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The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Sport Choppers

By Paul Crowe

V-Rod chopper by Roland SandsWe’ve talked a lot about a sportbike build off and whether it would generate enough interest, well, how about sport choppers? What the heck is that, you ask? Have you seen the V-Rod built by Roland Sands at Performance Machine? He took a V-Rod and used a lot of parts from their company’s catalog and a lot of great ideas, too. Instead of increasing the rake like every other chopper, he actually decreased it. He put on a sportbike tail section and various other mods to create a really nice looking bike.

Think about it. Take the American V Twin motorcycle idea but make it handle and perform. It makes sense that Roland Sands, a former racer, would look at bikes a little different than your run of the mill chopper shop. It’s the same idea as the Hellcat from Confederate Motorcycles, a V-Twin performance machine.

I forgot to mention yesterday when writing about that Monster Garage episode that before they started their project they rolled the bike on to a portable dyno and got 67hp, afterwards they had 115hp. That was the best part of the build. That sort of tuning would fit right into this.

A sport chopper build off would let all of the regular chopper shops take part, there’s no reason they couldn’t use the skill and knowledge they already have to build something that performs. All of the Buell guys could get into this, too, and it would be a very American event. American Sport Chopper? Nothing exotic needed, only ideas. I kinda like it.

Posted on May 4, 2005 Filed Under: Motorcycle Builders


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Comments

  1. hoyt says

    May 4, 2005 at 1:50 pm

    This is a start in the right direction. More diversity will generate more ideas.

    I would almost prefer the Speed Channel to pick up on this next evolutionary design step for the local chop shop. The biker buildoff award show on Discovery was brutal. In addition, those build off shows rarely showed the finished project up close and long enough for the audience to appreciate it. And, the shows are chalked full of commercials — too many. The morning gearhead shows on Speed are very informative and entertaining without the hollywood angle.

    Roland Sands “Glory Stomper” is another interesting bike….

  2. Scott Johnson says

    May 4, 2005 at 11:19 pm

    Roland Sands is awesome! If I ever have the cash to buy a custom bike, I’ll be calling him first for sure. I would love to see more of his work on the bike shows.

  3. Curt Winter says

    June 20, 2005 at 6:54 pm

    I would realy like to see the industry take this direction. Ive built many bikes for various customers based mainly around the popular styles,but when building my own customs theyve all been performance oriented. My last and most current design has been very succesful,able to give any current japanise sportbike a real challenge in the twisties,add a 100 ft. lbs. of torqe to a bike that weighs less than 480 lbs. and youve got majore fun. I would love to be a contributore to your new idea. Please feal free to E-mail me @crtwinter@yahoo.com if you have any openings.

  4. chris says

    August 17, 2006 at 6:41 pm

    roland sands bikes are awsome. Best proformance and looks for the money.

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