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Down South Junkin’

February 1, 2011

Article and Photos By: Chris Callen

When you look at this bike without its owner standing next to it, you might think this is the sled of a grizzled old, grey beard. Well, that’s not the case. His name is Seth Sudderth and he’s only 28 years old, but still he builds bikes with an old soul. Apparently, he’s not alone in the Atlanta area as a number of young dudes I’ve run into have the same attitude. I asked Seth about this and he commented that for him, that comes from years of getting thrown out of shops the grey beards ran or the fact that not too many of them are around anymore. It got to the point that he decided to start his own place that could provide service and advice to other young guys and maybe save them the time and trouble he’s gone through learning. That was exactly how he started with it: a big lesson.

This brings us to the sixty- nine you see here. He found a set of swap meet cases and since they were the year of a bike he had long slobbered over, he snatched them up.

Once he got into them and started to get some help, he soon realized he was getting his first lesson on what NOT to buy. Barry at Accurate Engineering, hooked him up with some help getting them fixed, and Seth set off building his first personal bike to really ride. He went with some S&S heads and oil pump; all the good stuff to get the mill up to speed. He picked up a Baker 6 in a 4 that still blows his mind. When he first got this bike up and running he almost thought it wasn’t going into gear it’s so damn smooth. He matched the drivetrain with a straight leg frame with an inline Springer and some Four Aces’ bars; it was starting to look like something. For the tanks, he went with a set of ’51-’52 Panhead tanks. A majority of the other pieces like the peg mounts, sissy bar and all the mounting tabs, he would make in-house. An old Unity car spotlight is what he put in front of that Springer for night rides. Seth just swapped out the electrics with a 12-volt bulb and made a cool mount for it.

For the most part, he told us, you just don’t see bikes like this anymore where he’s from. Guys either don’t ride them or have traded up to newer stuff and that was his inspiration.

There are lots of cats doing the XS thing, more for the price he suspects, but for the old girls like this, she’s a rare find. It comes down to another great part of the scene in Atlanta: the hot rod culture. For Seth, that hot rod influence came from his grandfather who was a real gearhead when it came to four wheels. The area is packed with cool-ass cars and parts of that culture found their way into his bike. Seth wanted to blend some of the old with some of the new and have a daily ride he could be proud of. Turns out, he’s not the only person who can appreciate his work.

This year, at the Easyriders’ show in Atlanta, the Limpnickie Lot builders would pick this bike as their favorite of the show. Seth said he was honored that the cats whose bikes he had been drooling over all weekend, decided to give him a nod. Seth says that the Sixty-Nine is in a constant state of metamorphosis, just like most of the bikes in his area. They redo ’em over the winter, then ride the piss out of them. For this one, a set of stainless pipes are next and a spool hub from Jr’s Cycle. Seth’s starting on a ’52 now also, maybe in the next month or so when the shops starts to slow down for the winter. Until he finds the bits and pieces he needs for that, you can find him doing his part to keep Atlanta riding.