OCC Choppers

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I’ve been watching “American Chopper” since it first went on the air. I was fascinated by Paul Teutul and his crew and what they were able to do building choppers by hand. Paul Jr’s design work was phenomenal. The theme bikes were incredibly innovative and the family drama was mesmerizing.

American Chopper and Orange County Choppers made a lot of people yearn to ride a motorcycle even if they couldn’t afford a custom chopper. Paulie and Vinnie also inspired a lot of bike owners, myself included, to take our stock bikes and make choppers out of them. Where a look at Jesse James choppers may have given us a slight inkling, the new program from Discovery put us over the edge.

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OCC Splitback Chopper

Like it or not, the show changed the way custom choppers were built in this country. The theme bikes from OCC, once very unique items, were now popping up in chopper shops all over the country. Every one was doing some sort of tribute chopper and putting it out there for all the world to see. It not only changed the way bike builders built choppers it also led the way for the huge, if not temporary in some cases, success of companies like Big Bear Choppers, Big Dog Choppers, and American Ironhorse who all were pumping out production custom bikes as fast as they could sell them.

What had once been a bunch of guys taking Harley Davidson motorcycles and putting a grinder and a welder to them to produce one of a kind choppers was now an assembly line process turning out custom choppers the way Henry Ford turned out the Model A. I believe this may have ruined the cutsom motorcycle industry and custom choppers in general. In fact I actually created a single page blog, just to discuss it: Custom Motorcycles.

As everyone now knows, Vinnie and Cody have left the business to form their own company V-Force Customs. It appeared from that episode that Vinne had finally had enough of Paulie and OCC taking all the credit for all his work. And you guys may remember Mike Campo from the early shows. I actually talked with him in person a few years back and he basically told me that he left because he was sick of Paulie and couldn’t work with him any more. Remember the Statue of Liberty Chopper?

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OCC Gillette Chopper

Anyway, Paul Teutul Sr has built an empire with OCC and I have had the pleasure of personally viewing many of these bikes in person and can tell you that the detail is incredible, just like everyone says on the show, and after comparing their choppers against other famous custom bike builders I can assure you that as far as quality goes no builder’s bikes that I have seen in person come close to Orange County’s bikes. In fact I’ve seen a lot of bikes built on Biker Buildoff that are literally falling apart now.

We all know that OCC had lost both Paulie and Mikey because of conflicts with Paul Sr and from what I’m seeing on the show, Rick and the remaining Mike need a freaking raise. I believe some of the last few bikes they have built have been some of their best. They’re getting back to what choppers are and away from the whole “cartoon” look of some of the last theme bikes that were done when Paul Jr was still with them. Is it possible that the shop that ruined custom choppers might actually be the one that brings them back? Time will tell.

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