I had a motorcycle from the time I left home at 16 until Carrie and I moved to Sweden when I was 49.

While this time included living in Indiana, Virginia and New Mexico, most of it was in Southern California.  In Southern California, you can ride almost any day of the year with little thought to the weather. You can easily ride to the beach or the twisty mountains, or even out to the desert.  I might go months without riding my motorcycle, but then the urge would hit and I would ride nearly every day for a few weeks.

When we moved to Sweden, we sold the big stuff including the cars and my motorcycle.  The plan was to buy a new motorcycle when we returned to the States.  We did return, but I never bought a new bike. There were other priorities of resettling in the US that pushed motorcycle riding to the bottom of our list.

Then we moved to Michigan. Compared to California, Michigan is where motorcycle riding is practical maybe five months out of a year.  Michigan, the home of the worst roads and biggest potholes in the nation.  Michigan, where there is a 26% chance of rain every day between March and October (total annual rainfall averages more than three feet).  Michigan, where the insect population is so dense you need a putty knife to scrape the bugs off your car, your motorcycle, or yourself.

As discouraging as the motorcycle-riding conditions are in Michigan, I still wanted to ride.  To Carrie’s credit, she asked me every year what motorcycle I wanted for my birthday. After extensive research, I decided on an Indian Scout.  But I backed down every time.  In the meantime, my nephew Harve (in California) bought himself an Indian and we looked forward to someday having a two-person family Indian motorcycle gang.

Then we moved from suburban Portage Michigan to rural Vicksburg Michigan.  With 15 acres of trees, grass, gardens and ponds, we needed a tractor to keep up with all of the maintenance on our Farmette.  Just as I was nearing the decision to buy a motorcycle, we spent our bike-budget on a John Deere tractor.  It does have an engine and wheels, but it just isn’t the same thing.

Learning of my setback, Harve sent me two Indian emblem/decals for our tractor.  A bit of a consolation.  They actually look pretty good on the hood of the John Deere.

But the story doesn’t end there.  I retired from Stryker this January.  The added flexibility in my schedule of not working 60+ hours a week led me to the conclusion that in spite of Michigan’s weather constraints, I could get in some satisfying motorcycle riding during what in the past had been working hours.  I decided, and Carrie agreed, this is the year I buy a motorcycle. The only hurdles to overcome were the need for a Michigan Motorcycle license and a motorcycle.

I signed up for the motorcycle safety class at a nearby community college.  The completion certificate from that class and passing a written test got me my Michigan license.

Buying a motorcycle was a little more complex.  I was struggling with justifying the cost of a new motorcycle; a motorcycle that would see limited use and be stored at least half of each year.

“Indian” is made by Polaris, the snowmobile and ATV people.  They bought the defunct brand name and started selling in 2011.  But Indian wasn’t their first motorcycle brand.  Polaris designed and built a US-made motorcycle starting with a 1999 model, branded “Victory”.   It was an engineering and critical success, but it was unable to win over enough Harley owners, and as Victory was designed to compete directly with Harley, it never gained the needed market share.  From 2011 to 2017 Polaris sold both Victory and Indian brands.  With Indian bikes succeeding against Harley as well as against the Japanese brands, Victory was discontinued in 2017 so Polaris could concentrate on building the Indian brand.

So I started looking into used Victory bikes.  The first Victory model Polaris built was the V92C, not as catchy a name as the subsequent “Vegas”, “Vision”, “High Ball”, “Kingpin”……

I was drawn to the V92C and its design successor, the Kingpin.  The combination of their age and the hit to value with the Victory name being discontinued, make these quality bikes a bargain.  I found and bought a 1999 V92C in Troy Michigan that needs some TLC but is in generally good shape.  Carrie and I expect to have it in good running condition by the time I get my license.

The V92C at 1507 CCs (or 92 cubic inches. Note, our John Deere tractor is only 77 cubic inches) was the largest production motorcycle engine in 1999; Polaris’ attempt to make a bold statement to Harley.  It is a big heavy bike at 683 pounds wet.  It also has a low center of gravity which means the seat is close enough to the ground for my short legs.  My hope is that these characteristics, along with the V92C’s legendary friendly handling will offset some of the gruesomeness of Michigan’s crappy roads.