I was using the fm and am on my way home today. The reception I felt was fairly good. I was picking up stations that were 100 + miles away on the fm side. Once I got home I plugged my ipod in and the sound quality is better than with the radio. I haven't activated my xm yet so I don't know about the sound quality there. I'm a big sirius fan and am hoping that I can find someone that makes a conversion kit to make the xm into sirius. We found a company that makes it for our honda vehicle but I'm still looking for someone that makes it for victory. If anyone can help with this let me know.

Also my badge is #34 and my vin is 1359. My engine serial is 0025. My wife and I thought the numbers were pretty cool, I'm 34 years old to match my badge #, and I was born on Jan. 25th to match the 0025 serial # on my engine.

Victory's Numbering is just weird. No methodology at all.

My badge is #009 and my vin is 1252. My engine serial is 0041.

 

If I understand vin #'s and engine #'s at all, which I really don't. According to these numbers my bike was built 107 before yours, yet the badge is only 25 before yours and your engine was built 16 before mine.

 

In terms of Sirius and XM here's the scoop on what's happening with the merger of these two companies.

 

Later this year, they will be making a hybrid radio that will receive both the Sirius and XM signal. While that doesn't help us, next month (October), they will start releasing cross-programming packages. For an extra fee, XM owners will be able to get some Sirius stations such as Howard Stern. The same will hold true for Sirius owners as they will be able to get some of the specialized XM programming.

 

In terms of the free trial period, well, that's a tough one to answer. My "assumption" is that it was a business deal. It is my understanding that the car manufacturers get a cut of future revenue if the purchaser opts to purchase the package after the free trial period. If this theory holds true, it is possible (I'm not makiing accusations here, just educated assumptions), that Victory will be getting a cut of the subscription price we pay to XM for the programming. This is not an unheard of practice and it's very similar to the way satellite TV is marketed and sold.

 

For example, in the old days of the DSS (Digital Satellite System, now known as DirecTV), there were three parties involved: RCA who made the hardware, USSB which provided the cable-type stations and DirecTV which provided the premium channels. Simply stated, you had to buy the equiptment and purchase two programming packages to get all the offerings. To keep the prices down on the receivers, RCA would get a cut of the revenue from DirecTV and USSB. During the second year of the DSS, RCA was giving away the equipment FREE when you signed up for a two year package. It was simply a subsidy. Down the road, DirecTV purchased USSB and RCA became a non-player in the business.

 

Now, here's some gadget trivia: The guy who was instrumental in launching DSS (Digital Satellite System) was Joe Clayton. He was the head American of RCA (Owned by France-based Thomson). While many folks associate Mel Karmazin as head of Sirius (now Sirius-XM), his boss, the Chairman of the Board is...Wait For It...Joe Clayton.

 

Just a little trivia for you and possibly Victory is achieving profit every time an Victory/XM radio is activated. Hey, right or wrong, that's business.

 

With all that said, I still feel that at least a 90 free trial period should have been included.

 

Now, in terms of sound quality, the AM/FM is on the bottom, XM in the middle and the sound generated from the iPod is superior to the other sound options on the Vision.

 

Comments welcomed.

The reason for the random serial numbers on our 10th anniversary according to what the head of production told me is because all of the 10th anniversaries are not being built at the same time. They are coming down the line one at a time mixed in with other standard bikes. He said there are so many extras on them that they are taking longer to produce so they didn't want to slow production down by doing them all at once.

    As for the xm and sirius I realize they are merging and that sirius channels will be available on xm.  From what I have been able to gather doing research on the subject there will only be about four sirius channels available as a best of sirius package and they will all be talk type programming and not music. My wife and I had xm in our honda vehicle for two years before finding a conversion kit to make it sirius and still be able to use our factory head unit and get all station iformation to display properly. We both feel that for our musical tastes sirius has a much better programming selection with less repitition and less channels playing commercials. I would think that since the two companies are going to be one you should be able to get a choice of any of the channels that you would like. Or better yet why not just make one new company?  There's and excellent sight for finding info about the merger and sirius radio gear, it's tssradio.com.

My anniversary bike isn't here yet.  I am so freaking bored it isn't funny.  I gave my Jackpot to the dealer so they could put it on the floor.  I have been without two wheels for almost a month now.  Probably in reality its only been a couple weeks.  Still it is excruciating. 

 

Every other day I drive by the dealer and check out their lot and garage to see if I can get a glimpse of a new crate.  It is bordering on obsessive.  The dealership received the vin #'s recently but not the serial numbers for the two 10th anniversary bikes they are getting.  They hope to see them by next Thursday.  I am not getting any younger here...

 

Seriously though, I can only look at these forums so much.  And lately its been a bit slow in the forum department so that has made it even worse.  You all need to step it up a notch and give me something to read and photos to drool over.

 

Only bright spot is tomorrow dealer is loaning me an 08 Vision.  I scheduled an experienced MSF course for tomorrow.  I had hoped my new bike would be in but no such luck.  They are kind enough to loan me one for the day.  It is the last class of the year.  I just wanted to learn the Vision in a controlled environment. 

 

At least I can still do that but you are all not off the hook.  Come Saturday I will be moping around the house again with no motorcycle.  I am counting on you all.

 

 

Just got the word today that mine will be delivered first thing tomorrow morning YAHOOO! Only downside is that we are expecting bad rain for the next two days with 40 mph wind gusts to go along with. My dealer did offer to open Sunday for me once the weather clears out so tomorrow I may only get to drool on it but not actually get it out for a ride.

Hey Steve, let us know how it goes. Mine was supposed to arrive yesterday and when the truck arrived, to the dealer's surprise, it wasn't there. There seems to be a communication problem here.

Well, I called the dealer today asking if they'd heard anything and about an hour later when the salesman got back from lunch I was told my bike is here. Its currently at a warehouse somewhere in Kent, WA where they get put together and then deliver it to the dealership. I guess this place does this service for many of the dealerships in the area. Never heard of such a thing. Anyways, I'll be going to Auburn, WA tomorrow afternoon to pick it up. Rain or shine its coming home. Just hope I don't have to trailer it back! I do have the vin but no line number yet. I'll be posting that when I get home with it. Wonder what I'll be dreaming about tonight. (Vizzzzzzzzzzzzzzion) I'll try to put some pics on the site when I get back if I can figure out how to get them down to 500 x 500. I know, its easy for some and it will be when I figure it out.  My dealer is supposed to call when the truck is on the way so I can be there when it gets off the truck. He tried to talk me out of it because he says it takes a couple of hours to prep it.  I was insistant and won out in the end. BTW I asked him about paint for helmets and he said there's no fish for the 2009 Vision yet and can't get a number for it. Anyone know anything more about the paint? I want to get helmets and then get them painted to match. I'd like to get a sticker to put on the back of the helmet too and match the number with the bike.  Can you tell I'm excited? I'm just rambling so I'll sign off and let you's know and show tomorrow.

Congrats GBC!

 

For uploading photos, I've done my best to make it easy. The size limitatons are not 500px by 500 px, it's 3,000px by 3,000 px. This allows them to expand when clicked and open in another window and show some great detail. If your images are larger than this size and you cannot figure out how to reduce them, just send me a few emails with a few photos attached to each and I'll get them reduced for you and uploaded to your account.

 

After all, you'll be too busy riding your new bike...I'm happy to help.

Has anyone fitted an Anniversary bike with the lower air deflectors?  If so can we get some photos?

 

Reason I ask, I anticiapate getting them for my bike but I don't know how the black mounts will look on the red paint.  I am considering having them powdercoated before I have them installed.

 

Thoughts?

Hi Goalie,

 

I checked them out and the mounts appear to be a close match to the gloss black portions of the bike. I don't know if powdercoating will be needed on this model. I guess we'll both find out shortly.

I have not seen the lower air deflectors actually on a vision. How do they install? Is it pretty simple, or do you have to drill holes to mount them?

 

Thanks

I'm hoping someone else will chime in here. I'm to understand they use an Adhesive and no drilling is required. However, I have heard that on one of the sides, some of the earlier kits had the upper and lower mis-marked and reversed.

I don't know about miss marked sides.  I heard they had issues with the adhesive and that turned out to be due to a mistake with shipping a less sticky 2-sided tape.  Once they realized their error they started shipping with the correct double sided tape.

 

One thing I noted on a demo at my dealer was an uneven drip pattern on the black mounts.  It looked as if the finish had been etched away.  My guess would be that whatever substance they used to prep the mount got all over the top of the mount and caused the discoloration.

 

I would insist on them being uber careful when chemically prepping the parts.  It's pretty scary proposition installing something to the paint of a 30k bike.  I just want it to be right.  (coming from the guy who didn't care about the GPS color)  Ironic isn't it?

 

Anyway the lower air deflectors are a must.  They really help with air management, both to cool the legs in the hot weather and deflect the cold air in the cool weather.  I would imagine they have some rain deflecting properties as well.

 

Sidebar: For those 08 Vision owners that have since received an 09 Vision (anniversary or otherwise).  What is your overall impression with the new models?  If you want we can start another thread.