Big, Black and Loud! Las Vegas Custom Aims for ‘Perfection
DD Designs Enhances Original Night Rod Custom
Some guys like to build customs. DD Designs likes to build customs of their customs.
Sound confusing? Not really. Devin Diego drew nine million viewers with his YouTube video of an earlier build called “Brutus.” Now, he hopes to draw more with extra added attractions of that same design.
“This custom build is the perfected version of the Brutus build that we built three years ago,” says Diego on the team’s latest video of Brutus, a Harley Davidson Night Rod.
Heart of Darkness
It’s no coincidence and no surprise that Diego’s first bike was a V-Rod. Like a lot of future custom bike builders, Diego was frustrated at the lack of custom parts for his HD. So he started making his own.
That grew into a custom shop he opened in Las Vegas, and when that proved to be successful, he opened a bigger garage and showroom in the heart of Sin City where they now take customers by appointment.
Take a look at his portfolio of custom bikes, and you’ll see a lot of striking yet similar design elements. This man likes his customs low and lean, and black and loud. The V-Rod has always been a different-looking Harley Davidson, and Diego has taken various iteration of the V-Rod and made them blacker and meaner.
‘Matte Black Murdered-Out’
This latest version of ‘Brutus’ looks menacing, like it might start up on its own and jump you in a dark alley.
The designer took the original Brutus, seen in the photo at the bottom, and added “a lot more custom features” on his self-proclaimed path toward custom “perfection.” One small example: Those two LED lights he added in the rear look like the red eyes of a stalking panther.
The bike is black of course, as are most of his builds.
“This is our signature style,” Diego says. Matte black completely murdered-out.”
A humongous rear tire is another one of DD Designs signatures, and this one shows off a 300 mm rear. It also has a 200 mm white triple tree “which makes it a little more difficult to turn, but nothing you can’t get used to.”
No-See-Um Mirrors
Other custom touches include two headlights – one on top of the other – that would take some getting used to, a custom air box that comes with every build the shop makes, and “mirror-less mirrors.”
Like the tiny built-in blinkers, the mirrors are actually polished aluminum.
This custom Night Rod has a full custom body kit, with a rear fender that comes from No Limit Customs in Germany, another shop that likes to customize V-Rods.
‘Unique DD Stance’
They lowered the front an inch to get more of a slammed look, and added a custom, stainless steel exhaust that is one of the biggest add-ons from the original Brutus.
“We have never built any exhaust like this,” Diego said. “They’re extremely loud.”
Another big departure from the original is the addition of a Platinum air suspension kit, a brand that Diego believes is the best in the industry.
“These are pistons and not airbags, so they’re a lot more reliable and a lot more comfortable,” Diego said. “We do air suspensions with every one of our builds. It gives us the unique DD stance that we like.”
Photos: DD Designs
