I’ll give the boss a break since young Derek Pauletto, of Trillion Industries, out of Calgary, is such a tech head. We spent a half-hour discussing Plasma cutters and TIG welding before we shifted to his Rovad, one-off motorcycle. The name came from the owner, although he’s not sure he liked Derek’s choice. It’s the owner’s first name reversed.

Derek started out life saving anything to make something else. “My folks weren’t wealthy,” Derek said. He studied woodworking and anticipated becoming a deft cabinetmaker. He made his own toys and repaired anything broken until he was 18. “I learned how to drink at 18,” Derek said, “and not much else for a couple of years.”

He found himself working in an auto upholstery shop, thinking he was going to learn a craft. “I didn’t like it much,” Derek said. “We messed with cheap seats and replaced soaked carpets.” The shop had a little unused MIG welder and Derek asked to learn how but was turned down. “I went to the local community class. I got certified and brought the certificate to my boss. He let me weld.”

We finally rolled around to this wild bike he built for Davor, a retired pro-soccer player, in his early 40s who did well in the Calgary Oil biz. Calgary is the sister oil center to Houston. Davor spoke to Derek a couple of times, looked at rough sketches and a laundry list of components and gave Derek the green light. Derek tried purchasing Chrome Moly in Canada but the price was prohibitive. He found a company, Aircraft Spruce, supplying building materials to the aircraft trade and he could buy it by the foot.

After ordering the wheels, front-end, 124-inch S&S motor, “That was fast and good looking,” Derek said. He made the cradle for the engine, then the neck. He took a class in SolidWorks, a computer software program for three-dimensional designing, and went to work building the one-piece triple trees.

He figures he has 110,000 bucks into the Rovad with $55,000 in parts and the rest in fabrication and building time. The air dam in the front housed the oil cooler, battery and coil. The pipes are all stainless and he faced another computer to develop the formula for the exhaust configuration. “You input the engine size, timing, cam specs, transmission gearing, running rpms and it spits out the pipe diameter and length. He started with 2-inch chunks and moved up to 2.1250, 2.750 and finally a 4-inch collector with a baffle. “Too loud is not acceptable.”

He built the frame, designed the suspension and swingarm components, and made the seat, even pinstriped the wheels. “I still want to build a cool bike under 300 pounds,” Derek said. “I’m working on a single cylinder engine with a turbo and fuel injection. Now I’m studying turbo technology.”

So how did Bikernet discover this young gun from north of the border. Bandit ran into him at the Avon booth in Cincy. Ski of Avon Tyres discovered Derek in a big show in Edmonton. “I couldn’t afford to attend,” Derek said, “but I went to the Calgary show and people responded to the Rovad.” The guys from Parts Canada offered to sponsor him in their booth three hours away at the next show in Edmonton and that’s where he met Ski from Avon, who invited Derek to Cincy. “It took 35 hours to drive to Cincy and 38 back.”

That’s his story, the Rovad Saga, and I’m sure we’ll work with him again in the future.

--Wrench

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