An Indian Cousin - 2011 Victory Cross Roads Impressions - Indian Motorcycle Forum

Horrock 1474013011 · Edited

The Perth Victory franchisee, Causeway Motorcycles, opened their doors on the 10th December 2010.

I wandered in a day or two later and met the sales rep, Brett Graham, a passionate supporter of the brand, whom I am pleased to say now operates out of the new Indian Victory Perth showrooms in Cannington.

I was in the market for another bike, and Brett threw me the key to a Cross Country demo and told me to get lost for a few hours. The smart Polaris policy of getting bums on seats to let the bike sell itself worked perfectly, and I placed an order for a Cross Roads that day.

The stock in the showroom was 2010 models, but having read about the changes and improvements to the MY2011 range already on sale in the States, I opted to wait until they were available here before taking delivery. I ended up waiting until August 2011 to get my hands on my bike as it turned out, but fortunately I had the use of my son's Vulcan 1600 in the interim.

Of course this gave me plenty of time to raid the accessories cattle dog, (and to save some more $$ to pay for it all). Here's the list:
* Hard bags
* Forged crash bars
* Ambient Temperature sensor
* Additional instrument functions activated
* Stage 1 exhaust
* Performance air filter
* Heated grips
* Driver backrest
* Lower air deflectors
* Tachometer kit
* Lock 'n' Ride trunk
* H.I.D. low beam kit
* Passenger Footboards
* Passenger armrests
* Heel/toe shifter
* Oil temp dipstick
* Victory bike cover

Not content with that, over the next few months I added:
* Autocom intercom system
* TailBlazer brake light modulator
* Scorpio alarm system & GPS tracker
* VictoryHID high beam replacement
* Data Dot DNA
* Stebel horns
* Motolights on the forks
* Vinyl protection kit
* Accessory fuse block
* Garmin Zumo
* Dyna Beads wheel balancing
and, yes, the dreaded sheep skin!

In my humble opinion, I had the best Victory tourer in Australia for the next couple of years, and over about 25,000km I was (almost) completely happy with my ride.

The Victory tourers, the Cross Roads, Cross Country, the discontinued Hardball, and nowadays the Magnum, all utilise a cast aluminium frame with an air adjustable rear shock, whereas the rest of the range have steel tube frames and less sophisticated suspension.

The Cross Roads (XR to the cognoscenti) thus has a very rigid frame and about 125mm of rear wheel travel, meaning the clearance is excellent for a cruiser, the ride quality is superb, and the handling very confident and devoid of surprises.

There was none of the spinal jarring on bad roads, and the undersides of my footboards were heavily scarred due to the assured handling letting me lay the bike over a long way in tight bends and at roundabouts. Better than my RM, but the additional mass it carries up high would be part of the reason.

The XR seat is all-day comfortable, and in conjunction with a backrest, ideal bar shape and the really roomy footboards, long stretches were no problem as far as bodily comfort.
The tank held more than my RM, and I averaged 5.2l/100km over the life of the bike, so 400km range was sometimes achieved. Locking cap too.

I can't say I ever felt the engine was not optimal, and whilst there may have been a background low frequency rumble to its character, this was not a negative to me. and it felt as strong as my TS111 before the RM was modified (see Living with a RM).

The braking was nothing special, and the feel at the lever was heavy and non-communicative. The XR lacked ABS availability until the 2012 models were released. I costed the parts needed to upgrade my brakes to ABS, but an estimated $7K outlay put an end to that and started me thinking about my next purchase.

The panniers and top box are more roomy than Indian items, just key-locked of course, although the XR looked very undressed with the bags off, unlike the RM. Needed tools to remove them and the top box as well.

V-Twin has mentioned the cruise control, inferior in several ways to Indians. Unattractive added-on control block with multi buttons, mechanical in operation so one had to hold the grip loosely, and lacking the roll-off cancel feature.

The 2011 models received a re-engineered gearbox, and so I shudder to think what the earlier design was like. My XR guaranteed loud clanky changes up to 3rd gear, after which things improved somewhat, and combined with a pretty heavy clutch, was not a joy in the city.

The OEM screen was frankly, poor aerodynamically. Anything over about 110kmh and my helmet was buffeted continuously, and the design ensured a cold air blast was directed straight onto the hands. I went to a local fairing manufacturer, Eagle Screens for a fix.
I sacrificed my original for him to make a mould, and he gave me a beautiful swept back shape, wider than the original, which protected me and my hands very completely. He also fitted an adjustable vent from the Gold Wing fairing and made larger winglets for the fork legs. Recommended highly.

The overall styling does either work s well or not at all for individuals. I thought it OK, especially that sexy rear end and the huge V tail light, the best on any bike.

You don't see a lot of these machines around, which is a pity as they are excellent long distance tourers but overlooked by most buyers. My bike cost me about $35K by the time I was done, but it was a happy relationship, and almost the equal of the RM. Good memories.

--------------------
Albany, Western Australia
ex 2015 Roadmaster

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