Bushido or way of the warrior, is a philosophy of moral principals observed and passed on through generations of samurai. The land of the rising sun has a deep-rooted history of legions of these skillful masters who lived by this precious creed of honor, loyalty, and self-discipline. While highly trained in many weapons Bushido philosophy taught that the katana (sword) was the samurai's soul. Made of the best materials by master craftsmen with generations of experience, even though it may seem simplistic in design with a slender, single edged blade-with its sharpness and cutting ability-the devastation the katana could wreak in the hands of a samurai was legendary.
As a tribute and thank you...
As a tribute and thank you to Mooneyes, Tom had Rich Evans lay down an engine-turned, white gold leaf Japanese rising sun on the tank panels. The sun stays hidden under the black kandy paint until the light hits it just right.
Like a samurai warrior, Tom Foster's skill, sharp eye, and dedication to his craft comes from years of studying, practice, training, and mentoring from masters before him. Hustling through the rough alleys and avenues of Southern California, helped expose Tom to the many different cultures the West Coast has to offer-hot rods, lowriders, and choppers. It was this early exposure to the custom culture that Tom developed a love of anything with a hopped-up engine and a set of wheels; and eventually led to his nickname, Crazy Fast Cracker. Tom busted his young knuckles working on his dad's trucks and heavy equipment, and then transitioned into the aerospace industry where he continually honed his skills and attention to detail working his way up to a mechanical engineer's position at Hughes Aircraft.
Tom's earliest influence with motorcycles started in his late teens with a lean, mean, road rocket of a rigid built by an acquaintance named Parsons in San Bernardino. Inspired by that bike Tom picked up a Sporty and immediately began to transform it into a no frills, war machine. As time went on and Tom got more involved in the custom motorcycle scene he met one of his closest mentors who helped educate him on the build it tight, build it fast West Coast style, Ronn Simms.
Some of the engine components...
Some of the engine components like the rocker boxes were finished in black chrome.
With more than 20 years in the custom V-Twin industry and more than 50 builds under his belt, Tom is still loyal and true to the less is more and the it's the details that will kill, approach of bike building. Over the years Tom has refined his take on the West Coast bike, with his style which he calls, Landshark. It's an aggressive style with loads of attitude meant to be ridden wide open, scraping pegs, and terrorizing the streets.
Like the katana, Tom's bikes may seem simple in design but it's the selection of quality components and Tom's attention to the fine technical aspects that make them devastating weapons that when put to work, stand up to the fight and destroy everything in their path. As Tom relayed the story of his latest build to us it was evident that this bike, fittingly called Bushido, is a testament to his style and philosophy.
"This project started with a trip to West Coast Choppers and picking up this sick CFL frame from my homeboy Jesse," Tom said. "I always wanted to build a CFL bike and when Jesse started producing the frames for 140mm rear tires I had to build one. During the mock up my friends from Mooneyes Japan rolled by and saw it and asked me to bring it to their show in Yokohama, Japan. I was fortunate enough to go last year and could not have been more impressed. They had more than 350 bikes, 200 cars and 13,000 people through the door for a one-day show. It was the coolest show ever.
Tom kept it sanitary by running...
Tom kept it sanitary by running the lines for the brake light inside the rear of the lower frame rail.
I was almost finished with all the fabrication when a situation went down and I decided to pull a bunch of parts off and start fresh. So I rolled over to Black Bike Wheels and grabbed up some spoke wheels and went to war with this lane splittin' menace. I knew that the 113ci Ultima engine was going to haul balls so I peeled over to QTM with Chopper Dave to see Tara and scored some Brembo brakes and rotors. My next call was to my homie "Repo" at Evil Engineering and I had him send me a bitchin' 2-inch HT billet belt drive. Then I hit up Chris at Biltwell for a set of their 8-inch Chumps handlebars and Slimline risers. Geoff over at Joker Machine handled the hand controls with a set of JX series controls, a velocity stack, and Series 2000 breathers. I picked up a set of mid controls from KD Engineering. After I got at yet another homie, James Simonelli, at Baker Drivetrain for one of their billet five-speed transmissions I was back at the front of the pack.
Time was closing in to where I'd have to box this pup up and ship it to Japan, so I shot over to Bitchin' Rich's and had him throw some bull shoulder on the WCC seat pan, then I hauled ass to Rich Evans Design for the paint. While Rich was busy getting a handle on my scandal, I grabbed my powdercoating from Concept Powdercoating, rolled through JD polishing and then Long Beach Plating, and started final assembly.
When I build my bikes, aside from sticking to my style, I incorporate my training and background from years as a mechanical engineer. Therefore I keep everything to aerospace tech specs like +/- .005. All the bolts are machined so at least one to three threads run past every nut. Quality and perfection is the only way I let bikes roll out my door.
Upon completion of this bike my Claudia named it "Bushido" for its fight, spirit and the code the Samurai lived by of honor and integrity. That's how we roll little homiez. Very special thanks to Claudia, Ryan, Vance, Frank, Jeff and Dennis for your help and all the companies on my tech sheet."
Unfortunately while communicating back and forth from Japan about this build, Tom informed us that his earliest teacher, his father, passed away. Therefore, Tom would like to dedicate this feature to him.