be minimal financial outlay on the part of Polaris to build these. It's not like they would be designing and having to make parts for an entirely new bike. They already have these parts. It's just about putting them together a little differently. They could bring them to market in a matter of months I bet if they had the will to do so.
 
#45 ·


I lifted this off a wing rider site. Some Wingers may suffer from inadequacy issues but they compensate with Photoshop.
 
#46 ·
I was under the impression that the Vision was marketed after HD Ultra . V-twin / belt drive / 6 speed / radio/ xm/cb options /.
I test rode a Wing and didn't like the foot space taken up by the boxer engine. Too cramped for my liking. Then I came across Victory's offerings, rode both CCT and Vision. Maximum storage space was not on my criteria and being different was a bonus. CCT looked like a HD to me. You see those on every corner.
Removing body parts to get clean is not my idea of a good time. Though I do clean parts before putting them back on, like the tail light parts after putting on a hitch.
I always liked the PC800 that Honda made but they were short lived.
 
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