The fact that they set up an art gallery for him was hilarious, it looked like it was filled with a collection of kids primary school pictures that you put on the fridge at home.
Can u imagine working at that place where the owner comes in and tells you that you’ll be working on the “Tampax Tampons” bike one week and then the Gerber “Baby Food Bike” the next.
Kind of how professional wrestling in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s went from a fun “good guys vs bad guys” thing you could lose yourself in to a soap opera.
I hated this show. The bikes were corporate billboards…everything a Chopper isn’t. the family squabbling was disgusting. Glad these dudes and their show is history.
I remember putting a bicycle together one xmas eve for my 5 year old niece with my dad and we were both drunk. It was like an episode of OCC with the two of us shouting at each other.
Lots of stories online about how bad those bikes are. I remember one episode (Wendy’s theme bike, maybe?) where they built a battery box to the exact dimensions of the battery, not taking into account the change in thickness due to paint/powdercoat. When the problem became apparent, they didn’t build another battery box. They beat the battery into the existing box with a rubber mallet. Good luck getting it out when it’s time to replace. It was at that point I realized I was watching a giant joke.
It became clear to me that OCC was a clown show when Paule Jr. cut out a large part of the lower frame of the military bike because the gearbox didn't fit. It's clear that the bikes were purely show bikes that would never be driven on the street. But to then stand up and call yourself a great motorcycle builder was a real joke when you couldn't even make your own frames.
OCC bikes are all loathsome. I lived in NJ at the time and went to their shop. I was amazed at how poorly the finish was up close. Welding blebs were painted over-WTF? I would imagine you could ride them about 5-10 miles before saying "Uncle". Pissing blood from kidney injury doesn't sound too sexy. If you bought one for $85,000 and it's now worth $ 9,000, well that's quite a nice return on investment-LOL. Good-bye OCC and good riddance.
These bikes should never be allowed on public roadways. They have so many pointed pieces of metal that I can imagine you’d ever survive a wreak without getting empaled in multiple locations
I think that after the Discovery series made them so popular it became a case of "The Emperor's New Clothes". Usually the company or organization that commissioned the bike saw the bike for the first time when it was revealed at a big public event with news media present. They couldn't admit on camera that they hated the bike. They are thinking, "This is horrible" but saying aloud on camera, "This Bike is better than we expected!".
I agree with that, but I also remember a lot of the episodes were creating bikes for charities and big events. They weren't often made for a single person, and most the people that had these bikes made weren't bike people at all. These bikes are cool to people that aren't into motorcycles😂
This is exactly the vibe I got with almost every reveal. The bikes were completely unrideable and only good as art meant for the garage. Most were hideous and went to people who weren't motorcyclists but just trying to be trendy in a rich and pretentious kind of way.
There was one episode where OCC had to build a motorcycle for Billy Joel. The man is a motorcycle fan and knows his stuff, so he was very disappointed with what OCC delivered.
I watched and enjoyed this show before I got my first bike. Now that I have some riding under my belt, I can definitely see why riders have a low opinion of these choppers. As works of art (or corporate billboards), they are arguably fine. As functioning vehicles, give me a pit bike or a scooter instead.
You're right on all of them! They were fugly, but what really made them unrideable was their 'fool frames'! Otherwise known as rigid frames, or kidney killers. Instead of hiding a monoshock softail system with a swingarm in it, noooo, make the marks pay $70 large for a fool's frame! Did you really pay $10 large to beat up your bike!?
@@TheDesmoto No it just takes a man that is more concerned with his own ego, than actually enjoying a comfortable SAFE riding bike. For a man to own and ride one of those, he either has an ego issue, or simply enjoys pain and suffering or some combination of both ego and pain.
I lived near Newburgh, NY and we passed these guys on their bikes all the time. Once, we passed several of them and you could hear the bikes rattle as they hit bumps in the road. I would never have one.
I’ve owned two of their bikes and had all the same issues with both. Junk to ride had electrical issues even though there isn’t many electrical items on the bikes. Batteries always dead no matter what. Underpowered and can go about ten minutes in a tank. I was lucky enough to buy an Indian Larry bike at an auction and it is fantastic for what it is. Larry could build real bikes
Years ago I stopped at their newly built showroom on I-87. I thought "wow, these guys are way over extended". Now I think it's some indoor go-cart track and arcade. They had their 15 minutes (maybe fifteen years), but it was over fifteen years ago. There is a reason why Honda has sold 100 million Cubs.
The senior never managed to make the transition from being a pure show bike producer to a manufacturer of serious motorcycles. To do this, he would have had to employ people who knew how to build a good motorcycle, but his inflated ego did not allow that.
I watched the show a lot, it was fun, but it seems like a lot of times they just took a standard chopper and stuck a bunch of crap on it that matched a theme, but that was the point I guess.
I actually use to love watching this show back in the day. I stopped watching when Jason became a part of the show cause he was really annoying and I hated his bike designs. I only watched it mainly because of Vinnie, Rick and Jr. I agree with you though, these bikes are the drizzling shits.
Your title suggest that OCC built a "good bike" at some point. They never made any bike, they put parts together and they did that like a 3 year old. The only good use for any OCC bike is a boat anchor.
I remember seeing the 7/11 bike for sale at a car show. The guy won it in a raffle or something and was trying to get rid of it because it was so ugly. It’s got a Big Gulp as the gas tank. I’d love to meet the fool that eventually bought it.
All of OCC Choppers were Horrendous ... Comissioned by companies to build custom bikes for their brand , so they could write it off on the tax bills ...
I thought all the the bikes they did were pretty awful with one exception.. The old school bike they did for Cody. To me, it had the right look for a chopper.
Let's not forget the GEICO bike. It wasn't totally finished when they delivered it and never finished. I can be seen on the last few videos on the "Bikes and Beards" channel.
I was shocked to read that many of the OCC bikes don’t run and most have found there way to a scrapyard. I’m not a fabricator or builder but I do have commonsense. When you read about the tens of millions manufacturers spend on R&D before releasing a bike how did OCC put these things together in such a short period of time and how were they allowed to sell them.
Some of these bikes are so cheap now you can just buy it for the SS engine and transmission and some had nice open primaries and rebuild a much more practical bike. They all have low miles.
I never really cared about the bikes. The Story line was compelling. Father Son duo reach incredible heights doing what they love but are too incombustible (see what I did there) to work together. The Bikes just seemed like a Bunch of ordered parts hacked together with a fancy paint job on top. IMO
I wasn’t there but I always theorized that it started as a serious minded show then at some point the tension broke through and somebody blew up at somebody. The producer looked at it and thought, that’s TV gold, I ain’t no way I’m cutting that. And then it just got to where they scripted that in and all reality shows followed suit. Consequently, all these reality shows all suck - Wheeler Dealers being the sole exception I can think of.
I'm 66 and my father was a motorcycle fanatic. Me not so much. He rode British bikes triumps, BSAs, and notons. He thought choppers were a impractical silly gaudy looking things.
I used to watch this, I even got sucked back in when they tried to do the reboot. I agree with most of the comments. The show would have been SO much better if they focused on how the bikes were designed & built instead of all the fake deadlines & manufactured drama. The absolute worst bike they did (surprised it didn't get a mention here) was the Christmas bike. Look it up and see if you agree. One of my favorite builds was the Lincoln bike. I don't consider any of the bikes they built for the show to be REAL motorcycles; they're just examples of rolling art. Like with ANY art form, it's mostly about personal taste/preference. I'd take an original vintage bike over ANY chopper all day long.
Eragon bike was cool for the local blacksmiths they brought into the build, the insane axe down tube piece, the awesome nubby paint, and seat made by the legendary paul cox
Well they aren’t made for long rides & the wiring was ran thru the tail light so if it burns out then what? Literally had a guy on a ride hold up the entire show bc of a wiring issue on the OCC bike. Not worth the money.
I actually like the hockey bike, & I'm not even a hockey fan...it looks like it would be the most ridable bike out of any of them... I also like that it's a bagger... I like to travel... long as the bike would stay running...my favorite chopper they ever made was the one with the chrome spider webs on it...none of the choppers were meant for practical riding... they're built to be looked at... that's why they depreciate so much...
This is sort of a trick-question, IMO. 1. They pretty much kept building the same bike over and over (95% were ultra-high-neck, impossible to ride bikes. The only distinguishing elements were some tacky screw-on parts thrown in to match the current theme). 2. They all looked ugly AF.
"reality tv" was a scam from the very beginning. the part of this show that I laughed at. was how whenever there was one of those monolgue sections of the show. they all spoke exactly alike. same cadence, same rises and falls in pitch. it was crystal clear they were being coached, and a tell of how much of a production it truly was. the commanche bike was my favorite. it was the only one that I thought brought the design together with cohesion. like alot of others pointed out, the rest were just hodge podge mess of design elements to make a rolling billboard.
I bought a big bear chopper kit. Many years ago. Paid $23000. for the kit. Didnt even give me speedometer.Came in a refridgerater box. Instructions werte non existent on how to build. Gave a dvd on how to build similar bikes. Not mine. The parts that should have been chromed. Werent.Ha to spend an additional $5000.On incidentals. After doing bondo on the tank and frame molding and prime and paint and building the bike myself. And dealing with wrong parts and missing parts. Finally got the bike together after a year. Riding it. What a piece of shit. I had almosy $30000 in it. And built it myself. Rode this dangerous piece of shit. Only close to home. For 4 years. Ended up trading it to harley for $10000, On a street glide.
The actual design and build process was interesting to watch. However choppers just look horrible and even more ridiculous when you see someone on one.
I loved this show,but if I was asked which one of these bikes you showcased ,would I want? The NHL Bike for sure. I’m a huge original 6 fan,and it’s a normal looking bike
I've ridden motorcycles for over 20 years. I can only guess that whatever mystique choppers may have, come from two places: the movie "Easy Rider", and this notion that chopper riders are THE bad-asses of motorcycling, because they're essentially riding deathtraps (no front brakes, no rear suspension and a turning radius only slightly smaller than most supertankers). The Yankees bike did have some nice touches to it, and the NHL bike was cool, but I don't know if I would chunk over the change for one of them.
My favorite OCC bike was the Snap-on Tool Bike. Beautiful art, real tools used on the bike, straight bar...bu like all OCC Choppers, uncomfortable and unrideable.
I started watching American Choppers to see the bikes they built. Then all the fighting between Paul Sr and Paul Jr started... that's when I looked for something else to watch.
If you grew up in the 90s? But that show didn't air till 2003. And the first reality tv show was Mtv's The Real World. So right out the gate in the first 15 seconds you're totally off base.
I liked the Statue of Liberty byke. Or, at least, I liked the copper plating. You just don't see copper plating on much. Looks good but the upkeep would be horrendous. Unless you like green.
I don't mind the old-school looking long bikes but in my opinion the best look for a "chopper" is something with a lil extra rake and forks just a couple inches longer...think Harley Davidson and the Marlboro man...kinda in between a chopper and a drag bike lol
Found your channel recently and subscribed Just before it hit 2000. I feel special like just getting on the ground floor of a promising business or some stocks before it blows up! Your channel is good, sure it’s going to go somewhere👍
I like the Golf chopper.. the last one. I have built a few of these myself and it is not easy to do. If you are building the bike from nothing up to something and fabricating your own mechanisms . I have always loved the chopper look as long as it isn't too extreme.
It’s incredibly easy to do. What “mechanisms” exactly are you “fabricating?” I’ve fabricated plenty of metal with an eng wheel. Custom pipes, frames etc. And installed plenty of “custom” off the shelf components and of course built engines. But fabrication of mechanisms? What’s that? A “mechanism” like a gauge?
I've worked on a couple of there bikes years later. Lots of broken parts and frames. But if you only got a few weeks to make them , of course they would have some problems.
The worst part is not the look of them, the motorcicles were (most of the times at least) poorly build, not tune up, unrideable, slow, etc. If they want a billboard/exposition motorcicle thats fine, but make it good and rideable, and don't call it "custom super unique bike" if you just assembly or modify a couple of componnents.
Mr. bart- These bikes remind me of the old story of "The Emperor's New Clothes" wherein a scam artist convinced an emperor to buy an expensive outfit which was invisible except to the really great people (of course there were never any clothes at all, and the emperor went around naked and ashamed to admit he could not see the clothes either). In the same way the OCC crew convinced gullible rich guys that they were buying wonderful motorcycles.
when Orange County choppers first aired I watched every episode and I was amazed on the bikes they were building , but then I had the opportunity to actually see them up close and I cannot believe how crappy they really looked , the welds were garbage there were what you call Barry's that were never cleaned off from the weld and the engines were about the cheapest things that you can put into the bikes , ever since that I can never watch the show again because looks were deceiving , on TV they looked awesome but in reality they were junk and poorly built but that's my opinion
I did admire their artistic qualities but their bikes imo were borderline death traps and noting more than billboards for companies like an advertisement only and not meant to ride. The breaks on them were terrible if not life threatening and the ride was harsh and uncomfortable. Most of them were like a yacht and needed a marina to turn them around in. Then you had all the infighting on the show its self that just shut me down and got the channel changed.
I got a Harley chopper show bike, I ride. I love the ride, the old school chopper style. It's crazy the tough bikers don't ride them. I get wobble at 37 and 67 mph. Which are wild
Personally I hate choppers it's the worst thing you can do to a bike I had a go on my sister's boyfriends and thought it was just dangerous to ride and incredible uncomfortable
How Ferrari didn't step in to prevent the Ferrari bike from being made is one of life's greatest mysteries
They were too busy laughing to file a cease and desist.
I bet they were like, let's see what crap they're going to churn out with this
@@dowjonesizethey weren't small at all back then, licensing was just a lot less legally defined back then as it is now.
@@Okthen-jc2yihave you guys ever heard of satire
@@dowjonesize is that a joke ?
The biggest running joke was letting mikey think he was an artist when his art looked like a blind child had done it 😂
oh yeah der duh der that's so funny, like it wasn't all scripted.
The fact that they set up an art gallery for him was hilarious, it looked like it was filled with a collection of kids primary school pictures that you put on the fridge at home.
bahaaaa Vinnie couldn't put batteries in his wife's dildo correctly
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Mikey is a far Superior artist compare to Hunter Biden😅😅😅
Can u imagine working at that place where the owner comes in and tells you that you’ll be working on the “Tampax Tampons” bike one week and then the Gerber “Baby Food Bike” the next.
💀💀💀
$100,000 for a bike with a stock Evo, no suspension, and no gauges. ALL of their bikes were crap.
Well Said, all the bikes were basicly the same shape and just tarted up??
The Geico Bike takes the cake.
Yup, and they weren't built to be driven. It's just for show
These were pieces of furniture for corporate events. They were not practical at all. Just "art and marketing " purposes only.
Almost like they weren’t really made to ride 🤔
It went from a chopper show to a soap opera. The 56 chevy bike and the gto bike they did was horrible.
Best description ever. If you had issues with your own father, you hated this show!
It started as a soap opera. It was designed as a soap opera by reality TV producers.
Kind of how professional wrestling in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s went from a fun “good guys vs bad guys” thing you could lose yourself in to a soap opera.
All the bikes they built were not meant to be ridden. They were to be worshipped by people who don't ride.
@@AgentJayZmost people knew OCC was just a comedy show. 😅
The Ferrari chopper was from the 'Paulie Jr. left to do his own thing... which was lots of coke and designing BBQ grills! *Allegedly
I hated this show. The bikes were corporate billboards…everything a Chopper isn’t. the family squabbling was disgusting. Glad these dudes and their show is history.
Yep! And the bikes had the lowest displacement and were the worst chopper you could buy.
@@ryanreedgibson catalogue crate motors every one of them
You've got to admit, they set the standard for decades of reality TV to follow!
@@rockets4kids I guess. But that sure as hell aint saying much.
@@tylerdurden6335 that's pretty much my point here. all reality tv is/was drek.
I remember putting a bicycle together one xmas eve for my 5 year old niece with my dad and we were both drunk. It was like an episode of OCC with the two of us shouting at each other.
Did you throw any chairs?
Great comment, been there!
Lots of stories online about how bad those bikes are. I remember one episode (Wendy’s theme bike, maybe?) where they built a battery box to the exact dimensions of the battery, not taking into account the change in thickness due to paint/powdercoat. When the problem became apparent, they didn’t build another battery box. They beat the battery into the existing box with a rubber mallet. Good luck getting it out when it’s time to replace. It was at that point I realized I was watching a giant joke.
I recall a bike, the rider's forward view was directly into the cap on the fuel tank.
I love when they put a huge headlight right in the center of vision. Seeing stuff is for p*ssies.
In general I don't want a one off bike because it will never have the thought put in that a production bike does
It became clear to me that OCC was a clown show when Paule Jr. cut out a large part of the lower frame of the military bike because the gearbox didn't fit. It's clear that the bikes were purely show bikes that would never be driven on the street. But to then stand up and call yourself a great motorcycle builder was a real joke when you couldn't even make your own frames.
I never really understood the whole thing about making motorcycles that were supposed to look like things that weren’t motorcycles.
It was a show documenting how america had lost its way and was so far in the weeds that it lost its soul and became a joke
OCC bikes are all loathsome. I lived in NJ at the time and went to their shop. I was amazed at how poorly the finish was up close. Welding blebs were painted over-WTF? I would imagine you could ride them about 5-10 miles before saying "Uncle". Pissing blood from kidney injury doesn't sound too sexy. If you bought one for $85,000 and it's now worth $ 9,000, well that's quite a nice return on investment-LOL. Good-bye OCC and good riddance.
Were they all hard tails? I can't imagine riding a hard tail.
@xpusostomos as far as I know. Every last one was a hard tail.
@@xpusostomos hard tails with seats that had no springs.
The worst American Chopper Motorcycles?....All of them.
Oc choppers all suck. But there are other amazing bike builders that build functional bikes
Perfect.... Exactly
There are people who would argue that worst OCC bike would be the one that They bought..😢😢😢
Yes sir
None rideable just chrome and gold plating harley crap
If it is from OCC it's probably junk
These bikes should never be allowed on public roadways. They have so many pointed pieces of metal that I can imagine you’d ever survive a wreak without getting empaled in multiple locations
Paul Sr. trying to look tough on these circus bikes always made me cringe. The OCC era was a complete embarrassment to chopper history.
They were selling an image, a fantasy, and then , their market woke up.
Absolutely
I think that after the Discovery series made them so popular it became a case of "The Emperor's New Clothes". Usually the company or organization that commissioned the bike saw the bike for the first time when it was revealed at a big public event with news media present. They couldn't admit on camera that they hated the bike. They are thinking, "This is horrible" but saying aloud on camera, "This Bike is better than we expected!".
I agree with that, but I also remember a lot of the episodes were creating bikes for charities and big events. They weren't often made for a single person, and most the people that had these bikes made weren't bike people at all. These bikes are cool to people that aren't into motorcycles😂
This is currently happening on Gotham Garage right now.
This is exactly the vibe I got with almost every reveal. The bikes were completely unrideable and only good as art meant for the garage. Most were hideous and went to people who weren't motorcyclists but just trying to be trendy in a rich and pretentious kind of way.
@@todddunbar176 I just looked up Gotham Garage and it says most of the cast are actors and models.
There was one episode where OCC had to build a motorcycle for Billy Joel. The man is a motorcycle fan and knows his stuff, so he was very disappointed with what OCC delivered.
Piles of junk. I had a 9 feet long 1967 Triumph chopper in the 90s. Rode it back from where I bought it, and promptly sold it again.
I watched and enjoyed this show before I got my first bike. Now that I have some riding under my belt, I can definitely see why riders have a low opinion of these choppers. As works of art (or corporate billboards), they are arguably fine. As functioning vehicles, give me a pit bike or a scooter instead.
Ya know,nomally a build like this takes 6-8 weeks..but we have to get it finished in 25 minutes!!😂😂
You're right on all of them! They were fugly, but what really made them unrideable was their 'fool frames'! Otherwise known as rigid frames, or kidney killers. Instead of hiding a monoshock softail system with a swingarm in it, noooo, make the marks pay $70 large for a fool's frame!
Did you really pay $10 large to beat up your bike!?
Solid rear frames, no shocks, ridiculous fork angles that made these ugly bikes virtually un-rideable. Quite frankly they were all crap.
You just aren’t man enough for a rigid. I don’t particularly like occ bikes but each to their own.
@@TheDesmoto No it just takes a man that is more concerned with his own ego, than actually enjoying a comfortable SAFE riding bike. For a man to own and ride one of those, he either has an ego issue, or simply enjoys pain and suffering or some combination of both ego and pain.
“You just aren’t man enough…”
🤣🤣🤣 you don’t even know me. That’s hilarious. 😂
@@vincedibona4687You don't enjoy torturing yourself? Pfft. You, you, less than a man! 😂
I lived near Newburgh, NY and we passed these guys on their bikes all the time. Once, we passed several of them and you could hear the bikes rattle as they hit bumps in the road. I would never have one.
I used to drive through Newburgh on my way up to the Catskills. Never saw them.😂
I’ve owned two of their bikes and had all the same issues with both. Junk to ride had electrical issues even though there isn’t many electrical items on the bikes. Batteries always dead no matter what. Underpowered and can go about ten minutes in a tank. I was lucky enough to buy an Indian Larry bike at an auction and it is fantastic for what it is. Larry could build real bikes
Years ago I stopped at their newly built showroom on I-87. I thought "wow, these guys are way over extended". Now I think it's some indoor go-cart track and arcade. They had their 15 minutes (maybe fifteen years), but it was over fifteen years ago. There is a reason why Honda has sold 100 million Cubs.
Checked it out a few days ago. Just an empty building and a security car parked in for all I know.
The senior never managed to make the transition from being a pure show bike producer to a manufacturer of serious motorcycles. To do this, he would have had to employ people who knew how to build a good motorcycle, but his inflated ego did not allow that.
Ok so your only consideration for good vs bad in this list is looks? I suppose that is fair since all OC bikes are uber-expensive un-rideable junk.
Yep that’s about all there is to go on. They all have the same problems riding wise they are awful
I watched the show a lot, it was fun, but it seems like a lot of times they just took a standard chopper and stuck a bunch of crap on it that matched a theme, but that was the point I guess.
stock frame, stock engine, no suspension, lose wires and a lot of bling bling thrown onto it
I actually use to love watching this show back in the day. I stopped watching when Jason became a part of the show cause he was really annoying and I hated his bike designs. I only watched it mainly because of Vinnie, Rick and Jr. I agree with you though, these bikes are the drizzling shits.
Jason sucked so bad
Yea something about that dude rubbed me the wrong way. Didn't he get arrested for beating his wife?
Exactly, that Jason was unbearable
They didn’t craft anything they just bolted things together
Jesse and Billy formed sheet metal in to shapes. Paul and the crew hired people and reworked mounting brackets and bolt holes,
Yep. That should've been big clue.
Thats all they did agreed these are not everyday rides so stupid.
At first it was just Pauli and his friend who put the motorcycles together. Later they made the tanks, handlebars, etc. themselves.
Your title suggest that OCC built a "good bike" at some point. They never made any bike, they put parts together and they did that like a 3 year old. The only good use for any OCC bike is a boat anchor.
Every time I watched what they were building I was in absolute amazement...that anyone in their right mind would want one of those bikes.
I remember seeing the 7/11 bike for sale at a car show. The guy won it in a raffle or something and was trying to get rid of it because it was so ugly. It’s got a Big Gulp as the gas tank. I’d love to meet the fool that eventually bought it.
All of OCC Choppers were Horrendous ... Comissioned by companies to build custom bikes for their brand , so they could write it off on the tax bills ...
I thought all the the bikes they did were pretty awful with one exception.. The old school bike they did for Cody. To me, it had the right look for a chopper.
I remember that one. It did look cool. Didn't Sr. Try to get him to give it back? That was why he quit?
he never got the bike and had to fight em for it@@gsxerwhite
Let's not forget the GEICO bike. It wasn't totally finished when they delivered it and never finished. I can be seen on the last few videos on the "Bikes and Beards" channel.
watch the bearded mechanic's video on that bike. he ended up working on it after the videos you mentioned.
It still don't run
@@RSKindred "these things were built on broken chairs" the whole video is a treasure trove of great quotes.
The love child of Clifford and a Preying Mantis?.. I was pissing myself laughing!
I would never buy one of OCC's custom bikes. They are clearly deathtraps.
I was shocked to read that many of the OCC bikes don’t run and most have found there way to a scrapyard. I’m not a fabricator or builder but I do have commonsense. When you read about the tens of millions manufacturers spend on R&D before releasing a bike how did OCC put these things together in such a short period of time and how were they allowed to sell them.
From what I've read, most of the bikes were crap.
Choppers and reality TV. A perfect match.
Some of these bikes are so cheap now you can just buy it for the SS engine and transmission and some had nice open primaries and rebuild a much more practical bike. They all have low miles.
I never really cared about the bikes. The Story line was compelling. Father Son duo reach incredible heights doing what they love but are too incombustible (see what I did there) to work together. The Bikes just seemed like a Bunch of ordered parts hacked together with a fancy paint job on top. IMO
I enjoyed the show, but the most hideous bike was the Cadillac thing, designed by a drunk 3year old, a real shocker!
I wasn’t there but I always theorized that it started as a serious minded show then at some point the tension broke through and somebody blew up at somebody. The producer looked at it and thought, that’s TV gold, I ain’t no way I’m cutting that. And then it just got to where they scripted that in and all reality shows followed suit. Consequently, all these reality shows all suck - Wheeler Dealers being the sole exception I can think of.
I grew up right there. The bikes are cartoon junk and the father is one of the most arrogant people I ever met.
I'm 66 and my father was a motorcycle fanatic. Me not so much. He rode British bikes triumps, BSAs, and notons. He thought choppers were a impractical silly gaudy looking things.
Why does the audio cut out at 8:50?
Those over the top Frankenstein creations are not practical by any stretch of the imagination but each to his own.
I never noticed how unstable these bikes are. You can see even the people that built them are struggling to ride them at 45 mph.
I had to fix an OCC bike- the rear suspension had collapsed, ripping out the rear lights wiring- such crap, quality on a zero . . ,.
I used to watch this, I even got sucked back in when they tried to do the reboot. I agree with most of the comments. The show would have been SO much better if they focused on how the bikes were designed & built instead of all the fake deadlines & manufactured drama. The absolute worst bike they did (surprised it didn't get a mention here) was the Christmas bike. Look it up and see if you agree. One of my favorite builds was the Lincoln bike. I don't consider any of the bikes they built for the show to be REAL motorcycles; they're just examples of rolling art. Like with ANY art form, it's mostly about personal taste/preference. I'd take an original vintage bike over ANY chopper all day long.
Eragon bike was cool for the local blacksmiths they brought into the build, the insane axe down tube piece, the awesome nubby paint, and seat made by the legendary paul cox
The Ferrari bike was an absolute joke on so many levels
All of OCC's bikes looked like crap...expensive crap.
Well they aren’t made for long rides & the wiring was ran thru the tail light so if it burns out then what? Literally had a guy on a ride hold up the entire show bc of a wiring issue on the OCC bike. Not worth the money.
They never did make a bike that didn’t look stupid.
Motorcycles for me are made to be ridden, for others to be showed. To be showed, they have to be perfect.
I actually like the hockey bike, & I'm not even a hockey fan...it looks like it would be the most ridable bike out of any of them... I also like that it's a bagger... I like to travel... long as the bike would stay running...my favorite chopper they ever made was the one with the chrome spider webs on it...none of the choppers were meant for practical riding... they're built to be looked at... that's why they depreciate so much...
This is sort of a trick-question, IMO.
1. They pretty much kept building the same bike over and over (95% were ultra-high-neck, impossible to ride bikes. The only distinguishing elements were some tacky screw-on parts thrown in to match the current theme).
2. They all looked ugly AF.
Aaaand 65hp performance
That’s it? I would have thought they had decent power.
Everytime Paul Jr. cones on screen i cant help but look at his nostrils.
I like when a custom bike is also usable but not a big fan of really long forks or hard tails that kill your back.
Take harley a bad handl7ng bad stopping bike stock.and make it worse, then triple price. Idiots buy these
"reality tv" was a scam from the very beginning. the part of this show that I laughed at. was how whenever there was one of those monolgue sections of the show. they all spoke exactly alike. same cadence, same rises and falls in pitch. it was crystal clear they were being coached, and a tell of how much of a production it truly was.
the commanche bike was my favorite. it was the only one that I thought brought the design together with cohesion. like alot of others pointed out, the rest were just hodge podge mess of design elements to make a rolling billboard.
I’ve been riding for 56 years and I wouldn’t be caught dead on one of their bikes. They were realistically junk.
I bought a big bear chopper kit. Many years ago. Paid $23000. for the kit. Didnt even give me speedometer.Came in a refridgerater box. Instructions werte non existent on how to build. Gave a dvd on how to build similar bikes. Not mine. The parts that should have been chromed. Werent.Ha to spend an additional $5000.On incidentals. After doing bondo on the tank and frame molding and prime and paint and building the bike myself. And dealing with wrong parts and missing parts. Finally got the bike together after a year. Riding it. What a piece of shit. I had almosy $30000 in it. And built it myself. Rode this dangerous piece of shit. Only close to home. For 4 years. Ended up trading it to harley for $10000, On a street glide.
MOST OF THEIR BIKES WERE JUNK AND UNSAVE.
The actual design and build process was interesting to watch. However choppers just look horrible and even more ridiculous when you see someone on one.
A buddy used to describe them as cake decorators, strapping and bolting garish
sh*t on what they claim are motorcycles. 😂
I loved this show,but if I was asked which one of these bikes you showcased ,would I want? The NHL Bike for sure. I’m a huge original 6 fan,and it’s a normal looking bike
I've ridden motorcycles for over 20 years.
I can only guess that whatever mystique choppers may have, come from two places: the movie "Easy Rider", and this notion that chopper riders are THE bad-asses of motorcycling, because they're essentially riding deathtraps (no front brakes, no rear suspension and a turning radius only slightly smaller than most supertankers).
The Yankees bike did have some nice touches to it, and the NHL bike was cool, but I don't know if I would chunk over the change for one of them.
My favorite OCC bike was the Snap-on Tool Bike. Beautiful art, real tools used on the bike, straight bar...bu like all OCC Choppers, uncomfortable and unrideable.
Yep. I got the limited edition Snap-on chopper Snap-on box in 2005. Still looks good now.
Good looking bike but not at all practical.
I started watching American Choppers to see the bikes they built. Then all the fighting between Paul Sr and Paul Jr started... that's when I looked for something else to watch.
I always had a lot of sympathy for Rick.
All their "choppers" sucked, but by far THE WORST was that stupid P51 Mustang bike they built during the build off challenge against Jesse James!
If you grew up in the 90s? But that show didn't air till 2003. And the first reality tv show was Mtv's The Real World. So right out the gate in the first 15 seconds you're totally off base.
Cops came before road rules
I kind of like the headlight on the Ferrari bike. It looks like something right out of a video game
All the bikes were a JOKE😂😂😂😂
These bikes were agricultural, back braking ' floppers ' good for 20 miles only !
I liked the Statue of Liberty byke. Or, at least, I liked the copper plating. You just don't see copper plating on much. Looks good but the upkeep would be horrendous. Unless you like green.
The bike was cleared cloated so it would not turn green
It's in a humidity controlled glass case at the Stature of Liberty.
Even during the chopper era.. I hated this show.
They are un-ride-able, if that's a word. I had a home made one in the 70's and it almost killed me several times. ...and girls won't get on them🥴.
I don't mind the old-school looking long bikes but in my opinion the best look for a "chopper" is something with a lil extra rake and forks just a couple inches longer...think Harley Davidson and the Marlboro man...kinda in between a chopper and a drag bike lol
Didn't Jesse James call them "cake decorators".
!00% junk, all of them! They just looked cool!
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Some amazing fabrication and craftsmanship, for sure, but all these bikes look like they were designed by Beavis and Butthead.
Skills don’t amount to good taste.
I like the Golf chopper.. the last one. I have built a few of these myself and it is not easy to do. If you are building the bike from nothing up to something and fabricating your own mechanisms . I have always loved the chopper look as long as it isn't too extreme.
It’s incredibly easy to do. What “mechanisms” exactly are you “fabricating?” I’ve fabricated plenty of metal with an eng wheel. Custom pipes, frames etc. And installed plenty of “custom” off the shelf components and of course built engines. But fabrication of mechanisms? What’s that? A “mechanism” like a gauge?
Fact. Jesse James had the first real American Chopper Show.
He sure did. Jesse is a real bike builder.
@@stevedewsnap2128 True . But he's such an unlikable d-bag.
I don’t know what is worse the choppers or your commentary.
Couldn’t ride these bikes without getting a sore ass and back
I bet it was hard to find the worst
Are you kidding me? The horse bike didn't make the list.lol.
I've worked on a couple of there bikes years later. Lots of broken parts and frames. But if you only got a few weeks to make them , of course they would have some problems.
The worst part is not the look of them, the motorcicles were (most of the times at least) poorly build, not tune up, unrideable, slow, etc.
If they want a billboard/exposition motorcicle thats fine, but make it good and rideable, and don't call it "custom super unique bike" if you just assembly or modify a couple of componnents.
Very nicely put together video and very entertaining as well. Thanks for posting this.
great craftmanship with all these lose wires. Even my bicycle has better brakes than these bikes, its ridiculous
They had a lot of trouble building bikes because they over designed each one of them.
Mr. bart- These bikes remind me of the old story of "The Emperor's New Clothes" wherein a scam artist convinced an emperor to buy an expensive outfit which was invisible except to the really great people (of course there were never any clothes at all, and the emperor went around naked and ashamed to admit he could not see the clothes either). In the same way the OCC crew convinced gullible rich guys that they were buying wonderful motorcycles.
when Orange County choppers first aired I watched every episode and I was amazed on the bikes they were building , but then I had the opportunity to actually see them up close and I cannot believe how crappy they really looked , the welds were garbage there were what you call Barry's that were never cleaned off from the weld and the engines were about the cheapest things that you can put into the bikes , ever since that I can never watch the show again because looks were deceiving , on TV they looked awesome but in reality they were junk and poorly built but that's my opinion
I was always amazed that they could actually go round corners
Don’t know if they did, they always seemed to be on a straight road doing about 30.
wouldn't last a day on an English road.
@kathrynwhitby9799, you can't even ride then on most roads in the states either. They are just show pieces.
I did admire their artistic qualities but their bikes imo were borderline death traps and noting more than billboards for companies like an advertisement only and not meant to ride. The breaks on them were terrible if not life threatening and the ride was harsh and uncomfortable. Most of them were like a yacht and needed a marina to turn them around in. Then you had all the infighting on the show its self that just shut me down and got the channel changed.
I got a Harley chopper show bike, I ride. I love the ride, the old school chopper style. It's crazy the tough bikers don't ride them. I get wobble at 37 and 67 mph. Which are wild
Personally I hate choppers it's the worst thing you can do to a bike I had a go on my sister's boyfriends and thought it was just dangerous to ride and incredible uncomfortable
Wait.... so you're saying there's some good ones?