It looks like Victory and Roland Sands is building the American sporting bike of your dreams. Trellis frame, V-Twin with liquid cooling, minimal body work.
Ironic that as EBR leaves the picture that Victory would be putting this project together.
I'd certainly like to see Polaris build an American sportbike, w/minimal bodywork, powered by a modern V-twin, and sold at a reasonable price. Could they pull that off? Absolutely. Will they? Doubtful. Just wouldn't sell in the required numbers.
Hope I'm wrong. If Polaris wants to evolve Victory in another direction, the Project 156 bike would be a good start. How about a cafe racer with a re-purposed Scout motor?
Maybe just build enough to meet homologation requirements for dirt track racing. Finally two American motorcycle companies competing there again, now with overhead cams and liquid-cooling.
Nah; that's crazy talk. If more people had my taste in bikes, the XR1200 would have been H-D's best seller.
Huge, huge fan, of Roland Sands and his bikes. If this is true ... count me interested but it would probably be a very expensive bike ... at least $20K. When can someone build a good American sport bike with similar price points at the Japanese or European manufactures. I guess those days died when Buell died.
Heck, I'd settle for a good multi-purpose American standard bike with decent lean angle, upright riding position, and mid controls, with easily customizable setups such as luggage and wind protection, and didn't weigh 900 lbs, and didn't scream "look at me I'm a pirate!".
There are times I really regret getting rid of my M2 Cyclone. The ergonomics were PERFECT. It had decent range (I was able to ride it to Daytona Beach and back, stopping only every 200+ miles for gas), was nimble, handled very well and was even fun on the track.
The only downside? It spent nearly as much time in the shop as it did on the road. My Aerostich suit still carries the remnants of that Daytona trip too (the right leg is considerably darker than the left due to the steady mist of oil spraying out of the Buell/K&N oval air filter I'd installed in place of the rural mailbox that came stock).
My perfect motorcycle would've been an M2 Cyclone with modern reliability.
It looks pretty cool, but I wonder how it'd fare against a race prepp'ed 1190SX? Someone ran a modified Buell 1125CR a couple of years ago (with EBR 1190 kit) and came in second, after they'd DROPPED the bike in one turn, picked it up and finished the race!