Vintage
While he may have compromised on the color, the rest of this mean green cruisin’ machine is 100% undiluted Deano. “It’s not about a lot of glitz and glamour and molding and all that BS. It’s stripped down and clean, which is what I like to do.” Rolling with a fenderless and brakeless front wheel, springer suspension, hardtail rear, open primary, no mirrors, not even so much as turn signals, only the hardest of the hardcore need apply. If you find yourself craving the creature comforts of oh, I dunno, let’s say a license plate bracket… don’t come complaining to Deano, “Stuff the license plate in your jacket somewhere. I don’t believe in none of that gaudy crap. That’s what your hands are for. Use ‘em for turn signals. Get your hands out of your pockets when you’re riding. If you don’t like it then you probably need a f*ckin’ car.”
Deano is such an obsessive-compulsive type when it comes to his, “Chop everything off that don’t make it run, damn the DMV, and full speed ahead!” aesthetic that even the oil bag had to go. The visual “white space” created beneath the seat punctuates the minimalist “engine, wheels, and not much else” fashion statement of the bike with a big exclamation point. Not wanting to deprive the engine of lubricant, Deano mercifully chose to devote the left side of the split tanks to gas, and the right side to oil. The canteens are suspended from above by a custom frame that he designed and John Estes built to spec. “I was really thinking about creating something mechanical-looking with the bolts showing. Nothing too smooth.” From the rider’s perspective, the topside view of the chassis is simultaneously raw and refined, with the exposed frame, bolts, and copper fuel lines celebrating both the bike’s function and form.
The heart of evil consists of an 88” RevTech Pandemonium mill breathing through a Paughco air cleaner and exiting via Deano-designed pipes that echo the shapes of the springer front end, and pull the custom’s whole style together visually. From the front cylinder, the gleaming repop flexible chrome pipe cover draws the eye like a chin fairing. Meanwhile, the rear pipe serves as Il Diavolo’s grace note, initiating with the same ribbed cover then morphing into chrome, heat wrap, and consummating in a slash-cut tip. The contrasting segments break up the pipe’s length visually while maintaining the speed streak line. According to Deano, “Originally the owner wanted short pipes to drop straight down, but I didn’t feel that the bike had that look to it. I thought if the pipe ran the length of the frame, it would elongate the look of the bike without the bike itself being too long.”
Speaking of the frame, this six-week build started out a little bit backwards. “I didn’t have a frame or a front tire when I built the front end so I just sort of guessed. But it turned out to be a lucky guess because everything fit together.” Surprisingly, traditionalist Deano opted for a nu skool oversized polished Ego Tripp as his front wheel. “I don’t like long bikes with 23’s, I like short bikes with them though. I think it looks bitchin’ and gives them a mean look tucked up in there.” Out back, Il Diavolo sports an automobile marker light deployed as a brake light on the rear fender, capping a 150 Avon that the builder had to fight for. “The owner asked for a 250 rear but I wouldn’t give it to him.” While I’m sure it pained Deano to have any brakes at all on Il Diavolo, since the owner was a repeat customer, and dead men buy no motorcycles, he relented and deployed a super-discreet HHI sprocket brake to rein in the beast.
A stylized Diavolo signature, painted in gold on the tank, completes the look. The marque is repeated on the seat, where it’s accompanied by a dragon’s head with lightning bolts for eyes Deano designed and executed the graphics himself. “I used to be a little graffiti tagger when I was growing up in L.A. and that’s still my style. I also designed a lot of tattoo flash and the dragon is sort of a cross between Chinese and Aztec styles. I just went with a very simple style with the seat because the owner wanted it black, and black washes out fine detail.”
Ah yes, that ever-pesky owner again. While Deano doesn’t even pretend to adopt, “The customer is always right”, as his motto, he is a family man and recognizes that sometimes a concession here and there in the name of keeping the dinero coming in isn’t necessarily going to break the seventh seal and ring in the apocalypse. Having drawn a line in the sand with his execution of the pipes and rear tire, caving in a bit and going for the green with the paint scheme actually turned out just fine in the end. After all, money is the root of all evil… and occasionally you do have to give Il Diavolo his due.
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