Vintage motorcycles are charming, but they can be a real pain to live with. So what do you do if you want all the allure of a 1940s Indian Chief?but you also want to spend more time riding than wrenching" You call Roland Sands Design.
Their latest build combines a 2014 Indian Chief Classic engine with a salvaged 1946 Indian Chief frame, topped off with period correct parts and pre-aged finishes. Dubbed ‘El Camino,’ it was commissioned by a regular client who gave RSD the green light to do whatever they wanted to.

?We like to push ourselves to do new things and stay out of our comfort zone,? says the shop’s project manager, Cameron Brewer.
?We’ve built quite a few different frame-up custom Thunder Stroke Indians, but we wanted to do something totally different on this one. We have never built the same bike twice and have no frame fixtures here. Every custom frame we build is a one-off setup on our frame table.?
?We have always wanted to build a bike the old way and pay homage to the original Chief, with cast frame joints and brazing instead of welding. What better way than starting with an actual 1946 Chief frame"?
Armed with that wild idea, RSD sourced a crashed 1946 frame from the local vintage Indian specialists, Kiwi Indian. They got a bunch of 1946 Indian reproduction parts there too, including the split fuel tanks and caps, saddle, handlebars, grips, headlight, floorboards and foot controls.

RSD’s fabricator, Aaron Boss, ...