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Roland Sands – The fusion chef takes custom to the race track

SUPER HOOLIGAN Part 2

Over the past 20 years Roland Sands has assumed an influential role as leader of the gang of the new wave of crossover custom bike builders, combining chrome and glitz with aggressive stretched-out streetfighter styling, matched by leading edge hardware straight from the Superbike paddock. 

The global recognition acquired through his Discovery Channel appearances, especially after Sands won the 2006 season Biker Build-Off premiere by taking down erstwhile PM workmate Jesse Rooke’s KTM custom with his breathtaking No Regrets tribute to recently deceased metalwork artist Johnny Chop, earned Sands an invitation from Lord March to bring it on to Britain’s prestigious Goodwood Festival of Speed, where Roland’s rolling burnouts up the hill past the hordes of Formula One glitterati and motor industry mafia, made him the hit of the weekend’s activities.

This earned Roland the gig to conceive the most illustrious RSD creation yet, the KR V5 Tracker powered by an engine with two-and-a-half times more cylinders than anything he’d wrapped a frame round up until then, and producing twice as much horsepower, too.  Rather than the ubiquitous narrow-angle pushrod V-twin motor of RSD’s other creations thus far, this came powered by a state-of-the-art five-cylinder MotoGP engine furnished by former World champion, later MotoGP team owner, the legendary Kenny Roberts.

Launched on an unsuspecting MotoGP paddock at California’s Laguna Seca Grand Prix in July 2006, this modern interpretation of the iconic vintage Indian and Harley racers which burned up the boards of America’s wooden ovals 90 years ago, got a rave reception, and presented a potent calling card for RSD’s design skills, which Ducati evidently took good notice of, making them the first manufacturer to commission a bike from RSD. 

The Hyper Motard which debuted at the December 2007 Long Beach Show was the result – since when others have followed for different manufacturers such as KTM, Victory, Indian, Buell and BMW.

In the meantime, RSD’s core business plan of constructing two-wheeled works of art for discerning customers has seen the company take off, underpinned by a multi-million dollar mail order business which allows customers to buy the trick RSD parts that’ll let them do it their way, and at much reduced cost. 

Log on to http://www.rolandsands.com/bikes to admire the creations down the years of California’s fusion chef of Custom cool – of which the TRX Hyper Modified is the latest and most unlikely outrageous……

Sands explained: “I’ve been racing Hooligan bikes for a while, so initially, the whole Hooligan thing came out of dirt track, and it really came out of Speedway at Costa Mesa Speedway with Brad Austin. And Brad was always down to have Harley nights, we’d go out and ride Harley nights, I’d put a dirt track tyre in a 21” wheel on a Harley Softtail, and go ride the shit out of it, and it was the most fun that I have ever personally had on two wheels, still to this day.

“With Scouts, with Sportsters, with Ducati Scramblers, quite a few different bikes competed, the KTM 890. So we kind of took what was originally this kind of low brow flat track theme, and we turned it into Super Hooligan, and threw a race with the AMA in Las Vegas at the Superprestigio, and we launched Super Hooligan there with Indian Scout, with Indian’s support as well. Indian has been a supporter of Super Hooligan for a long time, and is still racing every year.”

Alan Cathcart: So, 2021 you got one series off the ground, or was it just a one-off race?

Roland Sands:  ’21 was a one-off race, ’22 was a championship.

AC:  And what’s the concept behind the road racing class? 

RS:  We wanted to take the Hooligan rules and move them over to road racing. Because, I think for us, it was like the benefit of racing, you know, the manufacturers of best-selling bikes, and putting them on race tracks, and giving people the ability to customise and build race bikes out of them, and then go race them on a big stage. Like Daytona, Laguna Seca, COTA. I mean, those are like the biggest stages in the United States to race bikes.

AC:  And particularly aimed at small, private teams, or just tuners, or local garages who want to take part? 

RS:  A guy can be competitive, like Andy DiBrino for instance, on a KTM 890 out of a van. It’s like Motocross days. If guys want to come and race, they can race, and they can do pretty damn good.

AC:  Proper racing.

RS:  Proper racing. I mean, like all forms of racing, you end up pushing, and people end up spending money in places that you wouldn’t think they really would to improve things, and you know, it’s on a bit of a train, but at the same time, I think anybody could go get an FTR and make it. Go out and have a good time, and be competitive, certainly.

AC: Well, you’ve got the manufacturers involved, because you have Indian, KTM, BMW, Ducati, and now as of this year, Harley Davidson.

RS:  Harley Davidson Pan America. So yes, if there was one brand we wanted to add into the mix, it was Harley. I mean, obviously they have a massive audience, and it’s also the one place I think they can improve the Pan America in a massive way. They can really learn their platform, because you’re not going to learn your platform unless you go racing, that’s the only way to really expand what your platform is capable of, and you’re seeing that with Indian and FTR. We’re seeing that with Road Glide, we’re seeing that with Challenger, on the Bagger side, you know, what Baggers are going to come because of King of the Baggers. 

Words by Alan Cathcart. Photos: Indian Motorcycle and Brian J. Nelson (MotoAmerica race action)

Roland Sands – The fusion chef takes custom to the race track | SuperBike