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.
A custom motorcycle is a motorcycle with stylistic and/or structural changes to the 'standard' mass-produced machine offered by major manufacturers. Custom motorcycles might be unique, or built in limited quantities. While individual motorcyclists have altered the appearance of their machines since the very first days of motorcycling, the first individualized motorcycles specifically labeled 'Custom' appeared in the late 1950s, around the same time as the term was applied to custom cars.
Paul Michael Teutul is one of the stars of the American reality television series American Chopper, also starring his father. Teutul was the chief designer and fabricator. Prior to this, he was head of the rail shop at Orange County Ironworks. He is the owner of Paul Jr. Designs, which manufactures custom motorcycles and sells branded clothing. Teutul, along with his father and younger brother Michael, became celebrities when they became the focus of a reality television series American Chopper on Discovery Channel in 2002.
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.
William David Lane is an American builder of custom motorcycles, owner of Choppers Inc. in Melbourne, Florida, known for his 2009 conviction and imprisonment in Florida for a drunk-driving incident in 2006, where Lane's driving caused the death of another biker/moped
The terms suicide clutch, and suicide shifter or jockey shifter, refer to some motorcycles' foot-operated clutch and hand shifter to change gears. Foot clutches (rocker-clutches) and hand shifters (tank-shifts) were found on early motorcycle designs from around the turn of the 20th century to the 1940s or 50s, and reappearing on modern retro styled custom motorcycles and choppers. Modern motorcycles do not require removing a hand from the handlebars to shift gears, using only the fingers for the clutch and the toes of one foot to select gears. In contrast, the fanciful slang "suicide" was applied to designs where the rider removes one hand to change gears, or cannot put both feet on the ground while using a foot clutch to disengage the transmission. Sometimes the shifter is referred to as a "jockey shifter" while the foot clutch is called a "suicide clutch".
Arlen Darryl Ness was an American motorcycle designer and entrepreneur best known for his custom motorcycles. Ness received acclaim for his designs, most of which are noted for their unique body style and paintwork.
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 removing the front fender, shortening the rear fender, which is "bobbed", and stripping excess bodywork as well as all superfluous parts to reduce weight.
Jerry Covington is a custom motorcycle builder and owner of Covingtons Customs.
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.
The Honda Fury was the first production chopper from a major motorcycle manufacturer (Honda). In a break with tradition, the Fury was the first chopper to have an anti-lock braking system The Fury's styling has been likened to custom-made choppers from Paul Teutul Sr. or Arlen Ness. The Fury has been sold not only in North America, but internationally as well, although in some markets Honda eschewed the Fury name and offered the bike simply by its model ID: VT1300CX.
William Kenefick is an American entrepreneur, businessman, investor, and former television personality.. . William was featured on Throttle Junkies TV in several movies, and is a motorcycle designer with dozens of Motorcycle Magazine features and covers world wide.
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.
Paul Jr. Designs (PJD) is a lifestyle brand motorcycle customizer and clothing vendor, based in Montgomery, New York, USA. Paul Teutul Jr. founded the design firm in 2009 after waiting out a one-year non-compete clause with his former company, Orange County Choppers (OCC).
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.
Biker Battleground Phoenix is a scripted reality television series developed for the History Channel. Narrated by Greg Berger, the series pits five rival bike-builders from Phoenix, Arizona, against each other to see who can design and build the best bike to put an end to their rivalry and smack talking. The first episode aired on Thursday, July 1, 2014, at 10:00 pm.
Biketoberfest is an annual motorcycle rally held in the fall in Daytona Beach, Florida since 1991 or 1992. In 1992 it was known as "Daytona Fall Tour"; in 1993, it started to be called Biketoberfest, and is now known as the "little brother" of the spring Daytona Beach Bike Week event. Attendance for Biketoberfest 2013 was estimated to be c. 100,000 visitors.
