Turning Scrap into a Miniature Harley-Davidson: The Story of Eri Sutriadji

Eri Sutriadji is 72 years old, yet his hands are still nimble as he works with pieces of PVC pipe, wood, files and sandpaper. On the porch of the house he inherited from his parents in the Tebet area of South Jakarta, the man everyone calls Eric spends much of his time creating. There are no large production machines. Just PVC pipe, wood, wire and fiberglass, slowly turning into replicas of motorbikes, detailed down to the smallest parts.

He makes Harley-Davidsons more than anything else, and the reason is deeply personal. Eric’s father was a soldier who was once assigned a 1942 Harley-Davidson WLA for escort duty. That motorcycle has long since disappeared, but its shape never left Eric’s memory. He wanted to bring it back to life in a small size.

He began in the 1990s, while still running a small grocery stall. When business was slow, he took materials and cut, shaped, filed and assembled miniature parts. People around him were puzzled because he kept switching between different projects. He set aside 10,000 rupiah from his daily sales to buy materials and tools.

To me, this story shows that a miniature hobby does not always need expensive materials. With secondhand items and perseverance, childhood memories can be held again.

Source: Kompas.com