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Roland Sands Design

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Our good friends at Ducati News Today have released more photos of the Ducati Diavel that Roland Sands built at his Southern California shop. While this photo is RSD’s take on how the Diavel should look, Roland and his crew have made a variety of accessories and OEM parts that Ducati will carry for the Diavel when it officially launches.

You’re not likely to hear Ducati brass tout the fact though, as they’ve tried to distance themselves from Roland Sand Design’s involvement — a misstep in our opinion. If anyone can connect the stodgy custom chopper market to a more hip and younger motorcycling audience, it’s Roland Sands Design, and Ducati could do well to associate themselves with the talent surrounding that firm. After all Roland Sands Design is really the only link in the US market that exists between the sport bike and cruiser markets.

Sometimes if you want to know where something is going, it helps to know where it’s been. That seems to be the case as Ducati News Today has esnagged some photos 2011 Ducati Diavel from way back in May of last year. Caught in the United States being fitted with a new swingarm (according to DNT), this version of the Ducati Diavel shows some interesting lines that depart from the photos we’ve seen earlier of the performance cruiser.

But why does this Diavel look so different from the clay models and spy shots we’ve seen? While some will say it’s an earlier model, our eagle eye spots a few parts from the Roland Sands Design parts bin. When we saw the latest spy shots of the Diavel, the bike had some wheels on it that screamed influences from Performance Machines. It’s no secret that PM and RSD have close ties, so we went digging, and our sources tell us that Roland Sands Design has been helping Ducati kit the Diavel with aftermarket parts (note the Öhlins shock which will surely be a Ducati Performance part for the Diavel). More info and photos after the jump.

Roland Sands Design has a new project in their garage that sees a modified Victory being built for ludicrous speed. Aptly named Mission 200, RSD is aiming for a modified partial streamlining (MPS) record, and a 200mph benchmark. Currently the bike features a stock Victory 106ci motor, but to reach the 200mph mark RSD plans to turbo the Victory v-twin motor out. The work done by RSD looks amazing, but will the bike go 200 miles per hour? Only time will tell. Video and photos after the jump.