American Chopper TV Show

trotter_inc

Anyone who is into bikes will love this show! I only started watching it on the Discovery Channel myself a few weeks ago when I was at home sick from work...

Basically, its about a company called Orange County Choppers who make custom chopper motor bikes for people.

It shows them making the bikes from scratch, from all the small parts, last night they were showing how the paint work is done and how to spray paint the alloys, have a look at the site for some of the ones they've made... the iRobot bike is deadly...

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/amchopper/amchopper.html

The father Paur Snr. owns the place, its hilarious the way he's always telling his son how to do things, there's some decent fights.

Have a look even if you're not into bikes.

davej

I'm sure most people here are already aware of this show. It's entertaining at times, but you can tell that they are reading lines a lot of the time. The show is a bit like the osbornes for bikes. It's funny in the later episodes, they've gotten a good looking secretary in to "help" out. Still, the bikes are cool.

davej

rymus

nice bikes.. the dialog (i.e. always at eachothers throats) gets a bit old. "The osbornes for bikes", I like that one

they ran an all day marathon of it no so long ago, the couch at home still has a nice ass-groove from all the time I spent in front of the TV. For those who watched the excellent "Long Way Round", Ewan and Charlie also called into the OCC lads on their way to New York.

It's a nice alternative to the bike shows on Men & Motors, who seem to be in denial that anything other than massively powerful sports bikes exist on planet earth.

trotter_inc

rymus wrote:

they ran an all day marathon of it no so long ago

That must have been that day that I started watching it - there were loads of them on!

Gmodified

trotter_inc wrote:

Anyone who is into bikes will love this show! .

yeah if you into custom bikes , you will like the show.


I like bikes but don't like this show, typical US show "i can build bigger better"



still respect goes to amount of work involved in the project

Borzoi

rymus wrote:

. For those who watched the excellent "Long Way Round", Ewan and Charlie also called into the OCC lads on their way to New York.

Sorry I missed that - really liked LWR, if only because Ewan and Charlie do seem to be genuinely nice people

ven0m

trotter_inc wrote:

Anyone who is into bikes will love this show! I only started watching it on the Discovery Channel myself a few weeks ago when I was at home sick from work...

Basically, its about a company called Orange County Choppers who make custom chopper motor bikes for people.

It shows them making the bikes from scratch, from all the small parts, last night they were showing how the paint work is done and how to spray paint the alloys, have a look at the site for some of the ones they've made... the iRobot bike is deadly...

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/amchopper/amchopper.html

The father Paur Snr. owns the place, its hilarious the way he's always telling his son how to do things, there's some decent fights.

Have a look even if you're not into bikes.

Three words to describe OCC:

GLORIFIED LEGO BUILDERS

it's as simple as that. They're not real motorcycle builders - they fabricate sweet f.a.. I know some of you will say "but building a motorcycle is hard" - yeah, put a 1000+ piece jigsaw in front of most adults they can't do it, give it to a kid - they'll probably do it.....

If you wanna check out REAL bike builders - look up info on people like:

- Corey & Arlen Ness
- Dave Perewitz
- Donnie Smith
- Indian Larry
- Billy Lane

Jesse James isn't even in THEIR league (despite how good he is) - my problem with him is you can have ANY bike you want, as long as the only say you get is the color of the paint, the hardware, the engine size, 5 or 6 speed box & the wheel size......

Don't get me wrong - American Chopper is a good show, but OCC's stuff is over-rated & frankly paying 70-80000 for a motorcycle that looks like a million others you can buy for half the price just because it has OCC on it is a crock!!

And - oh yeah, I am in a position to talk because I DID build my own motorcycle & worked on building several others...... working on a motorcycle, you get dirty..... have you ever seen ANYONE on American Chopper 'dirty' - real motorcycle builders spend their days getting dirty & covered in all kindsa **** from around the shop.... even Jesse gets dirty...


::: ven0mous :::

ando

Who gives a f*ck if they dont get 'dirty'. It looks like they always work with clean new parts, and have you seen how obsessive Paul Snr is about keeping the shop clean? Anyway I'm not a bike builder so I dont give a toss, I enjoy the show and thats whats its made for

here's a nice clip I got a few days ago: Video Clip

ven0m

ando wrote:

Who gives a f*ck if they dont get 'dirty'. It looks like they always work with clean new parts, and have you seen how obsessive Paul Snr is about keeping the shop clean? Anyway I'm not a bike builder so I dont give a toss, I enjoy the show and thats whats its made for

here's a nice clip I got a few days ago: Video Clip

Not really the point I was making (that was a side point) - they're famous for BEING famous..... American Chopper is no different than big brother amigo.... guess even Discovery has to worry about ratings.... not like Nat Geo has a patch on it most of the time anyways!!!!!


::: ven0mous :::

DadaKopf

Discovery has to worry about shifting all their OCC merchandise.

echomadman

American Chopper is nothing more that a tarted up soap opera, I honestly think a lot of their dialogue is scripted. In every show there's maybe 10% devoted to the actual mechanics, and the rest is just crap reality TV psuedo-drama.

ven0m

echomadman wrote:

American Chopper is nothing more that a tarted up soap opera, I honestly think a lot of their dialogue is scripted. In every show there's maybe 10% devoted to the actual mechanics, and the rest is just crap reality TV psuedo-drama.

Nail. Head. Hit. Rep ++


::: ven0mous :::

Gmodified

ando wrote:

Who gives a f*ck if they dont get 'dirty'. ........ Anyway I'm not a bike builder so I dont give a toss, I enjoy the show and thats whats its made for

well you right there, this show is for general public not for bike builders, mechanics or spanner heads. If more I think about the show , it has less to do with actual bike building. It's like watching big brother but based in the workshop.

some people like it ,some don't.

ToxicPaddy

Ahh its entertaining sometimes alright but as some said here, its turning into
a bit of a soap opera as the same people doing and saying the same things..

Paul Snr giving out, Paul Jnr fighting with him etc etc etc..

The first few of series was kinda funny but its getting old as they are doing
and same things over and over..

Tox

Kazujo

Hey ven0m, don't forget Scotty Cox, him and his brother fabricate all of their own body work tanks, fenders and the custom Oil tank they made on the World Biker Buildoff, they are really impressive no fancy paint required.

lomb

at the end of the day which would u rather a new harley davidson or a new occ at triple the price and most probably unreliable, untested and unsafe.

i think the answer is easy.

ando

yea whatever lomb

ven0m

lomb wrote:

at the end of the day which would u rather a new harley davidson or a new occ at triple the price and most probably unreliable, untested and unsafe.

i think the answer is easy.

I wouldn't touch one of the new Harley's with a bargepole - ever since they moved from the carbed EVO's to that new TwinCam DI system, Harley's are closer to Jap bikes more than ever.... takes alot away from WHY people like Harley's.....


Kazujo - yeah, forgot about him..... mybad!!!!!!!!


::: ven0mous :::

lomb

yeah but the point is an occ is way overpriced and unsafe next to a well tested bike.
besides occ do nothing other than assemble bikes. the ones they have on the web for sale are all the same bar differnent paint jobs.
the ones u see them making are 150000 to 200000 dollars. there is no way id even get on one. whats to say a major weld wont crack when im doing 70?

Kazujo

The thing is the ones that we watch them build on the show a really just show bikes if they get ridden more than 60-70 mile sin their lifetime they will be doing well.

Yes they road test them and you see them riding them but they will spend most of their time sitting in a trailer being brought to the next show.

The standard models that they produce would have to be tested and conform to all regulations before they are sold if I remeber correctly you can see the sign on the shop saying that they are a registered vehicle assemblers/manufacturers.

As for the price, they must be getting it or they would be out of business

ven0m

Kazujo wrote:

The thing is the ones that we watch them build on the show a really just show bikes if they get ridden more than 60-70 mile sin their lifetime they will be doing well.

Yes they road test them and you see them riding them but they will spend most of their time sitting in a trailer being brought to the next show.

The standard models that they produce would have to be tested and conform to all regulations before they are sold if I remeber correctly you can see the sign on the shop saying that they are a registered vehicle assemblers/manufacturers.

As for the price, they must be getting it or they would be out of business

Yup - OCC are recognised by the AMA & their standard order "frames" are mass produced, not hand fabricated. It is no different than buying aftermarket parts & assembling them. Still way over priced - I'd rather spend the money on a VENOM kit bike from Big Bear Choppers for 20,000 bucks & put it together - least you'd save 50,000 & could say "hey, I built my own chopper"..... it ain't that difficult - no filing, or "hammering to fit" needed - everything is profressionally made.

As I said before - with OCC, you're paying for the name OCC & their "fame" - otherwise it's no different than buying a ready made motorcycle from people like Mid West Choppers, Von Dutch Motorcycles, Exile Cycles or Big Bear Choppers.... Harley do NOT make good motorcycles, or reliable ones (although those new Twin Cam DI ones are pretty reliable!).... with Harley you're paying for image first, history second & the fact you wanna get your hands dirty..... owning one, I'd know this.... she's a tempremental bitch somedays, but I still love her.... LOL


::: ven0mous :::

lomb

hmm occ are off the wall check this out

http://www.bigbearchoppers.com/bikes/venoms/venom_prostreet.html

ven0m

lomb wrote:

hmm occ are off the wall check this out

http://www.bigbearchoppers.com/bikes/venoms/venom_prostreet.html

aaaahhhhh my baby....... someday it WILL be mine.....well, the chopper version:

http://www.bigbearchoppers.com/bikes/venoms/venom_chopper.html


::: ven0mous :::

lomb

how much would vat and vrt be on the unassembled kit? do u pay any vrt?

the devils advocate one looks nice.
these choppers are nicer than occ ones by far.are they reliable?

ven0m

lomb wrote:

how much would vat and vrt be on the unassembled kit? do u pay any vrt?

the devils advocate one looks nice.
these choppers are nicer than occ ones by far.are they reliable?

As long as you can get them to "mark" the crate as "used motorcycle parts" you don't get stung for import duty - it's how I usually get parts into the country without getting stung. As for VRT - you pay NADA, only for the registration of the cycle. Shipping will be expensive though, be under no illusion about that. The entire crate will probably weigh as much as 1100kg & the size will be pretty big too. You've no IDEA how physically big those engines or bikes are until you've sat on one or rode one. They can be as long as a Lexus IS200 in some cases.

OCC make RELIABLE bikes & used VERY reliable parts like H&L engines, RevTech Engines & even S&S engines all of which are UBER reliable - if way too powerful for Irish roads, as you're riding around on 2.2L engines whacking out between 120 & 180bhp.... also, they use VERY good gearbox systems by people like Baker or again RevTech. They are in fact probably MORE reliable than most motorcycles in general, only problem with them is Servicing.... not too many "Harley suppliers" here could deal with them & when trying to source parts for you they'd require you to sign over your soul as well as your house.

Put it this way - a similar bike was put on sale by a well known Harley dealer in Wicklow for 44000 euros & it had lots of interest, but no buyers because of the price.

Another thing is - you couldn't really ride most of those bikes on Irish roads because of the power of the engines, the fact you're running 250-280 rear tires (cornering would be impossible & we don't have many straight roads), many of the frames are rigid, so the state of the roads would more than likely see you crack or destroy the rear swingarms & the roadtax on bikes with engines that size is ridiculous as would be the insurance, with only ONE company insuring them; Carole Nash.

There is NO market in Ireland for Custom motorcycles like that - only two dealers I know build themfrom scratch & they find it difficult to sell them, & as sch only do them to order, otherwise the rest take stock Harley's or stock Jap-Harley replicas & customise the heck outta them.


::: ven0mous :::

rymus

Who would put a bike as expensive as that on Irish roads? You'd want to have your head seen to. First pothole you hit, the belly of the bike scrapes off the tarmac, you get thrown into the ditch closely followed by the bike you spent the last ten years saving for. If I was going to get a bike like that I'd complete the transaction by moving to California or Florida. Weather, roads & no knackers that are likely to see a nice bike and think they can improve on its good looks by adding a whopper of a scratch along the tank.

ven0m

rymus wrote:

Who would put a bike as expensive as that on Irish roads? You'd want to have your head seen to. First pothole you hit, the belly of the bike scrapes off the tarmac, you get thrown into the ditch closely followed by the bike you spent the last ten years saving for. If I was going to get a bike like that I'd complete the transaction by moving to California or Florida. Weather, roads & no knackers that are likely to see a nice bike and think they can improve on its good looks by adding a whopper of a scratch along the tank.

emm - 20,000 bucks is about 18000 euros, & most of the mid-range harleys cost this & much more... the new V-Rod is 25000, & there's a few. HOG (Harley Owner Group) Ireland has ALOT of members & they all ride pretty expensive decked out (all be it 'hand-bag' style) Harley's that are worth between 20 & 30k. There's a fair few customised Harley's out there that have cost that.

In saying that - my own is worth about 10k, & with a little more work I could get more for it.... Besides - bikes don't really 'scrape their bellies' off the ground like cars.... only problem is when you lose it & send it down the road on it's side while you go nipple surfing!!!!!


::: ven0mous :::

rymus

back to my original statement... who in their right mind would put a bike like that on Irish roads.. except in this case, swap the bike in question to a harley. My own bike is around the same, worth roughly 10 or 11k. I hate going out sometimes wondering if when I go around the next corner is there going to be huge amount of gravel/poo/oil on the road that'll send me and the 2 wheeled bus I now own to oblivion.

Maybe it's because I've been on 4 wheels for the past few months and am losing my nerve or something. I just cringe when I think of driving a bike in Ireland. On a related topic, anyone interested in buying a 2000 Yamaha Royal Star Venture limited edition (probably the only one in Ireland)?

Venom

While the OCC bikes really look cool, they dont look very comfortable to ride with the rider looking like he/she is all streched out.

ven0m

Venom wrote:

While the OCC bikes really look cool, they dont look very comfortable to ride with the rider looking like he/she is all streched out.

trust me - the look is deceiving & it's actually quite comfortable on an open road. It's when you get into pissy twisty roads like we have here you get a workout you never planned on......


::: ven0mous :::