Old School Cool
OLD SCHOOL Cool
Inspired by 1960s "rail-jobs," a car guy builds one of the year's most memorable customs
`DAVID EDWARDS
RAGICALLY, COLE Foster is cooler than you or me. It's not just the Rockabilly wardrobe, the Persol shades or his everyday drive, a chopped `54 Chevy pickup, either.
A rhapsody in candy-apple blue, it's an unlikely cross between a Harley dragster and a Jawa speedway bike, with more than a touch of Schwinn Stingray thrown in for good measure. It's no wider than the rocker boxes, the only thing dangling in the breeze a reworked hot-rod intake trumpet looking more like your great-granddad's ear horn or a bilge vent from an old Chris-Craft.
"Low, bad and brave," is how Foster describes his creation, inspired by the old front-engined "rails" that used to burn rub ber-"háze the hides"-for the entire length of the quarter-mile. "A 1960s Top Fuel dragster is just about the most beautiful thing in the world," says Foster. "No extra bulishit, like a shark or a jet fighter."
":~~` His appreciation of racecars was inevitable. Cole's father, Pat Foster, is a Hall of Fame fabricator, with a dossier that includes everything from sprint cars to land-speed racers, Funny Cars to Nissan's unlimited-budget GTP roadracers, for which he was chief prototyping engineer. Safe to say Mr. Foster knows his way around a toolbox and welding rig. -
Apparently pretty good at passing those genes on, too. Today 3~, son Cole runs Salinas Boyz Customs, a small shop in central California (831/424-7753; www.salinasboys.com) turning out some very tasty four-wheelers. Foster's slammed and shaved 1956 Ford F-l00 took the Design Excellence Award at the 2001 Oakland Roadster Show and he's currently at work on a `36 Ford three-win dow coupe for Kirk Hammet of the band Metallica.
RICH CHENET
But motorcycles have always been a part of the Foster household. Dirtbikes growing up (Dad used to off-road with fellow draggers Tom McEwen and Don Prudomme, and on occasion Steve McQueen); and as long as Cole can remem ber there's always been a "family" Triumph. So it was natu ral that between car projects, he turned his attention to the custom-bike scene.
He wasn't particularly impressed with the current trend toward neo-choppers. All seemed rather formulaic, more caricature than custom, with giant, beach ball-sized rear
tires, stretched gas tanks and improbably hiked front ends, relying on the paint job (more flames! more skulls!) to set them apart from one another. Even as a kid, during the "longbike's" heyday, he failed to find the allure. "Choppers always seemed like hippie bikes to me," he says. "Ridden by guys who looked like bad actors from a B-movie."
Seeking a corporate sponsor, he contacted Custom Chrome, purveyors of all things V-Twin (with a catalog not much smaller than the San Francisco phone book) and said, I can do better. Apehangers, sissybars and forward-mount footpegs obviously were not part of the program.
"Itwasaracecar theme~' saysFoster. "Nobells and whis tles, no stretch or rake to the frame, form would follow func tion, keep it light, keep it nanow, don't swoop it up and remember there's always beauty in the mechanicals. I knew what it would look like; I just had to get there."
Wisely, Custom Chrome signed on, shipped out the needed parts and, realizing that masterwork motorcycles are not built by committee, left Foster the hell alone. Or maybe he just took the phone off the hook.
Anyway, the blue bike, christened the "Salinas Boyz Bobber," debuted earlier this year at the Indianapolis Dealer Expo-"I didn't leave the shop for the entire month prior," says Foster. It was an instant hit, and not just with ordinary citizens. "Coolest thing at the show," said builder Denny Berg, there to unveil his own pretty cool Cobra cus tom. We caught up with the bike in Daytona Beach, where our photo shoot at an abandoned gas station literally stopped traffic-gawkers jumping out of their minivans, Instamatics at the ready.
Ask Foster where he got the fuel tank, a delicious mini-teardrop with a frame hugging ridge running down the middle, and he looks a little hurt.
"Well, I made it," he says, rather surprised you'd even ask.
Elegant cloisonné "Salinas Boyz" badges are the tank's finishing touch, and must have cost a mint. "Not really," responds Foster, ". . .well, as long as you order in batches of 500." At times like these, it's good to have a corpo rate sugar daddy.
It was Pa Foster to the res cue when it came time to fab the 4130 chromoly frame. Cole knew what he wanted out back-frame tubes that seamlessly tapered to a
`hairpin" rear-axle setup.
"Swaged," stated his father.
"What's swaged?" the son responded.
He soon found out. Everywhere you look, this bike displays the craftsman's touch. The scalloped, spun-aluminum "beehive" oil tank is a Cole Foster creation, mounted vertically to keep the mid ships narrow. Copper oil lines, already oxidizing to a nice patina, enhance the old Indycar feel. Ditto the ribbed, venti lated rear brake drum, using a Yamaha or Kawasaki backing plate-he can't remember which.
Graceful rear fender "braces" (little more than half a chromed coat-hanger, really) are stylistic highlights and thankfully don't have to brace much-the banana-style seat is self-supporting. Tucked under the fender is an almost-invisi ble LED taillight. Up front, the shallow headlight has been tipped back in line with the fork tubes, just like you'd do squaring off against your pals at the Wednesday night grudge matches looking for that last bit of aero advantage.
Speaking of the fork, what appears to be an ordinary FXR front end liber ated from a Harley that sat too long around the shop also got the Foster treatment. He liked the way the mocked-up bike sat all snubbed down with the fork springs removed, but still wanted some defense against pot holes. So he simply sectioned a cou ple of inches out of the fork sliders. Presto! Suspension and stance. That's a go-kart disc brake mounted between the sliders, its alloy air scoop more of an embellishment than outright camouflage.
Not wanting his bike any thicker than need be, Foster eschewed the super-wide primary belts currently de rigeur among customs builders. "I think it's a penis thing with `em," he jokes. Secure in his manhood, Foster began whittling away. Any resemblance to a speedway bike's skin nied-up drivetrain is purely intentional. At one point the Bast brothers, stalwarts of Southern California's bullrings, prepared their Jawas next door to his father's race shop.
At the noisy end of the powertrain is one of Custom Chrome's 88-inch Evo-style crate motors, good for a claimed 100 horsepower. Slotted into a package that weighs less than 300 pounds, this is more than enough propulsion.
"It really gets it on-fast!" said a wide-eyed Foster after some shakedown runs.
Bringing the beast to life requires old-fashioned boot leather, courtesy of a Shovel-style four-speed gearbox. Note the slick, slide-in/slide-out lever arm. Still learning the starting drill, Foster's got it down to about four hearty kicks-if he holds his tongue just right. Penny-loafers defmitely need not apply.
And yes, that is a genuine M&H Racemaster drag slick you see holding up the rear of the bike, the last one on the planet. Blatantly illegal for street use, but it had to be there. Besides, Cole says, the wrinkly sidewalls actually give so it's not so bad in the corners, really. Right,uh-huh...
Response to the blue bike has been gratifying and so enthusiastic that the Fosters, father and son, have teamed up to go into the custom-bike biz. "I can think of at least 10 bikes we could build right now," says Cole. Hey, gotta do something with all those leftover tank badges.
