The Ed Bike

Remembering a Life Lost

Reino "Ray" Sutela approached me about his motorcycle project at one of my first American Legion meetings. He told me the story of the loss of his son Ed to suicide, and his endeavor to create a motorcycle dedicated to his memory. The bike in question was a 1971 Triumph, completely rebuilt into a custom bobber. The final missing piece was to crown the bike with a custom seat.

A job like this is hard in many aspects, but the fact that I had only previously made one motorcycle seat didn't help. Additionally, Ray asked for me to make the entire padding for the seat and to make it comfortable - yes, a comfortable BOBBER seat! He provided me with the pan and said "Here you go, have at it!"

After hours of research I was able to create a well padded yet streamlined seat with several carefully placed and trimmed pieces of high density and upholstery foams. After getting the ok from Ray's backside that the seat was indeed comfortable, I began detailing out the design.

It was important to me the the seat be clean like the bike, but to also accent the bike's bobber style. Additionally, I was asked to incorporate Ed's road name, "Fatty". The lettering was tooled into a quality piece of Herman Oak letter using the Triumph style logo lettering. I then proceeded to carefully hand dye and airbrush a sunburst fade in a red to black design to accent the bike.

The seat was then hand stitched to the side panels of the seat with a double stitch line in a strong saddle stitch. To attach the seat cover to the leather on the pan, I chose to do a braided lace. I used top quality Kangaroo leather lace to create a four strand round braid around the pan. Additionally, I closed the seams at the front and back with a woven lace pattern to tie it all in together.

The final product was a beautiful and comfortable seat, made to last for years of shows, display, and riding. I was pleased to present it to Ray at a morning Legion meeting, accompanied by my parrot partner Mr. Henry. I was even more ecstatic to finally see the seat on the bike and to know that is flowed perfectly with the aesthetic.

Ideally, this seat will only get better with age as many leather pieces do. It was an honor to create a piece for such a unique bike that so many people donated time and money to. The message of the bike and what it means to Ed and Ray's family will be shared with many.