Polovision

And the US in the 70s wasn't all that hot either.

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My Rides in the west

Moto-Suzzi G50

Cringing BIG TIME! My first car was a 67 Ford Cortina. Lucas electical parts. ...Did not like the rain, snow, dry weather , cold weather....did I forget anything?

mfile2000

The electronics on the Brit bikes are pretty good now. The only issues I knew of were stator/regulator problems and they finally did a recall on those. Ironcially, those weren't made in England. I believe they were made in Japan. Pretty sure its all sorted out now, and I'm sure I just set myself up to eat my words, as I tend to do from time to time.

Mr. Efficiency

Ahhhh, Lucas electrics.... the prince of darkness.

The lucas wiring on my Beezer actually set the seat on fire once. It made a BMW rider out of me at the tender age of 19

Anywho, who cares if something is made in the US or not, we are o longer a manufacturing economy. I like the fact that Victories are put together here.

But its also why I ride a bike from a single source (for major components except brakes and such, everybody uses Brembo) factory. My engine was punched out and my frame was welded and my drive train was all milled at a nice small factory... in Berlin

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"faster, faster.... Until the thrill of speed overwhelms the fear of death.
Man of Mystery... Get it, real funny...
Mr. E., Genius
No No No... Mr. E, Super Genius

Psyc0

I used to work on just about any brand machine, back in the late 60's-early 70's, and that was not limited to only motorcycles......cars too.

Most of the European electronics back then, ie, ignitions and charging/lighting systems, were dismal failures.......especially on Jawa/CZ bikes....not much better for the Brit machines, nor the German & Italian built.

The mechanicals of the Euro bikes were of high quality, and had they been equipped with more reliable electronics, Japan wouldn't have so handily trounced those Euro manufacturers, IMO.

Spanish built off-road bikes, (Ossa, Montessa, Bultaco) created some fantastic, early day solid state ignitions, and those were highly reliable.
The rest of the bunch, pretty much used points and condensers, and that included the American built bikes and cars as well.

Japanese built machines also used points/condensers at first, however, they were fairly reliable, plus the ignition/wiring/charging systems were built to last a spell.
Almost overnight, the Japanese "big four" catapulted racing machine development, and rapidly became the industry's leaders.

American industry (in general) stood by and ignored the Pacific Rim's challenges...... all while looking down their noses at the enormous potential profits contained within the unbridled, off-road motorcycle racing phenomena, which had so tumultuously migrated across the Atlantic pond.

Even Mexican origin companies sprang up, and tossed the gauntlet, though, their products were only manufactured for a short term.

Sure do wish the USA MC industry had taken the off-road motorcycle more seriously, or at least had made a concerted effort to compete.

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Woodswoman

Here's a kind of fun time-lapse video of a Victory Cross Country being assembled at the Spirit Lake plant.


.

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Woodswoman
(a/k/a Mrs. BearBait)

Dum Vivimus, Vivamus!

2010 Victory Cross Roads, "Doctor Pepper"

tinybauman

That video is awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Moto-Suzzi G50

Can you find a similar video on the C50 being assembled? If so I could play it backwards in SLO MO and figure out how to work on the darn thing .

bigmurph

I'm a high school auto teacher and we won the state motorcycle competition last year. We got to tour the plant near Kansas City. As we were walking through, I saw a lot of parts from other parts of the world. The guide didn't want to talk about that to much. The plant was cool though.

OzriderC50T

We have the same issues in Oz. Most things are assembled in Australia but most components are made in Asia.

Bit different to what it used to be, it's not a case of buying cheap Chinese parts anymore the Chinese manufacturers will build a factory and manufacture to customer specs so the parts are the same, cost is significantly lower.

Do the manufacturers then pass those savings on to the consumer?

That's a whole new discussion.

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Cheers, Ozrider



2011 C50T

http://ozboulevards.com/