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The kind of stuff I'd rather be seeing here. Be more positive!

7K views 96 replies 36 participants last post by  Oldman47 
#1 ·
#2 ·
That's very nice, and I do believe we are all glad that Witchdoctors is picking up these parts for us, for resale...so we don't run out. But… They're doubling the price of what the previous vendor was charging; in some cases. Let's hope they don't gouge us too much. Scarcity; supply and demand. We will pay!
 
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#3 ·
Hopefully WD will do right by the faithful and not behind us over bad enough we got the pickle once
 
#4 ·
Witchdoctor's doesn't strike me as an organization that would do that. I appreciate what Jon is doing for the community and is making the the move to position Witchdoctor's as THE go to for the parts we need and want.
 
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#12 ·
Rah, rah, ree; kick'm in the knee!

Rah, rah, rass; kick'm in the other knee!

I scream,
You scream,
We all scream,
For ice cream.
I'll give you $800 for your Vic. According to most of what you post that should be fair market value. Then you can move along and not be bothered by those of us who didn't wake to a world we no longer recognize.
 
#9 ·
The 2nd company that will never get another dollar of my money is WD.

He's not saving us he's buying old dealer stock, a very common business practice. He sees the potential and is going to take full advantage of it(I would too if I had the funds and storage area).

It's going to take quite a while but these will be collectibles unless Polaris bastardizes the product by offering an Indian version.

As the well runs dry on accessories thru Polaris places like WD will become the place to go.

I doubt there will be any new development from places but the big guys like Kuryakyn will continue to make accessories for as long as it's feasible.

The smaller guys like Lloyd, Rylan, Kevinx will keep us rolling as long as they can source parts.

While we're all pissed, we're the few that got the REAL Victory experience and soon we're all rolling around on museum pieces and a piece of Americana.

We didn't fail the brand, the brand failed us.

Till the wheels fall off
 
#10 ·
WD is a good outfit. Pricey, but they got what you need, usually. Happy I'm accessorized out. Just got the forward victory performance air filter from El Cahon, $47.99 free ship so I won't have to keep buying those expensive paper ones.

As far as positive I am. Love my ride and buying a burgman so I stop wearing out my baby. Ya know running all the constant errands and stuff. They're fun to ride too!

Keep the lights on @torotim and keep on riding. In 1 to 3 years my bike, collectible, will really be collectable so I'm Damn good.
Cartoon Gesture Poster Font Happy
 
#11 ·
Who said I was a Victory Cheerleader? Am I praising Victory? Is it a sin to enjoy my motorcycle? Are you guys on a mission to see to it that no one is happy about getting on and riding? Is it upsetting to you that I started this thread? This thread wasn't supposed to be about Polaris stinking up the place but obviously that's not OK with you guys.

Screw t! Have it your way.
 
#20 · (Edited)
OH, THE SIMULATED HORROR!!!

FFS, allow me to plumb you up...
I LOVE my bike (who wouldn't?) and I rode it a couple hundred miles this past week loving every minute of it... but Victory sh!t the bed, dude. We, as owners, deserve to feel cheated and express that. It's time to face the truth that Polaris industries doesn't give a rats ass if you are happy and proud of your bike or if you pour gas over it and strike a ****ing match and they have proven that beyond a reasonable doubt.

Who but a Victory cheerleader would be crowing about a vendor posting something positive about the future of Victory when Victory has a terminal illness that was SELF INFLICTED.

I am a Kingpin cheerleader because the bike is awesome... but Victory dropped the bike FIVE YEARS AGO so the orphan thing is nothing new to me... but now you are ALL in this boat with me.

If Honda built the Kingpin, I'd be a Honda rider... If Harley built the Kingpin I'd be a Harley rider... I am not brand loyal, I am BIKE loyal. The cruiser buying public snubs its collective nose at a really competent bike and embraces apes, whitewalls, lowered suspensions, and flat paint... OK great, so let indian build that bull**** and keep Victory headed toward what they promised us... THE PERFORMANCE AMERICAN CRUISER. Buncha lyin' mother f**kers never intended to do anything but what they just did... Looking back we can all see that. You wanna feel good about it and dance in the streets wearing a Buy Witchdoctors T-Shirt, go ahead.
 
#17 ·
Thanks for the heads up on Witchdoctors' plans for the future Torotim!
I am grateful to Jon for stocking up and building inventory on items Victory/Polaris will no longer carry. Witchdoctors has been nothing but a blessing for me as I have outfitted our 2 Crossroads. I will continue to shop with them whenever possible.

Thanks again Torotim
 
#19 ·
The fact of the matter is, there are a number of us who read letters like this:
***********
3-29-14
A letter to the membership director of the scout 101 club.

Hello Jeff. I don't know if you are aware of what the new Indian / Polaris company is doing. Through their law firm they are going after long established Indian suppliers that specialize in the vintage Indians built till 1953. After wasting thousands of dollars on lawyers, some suppliers have already paid for "licensing agreements" that also include a percentage of sales going to I / P (Indian Polaris).

One long time Indian supplier on the east coast has now closed his business because he couldn't afford this "licensing agreement". He had a great product that was made in the USA. The alternate now is an inferior product made in China. On a recent order of vintage Indian parts I noticed prices on some items had increased 10-20%. The supplier mentioned because of the I / P agreement, costs have gone up and the only way to recoup his new added expenses is to pass it on to his customers.
The new Indian company have been hyping their new bikes on heritage, using old bikes in ads and even copying the Munro streamliner. And now they want to screw the owners and riders of the original Indians. If it wasn't for us the name would be worthless. Don't they realize that we are their best "free" advertising?
I am in contact with a lot of people in the Indian motorcycle community - and they are very upset. I tried to get in touch with someone at Indian. Their 800 numbers direct you to Polaris where no one can give you any contact phone or email to anyone at Indian. Very strange. I finally found a phone # for their media relations person (Robert) but it was discontinued. I did email and he did reply. After a long phone call the bottom line was "they own the Indian name and me and everyone else is going to pay". Not a pleasant person to talk to. On a You Tube video I discovered the person in charge of Indian was a Steve Menneto.
I asked to talk with him and he said Steve was a very busy guy. He would not give me Steve's # or email. Very frustrating - like dealing with the government. I did some checking on Polaris. This is what I found at Bloomberg. They did nearly $4 billion in sales last year with a net profit of $381 million. Their CEO Scott Wine had a salary package of $31 million in 2012. Many other Polaris executives were not far behind. Scott joined Polaris in 2008 as their new CEO. He was brought in to do some cost savings.
His main cost saving was closing their Osceola, Wisconsin plant and moving it to Monterrey, Mexico costing 500 people their jobs. They will be opening a new plant in Poland this year and India soon. And this is a company portraying an USA image. While the Fat Cats get richer, Americans lose their jobs to cheap wages in foreign countries.
This seems immoral to me.

One word describes all this - GREED! Robert at Indian said I'll have to pay. He is wrong. I will never buy any product produced by Polaris. Also any Indian parts that are affected by I / P I will not buy. This company will not see one penny of my hard earned money again.
I hope the thousands of Indian riders all over the world do the same.

Don - Please pass this on.
********

And we suddenly realize that we folks who supported and stood by Polaris's motorcycles may very well, once again, have to take it up the back side when we need parts in the future - sort of leaves some folks with the feeling they are being boxed in.

IMHO, there are definitely two schools of thought on where all this is headed.. If you read one of the OP's post from back in January in response to the Vic closure it is clear that, for some reason - it is very difficult for this person to acknowledge the REAL Polaris:
He wrote:
**********
Polaris did things with Vic that no one else did or dared to do in 18 years. People don't realize the cost of R & D and the limitations of departmental budgets. Vic was a small part of Polaris but yet they stepped out on a limb by getting into the American made V-Twin market to begin with. I live close to Roseau, MN the original home of Polaris where the snowmobiles and ATV's are still built and know many people there. I used to work for Arctic Cat which is right next door to Polaris in this rural neighborhood. I traveled with Team Arctic race support and the marketing team during the snowmobile shootout's with the magazine publishers every year with the new lineup. You get to know a lot of folks and make lifelong friends across the manufacturers and hear plenty. When Polaris started the Victory venture the reaction across the board was basically, WTF! Are they nut's??? It wasn't an easy sell to the board to begin with.

It took off and gained approval in the first full production year with getting the award for best cruiser of the year so now it's legit. Then they develop the Freedom engine for the 02 model year just 5 years after the beginning of Vic production. That takes time and lots of money to develop, test, release and tool for production. A complete makeover right after it's birth. Expenses galore. What a lot of people don't realize it that even though the motorcycle plant is in Spirit Lake Iowa, a lot of the fabrication for all of Polaris's vehicles is still in Roseau at the snowmobile/ATV plant headed up by Randy Larson. One of his top fabricators happens to be my neighbor at the lake so I hear plenty but he can only say so much. These people sign a stack of non-disclosure forms to work in these departments promising to keep a lid on it lest they be fired.
**********

Noticing no where in that acknowledgement of Polaris's esteemed accomplishment of designing and bringing to market the Victory motorcycles did the OP point out this fact (from Wiki);

""The 1999 and 2000 Victory models experienced serious transmission problems, even with bikes with considerably less than 10,000 miles. This has been corrected with minor revisions in 2001 and a complete redesign in 2002. But, according to Wikipedia, Polaris was aware of the problem with the false neutral transmission from the beginning, and yet -
Polaris did not correct the transmissions in the 1999 and 2000 models and to date has not supported the owners of those bikes by replacing an apparently faulty design."""

and, it appears, maybe even chose to cover up those facts for some reason. He admittedly worked arm and arm with folks from Polaris during those days leaving no doubt that he fully knew about the disastor of those early years.
Because of modern day social media, it is getting harder and harder to hide truth from people who want to find it. Living behind rose colored glasses (if that what that is) is an old school way of self preservation and most of us dont wrong people for doing so if it gets them thru life and makes them happy. On the same token though, those of us who want the truth and want to know what reality really is feel like we should be afforded the same elbow room to aquire the knowledge/truth we seek and respond accordinly. Respect is a 2 way street, again, IMHO..
 
#50 · (Edited)
The fact of the matter is, there are a number of us who read letters like this:
***********
3-29-14
A letter to the membership director of the scout 101 club.

Hello Jeff. I don't know if you are aware of what the new Indian / Polaris company is doing. Through their law firm they are going after long established Indian suppliers that specialize in the vintage Indians built till 1953. After wasting thousands of dollars on lawyers, some suppliers have already paid for "licensing agreements" that also include a percentage of sales going to I / P (Indian Polaris).

One long time Indian supplier on the east coast has now closed his business because he couldn't afford this "licensing agreement". He had a great product that was made in the USA. The alternate now is an inferior product made in China. On a recent order of vintage Indian parts I noticed prices on some items had increased 10-20%. The supplier mentioned because of the I / P agreement, costs have gone up and the only way to recoup his new added expenses is to pass it on to his customers.
The new Indian company have been hyping their new bikes on heritage, using old bikes in ads and even copying the Munro streamliner. And now they want to screw the owners and riders of the original Indians. If it wasn't for us the name would be worthless. Don't they realize that we are their best "free" advertising?
I am in contact with a lot of people in the Indian motorcycle community - and they are very upset. I tried to get in touch with someone at Indian. Their 800 numbers direct you to Polaris where no one can give you any contact phone or email to anyone at Indian. Very strange. I finally found a phone # for their media relations person (Robert) but it was discontinued. I did email and he did reply. After a long phone call the bottom line was "they own the Indian name and me and everyone else is going to pay". Not a pleasant person to talk to. On a You Tube video I discovered the person in charge of Indian was a Steve Menneto.
I asked to talk with him and he said Steve was a very busy guy. He would not give me Steve's # or email. Very frustrating - like dealing with the government. I did some checking on Polaris. This is what I found at Bloomberg. They did nearly $4 billion in sales last year with a net profit of $381 million. Their CEO Scott Wine had a salary package of $31 million in 2012. Many other Polaris executives were not far behind. Scott joined Polaris in 2008 as their new CEO. He was brought in to do some cost savings.
His main cost saving was closing their Osceola, Wisconsin plant and moving it to Monterrey, Mexico costing 500 people their jobs. They will be opening a new plant in Poland this year and India soon. And this is a company portraying an USA image. While the Fat Cats get richer, Americans lose their jobs to cheap wages in foreign countries.
This seems immoral to me.

One word describes all this - GREED! Robert at Indian said I'll have to pay. He is wrong. I will never buy any product produced by Polaris. Also any Indian parts that are affected by I / P I will not buy. This company will not see one penny of my hard earned money again.
I hope the thousands of Indian riders all over the world do the same.

Don - Please pass this on.
********
This was a long post and many probably didn't read this closely. From what I gathered from the post is Polaris is making suppliers of Vintage Indian parts, the guys that keep those antiques on the road, pay a licensing fee under their I/P rights to play or close their doors. I hope this is not true.These guys have been keeping the Indian name going for 60 years and if the letter is correct Polaris is hitting them hard. What does this have to do with Victory? If Polaris is claiming intellectual rights on the original and Gilroy Indians for parts and accessories what do you think they will allow for aftermarket on the Vic line for proprietary parts. Polaris retained the rights to everything Victory. Will Gates, Bosch or even Lloyds have to pay an exorbitant (Extortion) fee to play in the future? This situation, if true, bears watching very closely. This is a worst case scenario, but I say plan for the worst and hope for the best. You wont be disappointed but you may be surprised.

Show me where one person said he didn't like his bike...
Is anyone happy with Polaris? One person wanna step up and say they are?

Negative and whiney? Really? Some of you might want to sit around a campfire with Scott Wine and sing Kumbaya, but I'd like to stab the little prick in the throat.
Do I like my Bike?
Hell it's the best model Vic ever made!

Am I happy with Polaris?
Not no, but hell no. And it gets shadier the more we learn.

I don't want to stab Wine, but a throat punch and a knee to the nuts would work!

I start my retirement this year and had 2 things in mind. the first was to start looking seriously at the Indian and the second was to trick out the KP a little. I backed off on both and am in a wait and see posture. I have my KP for now. Am I worried about resale? No, could care less, Usually when I buy a vehicle the last trip is to the bone yard.

Do I want to be a doom and gloom guy? No. But I have to be a realist about the situation with parts and I/P, keeping an eye open and not keep my head buried in the sand. I joined the site the same year Polaris negotiated Indian. There were those that saw the end of Victory then. There were more as time went on with no updates and such that also saw the end of Victory. Then there were those that told those guys to shut up there's nothing going to happen just ride and enjoy. Hmmm, many of those guys have been very absent from this site since Jan 09.

I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy one of the best bikes ever made, you should. But we all need to be aware and informed of the potential issues that Polaris may throw at us in the future. Polaris, who is holding all of the cards, has never been a company that was concerned in any way about the end user of their products and has proven that time and time again.

As far as Jon gathering up parts, good for him, as long as he can get them. He is primarily a distributor and if Polaris goes after the aftermarket manufacturers Jon wont be able to get stuff either.
 
#23 ·
I absolutely love my Vegas and I'm completely thrilled with everything I've ever bought from Witchdoctor. Their customer service is also top notch. As for Polaris, they're a dead horse, period. They built a great bulletproof motorcycle and I will never sell my Vegas. There will always be parts available somewhere so why worry. Mine is 12 years old and going strong without anymore than standard service.
I say, chill out, enjoy what you have or move on.
 
#24 ·
I absolutely love my Vegas and I'm completely thrilled with everything I've ever bought from Witchdoctor. Their customer service is also top notch. As for Polaris, they're a dead horse, period. They built a great bulletproof motorcycle and I will never sell my Vegas. There will always be parts available somewhere so why worry. Mine is 12 years old and going strong without anymore than standard service.
I say, chill out, enjoy what you have or move on.
This is what I'm trying to say but I seem to really piss some off when I say it. I'm starting to enjoy it!
 
#27 ·
I'm going to make a positive contribution to this thread.

I'm positive Polaris management screwed up a great line of bikes through mismanagement and sucked the profitability out of the Vic line. I'm also positive they won't support the line for 10 years with parts.
 
#29 ·
I don't know where this thread is going but understand everyone has their slant on what's happened and why.

I too would like to see information presented that will help me deal with the problems that will eventually crop up with continued ownership. I'd rather have choice than no choice even if it costs me more than I want when it comes to my CCT.

As fantastic as the forum and you guys are there are moments when the tone can get very dark indeed. Prior to purchase of CCT I like many spent time on here doing "research" to ensure I was making the right choice. I know no bike is absolutely perfect but got caught up with the near vitriolic hype of a few who had issues forgetting the majority of riders didn't have the same issues. It came VERY close to my not buying Victory.

I backed off from the forum for a while to clear my head and came back thinking there must be a good side so let's balance up and look to see if there are some good news stories.

Sure enough found lots and that had me now thinking I wasn't going to buy a bucket of bolts and disaster. So ended up with the best bike purchase to date in my riding career. Have always thought we have lost potential new Victory owners through the depth of the doomsday attitude some had with problems only a few had with their bikes.

I too relate to the anger all have at what has occurred and want somehow a way to punch Polaris in the face for the way they have operated.

I want to get over my anger, frustration and disappointment. I want to fix what I can and that means looking after my bike, getting a list of who can fix and supply parts and maintaining a positive attitude.

I can't maintain a positive attitude if all I hear is doom and gloom on this forum. So @torotim is appreciated by me for trying to suggest we talk positive and providing update on a vendor for our bikes.
 
#32 ·
I'll post what I've been posting I like my bike a lot but it just rubber, plastic and metal and when it hits 100,000 miles or I decide it's no longer reliable I'll move onto another brand and will like it a lot also. I've had mine 1 year 8 months and it'll turn 35,000 miles in a couple weeks so the clock is quickly ticking.
 
#33 ·
It's interesting reading about the negativity concerning Polaris' crappy service history. I was on the Indian forums yesterday and they have a thread about "Why have you left Harley to come to Indian." And guess what??? Most of the Indian riders were Harley guys and they were upset by crappy service by many dealers, plain A**hole attitudes by many sales guys and other things like not wanting to fix things and so on, Sound familiar? There is no brand out there that has perfect support. I am a new Vic owner and I bought this bike because of the great quality I read about. We will see in the long run how it does but I have faith in the product. Manufacturer support is same even in auto industry. I drive a Subaru WRX and I had few issues with the car(2.5 years old). And every time I went to the dealer for a fix they give some crappy excuse and try not to fix it. And this is a reputable brand with great over all quality, I'm sure you would agree. Another example is a friend of mine with a Mitsubishi Evo. Another great car with great reputation and quality. Few years back he had an integral part of his AWD system fail and they would not fix it. Wanted 3 grand for it. He ended up fixing it himself and then found out that people all over the world had the same issue and Mitsu was not fixing it for anyone. There are horror stories to be found everywhere. Overall it's true Polaris screwed up royally and I'm pissed off myself, but there will be parts to be found and these bikes will continue to run for many years to come. I will be positive and tell you this...I still love my Octane and do not wish I bought something else in spite of what they did. I'm proud to be different than every other mofo on a Harley or a Ducati. They're all a bunch of **** and I love that I stand out. We should support the vendors that were there for us and they will find the way to make parts we need to keep riding.
 
#34 ·
There is going to be gloom and doom.
It's natural response when you get screwed over

I would like to see comments posted that warn future purchases of ANYTHING POLARIS as being a bad idea..

That Indian post above should be posted on the Indian forum.

This is a bad company and as many people as possible need to know it.

For me I will pay a bit more from witch doctors rather than search all over hellls half acres to find a part. So good for Jon....

Oil and filters will never be an issue. The sooner you stop using Vic oil and filters the longer your bike will last.

If your going to keep your bike get a backup belt. I bought one from a junk yard cheep. They parted out a very low mileage wrecked bike.
There are lots of cheap parts from wrecked bikes out there.
I noticed prices going up so don't wait.

Use amsoil or Mobile 1 or wix for filters. Brake pads are easy aftermarket items. Turns out Victory uses same pads as a lot of other bikes.
That's never going to be an issue.

Treat your bike well. Change the oil before 5000 miles.
Positive enough???

But
**** on Polaris as often as you can. Spread the word this is not the company you want to buy ANYTHING FROM.....
 
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#35 ·
...i see lots of positivity...
guys planning mods
guys adding another vic to the stable
new guys buying new bikes
new guys buying old bikes
guys passionately loves their bikes
guy passionately hating old polaris

if I have read too many threads on the gloomy side - I stop reading them, knowing in time it will peter out as more chaff is separated from the wheat. If you own a bike with the conception of resale value as a condition of ownership ...I' m sorry for you.
 
#39 ·
Wow this started out good. Quickly went back into the other 25 negative whiny threads. Geeze

So thanks torotim for putting this up and great news from witchdoctors, (aimed at the rest of us that like our victorys.)

I know, I know, it's not the bikes your pissed at. It's polaris.
 
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#40 ·
Wow this started out good. Quickly went back into the other 25 negative whiny threads. Geeze

So thanks torotim for putting this up and great news from witchdoctors, (aimed at the rest of us that like our victorys.)

I know, I know, it's not the bikes you're pissed at. It's polaris.
Show me where one person said he didn't like his bike...
Is anyone happy with Polaris? One person wanna step up and say they are?

Negative and whiney? Really? Some of you might want to sit around a campfire with Scott Wine and sing Kumbaya, but I'd like to stab the little prick in the throat.
 
#44 ·
:clap:Yeah another informed thread turned sour.
Thanks Tim for the info.

We have enough torch in hand angry mob threads. Let's get back to talking about our bikes.

Oh and just for the record my bike is 6 yrs old. Here's a list of the parts and service I've needed from the dealer.

Crickets........

And another thing all the cool aftermarket sh!t on my bike came from Witchdoctors !
I am a supporter and I understand he's trying to support us. Cool.......:clap:
The price of poker just went up boys.
 
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