Orange County Choppers

I've been following the American Chopper series on Discovery Channel for several years now. Of course what I am drawn most to is the fabrication. I always loved seeing the bikes go from the start with the first client interview, through fabrication and paint, all the way to the finish assembly. The coolest part about it was seeing them work from the ground up, everything was made from scratch.

Well, here we are years later and we find OCC in their new who-knows-how-many-square-foot facility, with stardom and endless supply of production workers. There's no question they have built quite a business for themselves. I am sure it's equal parts serendipity and skill that has got them there but I believe they have paid the ultimate price for it.

I have a few peeves that I'd like to shake down.

1. Let just get this out of the way. Jason Poole is the designer of the bikes, he can't be more than 25 but he acts like a retarded teenager. It's beyond me how they've kept him around as long as they have because he's about as annoying as they come. To make matters worse he's been getting a LOT more camera time lately and they've also been letting him into the shop to help fabricate. Jason is ruining the show, he's way too goofy for as much camera time as they give him and it's time for it to stop. He's enough to make me stop watching the show by himself.

2. The show has become much more about a sales pitch than about building bikes. Whether it's a pitch on OCC or on the companies they build bike for, it's still just a pitch.

3. Fabrication is now out the window. Since both Pauls are now so busy maintaining their egos and stardom they have all but stopped doing any actual CUSTOM work on these projects. They used to begin with making the frame, they now start with a pre made frame that's not even being produced in house, one that's made by rolling thunder. They used to make their own tanks, now they grab one off the shelf. This same pattern follows for just about everything on the bike these days. from the engine right down to the headlight.

I stopped recording the series last year sometime when this all started getting too me a bit too much. Sunday, for the first time in a year I decided to watch an episode... Much to my dismay this episode focuses on my least favorite personality, Jason, and to make matters worse what little custom fabrication actually gets done is executed by Paul Sr., Jason Poole, and Jim Quinn. After watching the circus act for a little while they finally roll out the finished product. This one happened to be for Sikorsky Helicopters and to be frank they got ripped off. They got a "custom" bike built by the "B" team over at OCC. Truth be known it was really a production bike with a custom primary cover, air cleaner, and wheels. They basically got a Harley Sportster with custom paint. It's pathetic.

These guys don't deserve to be watched if it's the best they can do...