2012 Victory Cross Country Body and structure Problems

“There is noticeable wear on a latch on my right side (throttle side) saddlebag. The latch that keeps the bag closed is wearing out from an improperly installed latch catch. What I can tell is that polaris industries (Victory motorcycle division) is using the exact same latch for the right side saddle bag and left side saddle bag. The problem is that there is only wear on the right side latch because it is actually designed for the left saddle bag only. Polaris is not considering this a defect or a problem. …”

“Saddlebag flew open on the highway, lost my raingear, and several other items adding to about $200.00. Pulled over and stopped and noticed that the right hand saddlebag latch looked severely worn.. Then checked the left hand saddlebag latch and looked like new. After doing some compares with other of the same make and model, it appears this right hand saddlebag latch issue affects all Victory motorcycle cross models with hard bags including Cross Country, cross roads, and hardball. …”

“The right-side saddlebag latch is misaligned to the latch bracket. This misalignment causes the bracket to rub the latch to where the latch eventually breaks. Should the latch break, the saddlebag lid will be loose and can cause instability while riding and potentially danger to vehicles behind should anything be sucked out of the saddlebag. This is a widely known issue affecting all cross bikes from polaris/Victory. At this point all inspected cross bikes are showing signs of this wear and my local dealership is creating a database of all local owners. …”

“The latching mechanism on the right side hard saddlebag is wearing through, as a result of (non-adjustable) misalignment between the latch on the saddlebag's lid and the keeper bar attached to the bottom of the saddlebag. If the portion of the latch that is wearing through fails, the lid of the saddlebag can open while the motorcycle is in motion; if this occurs, the contents of the saddlebag may fall out, and such contents can jam the rear wheel -- resulting in a crash of the motorcycle -- or can fly onto or in front of other vehicles (also resulting in a crash).”

“There is a misalignment between the right side saddlebag latch mechanism and the hoop that it captures when the lid is closed. There is no adjustability built into the design so this a manufacturing defect. The resulting problem is that the softer metal of the latch mechanism is worn away by the harder metal of the hoop, eventually resulting in failure of the latch. This will result in the lid blowing open and the contents of the saddle bag being blown out onto the roadway, potentially causing an accident as following motorists were either struck by the contents or swerved to avoid them. …”