Leaning up against a scurvy bar in the Badlands I overheard one biker say to another, "Those rich fucks, like Arlen Ness…" I listened to his complaining, finished my Jack and ordered another one. I looked across the bar at the mirror behind the bottles of booze and wondered who that old fuck was in the reflection. I remember when Perry and Nancy Sands had a little bike shop in Long Beach. They were just a couple of bikers trying to make a living in this crummy little industry.

Arlen Ness started out delivering mail and building bikes in his garage. If it wasn't for his wife, Bev, he would have ran off, joined a Bay Area club, and gone to jail. It's the code of the west for a man to work hard, stick with his family and hopefully grow something good for his industry, family and community. Arlen stuck with the code and so did Perry and Nancy. Their shop opened in 1970 and I remember installing one of Perry's first disc brake systems on Kim Peterson's bike. He was just a cub reporter at Easyriders with a bobber/rat bike and we had to try out this new shit from Performance Machine.

Over the years, we tested and tried many Ness and Performance Machine components as both companies and families grew. While I ran from wife to wife, joined a club and partied with the best, Arlen and Perry stayed true to the code and passed solid family values on to their kids. Roland rode dirt bikes with Perry, stayed in school and ultimately came to Performance Machine to follow in his father's footsteps, designing custom components and building state-of-the-art bikes.

"I've been very fortunate to have the capabilities, a top-of- the-line machine shop, and all the PM resources at my back," Roland said at his father's retirement party.

After spreading his wings and flying in lots of different custom directions, with many accolades at his back Roland shifted to reality-based products designed specifically for Softails, until recently the best selling Harley-Davidson.

"We wanted to build as bitchin a Softail as possible with high quality components at a good price," said Roland. "We really tried to focus on the parts that mattered the most to make the thing look good. Not bolt-on pretty shit, but good shit."

Over the last couple of years, Roland designed a sharp functional line of Softail-oriented components to add performance, style and individuality to a stock Softail. Once you roll through this feature, you'll find the entire product line at the end with descriptions. This way, you get to see the components in action and separately.

" RSD is constantly designing new products for not only Softails but full customs, baggers and everything else," Roland added. "There really is no limit to what we build or what some of our products can be used for. Our handlebar line continues to grow, as well as some of our steel parts, fork braces, license plate brackets and more. Our new Ronin and Mission wheels will bolt on to just about any bike."

This particular Softail was built by Jason, and engineer on the Roland Sands Design team. "Jason, my engineer wanted to build a bike out of our products for testing and because he could," Roland said. "He's an engineer with a passion for design and motorcycles. He's got a good eye for simple design that lends itself to the way we build bikes. My whole crew is really involved in motorcycles, so it's not like we're a bunch of engineer types. We're really a bunch of enthusiasts who have found our way into bike building."

There you have it. We have featured Roland's bikes in the past and I'm sure we will feature more innovative designs in the future.

"I'm just going in my own direction and doing what feels right. We are always building new stuff that's different." Roland said. "You might see a Softail custom and CR 500 motocross bike turned into a café racer on the lift next to it. We have no category, we are our own category. My business model doesn't exist, so I really have no map laid out about what or how to do it. I just do it my way and hope it works. We've done all right so far."

In the meantime RSD and Performance Machine are manufacturing some very classy components to help Softail owners build super-clean, tight looking customs.

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