After making some of the most elegant cruisers, baggers, and tourers for 18 years, Polaris shut down operations of Victory Motorcycles back in January last year as it struggled to keep up with the attention pulled by the Harleys and the Indian.

Now, exactly a year after Polaris pulled the plug on this American, the company released a book on Victory’s short but emulating 20-year-old history to celebrate the original American brand. Called the “Victory Motorcycles 1998–2017; The Complete History of an American Original”, the 192-page opus starts with the original prototype of the first bike showcased back in 1997.

The book includes the reprint of the first publication on the American manufacturer that was released back in 1998 which covered the creation of the original Victory V92C in the late 1990s (The Victory Motorcycle: The Making of a New American Motorcycle).

This richly illustrated book covers the brand’s history model-by-model and analyzes why the parent company announced in early 2017 that its Victory division would cease operation. The book includes details and images of all the models ever created by Victory including the prototypes, concepts and their electric bike, the Empulse TT.

As Easter Eggs, the book provides unheard information about the company, and it’s Senior Industrial Designer Mike Song with his unreleased sketches and designs. A detailed list of production numbers, behind-the-scenes stories, a complete list of paint colors for every model, and much more of the recently demised brand comes to light in this book.

The co-authors, Michael Dapper and Lee Klancher, have a deep connection with the American motorcycle manufacturer. Michael Dapper was a Polaris employee since the beginning of idealizing the company entering into the motorcycle business. He was present at the time when a pre-production V92C in 1997 was showcased to the world.

He even wrote all forms of brand communications for Victory all along its 20 years of running and also worked for the brand at rallies and events nationwide. He has ridden versions of every Victory production model and has completed seven Iron Butt rides on Victory models--including the High-Ball.

Lee Klancher has always been a celebrity writer featuring in more than 20 books, a dozen large-format calendars, and hundreds of feature magazine articles. Favorite subjects include dream garages, motorcycle racers, old farm tractors, and breweries.