Following in the footsteps of Shinya Kimura, Roland Sands has stepped up
and collaborated with Yamaha to create an exciting new chapter in the
‘Faster Sons’ story. Taking everything cool and iconic from Yamaha’s Sport
Heritage bike building philosophy and taking it to the next level with pure
sports DNA running through its veins.
The ‘Faster Wasp’, is Californian custom builder Roland Sands’ fifth Yamaha
collaboration, and is a thoroughbred concept with more than a hint of legend
Kenny Roberts in its design.
A professional racer himself, Roland Sands embraced the ‘Faster Sons’
philosophy of classic timeless style blended with cutting edge Yamaha
technology and added a third element, infusing Yamaha’s racing pedigree into
the mix. The result is a machine with massive impact, paying tribute to
Kenny Roberts’ iconic TZ750 in instantly recognisable yellow and black
‘bumblebee’ colour scheme with just as much bite. Taking Yamaha’s latest
850cc in-line 3-cylinder engine with a lightweight aluminium frame, the
‘Faster Wasp’ has a serious sting in its tail with powerful performance
wrapped in a classic package.
“Faster Sons is a mind-set to respect what comes from the old days,
pureness, quality materials and design simplicity, blended with cutting edge
technology”, commented Yamaha Motor Europe Product Manager, Shun Miyazawa.
“Roland did a fantastic job with this build, respecting this philosophy in
great detail. This has given us a huge confidence and, as with Shinya
Kimura’s concept, has again confirmed our direction and bike building
philosophy. We are working on future Faster Sons products and this concept
is going to help us to accelerate bringing future products to the market.”
“I go way back with Yamaha,” said Roland Sands. “I used to race TZ250 race
bikes and ride a lot of Yamaha dirt bikes off-road so I have a lot of
history. When I see what the Yamaha brand has done and where they want to go
I find it really inspiring. We’ve built quite a few bikes together already.
The triple package is really lightweight and performs really well. It’s not
a race bike but it brings that level of race performance into a consumer
friendly bike, which is great because it brings the fun factor. For me,
that’s a great platform to build a custom on, I feel a bike needs to be fun,
so you can have a good time but have good performance as well. This Faster
Sons concept we’ve worked together on, bringing my racing heritage together
with Kenny Roberts, one of my heroes and smashing it together with the
triple has made a fun project to work on and I’m really happy with the end
result.”
Features of the "Faster Wasp
Hand-fabricated
aluminum gas tank, tail section, intake scoops, radiator covers, front
number plate & front fender
The chain guard, timing plug, axle sliders and gas cap are also all
prototype RSD items.