American Chopper

[Jim Oaks]

Does anyone watch American Chopper?

I use to really like it. I think I admired Paul Sr. for starting his business in his basement and building it in to the huge company it is today. Plus Mikey cracks me up.

Vinnie left along with Cody and they have their own bike shop now building custom motorcycles. At first I thought Vinnie was nuts when he left.

This season though is a train wreck. Paul Jr. quit, got fired, or something and is opening a boutique with his girlfriend. The episodes switch back and forth between OCC and Paul, his girlfriend and the boutique. Now Paul Jr. wants to start his own business doing custom design.

It's losing interest really fast.

I think American Chopper took an already growing business and accellerated it. Now I think American Chopper is killing them because it demonstrates so much uncertainty in their company and chaos. Plus, whether you like Paul Jr or not, the guy has an eye for designing nice motorcylcles. Some customers may shop elsewhere with Paul Jr no longer involved in the designs (although he is suppose to be working as a consultant now...).

Oh well, I was just curious if anyone else watches and what their thoughts are and if it's lost its appeal to them.

At least Mikey's still entertaining.

 

[daniel3507]

i used to watch it all the time. i was pretty upset when vinnie left. to be honest with you though i didnt really even notice that cody left. forgot all bout him. i too have been losing interest in it though. thought it was really weird how paul jr left or what have you and now he is starting a boutique. thats quite the career change

 

[HOUSE102PROOF]

After monster garage died off, I stopped watching those shows. I have 2 buddies who live close to that shop and went to school with 1 of em and they both say the same thing, "all those guys in person are jerks to deal with cause they think their s.hit dont stink. Theres been all kinds of people who have inquired about a bike there and pretty much was told right off the bat to have serious $$$ or leave". Not the kind of people building me a custom chopper I would want to deal with.

 

[milje]

I haven't watched it for a few years, used to quite a bit when I was in college. I think the last time I watched it Mikey took Vinnie to get their faces done or something stupid like that, at that point I knew it was just getting retarded. Hadn't watched it for probably 2 months before then.

 

[kcm1582]

It was a good show but lately it has really gone down hill. After they switched channels it just wasn't the same anymore.

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

Cant bring myself to watch it any more..........
I really miss Monster Garage..Jesse James is a dead man starts this weekend (i think) should be interesting to watch.

 

[LittleHorse]

I don't watch it regularly, I just catch an episode here and there when nothing else is on. I didn't know Paul Jr left, I guess all I've seen is reruns lately.

To me, all their bikes look basically the same, but with a different paint scheme and some goofy billet aluminum logo. Maybe the ones they do for customers instead of companys are better, I don't know...

 

[BlackBII]

I use to watch it a lot as well....

I think if anyone doesn't get enough credit for the bikes, it's Rick. He's bad-ass, he can make anything.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I used to watch it, I probably haven't caught it for over a year though.

The fighting got old, and when Vinnie left pretty much that was all that was left. Can't blame him a bit for leaving.

I don't know if all the drama was real or not, but I don't see how anyone could stand to work in that shop or the one in American Hotrod when it was going. I would muscle my way thru that if they had a neat car on, but that was about it.

 

[Ozwynn]

I think "The Discovery Channel" was causing all the drama to up the ratings. Same with American Hotrod. I can't imagine working somewhere with those constant high pressure deadlines and no breaks and then adding all the drama to it.

 

[kennykenny]

Yeah, I think most of all that stuff is staged, it wouldn't keep the viewers on the edge of their seat if there wasn't a bunch of BS like what they portray. Seems like nothing on tv is real anymore.

 

[red85]

The fact that Vinnie left is enough reason to stop watching. He'd get the job done no matter what Jr was off doing instead of working. Rick is an incredible fabricator and I have to wonder how long he'll stick around. The drama around there would be too much to bear. I remember watching American Hotrod and thinking that if I worked for Duane and Boyd, they would both have black eyes for treating people the way they did. As for the bikes created on AC, all the hand fabbed super meticulous details are gone. Now it's all 5 axis Flo Jet this and CNC that. The big piss off for me is that Nub is gone too. They have some in house guy now.

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

Before Nub at paint there was that kid that looked 12 but could paint his a#$ off......guess they ran him off to.

 

[red85]

It seems to me that every time a TV contract gets tangled into a good business things go to hell. OCC is nothing like it was 5 years ago. It was a family business that was growing. Now it's a corporate logo as far as I see it. A brand; not a company that produces a quality product. I'm not saying they make shitty bikes. I'm just saying the soul of the company has been placed on a shelf somewhere and the bottom line is what's driving things.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I liked OCC when they were a smaller company. It was cool seeing the little guy make a living doing something they really loved. Now it's become to 'corporate' with the big world headquarters, dealers and so forth. It's getting harder to relate.