10th Annual V2V: Victory riders ride Victory Highway

June 26, 6:29 PMMotorcycle ExaminerKen Bingenheimer

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The route of the V2V Highway Relay

The Victory Highway is a route now largely covered by U.S. 40 and I-80. Running from Times Square in New York City to Market Street in San Francisco, it was intended as a monument to American soldiers who died in World War I.

Victory Motorcycles rolled its first bike off the assembly line on July 4, 1998.

Put the two together and you have the V2V Highway Relay.

For the 10th year in a row, Victory motorcycle owners are riding across the U.S. along the best approximation available of the old Victory Highway. The two-week ride begins each year on June 21, the first day of summer, and completes its final leg on July 4. The ride alternates east to west, west to east, each year and this year the ride, currently underway, is headed west.

Shannan Koucherik describes the founding of the Victory Highway in an article for the Museum of Northwest Colorado:

As the people of the United States moved forward from the Great War, they began looking for ways to honor those who had given their lives fighting for world peace in faraway lands. The magnitude of the war left Americans stunned and then determined not to forget.

There were numerous local monuments erected, but there was a general consensus that there needed to be something bigger – national in scope.

In the summer of 1921 a group of businessmen and civic leaders came together to form the Victory Highway Association. Incorporated under the laws of Kansas, the purpose of the association was the development of a road that would span the country from sea to sea, providing lasting tribute to the fallen warriors.

Shannan also notes that:

The Victory Highway was the first road in the United States to receive federal funds for construction. The 12 states it ran through were ordered to designate seven percent of their roads to receive the special funding. US 40 was at or near the top of every list.

A Victory rider identified as FishWitch on the Victory Riders Network website, describes the creation of the annual ride. A group of riders who met via a Yahoo! group decided to meet in a Victory Homecoming on July 4, 1999, in Spirit Lake, IA, the home of the Victory plant.

Well on the way home from this homecoming, flying high, Trish and I rode past a place called Victory Junction Restaurant in Kansas City, KS (now basically the location of Nascar's KS Speedway). Of course we pulled in - had to get a match book you know! They didn't have one, but the waitress said we could have a menu. We got home and read the cover of the menu and there was a short article about this road called the Victory Highway. The menu gave very limited details, so off to the internet we went. We went to Ebay and found 2 different maps - one from 1924 and one from 1928. We bought the map from 1924 (Rand McNally) and got a copy of the one from 1928 from a guy at a college. It was called the Mohawk Hobbs guide to the Victory Highway. We scanned it in and it was most excellent. We let our website pass away, but another guy ripped off all of our scanned pages and put them on his page - so you can still see them today. They will answer everything about the terrain and EXACT route of the Victory Highway.

Well here we have these maps of this road called the Victory Highway that runs from Times Square in NY to Market Street in San Francisco. And here we had this big group of folks on a Yahoo Group that we had been dying to meet. Now up to about 300 folks or so. So it had to be done - we have to ride our Victorys on the Victory Highway. Victory to Victory..... V2V.....

The V2V riders this year have a website where you can view the progress of the ride in real time. There is also a blog, photos, and other information about the ride available on the site.

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