Victory’s Roaring Hillclimber
Can this Victory bike, custom-built by Roland Sands, with the fuel tank mounted below the engine, handle the 156 turns of Pikes Peak this year? Victory sure thinks it can…
This is the machine that Victory Motorcycles is going to roar up the 12.42 mile Pikes Peak Hill Climb on at the end of June, just weeks after racing an electric bike in the TT.
You’d think the American firm, which traditionally produces baggers and cruisers, would be content with just entering the world’s biggest road race on the Isle of Man, but no, it’s also racing at Pikes Peak and saying it will be competitive too. Not only that, but Victory’s Project 156 bike is cradling a prototype engine built from scratch in just four months. It’s called Project 156 because of the 156 turns in the 12.42-mile road that leads up to the summit of Pikes Peak.
While Victory doesn’t want to give too much away ahead of the race, the firm’s director of motorcycle product, Gary Gray, is adamant the bike is as powerful as it looks. “The prototype engine is making great power,” he says. “And Roland Sands’ race heritage and background is definitely feeding in to this. He’s a great friend and we’ve worked together on and off for many years.”
Very little has been released about the specification of the bike, but the underbelly-mounted fuel tank, the trio of separate radiators, the twisting pipework and the air intake on top of the ‘fake’ fuel tank all beg further explanation. In brief, the radiators and pipes are to water-cool the new engine (that has a 15:1 compression ratio and titanium intake and exhaust valves).
Having the fuel tank on the underbelly makes room for the twin 67mm throttles and downdraft runners. We’ll have to wait for more tech spec until after Pikes Peak, but in the meantime, Roland Sands has at least given us a few other snippets about the set up.
“We have manufactured prototype RSD race wheels and wrapped them in Dunlop GP-A Pro tyres,” he says. “Our good friends at Spin Imaging have supplied graphics. The Ohlins suspension has been tuned. The Motech gauge is programmed and is ready to monitor our progress and manage the motor.”
At the time of writing, Cycle World’s editor, Don Canet, was riding the bike up a test portion of the course from 11,000ft to about 12,300ft. This was the first test of the bike at high altitude. Don reported great handling but poor grip on the cold mountain road.
The team say they are continuing to improve the engine response to the increasingly thin air at altitude, but it’s making excellent top end power, and between now and the race, they’ll use a high-altitude dyno for further tuning.
Victory has plenty of engine knowhow, having designed the Freedom 106 V-twin that powers most of its cruiser and bagger range.
While the firm says that the Project 156 engine is merely a prototype and only for this bike, that’s a whole lot of development work that could potentially go in to a future road bike. It’s been a while since Victory brought out a new product and with the push we’re seeing with them going racing, we could be at the start of a new era for the firm.
Asked whether Project 156 is leading Victory in a new direction for future motorcycles, Gary was reluctant to answer, but said: “Today what it’s about is proving American performance. We think we need to get in to racing. It all starts with racing and where that leads us to we don’t know yet.
“When you think about it in the month of June, Victory Motorcycles is going to be racing in the two greatest races in the world, one with a prototype gasoline engine and one with an electric motor. That is the most amazing I think we can do in motorcycling. I think it’s great to show what we can do with our engineering teams and it’s great to show what our products can do. Victory around the world is going to be pretty happy and pretty excited and pretty proud in the month of June.”
Meanwhile, on his blog, Roland Sands wrote: “Project 156 is live. It’s been a tremendous effort from many people to get this Victory racing machine ready for its first test session on the mountain.
“As we wait for the snow to melt and the road to clear from Pikes Peak we’ve taken what we’ve learned from testing to tweak the things we know can be better. We’ve put the final touches on the bike. A fresh K&N air filter has been installed.
“There’s still some things to figure out and with a few days on the mountain this coming weekend we are excited to turn some wheels in the direction of the Summit.”
Pikes Peak may have 156 corners, but those corners are mostly hairpins followed by straights. Victory will need all the power it can get on those straights while maintaining stability. All naturally aspirated engines start losing power above 10,000ft as the oxygen level falls off… let’s hope Project 156 has plenty of breath in that non-supercharged engine.