Written by Tim Huber.
There?s something almost sacrilegious about placing an exorbitant and exotic motorcycle under the grinder for customization. Not only is it practically guaranteed to destroy an exclusive model?s resale value, but it also removes one of the few existing examples from circulation. Often produced in minute numbers, these machines are hand-built works of rolling art and engineering that are extremely calculated in their design. 
So to ?undo? an elite and seldom-seen model like an Ecosse Heretic Titanium Edition is a major gamble, to say the least, but if anyone has the competence to cut up the exotic American and come out on the other side with a winning hand, it?s Roland Sands and his crew at Southern California’s Roland Sands Design.
This isn?t RSD?s first foray into ultra high-dollar donor builds. In the past, the former 250cc champ has built a street tracker out of a Ducati Desmosedici D16RR, and a hardtail board tracker for ?King? Kenny Roberts using a MotoGP-spec V5 from a Proton Team KR race bike. So, while the Ecosse project did require treading a little more lightly than normal, the work occurred gradually in two separate phases. 

For those not familiar, Ecosse is an ultra-premium moto manufacturer based in Denver. Founded by a husband and wife, the boutique Colorado operation produces small batches of large displacement roadsters with Swedish suspension, Italian-inspired frames, and gobs of raw American V-Twin power. First launched in ...