Victory Magnum X-1 revealed

Leaked pictures of new Victory Magnum with 'custom' paint and 200-watt stereo

SUBTLE. Restrained. Understated. These words are just some of the words that have never been used to describe the Victory Magnum. But in a week the firm is going to launch an even more extreme version called the Magnum X-1.

The normal Magnum bagger already sports a 21-inch front wheel and oxymoronic 'custom' paint as standard, including schemes such as 'Plasma Lime and Silver', boldly experimenting with the boundary between flamboyant and garish. So when the firm started to tease the fact it would be launching the higher-spec Magnum X-1 at the Full Moon Saloon Launch Party during Daytona Bike week, there was little doubt it would be any less than over the top.

But there’s no need to wait until the official reveal on March 7, since pictures and details have inevitably leaked already.

It turns out that the X-1, which has a tagline ‘sound is no barrier’, is differentiated from the stock machine mainly by a high-spec stereo system that vies with the paintwork to be the loudest.

The bit that defines the bike is a 10-speaker, 200-watt stereo. The blurb says it’s four times louder than a Victory Cross Country and twice as loud as the base model Magnum, which has a mere six speakers and 100 watts. We’ll let the audio experts among you argue whether doubling wattage actually equates to twice the volume... Regardless, we imagine it’s perfect for listening to ‘The Archers.’

The Magnum X-1 also heaps fresh confusion on the meaning of the word 'custom'. According to the leaked details, the X-1 gets a '$1000 custom paint job' as opposed to the paintwork on the ordinary Magnum, which Victory also refers to as 'custom' despite the fact it comes as standard.

Who cares about semantics when you’re trying to explain that this bike has got both red squiggles and grey splodges on it?

Emissions documents show the bike is mechanically identical to the Magnum and Cross Country (the latter being basically a Magnum with a normal-sized front wheel, some less eye-gouging paintwork options and a piffling two-speaker, 50-watt stereo).

Look out for more details on March 7.

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