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Click here for more photos…
This bike feature originally appeared in Barnett’s Magazine issue #64, September-October 2008.
SPECIFICATIONS | |
---|---|
Owner: | Dracula |
Year/Make: | 2005 Victory 8-Ball |
Fabrication: | Kent Weeks/Lucky Devil Metal Works |
Assembly: | Kent Weeks |
Build time: | Just in time |
Engine: | Victory 100″ |
Cases: | Victory |
Flywheels: | Victory |
Rods/Pistons: | Victory |
Cylinders: | Victory |
Heads/Cam: | Victory |
Ignition: | Victory |
Carb: | Victory fuel injection |
Pipes: | Santa Rosa Vee Twin |
Air Cleaner: | modified by Kent Weeks |
Transmission: | Victory 5-speed |
Primary/ Clutch: | Victory |
Frame: | Victory |
Rake: | 40-degrees |
Stretch: | 8″ up, 4″ out |
Forks: | Pro One 41 mm 12″- over |
Additional rake in trees: | Pro One 5-degrees with built-in Pro One lightbar; running lights by Headwinds |
Rear Suspension: | Victory/ lowering kit by Santa Rosa |
Front Wheel: | PM 21 x 2.150 Wraths |
Rear Wheel: | PM 18 x 5.5 Wraths |
Rear Pulley: | PM Wrath |
Front Tire: | Metzeler ME 880 90/90H21 |
Rear Tire: | Metzeler ME 200/50VR18 |
Front Brakes: | PM calipers/ PM disc |
Rear Brakes: | Brembo caliper/ PM disc |
Fuel Tank: | Kent Weeks/ Victory |
Fenders: | modified by Kent Weeks |
Handlebars/ Risers: | Kent Weeks |
Sissy Bar: | Kent Weeks |
Headlight: | Headwinds |
Taillight: | Victory |
Tail Turn-Signals: | custom LEDs |
Hand Controls/ Grips: | PM Contours |
Mirrors: | PM long stem |
Foot Controls: | Victory floorboards |
Electrical: | Victory/Kent Weeks |
Painter: | Chino and Mike/Lucky Devil Metal Works |
Color: | Black with custom purple pearl |
Graphics: | Pygmy |
Molding: | Chino |
Seat: | Arlen Ness |
Special thanks to: | The Devil, Jerry Wolrabe of Prescott Valley Motorcycles, Mark Blackwell and the Victory crew, and Kaia Placa for her continued support. |
The Victory Vampire: Under the Devil’s Wing
Story and Photos by J. Joshua Placa
Victory Motorcycles has reinvented itself in recent years as a forward-thinking, factory-custom motorcycle maker. They’ve been rolling out some wild rides since the company turned the corner with the 2003 Kingpin. I figured Victory had at least one more big surprise on the drawing board.
Choppers have made a huge comeback from the ‘50s and ‘60s when they were mostly cobbled together from Harley and Triumph bits and pieces. Today they are must-have Main Street super-sexy prowlers, branded, purpose-built and high dollar. Very high dollar. But who would have ever thought that the ultimate rebel bike would go mainstream and have its own TV shows? The time was ripe for a major factory to build a true assembly-line chop, one that ran well and could be ridden anywhere.
Talks with Victory chief Mark Blackwell began. Less corporate and more open to new ideas than most major makers, Victory seemed like the factory most likely to succeed in mass producing a real-world chopper. Rather than another over-designed, uncomfortable bar hopper, the concept was to construct a long-haul bike, one that handled well, didn’t make your butt bleed after a few miles and was built on a proven drivetrain—a badass chopper that could be ridden all damn day and stormy night.
This was a fairly revolutionary idea, a wonderful, awful idea, so we turned to a master builder who specialized in such diabolical toil. Kent Weeks, chief demon and owner of Houston-based Lucky Devil Metal Works, embraced the unhallowed task. And so we began defying nature.
It was a fiendishly infectious project; the more we worked on it, the more our souls crossed over. The Vampire had a hold of me. Out of Weeks’ mad laboratory flew this bloodthirsty beastie. The project was birthed as a skunk-works’ prototype, something that could smoothly slide into Victory’s lineup, a nice addition to the new Transylvanian, er… American Motorcycle Company.
Working closely with Blackwell, we wanted to build a prototype that would require only minor tweaking of its assembly line, would be consistent with the factory’s direction, and could be sold for under 20 grand. The knock on chops is that they don’t handle and are inherently quick-hop bikes. To get that cool, bad-boy profile the bike had to be absurdly awkward and uncomfortable. Choppers, according to some purists, were not much more than expensive garage ornaments.
“Not so,” said Weeks. “It’s really a matter of what you want the bike to do, the thought you put into its purpose and design. Rather than a throw-down, radical ride, we gave the Vampire an easy reach to the handlebar, floorboards for leg comfort, a relaxed riding position, and the style, power and performance that would make this bike not only unique, but a machine you could cruise state to state. The objective was to make the bike very different, but not look like such an extreme departure from what Victory does. That’s actually harder than wrapping a radical frame around a crate motor, throwing a lot of chrome at it, bolting on a 300 rear tire, and cutting up the neck to create some crazy rake and trail that looks good but is mostly good for nothing.” Through some spooky divine intervention, Weeks boosted rake but kept trail stock, somehow maintaining the original steering geometry. “The Vampire is the best riding bike that ever rolled out of this shop,” he yelped.
Since Weeks has built artful customs for years, always with an emphasis on performance, that was a strong endorsement of the Vampire’s design. Riding the 100” (1639 cc), five-speed nightstalker some 4,000 miles over the past couple of months showed it was built not just to be pretty. It handled better, in my opinion, than some of Victory’s other models, none of which have 12”-over forks and a raised frame that shows off that big, nasty air/oil-cooled V-twin. It is deceptively agile and a blast to ride. It also is among the top two or three head turners I’ve ridden in the past 30 years.
Inevitably, people of all ages riding all brands ask me if Victory will build the Vampire. Mr. Blackwell’s answer: “Being part of the Vampire project has offered us more insight on how our brand is received by the consumer. As the custom scene grows, we know more builders will be looking for reliable power plants and quality engineering. Victory supplies that in every production machine. Having a custom based on our production 8-Ball was a perfect way to see how our own factory styling could be extended to reflect the current custom market. The American motorcycle scene is always evolving. The Vampire project and the reaction to it has been great. It gives us a chance to stretch our own imagination and gain more outside perspective. The future of Victory is always being developed, and…while we do not comment on our future products specifically, we can say that Victory has come a long way in nearly a decade of production. With the products we have coming up, we will continue to increase our presence on the global motorcycle market…and we will continue to exceed customer expectations. We are looking at all segments.”
Yes, a bit hedgy, but no manufacturer will tell you what boots they’re building next year much less which motorcycle. But Victory should build this bike. If you think so, too, email Mark Blackwell at mark.blackwell@polarisind.com
No skunk works project like this would be complete without skunking around for parts, much the same way the Ford guys did when they were building the first Mustang on their own time. From Metzeler we got tires, including a 200 rear, up from the 2005 8-Ball’s stock 180. We didn’t want anything wider for better cornering.
From Headwinds came the headlight and lower triple-tree cover turn-signal light bar, which work well and look cool. Pro One shipped the forks, triple tree (with five-degrees of rake), lower legs, dual front and single-disc rear brakes. The Pro One stuff worked great and looked sharp. The brakes haul in the Vampire with aplomb. Victory supplied a big-bore kit, pushing the stock displacement from 92” to 100”, and an Arlen Ness Signature Series seat. The bore kit adds noticeable punch but the Ness saddle made me want to duct tape a pillow to my butt. And let me tell ya’, it’s hard to look badass when there’s a fluffy pink pillow taped to your butt, not that I had a nice, comfy pillow secured to my nether cheeks.
Following the practical mandate, the Vampire was equipped with a set of roomy Pony Express bags from Leatherworks. The company’s Easy Brackets allow for quick detachment of the fender-mounted bags, leaving just the mounts that are built to blend in with the fender. Not many choppers tote bags because it’s considered un-cool, but not as un-cool as being caught in a freak storm without your rain gear.
Dakota Digital supplied the electronic speedo and with its various menus you can toggle through that indicates not just the usual, but engine hours, quarter-mile time, rpm, if the moment isn’t right for Viagra, and a host of other data. Performance Machine sent its Wrath wheels, matching belt sprocket, Contour handlebar controls and mirrors and a box load of other switches and brackets and needed fasteners and spacers, in high-polish chrome, of course.
When top-of-the-line parts meet world-class fabrication work, something special happens. Weeks sculpted the tank, raised the neck, stretched the backbone, customized the fenders, frenched-in LED rear turn-signals, added his own side-mounted license-plate bracket, built the handlebar, relocated the ignition switch and otherwise massaged, tweaked, bent, forged, welded, and waved his magic wand over the 8-Ball to transform it from stocker to show stopper. Pygmy did the tank artwork. Paint base, highlights and clear were done by Chino and Mike at Lucky Devil Metal Works.
Conroe,Texas,- based Pro-Powersport installed the Victory 100” engine kit, added the Santa Rosa Vee Twin pipes and lowering kit, and dialed in the engine. The Vampire howled over deserts and mountain ranges through burning day and freezing night, enduring deep swings in temperature and elevation. But this superbeast was a prototype and what’s more, I was breaking her in, hard. The Vampire needed a transfusion.
Enter Jerry Wolrabe, the locally esteemed owner/proprietor of Prescott Valley (Arizona) Motorcycles, a Victory dealership, among other things. Wolrabe, along with his capable crusaders, is kind of the anti-Van Helsing, the vampire- stalking, stake-wielding big meanie who was definitely off his meds. Wolrabe embraced the dark side.
He and his men went through the bike wheel-to-wheel, repairing a front- cylinder head-gasket leak, a stiff-shifting first and second gear and pesky neutral position. They also otherwise tweaked, massaged and dialed in the big power plant, which was missing its air-temp and barometric-pressure sensors due to the customizing surgery. The amputation of the sensors presented some air/fuel-mix challenges to the injection system under extreme conditions, such as 115 degrees in-the-shade temps and 7,500-ft. elevations, but Wolrable was able to settle her down, replenish her vitals, and get her lethal fangs back to business.
The Vampire remains a ghoulish work in progress. Over the coming months we hope to add a Lucky Devil custom sissy bar and a few other cosmetic pieces because, well, vampires like to dress for success. Meanwhile, we will be riding the boulevards and alleys, highways and back roads looking for something fresh, something tasty, maybe something you.