Motorcycle.com

05 kinpin 50th anniversary edition

love the bike. excellent performance & handling. have 35,000 km on it & has been flawless. only complaint is how fast rear brake pads wear out. could use & better seat for the long haul , but is otherwise very comfortable. i ride this thing hard & so far has not shown any signs of it... taking a toll on it. was at bike build off, & couldnt resist the burnout pit. unnoficially won(no prizes were awarded) against some big inch customs. what & blast to ride. Read Full Review

Chest Bump Worthy !!!

While I must say I purchased my Victory used this review is based on my 13,000 miles I put on the bike in my 2008 season... A most worthy engineered machine, great head turner, comfortable ride (3hrs daily) on its stock Victory seat, and I respect its strong sounding exhaust. When I purchased this b...ike I new I might be getting myself in a heap of trouble with my office friends when I showed up to my job with a non-Harley bike and park it next to my over ten co-workers with Harleys. The moment of truth came when we left for the day and they were all gathered around my bike, they each sat on her commented on her great looks and feel and when I gave them a chance to ride her around the parking lot only one has something negative to say and it was on the design of the bikes front fender. Mechanically they were all impressed and loved the strong sounding pipes. This machine is not intended to be ridden in silent mode for those that don't enjoy strong sounding pipes on a bike you should consider a scooter instead. These types of cruisers are manufactured to be heard and it does a fine job of that, now don’t get me wrong it not screaming eagle loud but justifiably loud enough to be heard on the road for your safety and comfort. Additionally I found the suspension to be good enough to handle my 280lb load on its back through variations of road conditions. One major thing I appreciated was this bike great handling of minimal vibration this is something my Harley friends strongly commented when they test rode my Victory. So how about it performance you say well when you roll up on the throttle the 100ci Freedom engine delivers by leaving your competition at your rear where they belong <g>.... The several dealerships I've had the pleasure of working with for accessories and general questions about the bike have all been very customer worthy with helpful suggestion even when a sale was not intended. Over all I love this company’s accomplishments in its short period of existence and I am only disappointed that this Classic Cruiser design has been discontinued by Victory. While their newer designs by Ness are eye candy having a Classic Line active would have been a good move in my opinion, but I do understand that market sales is what really dictates any model's shelf life... My latest venture this winter is customizing my bikes front and rear fenders and getting a new custom paint job.
&#61664; Live your life and ride on brothers and Sisters…-Charlie
Read Full Review

Better than a what???

Wow, I can't believe this bike is ranked above a goldwing and a yamaha on here. That is absurd. I'm not the world's biggest expert on this bike but I have a good friend who has two of them in excellent condition and he's been kind enough to have let me put several hundred miles on the two of them.

... My overall impression....these bikes are close to junk. Now let me say that he loves them and has ridden many other bikes, including his wife's FAR nicer 2000 somthing Yamaha v-4 Star cruiser. I think there must be something about his ego that keeps him from selling his two Victory's and buying a mate to her bike, he always has a much bigger smile when he get's off her Star and often takes her bike if she's not riding with us...."just to keep the battery charged". LOL
So, why do I think this bike is near junk? Well, to start with it is a comfortable and nice feeling bike to get on and it does have good, but not stunning, power. The two nicest things on this bike are the floorboards and the hard bags, nice space and closing mechanism. Everything else on the bike becomes less nice the further you ride. While some people will love it the factory pipes on these bikes are so loud that I find as a rider I am constantly trying to adjust the throttle to save my ears! And all that noise causes vibration throughout the bike which adds to fatigue. I've taken several lady friends for rides on these bikes and every one of them commented that they couldn't deal with more than an hour on the bike and that for the last half hour most of what they were thinking about was not how beautiful the mountains were but how painful the noise was.
Ok, so some of you think that sounds awesome, good, you'll get what you want in that flat out noise department. I might mention that his wife will only ride her bike in front of him because it's too painful to ride behind him when leaving intersections and such.
As for the engine, let's just say it's not the smoothest thing. I don't know if it's the mountings, lack of balance in the motor or what but the level of vibration is excessive, although no change at all for riders of pre millenium hogs. On the highway my hands go numb almost immediately at 70-80 mph. There is a slight difference between the two bikes, one takes about 5 miles for my hands to start to numb, the other about 8-10. It's a shame, these bikes should be highway stars.
Shifting is somewhat clunky, not the worst I've experienced but the worst on bike of such new vintage and low miles. One of them is often difficult to get into neutral and the other one simply does not go into neutral...can you say PITA! What a drag that becomes at long traffic lights and driving through town.
The seat is generous in proportion, even for the passenger, but feels like a brick within 45mins. This has been the experience of everyone I've taken on the machines and the owner has bought a think gel pad for himself!
Adding to this discomfort, especially after an hour of being worn down by the noise, vibration and hard seat is the suspension. The bike virtually crashes through modest bumps and anything remotely like a pot hole is worth doing almost anything to avoid. Women riding on the pack universally comment about this the first time we go over or through bumps that would be non noteworthy on most bikes.
Overall handling? Well, of course this is not a sport cruiser or sport bike. That said, the bike handles like a truck. No problem, many people like and expect that from this type of bike....many don't. If handling is of any concern to you, try something else, even in this class. For sure a Goldwing is like a crotch rocket by comparison in handling. Haven't ridden a Harley bagger but the non bagger hogs I've ridden handled like sports cars compared to this.
Manufacturing quality? I'd say on a scale of 1-10 there is nothing other than the aforementioned bags and floorboards that I'd rate above a 7 and few parts of this bike I'd rate above a 5.
Overall, I truly wouln't take one of these bikes for free unless I could sell it. It's just not a fun bike to ride and totally wears my passengers and myself out within an hour and even after a fairly long break with another hour of riding we are truly just happy to get off of it.
It's a shame, this is a decent looking bike, has a strong enough motor and seems like it should be a bike you're really enjoy riding far enough to make use of those nice bags...but that certainly hasn't been my experience.
If you're thinking about buying one of these, which of course would mean buying a used one at this point, I'd say unless you can ride one a hundred or two miles in one day stay away. If you've put that many miles on one in a day and you like it, great. If you can't take that kind of ride remember what I said if I got one for free.....I wouldn't be riding it much because it's just not pleasant. If you change the pipes to something vocal but within reason it would take the bike from aweful to less than great, by no way the equivalent of anything else you might compare it to. Read Full Review