Some call Roland Sands the bad boy heir to the throne at Performance Machine. But while the son of PM's founder, Perry Sands, may have grown up as a shop rat, he spent a decade doggedly making his own name road racing GP bikes throughout the US, Spain and England. In 2002 he retired following an AMA 250 GP championship and 10 national wins because, he said, 29 broken bones was enough. He sums it up on his web site: "All kinds of nasty shit happens after you fall off a motorcycle at 120 m.p.h."

At 31, Roland is making an impact of a different kind, as a designer and builder. Having branched off from Performance and launched his own gig as Roland Sands Designs, he's held his own against no less than Arlen Ness on Discovery®'s Biker Build-Off. Although he lost that one, he went on to gleefully whip the ass of his friend, Jesse Rooke, in a new twist for Biker Build-Off that already has fans of the show lighting up Internet message boards before it's even been aired. The winner was determined after being pitted in a three-race format consisting of a road race, a flat track and a drag race. Winning on No Regrets, his Kendall Johnson powered V-twin, had to be a relief for Roland, as it was his idea that the show's formula be changed from a popularity contest to a competition of actual functionality.

And that's what Roland is known for: his own breed of custom that blends the dirty, bad 1970s choppers he saw during his childhood with the power and handling he craves as an ex-racer. His design influences run the gamut from Indian Larry to Frank Lloyd Wright, but it's still Roland the Racer who has had the most impact. "I've fallen down so many times, I don't want to fall down anymore," says Roland. "When I build a bike I think about that. I think about the function of pretty much every piece that I put on a bike. I also think about the stylish features, because I want it to to look good, too. But most of all I don't want to fall down."

There was never any question that this is what he would do, race bikes, design bikes. He got that idea into his head early on, coming up while the custom industry exploded. "I thought, 'Wow, it really is possible to do big things from where I come from,' " he says. But many outsiders assume that where he's come from has made it easy for him, and that's an unfair assumption he bristles at. "It's always been a struggle for me, people thinking I was handed everything," Roland says. "I'm putting in 12-hour days, every day, and I know I'm not handed shit."

Maybe he makes it all look too easy. Because, let's face it, if the secret of life is to live your dream and have a blast doing it, then Roland has this thing nailed. Candid photographs show him crowd surfing over the heads of devotees in California, rolling cigars with the locals in Puerto Rico, judging a bikini contest with his buddy (the late) Johnny Chop at Daytona and chatting with admitted fan Brad Pitt. Or maybe it's just Roland's Type A personality that leaves everybody in awe. His fans want to be him or be with him, which is probably why his online blog at MySpace.com--the popular Internet site that serves as a kind of cyberspace refrigerator where anyone who's interested can leave the equivalent of Post-It® notes on the door for him or peer inside at the contents of Roland's private life--a total of 510 people have listed themselves as his friends. And that number climbs every day.

"MySpace was totally addicting initially," Roland said. "I thought, 'This is just crazy.' " But crazy or not, Roland and his bikes have something that people like, and he's humbled by that. "I know how lucky I am," he says. "I'm really lucky to have been put in a place where I can do what I want to do. That's all anyone can ask for."

Roland describes life as an "epic wave" he's riding, a fitting analogy coming from a California boy who still surfs and skateboards whenever he can. And although watching motorcycle racing on TV makes his heart "just start pounding," there's not much chance he'll be returning to the professional race circuit any time soon. "I just know, at this point, if I fall down and hurt myself bad enough that I can't work, it's gonna have an adverse effect on the RSD crew around me," he says. Then he laughs and adds, "I've become a pawn in my own game."

--Wendy Manning
Photos courtesy of Roland Sands Designs

Click here to see our photo gallery of Roland Sands courtesy of Roland Sands Designs