Cole Foster's 1940 Flathead Cruiser
78 images Created 3 Aug 2020
Cole Foster's Chris’s Flathead Cruiser
This bike was the second Flathead I did for Chris Huber, the first was a round-town bar-hopper whereas this one is a real road cruiser. I enjoy working with Chris because he has great taste, gives me good input, but also gives me plenty of free rein. While we all may start with the same ingredients, we all cook them a little different. A basic stock 1941 Harley-Davidson Flathead that I created a convertible for, so sometimes it goes out with bobbed rear fender and 21” up front without a fender, but you are seeing it before you full fendered in its cruiser configuration. The fuel tank was made from scratch as a nod to the 1930’s, the speedo is an original Model T, I made the seat pan, exhaust, tail light, handlebars and messed / massaged everything else on the bike.
For over 3-decades (4-decades if you count the bicycles I chopped), I’ve been both top-level hotrods and custom bikes out of my shop in Salinas, CA. (curator’s note: Cole was inducted into the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame in 2009.) Salinas and the Central Coast of California is a great place to be doing this work with its amazing landscape, weather, and motorhead history the area has. (Think Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” with James Dean.)
I never thought I could do this for a living let alone travel around the world many times over. As far as I’m concerned, I feel like I’ve lived a charmed life. I get to do what I’ve always wanted to do, with friends everywhere I go, and land in places doing things I could have never imagined.
-Cole Foster (2020)
This bike was the second Flathead I did for Chris Huber, the first was a round-town bar-hopper whereas this one is a real road cruiser. I enjoy working with Chris because he has great taste, gives me good input, but also gives me plenty of free rein. While we all may start with the same ingredients, we all cook them a little different. A basic stock 1941 Harley-Davidson Flathead that I created a convertible for, so sometimes it goes out with bobbed rear fender and 21” up front without a fender, but you are seeing it before you full fendered in its cruiser configuration. The fuel tank was made from scratch as a nod to the 1930’s, the speedo is an original Model T, I made the seat pan, exhaust, tail light, handlebars and messed / massaged everything else on the bike.
For over 3-decades (4-decades if you count the bicycles I chopped), I’ve been both top-level hotrods and custom bikes out of my shop in Salinas, CA. (curator’s note: Cole was inducted into the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame in 2009.) Salinas and the Central Coast of California is a great place to be doing this work with its amazing landscape, weather, and motorhead history the area has. (Think Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” with James Dean.)
I never thought I could do this for a living let alone travel around the world many times over. As far as I’m concerned, I feel like I’ve lived a charmed life. I get to do what I’ve always wanted to do, with friends everywhere I go, and land in places doing things I could have never imagined.
-Cole Foster (2020)
