Roland Sands Turns Road Glide Into a High-Performance Bagger

All the creature comforts of a bagger, combined with warp-speed performance – could this be the start of a new trend?

No matter what sort of motorized fun machines you’re into, black and gold is a classic color combination. It’s tough yet sophisticated, eye-catching yet understated. Recently, the factory has gotten in on the fun – take a look at the 2020 Low Rider S.

Famous custom bike builder Roland Sands decided that he wasn’t going to let the crew in Milwaukee have all the fun, however. His latest build started life as Harley-Davidson Road Glide, and added a whole lot of performance – and a whole lot of style, too.

As an former road racer, Roland Sands is perhaps better equipped than any other builder to make the Road Glide into a high-performance machine designed to haul ass and eat up miles in comfort. Hot Bike has pored over the details, showing us how the bike was changed.

So how do you make a bagger into a high-performance bike? If you’re Roland Sands, you start by reducing weight. Like choppers and bobbers of the past, you remove everything unnecessary – in this case, however, it’s important to maintain the bike’s focus as a comfortable long-haul cruiser.

Even though the bike looks noticeably different from a stock Road Glide, this custom is fairly mild, especially by Roland Sands standards. In fact, there’s no custom paint to speak of on this bike – what you’re seeing is a Roland Sands Design graphics kit applied over the stock paint! The blacked-out bike is covered in subtle gold details, tying the whole package together.

One of the most dramatic changes is at the rear of the bike. The saddlebags, rear fender, and side covers were all swapped for lightweight carbon fiber. Up front, the carbon fiber front fender comes from a $78,000 BMW HP4 race bike.

Performance accessories include a Roland Sands Design air cleaner and a Vance & Hines Pro 2-into-1 exhaust. With less weight to haul around and a free-breathing Milwaukee Eight, we’re certain that this Road Glide must absolutely fly. After all, Roland Sands doesn’t do anything halfway.

Photos: Roland Sands Designs

Cameron Vanderhorst

Cam VanDerHorst has been a contributor to Internet Brands' Auto Group sites for over three years, with his byline appearing on Ford Truck Enthusiasts, Corvette Forum, JK Forum, and Harley-Davidson Forums, among others. In that time, he's also contributed to Autoweek, The Drive, and Scale Auto Magazine.

He bought his first car at age 14 -- a 1978 Ford Mustang II -- and since then he’s amassed an impressive and diverse collection of cars, trucks, and motorcycles, including a 1996 Ford Mustang SVT Mystic Cobra (#683) and a classic air-cooled Porsche 911.

In addition to writing about cars and wrenching on them in his spare time, he enjoys playing music (drums and ukulele), building model cars, and tending to his chickens.

You can follow Cam, his cars, his bikes, and his chickens at @camvanderhorst on Instagram.

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