Builder, racer, winner of the 2018 Okie Dokie race, the iconic & respected Kazuo Fukuda will attend Wheels and Waves for the first time!
Full interview in French and English below.
Arigatogozaimashita & see you in June Kazuo
KAZUO FUKUDA INTERVIEW
Founder of the workshop Buddy Custom Cycles (Yokohama, Japan) and fiery flat track pilot, Kazuo Fukuda will bite the dust on Basque Country tracks, with his son Kosuke. At Wheels and Waves, he will ride his favorite craft, an unlikely Harley Flathead 45. The show promises to be epic.
“At 16, I wanted to be pilot, but I quickly lost all hope of becoming a professional one. I worked for 6 years at the Harley “Sundance” store in Tokyo, before creating Buddy Custom Cycles in 1996. In 2000, I discovered the flat track competition. Since then, I am fascinated by these machines and their driving technique. Today, I build both motorcycles and I drive them. At first, I refused to race on old motorcycles. But today that many parts are available, I started. I have completely made the frame of this bike using a CRMO thin tube, and for Wheels and Waves I’m still working on lightening the whole thing. My friend Takashi Urashima brought to the bike his graphic identity, which became a kind of “tattoo” of Buddy Custom Cycles.
His son Kosuke, talented pilot, will also be in Biarritz to give us a demonstration of the full extent of his virtuosity. The legend says that the disciple would exceed the master. Transmission as an evidence? “Life is made to have fun! that’s what I always taught Kosuke. He has been in contact with motorcycles since he was a child, but I never really wanted to make him a pilot. Today, I have only one advice to give him: “Do not fall in front of everyone during the race! “.