Roland Sands Beats Jesse Rooke in 2006 Discovery Biker Build-Off! Always looking for a new twist, the devious folks over at Discovery Channel’s Biker Build-Off pitted two of the hottest young guns of the custom bike world against one another. Not content to simply see them build pretty bikes, they made things even more interesting by deciding a winner, not through a bike show format, but on the race track! Roland Sands of Performance Machine as well as Roland Sands Design (RSD) lined up against Jesse Rooke of Rooke Customs in a two out of three showdown. Contestants are given a meager 10 days to create a machine from the ground up, while faced with presence of an unrelenting Discovery Channel film crew. If you’ve seen the show, you know what can happen under that kind of pressure! Roland chose a Harley Twin Cam motor and Trans and had Kendall Johnson massaged things a bit. From there, Sands opted for full Ohlins suspension and connected it all with a chassis of his own design. The result is part Harley, part sport bike and all race. Event one of three saw the builders lined up at the infamous Willow Springs Raceway. Sands has a long history with this course and holds an AMA 250 Championship, as well as a number of track records, so Jesse took a bit of a beating on his KTM950 powered machine. Race two involved more of a dirt track style format and mechanicals kept Roland from taking that one, as well. The final and deciding event was a head to head drag race and Roland, repleat in custom designed Alpinestars leathers showed Jesse a nice view of his butt patch on his way to a decisive win. Roland’s sponsors and crew worked tirelessly to finish the bike and get it track ready for the competition. With all of his bikes, especially this latest creation, Sands seems intent on proving to a skeptical market that a custom bike can perform as well as it looks. We think he’s done a pretty good job of it, but you can decide on your own as the Sands v. Rooke episode will kick off Discovery Channel’s Biker Build Off with the series premiere in early August. Check your local listings for more info.