Photo: Roland Sands Design
Roland Sands is displaying his all-new custom creation in Sturgis, so if you want to get a glimpse of what he and his team can do starting off from a stock Indian Chieftain, you'll be in for quite a suprise.
In the modern days putting Indian Motorcycle and Racing in the same sentence may cause some melancholic smiles. The motorcycling world has changed dramatically since the days when Indian machines were the spearhead of the two- and three-wheeled industry, but this doesn't mean that a cool retro racer is obsolete.
RSD took the Thunder Stroke 111 engine off a modern-day Chieftain and set out to building a completely bespoke flat track racer that will be displayed at Sturgis. The power plant and few other parts are all that's left from the original bike, so the whole deal is one of the true custom bikes you'll see in Sturgis.
The seat is made from laminated wood crafted by the top-notch skateboard maker Paul Schmitt of Schmitt Stix fame, and it sits on a Fox Float air shock with multiple adjustments. The front end of the bike is controlled by a Fox Shox DHX unit.
Because we are dealing with a race machine, Roland Sands used their quick-change flat-track wheels, and ditched the front brake. Stopping power now comes from a single RSD caliper that squeezes an automotive-like Lloyd Brothers Motorsports vented, drilled petal rotor.
Cue a modified tank and RSD engine and breather covers, plus two very scrambler-ish exhausts ending in RSD shorty silencers with carbon end caps, and you will get the big picture. A machine that harks back to the glory days of yore by its looks, but which is entirely put together with parts nobody even dared to dream of back in the day.
RSD took the Thunder Stroke 111 engine off a modern-day Chieftain and set out to building a completely bespoke flat track racer that will be displayed at Sturgis. The power plant and few other parts are all that's left from the original bike, so the whole deal is one of the true custom bikes you'll see in Sturgis.
A skateboard seat? Yes, please!
Sands took to crafting a special chromoly frame around the engine, and decided in favor of a strong, hardtail design complemented by a modified Kiwi Indian leaf-sprung fork.The seat is made from laminated wood crafted by the top-notch skateboard maker Paul Schmitt of Schmitt Stix fame, and it sits on a Fox Float air shock with multiple adjustments. The front end of the bike is controlled by a Fox Shox DHX unit.
Because we are dealing with a race machine, Roland Sands used their quick-change flat-track wheels, and ditched the front brake. Stopping power now comes from a single RSD caliper that squeezes an automotive-like Lloyd Brothers Motorsports vented, drilled petal rotor.
Cue a modified tank and RSD engine and breather covers, plus two very scrambler-ish exhausts ending in RSD shorty silencers with carbon end caps, and you will get the big picture. A machine that harks back to the glory days of yore by its looks, but which is entirely put together with parts nobody even dared to dream of back in the day.
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