t’s been more than 10 years now that Roland Sands, just 32 years old, has been the creative force behind much of what’s inside that vast Performance Machine catalog. While he was still winning championships and setting track records, Roland was also designing custom Harley parts for the family business. His first commercially offered creation was a wheel called the Dragon, followed by another called the Rage, maybe one of the first wild-look wheels in the market. It was a huge hit.      Hanging up his helmet and leathers and returning to California, Roland jumped into designing all those PM parts full time, coming up with one success after another. Familiar parts like the Contour Hand Controls and Grips were Roland’s. “For a long time there,” he says, “I was the sole designer at PM. I’ll bet I penned or had my hand somewhere in the 3-D design work on probably 80% of everything that’s in our catalog, including all the wheels. Designing product,” he says, “is a real passion.”
     Roland didn’t go to school for any of this. Just being in the Performance Machine workshops since, well, since he could walk, being around his dad and carefully watching and talking with the engineers it all came together naturally. So did all those award winning PM parts. About two years ago it was decided to let the world in on exactly who was doing all this design work. At first nothing Performance Machine sold was actually branded with the RSD (Roland Sands Design) logo, but through word of mouth and in the catalogs it was made clear that Roland was the designer. “And a lot of people freaked at that,” Roland says. “They didn’t know that it was this ex-roadracer kid who was designing all those custom parts for Harleys. Some people still can’t put that together.” They can now. Just last year Roland started offering parts under the RSD logo, making RSD its own thing and available exclusively through Drag Specialties.
     First on the shelf wearing the RSD brand are the Vintage Kits, the Vintage Cover Line and the Contrast Cut Wheels, the Judge and the Domino. You can see the effect of all this on page ---- of this issue. While many of Roland’s personal customs have, and continue to have, a roadracer’s flair–witness the KRV5 Tracker recently put together in conjunction with “King” Kenny Roberts, a stylized boardtracker of the ‘teens powered with the latest MotoGP engine–Roland’s always had a thing for Softails, too, a desire to make them as cool as possible. “That’s the kind of bike I like to ride on the street,” he says. “It’s a laid-back thing, a cruiser vibe, yet it still can have an aggressive, performance look, too.” And, Roland feels that Softail chassis/platform almost dictates that the look be an old-style chopper or bobber. That said, Roland also reaches back to his no-compromise racing background and, while certainly concentrating on form, puts equal attention on function. Every RSD offering has to not only look good but work great and be something that improves the motorcycle both aesthetically and mechanically. The goal is to keep coming up with parts that are fresh and new, never stale and always exciting.
     “And it’s starting out pretty well,” Roland says. Drag Specialties, obviously, has shown a lot of interest in what RSD is up to, becoming the exclusive distributor. “So I want to turn around and support them as much as I can,” Roland says. Roland’s looking at attracting a younger customer, too, not only supplying the top-end of the market which can get pretty pricey but let younger people into all this without having to spend every penny they have–or don’t have. “I’d like to see some really affordable RSD bike kits happen,” he says. “We really have to look at the youth to keep our market alive, vibrant and thriving, and if I can figure out how to put together an affordable package I’ll have done something. $30,000 is a lot to spend on a motorcycle. If I can get someone into a custom bike, something really ‘bitchin, for about $10,000 or so that will let a lot more people get involved.” Roland is thinking Sportster-based customs here. “And pretty quickly you’ll see a performance-bike kit from me, too.”
     It isn’t all just Softails and Sportsters at RSD, either. Roland says there’s some bagger stuff coming soon, too. In fact, there’s new product scheduled for just about everything in the Harley-Davidson model line. “I look at each distinct model as a whole new project, a new opportunity,” he says. Indeed, there are prototype parts for everything Harley sitting in the RSD shop right now. “And something I’d really like to do is get into those baggers and improve the handling,” says this ex-roadracer. “Those bikes can sure use some help, especially when the engine has been hopped up. It can get downright frightening.”      There’s a full RSD frame kit in the future, too, although Roland’s not sure exactly what the base will be. “I have a couple different designs in my head,” he says. “I’m not sure which one to do first.” One thing Roland Sands is sure of, though, is that he wants to make sure the RSD line covers it all, spreading across the entire custom Harley spectrum, from top-of-the-line right down to everyman affordable. And you can bet all of it will show up right inside the FatBook. Exclusively.