Roland Sands on one of Shaws Harley-Davidson’s XR1200 Trophy bikes at Mallory Park in 2010
We’ve seen plenty of Roland Sands’ custom parts for motorcycles over the years: partly because they stand out but also because he makes so much good stuff.
That hasn’t come from being born into the industry – his father, Perry Sands, founded Performance Machine – but from having been involved with motorcycles from a very young age and at all levels.
He was riding at 5, sweeping floors at Performance Machine at 14 and went to the California Superbike School at 19 – a precursor to a nine year road racing career at the top of the 250GP tree – and having won the 1998 250GP Grand Championship, he got a factory ride from Honda in the British Super Cup series!
It is said that his competitive edge was dulled by too many racing injuries so he took his race engineering and fabrication skills and moved into custom bikes. A fter a stint at Performance Machine as head of R&D he set up Roland Sands Design in 2005 and burst onto the custom scene with ‘Glory Stomper’ the same year.
He has since worked with Victory on a 200mph bike, was a guest rider for Shaws Harley-Davidson in the XR1200 series and put together the Indian Scout Super Hooligan bikes for the launch of the Scout Sixty. And he has built a succession of ground-breaking custom bikes, using them to promote a stunning range of custom parts.
In recent years, he has thrown himself and RSD into Dirtquake in the US, which spawned the Super Hooligan class, and not just as a promoter but a passionate rider with no hint of his competitive edge having been dulled.
You could call him the rider’s rider.
And a talented artist and designer with the potential to go beyond just bikes.
So why the potted biography?
Because it gives you an insight into who he is and what he stands for, and the experience that he can draw upon in creating a range of riding gear that is pure RSD.
He builds the bikes he wants to build, and by extension designs the sort of gear that he wants to ride in: functional, well made and stylish … and like nothing else out there.
It has the attention to detail of a custom engineer and the style of an artist, taking established designs and playing with finishes, materials and production methods.
These aren’t just double-breasted lancer jackets with branded press studs and an expensive label in the back of the collar, or mobile billboards with RSD writ large across the back.
Not that there is anything wrong with either of those approaches but that’s not RSD’s way.
One such is the Clash jacket, part of the Limited Steel Collection, seen here in Tobacco – less in-your-face than Ox Blood, more colourful than black – which has got echoes of the classic BLJ but one that has been taken on a journey.
It is both exquisite and understated with lots of detail but nothing that jars.
Inspired by the Scott Perfecto jacket – held to be the first lancer-style motorcycle jacket – it is no slave to the original design and incorporates a number of improvements that make this an excellent rider’s jacket. Few of them are unique in themselves, but combined in a single jacket – especially a jacket that incorporates them while adding to the style of the jacket itself – it makes it very special.
The leather itself is a special case: they call it Airborne and it goes through a washing and air drying process that softens it. First the assembled leather outer is pre-oiled and then washed in proprietary fluid that makes it softer and more supple – as it would if you’d been wearing it. It is then air dried for four days which gives it the beginnings of a bedded-in look: a long way short of being distressed – the finish is unbroken, unmarked – but it is developing a unique patina. The next stage is to add the zips and press-studs, and wax and oil it by hand, leaving it feeling broken-in but new.
With ribbed sides, it has the feel of a sleek racing jacket when the zipper is closed, holding it close to the body, and the asymmetrical zipper concealing a diamond-stitched panel beneath – opposite the perforated leather of any inside panels – looks as good open as closed.
You quickly notice that as well as a mandarin collar, there’s a pair of press-studs missing compared to a regular lancer: you won’t be pinning this flap back in the classic style, but you do have more freedom to wear it as you feel most comfortable.
Even with the Airborne treatment, those two layers of the 0.9-1.1mm leather – even with one of them perforated – are not supple enough when new for the open double-breasted front to fold back on itself, but as the jacket fits itself to the way you wear it, and as you work out what height you like the zip, it will learn. And that is one of the strongest features of a good leather jacket: the more you wear it, the better it gets.
It’s worth noting the main front zip is the only zipper on the jacket which is closed with its pull tag at the top, all of the pockets are zipped-down, and while that actually feels right on the pockets it does take some getting used to.
To avoid embarrassment or panic, I would recommend that you keep any valuables in the hammock pockets of the satin poly liner and your most valuable in the zip-down inside pocket. The exception to that rule is your credit card – if you need ready access for toll roads or fuel – or your bike’s proximity keyfob, which are prime candidates for a small pocket near the cu ff of the right sleeve.
The pre-curved sleeves aren’t as tight fitting as seems to be the fashion these days, allowing long sleeved t-shirts or even something heavier in cooler weather, and the ribbed sides of the jacket have plenty of latitude to flatteringly accommodate many body shapes.
The diamond stitch motif continues on the shoulders and the lower kidney belt, but not the elbow patches which are Sands’ ‘Coffin-stitched’ design, with small studs describing a diamond pattern: the same natural-finish studs that are used sparingly around the jacket on major junctions.
To say that it exudes quality would be an major understatement, but then at £595 plus armour it should, but then like the best leather jackets it fits like a second skin – and that’s straight o ff the hanger!
RSD Clash Leather Jacket
Available in
• Black
• Ox Blood
• Tobacco
S – XXXL
RRP: £595
rolandsands.com
dpc-distribution.com
From American-V 86