Victory had been around 20 years and managed to be 3% of Polaris's revenues. Indian/Slingshot 4 years and was 12% of revenues. The number I hear the most is 100 million lost on Victory alone recently.

I don't blame Polaris for clipping them. I just don't believe Polaris believes in motorcycles enough to ride out bad times. If they did - they would have Polaris branded off road bikes already. Indian was a cash/money opportunity and when the market turns, I'd not bet on them staying. Their 2nd generation of offerings will be critical to any kind of longevity. Assumes they're not sold off to an investment firm before that.

 

Road King , you know there will still be a market for it down the road in 10 years unlike Indian. Don't expect Indian to survive long term, they just don't have the numbers or the future market to get the numbers behind them.

 

Unless there's an Indian dealer really close bye and you don't plan on traveling far I wouldn't even consider it. I actually test rode an Indian chieftain last summer and was pretty impressed with it overall but the lack of dealerships and history of the them was a deal breaker for me.

 

 

Erik Buell....

 

Ride a Polaris if you want, they have had good reviews on the handling and engines. Take a look at Victory's packaging. Most of the switches and master cylinders look like JC Witney. Look at the Slingshot - it looks like a Transformer toy. Think that style will be popular in 5 years? Take a look at the Indian aesthetics. The Indian badge and the "111" on the air cleaner are over-sized - they look about 15% too big. Look at the fog light wire routing on the Indian Roadmaster - exposed wiring that will deteriorate in the sun. My Ultra's fog lights are routed to be hidden - from the factory. I think Polaris got the big engineering design things right on all three products but in terms of finely detailed design work, they missed it. Its like trying to build a try custom motorcycle by ordering parts out of a catalog - it ain't going to happen. I'm sure Polaris builds nice bikes for what they are just like Kawasaki does. You have to know what your after and what you are getting.

 

I have a 2012 victory highball and a2015 HD slim like both bikes and plan on keeping both I don't like the looks of Indian like others have said I really don't think Indian will be around in 10 more years

 

Tom, you are on a Harley Davidson Forum asking about which bike to buy next year, I think you already know the answer, or you would be posting this on an Indian forum. Go with the Road King.

 

Ditto to what Nomadmax said

 

This is just as much an Indian as what Polaris is selling: