Lucky Devil 1:

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The bike is Lucky Devil 001, the first Chopper with a Lucky Devil VIN number.The Devil's crew is currently finishing-up the final steps to become a licensed Manufacturer.

“We have no intentions of large production runs,” Kent said. “We just want toprovide our customers with the ability to purchase a fair insurance rates, easyregistration and so on.”

This bike is destined for a regular Lucky Devil customer, Mike. As usual Kent is responsible for mock up, fabrication and final assembly. “We plan on shooting semi gloss black paint with some gold leaf scrollwork,” Kent said lighting his torch, “and red pinstriping will be handled by Jesse Galvan. We are alsothinking about a tooled leather seat for this project.”

The Choppers Inc. Oil tank tabs welded into place. “It was a breeze to install,” Kent said.

The front end is a 15-over springer from Denvers Choppers, “One of my favorite springers,” the little Devil muttered. “Weordered it without chrome and fender mounts. We'll fabricatecustom fender mounts before chroming.” The frame for the first Devil production bike was ordered from XtremeCycle design. It has a 3-inch stretch in the back bone and 6 inches in the single downtube, coupled with a 40 degree rake. “We run all Performance Machine brakes (anotherL.D.M.W. preferred product), hand and foot controls as well as their hydroclutch assembly.”

Here we go, this is a King Sporty tank. The first thing Kent did was remove the old tank mounts and fit it with flush mounts. ”Then I measured for the size of backbone (1.5-inch), Kent said, “and prepped them on the mill before tacking them on the bike.”  

For the drive train they will launch this monster with a 124-inch TP motor , Baker 6-speedleft side drive, Kenny Boyce primary , Spike starter , Extreme machinewheels, and Metzler tires. The tank tabs and bungs are Lucky Devil itemsand they use Softail style rubber inserts. The oil tank is a Choppers Inc.product (mounting was a snap ).

The tank tabs and bungs are Lucky devil itemsand they use Softail style rubber inserts.

Here is a under shot with the tank and mounts welded in place.

Here's shots of the tank mounted, but the Lucky Devil wasn't satisfied, “I think it needs a stretch!”

“For cosmetic tank stretch material I liketo use 18 gauge steel sheets,” Kent said. “It is easy to work with but needs some trim work on theedges to give it some body. For this I used 1/8-inch round rod. I use theTig welding process on tank stretch jobs with .035 or 70s-6 welding rod.”

Here's the 18-gauge Lucky Devil stretch material ready to apply to the tank. “This is a basic stretch, no power hammer or English wheel needed,”Kent said. “It takes some care to get it straight but still it's not too tricky.” 

“Here I have it tacked it,” Kent added, “ready to add the trim on the edge of the stretch and complete welding.”

How's that for a hot looking tank?

This shows the bulk added to the stretched tank with the 1/8-inch rod ground smooth.

Here is a shot of the top motor mount. Just a few more things to do before he can pull the motor and start frame molding to flow the tank into the frame.

“For the top motor mount I like to use counter bored bungs to mount to theheads,” Kent explained, “and a counter bored bung and a threaded bung to mount to the frame anddifferent tubing designs to join them all together.” The stock stylemotormounts with the slots are used in the event that studs are used in theheads. With this set up they use 3/8-inch Allen head fasteners for a cleaner look.

The Lucky Devil will keep us posted as the first Devil progresses.

–Bandit

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