2020 venture announced in Canada

[Tennessee]

Dan, you'll get no negative response from me on your Polaris statements. Even over at at the Indian Forum I belong to, we worry that if Indian stumbles even a bit, Polaris will shut them down. We complain about warranty claims. We wonder why they are growing the dealership so slowly, (only about 300 so far), while the FRT1200 is so in demand you could almost open dealers with that model and the Scout by themselves, and why they require dealers to make multi-million dollar investments to have things like fireplaces and seating areas.

And I know a couple of Vic guys who are really not happy with anything Polaris, wouldn't take a product from them if you gave it to them - but they stubbornly hold onto their Vic's, cause they were actually pretty good bikes, at least the Cross Country, and the 106 turned out to be really dependable, even if it did look suspiciously like an air compressor. They just complain while the "ten years of spare parts" Polaris promised are drying up in less than two years.

 

But to be honest, once I got out of the Navy, (9 active, 12 reserve), after my active duty I went to work in manufacturing, starting in 1978 and finishing up in my final factory in 2010. 32 years of working in factories as a manager. Went into sales after that. I was almost always Industrial Engineering, Maintenance Engineering, and Continuous Improvement. Spent 18 months in Shanghai for one company. To be honest, they were all bad news, doing things to people, their products, you name it, that would make your hair curl. You took your paycheck and just shut up because you needed to feed your family and pay your bills. Only company I ever worked for, back in the early 80's was a small company that made automatic devices for sewing machines, like shirt pocket folders, collar makers, stuff like that. Run by two Jewish people, they were the nicest, most honest people I ever met. They were also really tight with a nickel, and when Time Warner came knocking, I had to move along. Could not turn down a 20K pay bump! They had this new gadget called a CD, and I lasted eleven years with them when a new thing came along that was getting us all laid off, a little device called an MP3 player. We all used to say when they figure out how to play music off a chip we would all be out of a job, and it came true. The rest of the companies I worked for were all terrible, and I finally left manufacturing in 2010 to take a Sales Manager position for a Mechanical Contractor who wanted to penetrate factories. I was just burnt out with factories. I did pretty good at sales and finally retired a few years back.

 

But no, no love for Polaris from this guy. Or most other manufacturers, since their agendas are not normally aimed at the consumer.

I do, however, love my Indian Roadmaster. 2016, Springfield Blue/Cream, leather seats, what a bike! And you are right about the ride and the geometry - dead on. Mine is lowered 3/4", makes it even better and my fishtails JUST miss the pavement by less than an inch when in a turn, according to my wife who has been in a car behind me a couple times to see how it looks. I even have the beaded streamers on the bars, and the fender fringe, but drew the line at fringe on the footrests.

As always, IMHO !!

Edited June 22, 2019 by Tennessee

[cowpuc]

Dan, you'll get no negative response from me on your Polaris statements. Even over at at the Indian Forum I belong to, we worry that if Indian stumbles even a bit, Polaris will shut them down. We complain about warranty claims. We wonder why they are growing the dealership so slowly, (only about 300 so far), while the FRT1200 is so in demand you could almost open dealers with that model and the Scout by themselves, and why they require dealers to make multi-million dollar investments to have things like fireplaces and seating areas.

And I know a couple of Vic guys who are really not happy with anything Polaris, wouldn't take a product from them if you gave it to them - but they stubbornly hold onto their Vic's, cause they were actually pretty good bikes, at least the Cross Country, and the 106 turned out to be really dependable, even if it did look suspiciously like an air compressor. They just complain while the "ten years of spare parts" Polaris promised are drying up in less than two years.

 

But to be honest, once I got out of the Navy, (9 active, 12 reserve), after my active duty I went to work in manufacturing, starting in 1978 and finishing up in my final factory in 2010. 32 years of working in factories as a manager. Went into sales after that. I was almost always Industrial Engineering, Maintenance Engineering, and Continuous Improvement. Spent 18 months in Shanghai for one company. To be honest, they were all bad news, doing things to people, their products, you name it, that would make your hair curl. You took your paycheck and just shut up because you needed to feed your family and pay your bills. Only company I ever worked for, back in the early 80's was a small company that made automatic devices for sewing machines, like shirt pocket folders, collar makers, stuff like that. Run by two Jewish people, they were the nicest, most honest people I ever met. They were also really tight with a nickel, and when Time Warner came knocking, I had to move along. Could not turn down a 20K pay bump! They had this new gadget called a CD, and I lasted eleven years with them when a new thing came along that was getting us all laid off, a little device called an MP3 player. We all used to say when they figure out how to play music off a chip we would all be out of a job, and it came true. The rest of the companies I worked for were all terrible, and I finally left manufacturing in 2010 to take a Sales Manager position for a Mechanical Contractor who wanted to penetrate factories. I was just burnt out with factories. I did pretty good at sales and finally retired a few years back.

 

But no, no love for Polaris from this guy. Or most other manufacturers, since their agendas are not normally aimed at the consumer.

I do, however, love my Indian Roadmaster. 2016, Springfield Blue/Cream, leather seats, what a bike! And you are right about the ride and the geometry - dead on. Mine is lowered 3/4", makes it even better and my fishtails JUST miss the pavement by less than an inch when in a turn, according to my wife who has been in a car behind me a couple times to see how it looks. I even have the beaded streamers on the bars, and the fender fringe, but drew the line at fringe on the footrests.

As always, IMHO !!

 

:sign Rock On: my brother !! We are on the same page here!!

 

BTW,, THANK YOU for your service in maintaining our way of life, liberty and FREEDOM:usa:! Without folks like you, our way of life would not exist = THANK YOU my friend!! Tennessee ,, may I make a suggestion? Jump up to the Awards section of the site and request your honor badge that you have earned.. YOU deserve it brother!! Also PLEASE accept my "friend" request that I am about to send you - be an honor on my part if you would!!

Oh, by the way,, "I'm not Dan" is not me,, I am Scott,, Dan was a dear friend/fellow member here who lost his life in a bike accident..

Puc

[Tennessee]

Good deal, Scott. My apologies for getting the name wrong.

[Sylvester]

Good deal, Scott. My apologies for getting the name wrong.

 

 

Don't worry about it. Puc gets everyone's name turned around intentionally. I am now Slyvesrer.

 

[snyper316]

Actually there has never been any real way to know for sure just how much of a bite Polaris's Indian repops or other +900cc models were/are taking out of the Motor Company cause Polaris never releases actual unit sales. The consumers and HD themselfs never found out about the 17,000 units thru the entire life of the Polaris's Victory models until it was all over for those models and Wine let it out exactly how badly they sold. Polaris likes to try and convince the consumers that they are a challenger by saying they are making strides with false claims and not releasing actual units sold, they did the same thing with the Victory but in the end their total sales thru the years didnt even come close to one year of sales just for HD's Sporsters..

I still think that Mom Yams, and Polaris's decision to go after the HD market is simply based on market size.. A tiny piece of a HUGE pie like HD's is still wayyyyyy better than a bigger piece of the small pie that Honda has developed in the "Wing" market.. Simple math IMHO.

One thing for sure, all those markets are shrinking as the Baby Boomers time out and the future generations of could be CTFW varmints choose to get their thrills from video games and smart phones,, again,, IMHO..

 

Yeah and this Generation uses there smart phones while driving and killing us off!!! Now the Victory side of things, I really want one I am kinda fond of the High Ball. Only thing stopping me is the concern about being able to get parts for it. Also the Victory's I have seen I think are way over priced!! But thats just me!

[cowpuc]

Yeah and this Generation uses there smart phones while driving and killing us off!!! Now the Victory side of things, I really want one I am kinda fond of the High Ball. Only thing stopping me is the concern about being able to get parts for it. Also the Victory's I have seen I think are way over priced!! But thats just me!

 

Indeed,, they are nice bikes,, IMHO, Polaris did a really nice job on the 106 Snype.. IMHO, Just steer clear of the first couple years of the line brother (the early 92 inch) as the trannies in those scoots were defective. I had a close friend who had a multi-line dealership back then and he had a couple of early buyers of the Vics come back with tranny troubles wanting warranty work. Polaris refused to honor the warranty and my buddy finally ended up kicking Polaris to the curb (entirely, he also had their sleds/quads and PWC's) because of their inactions. Polaris finally out sourced a complete redesign of the tranny,, I believe it was the third of fourth year of production when that happened, and that engineering proved reliable but they never did honor those early warranties and chose instead to leave a bunch of unhappy varmints stuck in the weeds and early bikes with no alternatives or updates on faulty transmissions..

[Bobcat54s]

Yamaha USA website has 2020 venture and Eluder advertising on front page scroll and have transcontinental page on the website.

[RandyR]

It looks like they have a $2500 rebate on offer for the 2018 models. plus whatever you can get off the list price from the dealer.

 

https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/transcontinental-touring

[DanielM]

It looks like they have a $2500 rebate on offer for the 2018 models. plus whatever you can get off the list price from the dealer.

 

https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/transcontinental-touring

So from my cursory read, the only change is red option is replaced with blue. Good decision in my opinion to eliminate the slowest colour [emoji14]

 

 

 

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[RDawson]

So from my cursory read, the only change is red option is replaced with blue. Good decision in my opinion to eliminate the slowest colour [emoji14]

 

 

 

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Give those blue ones a little time in the sun. A man once told me the faded blue ones are fastest.

[DanielM]

Give those blue ones a little time in the sun. A man once told me the faded blue ones are fastest.

Seems plausible to me.

 

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