2015 Victory Magnum Review

What you get is a 21-inch front wheel instead of the CC’s usual 18-incher, a slammed rear end that carries the seat about an inch lower, and some big upgrades in the styling department: There are four multicolor paint options, all of which are really eye-catching without being too over-the-top (not a skull in sight), and the bright color carries on through the dashboard and rear fender close-outs, ie, where the fender blends into the bags.

In contrast to the Cross Country touring bike it’s based on, Victory thinks the Magnum is oriented more toward urban use, and that the Magnum buyer is the extrovert who wants to be seen and heard around town as opposed to the long-distance rider who wants to get away from it all. To that end, it gets a new 100-watt sound system with six speakers packed into the fairing, which does pump out more and better sound than the CC’s stereo – and optional saddlebag lid speakers are available too (along with medium and high apehangers, a throatier exhaust, etc.).

The seat is all the way down to 25.7 inches, from 26.3 for the Cross Country. Victory says the rear shock linkage is redesigned for the same smooth ride, but the price you pay is reduced rear wheel travel, down from 4.7 to 3.5 inches for the Magnum. In my brief spin around Las Vegas on smooth pavement, it wasn’t a problem. Mainly what I did notice is that the Magnum’s low-speed handling, as in making U-turns in parking lots and things, was way more manageable than the Cross Country Tour I rode on a 5000-mile tour a couple of months ago – maybe because I didn’t have 60 pounds of junk in my trunk? But I don’t think so.

Guys who know their choppers tell me putting a big wheel on the front is an age-old way to improve the handling of any bike: It shifts more weight rearward, including tilting the engine weight that direction, the oil in the pan, etc. However it works, it’s a big difference you can feel. Crawling around in traffic, the Magnum is easily balanced and graceful. Victory’s specs claim identical rake and trail numbers for the Cross Country and the Magnum, but the Magnum must have a little more of both.

If it seemed like the loud and proud Magnum might’ve been a good time to squeeze a little more juice out of the tried-and-true but not-updated-for-a-long-time Freedom 106 V-Twin, we agree. But that didn’t happen. It’s still a perfectly acceptably torquey/powerful engine, but we do need to keep up with the Joneses, don’t we? Maybe the fact that Polaris is standing pat with it means the new liquid-cooled motor our man Dennis Chung uncovered in April might be here sooner than we think?