NHTSA Complaint #11611010 — 2012 VICTORY NESS VISION

Mid-year of 2011, Polaris Industries advertised a change in their gearing ratios in the 6-speed transmission on their Victory motorcycle lineup. This change was permanent and carried on until Polaris ceased production of the Victory line of motorcycles in 2017. With this change, other parts were changed and resulted in what has been commonly reported as a "C-Clip failure" in the transmission. Various motorcycles of this era have been affected and is well documented/reported on several social media chat forums and groups. We own a 2012 Victory Vision Ness motorcycle and we were impacted by this failure in June 2023 and as a result, the repairs costed $3,855.55. The C-clip failure references the actual part in the transmission on the gearing shaft that when it fails, the broken piece allows the gear to 'walk' into the opposing gears, which can cause an immediate and sudden stoppage of the rear drive wheel and cause the motorcycle to go into an uncontrolled skid because 50% of the control of the motorcycle is essentially eliminated by the locked-up rear wheel. In our situation, the rear wheel did lock-up but we were very fortunate that the issue presented itself under very low speed and a collision did not occur. The motorcycle had to be towed to the nearest Polaris/Victory dealer for repairs.