Like its namesake, the one from Samothrace, Victory Motorcycles is spreading its wings.

Unlike the statue, it does have a head: in Sydney that’s motorcycle industry veteran Ezio Forcella. After a lengthy stint marketing Moto Guzzi and Aprilia, Ezio has come to Victory and dived right into the deep end by establishing the new store.

It’s been a long, hard job; I visited Ezio a couple of times while the store was being built and he was flat out each time, but it’s been worth it. I’ll let Victory Managing Director Peter Alexander introduce it:

The new Victory Motorcycles store has opened its doors in Sydney. It is our second company owned store, with the first being our Melbourne store on Elizabeth Street. Victory Sydney is at 554 Parramatta Road, Ashfield, about 8km from the Sydney CBD.

“We’ve upped the ante in Sydney with over 1200 square metres of premium showroom and workshop space.

“The showroom has dedicated constellations for all variants in the Cruiser and Touring model range, huge accessory display areas, and designated customer areas including delivery bays, coffee bar and a state of the art multimedia area with interactive features such as iPads.

“The dealership has easy access with a turning lane on Parramatta Rd to our drive way and access to plenty of parking with bike parking available under cover.”

And the opening party, on the 29^th of January, was an absolute knockout. I won’t go into too many details because I don’t want to make you jealous, but I know that along with the other guests, the 80 Victory owners who rode up from Melbourne to celebrate the opening were stoked.

I’m already getting people who don’t know the first thing about bikes but know that I’m involved with them, coming up to me and saying “what’s that new big bike shop out there on Parramatta Road?”, so there is no doubt it’s being noticed.

And it made me think a bit about the current internet versus bricks-and-mortar shopping arguments; more of that soon in another blog.

Peter “The Bear” Thoeming