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Cole Fosters Blue Bike

Cole Fosters Blue Bike

If you've seen Cole Foster's appropriately named Blue Bike before, you're not alone. After he built this thoroughly modern, '50s inspired machine more than a decade ago, chopper journalists everywhere practically tripped over the skull-shaped headlights on their office floors to announce the return of "the bobber." A tidal wave of similar stripped-down machines followed, and a cleaner custom motorcycle aesthetic was born.

A photo of Cole with his bike, The Blue Bike.

Before Cole's Blue Bike and its RevTech Evo rumbled into town, I was enamored by the simplicity and bulldog bluntness of Russell Mitchell's Exile Cycles. Cole’s machine merged Exile’s surgical starkness with a cheerful retro aesthetic that eschewed any of the grunginess that qualified as "style" on many home-built bikes of the day.

A close up photo of the bike's engine and frame viewed form the left side of the bike.
A close up photo of the bike's exhaust pipes.A close up of the bike's handle bars.

Not surprisingly, the Salinas Boys' Blue Bike cribbed much of its tight skin and lean bones from Cole's drag-racing and hotrod roots. If my enthusiasm for this bike and its influence on modern building seems overly effusive, take a peek at recent builds from modern metalcrafters like Caleb Owens and Kim Boyle. Now, consider this: Cole envisioned and assembled his Blue Bike in 2001.

A photo of the bike's rear-left side displaying the bike's foot pegs, tire spokes, and blue frame.
A photo of the left side of The Blue Bike.
An arial view of the bike's fuel tank and handle bars.
A photo of the bike's tire spokes.
A close up photo of the bike's belt.
A photo taken from the left back of the bike displaying the bike's left side.
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