Less than twenty-four hours after a transatlantic flight, and eight years since riding a motorcycle competitively, former AMA GP250 champion, Roland Sands was in the saddle of a Shaw Harley-Davidson XR1200 getting a few practice laps in round Mallory Park ahead of his guest appearance at Brands Hatch at the weekend.

Sands and Shaws Harley-Davidson have got strong links through the Shaws Speed and Custom Shop, which has made great use of his RSD components in customising Harley-Davidsons over the last eighteen months, and Dealer Principle, Steve Willis, has been on Sand's case to make a guest appearance since the XR1200 series was first planned.

Last seen on a British racing circuit riding a factory Honda in the British Super Cup Series, Roland was very quickly on the pace on the modified Harley XR1200 - to everyone's obvious amazement, not least his own - and was enjoying putting the bike through its paces alongside Shaw's main rider, better known in the British Super Moto Championship: Rob McNealy.

Sands is clearly not planning a return to competitive racing - he says he's got plenty of stuff that needs doing at home - and won't be drawn on whether he'll be guesting in the American XR1200 series, but he's really enjoying the chance to really make a bike work hard on a circuit, describing the XR1200 as a lot of fun.

It might not have been the fastest bike on the circuit at the Mallory Park practice session, but he's pragmatic about its capabilities: 'it needs finessing', he says, referring not to the bike itself but the manner in which it needs to be ridden: it responds well to an iron fist, but the last 5% of performance is achieved by a velvet glove.

He's been impressed by how flickable the bike is, even having taken its weight into account, and he's already thinking about how an XL with the Harris race kit and a lightweight swing-arm might work - but then that's what he does for a living these days, and the hardware that comes out of his workshop has provided a very welcome shot in the arm for a custom scene that is always in danger of stagnating.

The talk in the makeshift pit area is of the tyres being way more than the bike needs, inspiring confidence in their ability to provide all the grip that the heavyweight Harley can use, and the sense is that it's a proper old school race bike: a good rider will hit the limitations of the bike before those of the tyres, and a long way before the best riders will find their own boundaries, setting a level playing field that will let them show how good they are.

The Shaw race team managed a couple of practice sessions before the rains came, but it was enough to reassure everyone that it was going to work before heading back down to Sussex to prepare for the Beach Party tonight (Thursday) and the revealing of a very special set of bodywork, and ready for practice on Friday.

With the teams now more used to what the XR1200 can do, and how it does it, I suspect that Brands Hatch is going to be a good race.

Dealer: Shaw Harley-Davidson
Location: Lewes
Riders: Rob McNealey and Roland Sands

Shaws are out to win this – they’ve been taking testing very seriously and they are bringing Roland Sands of Biker Build-Off fame in for selected rounds on the second of their bright green bikes.