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Orange County Choppers (OCC) is an American motorcycle manufacturer and lifestyle brand company based in the town of Newburgh, located in Orange County, New York, that was founded in 1999 by Paul Teutul Sr. The company was featured on American Chopper, a reality TV show that debuted in September 2002 on the Discovery Channel. The series moved to Discovery Channel's sister channel TLC in 2007. Following cancellation of the Discovery series, the company was also featured on Orange County Choppers on the CMT network in 2013. Orange County Choppers returned to Discovery Channel in March 2018.
A chopper is a type of custom motorcycle which emerged in the US state of California in the late 1950s. A chopper employs modified steering angles and lengthened forks for a stretched-out appearance. They can be built from an original motorcycle which is modified ("chopped") or built from scratch. Some of the characteristic features of choppers are long front ends with extended forks often coupled with an increased rake angle, hardtail frames, very tall "ape hanger" or very short "drag" handlebars, lengthened or stretched frames, and larger than stock front wheel. To be considered a chopper a motorcycle frame must be cut and welded at some point. I.e. the name chopper. The "sissy bar", a set of tubes that connect the rear fender with the frame, and which are often extended several feet high, is a signature feature on many choppers.
American Chopper is an American reality television series that airs on Discovery Channel, produced by Pilgrim Films & Television. The series centers on Paul Teutul Sr., and his son Paul Teutul Jr., who manufacture custom chopper-style motorcycles. Orange County Choppers is in Newburgh, New York. The contrasting work and creative styles of the father-and-son team and their resulting verbal arguments were the series' hallmark until 2008 when an explosive argument led to Paul Jr.'s termination and departure to start a competing chopper company, Paul Jr. Designs.
Indian Larry was a motorcycle builder and artist, stunt rider, and biker. He first became known as Indian Larry in the 1980s when he was riding the streets of New York City on a chopped Indian motorcycle. Respected as an old school chopper builder, Larry sought greater acceptance of choppers being looked upon as an art form. He became interested in hot rods and motorcycles at an early age and was a fan of Von Dutch and Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, whom he would later meet in California.
West Coast Choppers (WCC) is a brand that began selling screen-printed T-shirts and stickers with the company's Iron cross/Maltese cross logo while founder and "master marketer" Jesse James was finishing high school, packaging the accoutrements of the chopper lifestyle long before any actual West Coast Choppers customs had been ordered or sold. Even after the company did begin building custom choppers, 60% of revenue still came from sales of WCC-branded marketing tie-ins such as clothing, beverages and tools. Yearly sales of approximately 12–15 motorcycles at prices of around US$150,000 each actually lost money for the company, but attracted positive attention. Publicizing the names of celebrity clients, including Shaquille O'Neal, Kid Rock, Keanu Reeves, Ty Law of the Denver Broncos, wrestling star Bill Goldberg, actor Tyson Beckford, and NFL running back Jamal Anderson, was a central feature of the WCC marketing strategy. The other key to this strategy was the star power of Jesse James, presented mainly through television on the Discovery Channel in the Motorcycle Mania series and the 2002–2006 series Monster Garage.
David Mann was a California graphic artist whose paintings celebrated biker culture, and choppers. Called "the biker world's artist-in-residence," his images are ubiquitous in biker clubhouses and garages, on motorcycle gas tanks, tattoos, and on T-shirts and other memorabilia associated with biker culture. Choppers have been built based on the bikes first imagined in a David Mann painting.
The six main types of motorcycles are generally recognized as standard, cruiser, touring, sports, off-road, and dual-purpose. Sport touring is sometimes recognized as a seventh category or integrated with the touring category.
Orange County Choppers bikes are motorcycles featured on the television series American Chopper built by Orange County Choppers (OCC) for a specific corporate or celebrity customer. Theme bikes are motorcycles in which the theme of the motorcycle takes priority over everything else, influencing the frame dimensions, paint scheme, and overall 'feel' of the motorcycle. The function of motorcycle usually takes a backseat to the presentation of the theme, and these motorcycles attract attention solely on the premise of the theme itself. Customer bikes are built for and generally to the specifications of a particular customer. Although the customers typically give OCC creative freedom to do what they will, some clients have a specific idea in mind and expect OCC to reproduce their mental picture literally.
A bobber, originally called a 'bob-job' from the 1930s through 1990s, is a style of custom motorcycle. The typical construction includes stripping excess bodywork from a motorcycle; removing the front fender, and shortening the rear fender, which is "bobbed", and all superfluous parts removed to reduce weight.
Jerry Covington is a custom motorcycle builder and owner of Covingtons Customs.
Mark Whitney Mehran is an American author, business owner, land speed racer, Hot Rod and Chopper builder and Pinstriper. Born and raised in California, Mehran attended Eaglebrook School and Cate School, and graduated from Brown University with an honors degree in English and American Literature.
Benjamin F. Hardy (1921-1994) was an African-American custom motorcycle builder who made the Captain America and Billy choppers for the 1969 Peter Fonda road movie Easy Rider.
Vincent "Vinnie" DiMartino is an American motorcycle builder, best known for his work from 2002 to 2007 at Orange County Choppers (OCC), the subject of the American TV show American Chopper. In August 2007 DiMartino left Orange County Choppers and founded V-Force Customs, a custom motorcycle shop in Rock Tavern, NY. Several months later, Cody Connelly, a friend and co-worker of DiMartino at Orange County Choppers also left to join him at V-force Customs. In 2010, DiMartino returned to the show; however instead of rejoining his former employer, OCC, he joined Paul Jr. Designs.
Cody Connelly is an American motorcycle builder, best known for his work at Orange County Choppers (OCC), the subject of the American TV show American Chopper. Cody left Orange County Choppers and joined V-Force Customs where he works with friend and former colleague of Orange County Choppers Vincent DiMartino. Cody has since made several appearances on the show American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior alongside Paul Teutul Jr. and DiMartino, helping out at Paul Jr. Designs.
Ron Simms is an American custom motorcycle builder, operating his business, Simms Custom Cycles, in Hayward, California. Simms has been building custom motorcycles for over 47 years. He has been featured in Easyriders magazine, and the photo essay book Art of the Chopper, where his work was compared to Arlen Ness as epitomizing the East Bay Style. In 2017 appeared in American M.C. Season 1 episode 1. Jesse James of West Coast Choppers apprenticed under Ron Simms.
On September 29, 2013, motorist Alexian Lien was assaulted while driving on the Henry Hudson Parkway in New York City. Lien had gotten into an altercation with motorcyclists who were participating in a rally called Hollywood's Block Party. One of the bikers pulled in front of Lien and slowed dramatically. Lien said that he struck the bike from behind, stopped his vehicle, and was quickly surrounded by bikers, who began attacking his SUV. He testified that he feared for his life so he accelerated, running over several bikes and striking one of the bikers, paralyzing him. A chase ensued, ending in Lien being pulled from his vehicle and beaten. The media later reported that the involved bikers were members of a loose association of high-performance motorcycle enthusiasts known as "Hollywood Stuntz" who had previously been observed and filmed engaging in reckless driving and threatening motorists.
Azeroth Choppers was a weekly web series by Blizzard Entertainment that ran from April 17 to June 5, 2014. It featured Paul Teutul, Jr. and his company Paul Jr. Designs building motorcycles based on Blizzard's long-running MMORPG World of Warcraft.
Clifford A. "Sonny" Vaughs was an American civil rights activist, filmmaker, and motorcycle builder. Vaughs designed the two chopper motorcycles used for the 1969 film Easy Rider, while an associate producer on the film. He also produced and directed the documentary What Will the Harvest Be? (1965) and Not So Easy (1972).
Sara-Nicole Morales was shot and killed in the front yard of her mother's house in Orange City, Florida, United States. While returning home from her job at a Volusia County library, she had become embroiled in a road rage incident with a local motorcyclist, during which she had intentionally struck his vehicle with hers, an act witnessed by two nearby motorists. The three notified police and followed her to the house, where she confronted them with her fiancé's pistol. The motorcyclist drew his own gun and shot her five times.
References
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- 1 2 3 Moore, Kimberly (2006-10-06). "Biker cleared in N.C. case". Archived from the original on 2006-11-19.
- ↑ Gallop, J.D (2006-09-11). "Chopper builder hurt in fatal crash".
- ↑ Gallop, J.D (2006-09-25). "billy Lane faces charges in fatal crash".
- ↑ Torres, John (2006-10-06). "Bike-builder Lane faces lawsuit".
- ↑ "Discovery Channel Star Pleads Not Guilty In Biker's Death". 2006-10-20. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28.
- ↑ "Billy Lane Crash Coverage". 2006-09-09.
- 1 2 3 "Bike builder Billy Lane gets 6 years". Florida Today, Keyonna Summer, August 14, 2009.
- ↑ Newbern, Michael (2006-09-28). "Business as Usual at Choppers Inc".
