Cast Members of American Chopper & Where They Are Now 

To paraphrase Scott Steiner "He's a jealous old bastard".

Jr wasn't owed a fucking red cent..it was hisxdads business in the first place!

@@fordfairlane662dr 🧐 ah yes, the employee deserves nothing for his labor 🤔

I don't understand how they could go into any debt. If I was making that kind of money, any form of credit would never be wanted.

My father retired from his only job of 47 years after getting out of the Navy with profit shares from a company that went and is global. Living very comfortable at that point he walked into a 7-11 and won the lottery. I'm physically disabled have had multiple orthopedic surgeries and heart surgery after having some foreign metal travel thru me in the early 90's. I do what I have to to work on getting thru another day. My father chooses not to talk to me because despite what my doctors say he knows I don't try enough. Paul Sr. and my father are one in the same. And Paul Sr. wasn't a global success story until his son made him one.

I believe it. He definitely gives off that vibe on the shows

I met them at breakfast in Montgomery, NY. Very nice guy.

@Slim Dim some people need the likes 👍 hahs

He always seemed so cool.

People like paul sr have two personalities. For outside people they come across as very nice but at home they are toxic and abusive.

It was not his family, it was his employment------of opportunity. Notice how just about all the guy who worked for that company went on to their own businesses. That is called opportunity son. I know where your argument comes from, and it ain't ' free enterprise freedom. You want a union job, as a baby sitter. That is what is actually dysfunctional. Rick is just fine. He is living his life, and I guess doing well. I feel sorry for you. You have no such dreams or aspirations. You just want to punch in and be taken care of. Sorry. You are wasting your life. Get into something marketable, something you like to do, (recreations are about all we have left, that was no stolen from us), and treat your employers like an education that you actually get paid for,---and always think about your won business. If it takes off under your own power, (no government subsidies), you will have discovered what real human freedom is, and you won't stand for many body feeling sorry for you, who never lived a day in their life outside of being a pet. I think Rich has earned what he deserved, and I bet he made more money than I in my non-union shops, (with engineering degrees). Yea, I was still just above poverty with all that education, (My brain got a lot better too,--with that exercise,--and I was earlier told to get into sports), and working for 20 different shops trying to find more money. Then I started my little business and got out of poverty. Do you understand where your opportunity is? Your mind in what is left of our free market. Don't bash the boss,----compete with him. That is freedom. No baby sitter needed. :) Doug in Michigan

@@EarthSurferUSA what an assumption that whole novel was lol. I mean talking to someone about getting a life and feeling sorry for them. Dude you just went off on a rant to a complete stranger who made a reasonable comment about how he was treat a bit like shit at work... 😂🤣😂🤣😂 Talking about freedom 🤣. Even as a company owner there is little "freedom". But yeah you preach. You are American I assume. Especially throwing around the freedom word 🤣

True

It's a show.....a scripted show

Its TV, American TV. It has nothing to do with anything.

It was all done for TV 🤦‍♂️

all reality tv fabrication.

@@justbreakingballs No shit captain obvious.

@@MrR40388tell that to the OP

He was a troublemaker and couldn't accept Paul's superior design and build skill. And it wasn't all for TV. Many of those arguments were genuine and reason why Vinnie left. Don't forget Senior also fell out with Jr for years and didn't even have the class to go to his wedding. Mikey was goofy but a bit of a waste of space. Cody shady, Vinnie nice guy, Rick the real deal. He was always going to do well.

Yeah:)

being active goes a long way. you can get by with far more abuse on yourself vs. a couch potato.

As someone that has actually been on cycle you don't know what you're talking about He was on trt which is not only safe but will keep you from having a stroke or heart attack And gear doesn't cause "rage" the fact that people still think that...

Jay Leno would take it in a second. Sounds like a great bike 👍.

@Jesus is coming. Read the Gospel. Ok man there's two different kinds of Christians you that try to push God on people and is probably a wishy-washy one to. And kinds like me who do our thing but still fallow God but yet we still party and aren't ashamed of it you probably drink and try to tell people I don't do anything like that. So keep it to yourself self

@Jesus is coming. Read the Gospel. Off topic. Take it elsewhere more appropriate, please.

@@Heavymetalstonie420is this one of Anne's friends that we know

@@Heavymetalstonie420 Projecting much?

As the main talent I feel like JR did a good job his dad just was to angry to realize it and back off. As the 20% owner artist who cares about 10 mins over break time at a family run business. I wish I coulda been there to help these people.

Vinny shop is down the road and he works with Cody in the shop..

Jr. was the talent behind OCC. Sr. only knew how to build the one old school style bike, everything else came from his staff when Jr. left. I thought it was total BS when Sr. would complain about what time Jr. came to work knowing full well Jr. likely worked 5 hours overtime the night before. Sr. was constantly on his A about that for some reason.

Mikey was great comic relief too. Poor guy seemed like he was really having a tough time with his demons though.

All these bikes were fucken trash. Anyone actually see one up close and see all the shirts welds....oil leaks....shitty wiring. Pure fucken garbage.

Agreed! But I must say I met Paul Jr. is a hard working guy and when you meet him HE IS Salt of the earth people, Whereas Michael was just like his father stubborn and nasty.

It was the first reality show I followed up, back when most dramas were not staged.

Yeah life can be different(estranged )With money …. Believe me I know …. You can be more happy without it 🤷🏾‍♂️

As long as the bills are paid, the kids are fed and you are making good memories, it’s all good.

I>iouu

@@liljerry496 6yyy6y lol

Rich won’t Enter heaven read the Bible so who cares we humble and poor folks will

Precisely. Greed destroyed them as a team, now they are individuals, successful however, but the dream team is gone.

Exactly.

Micky was thick as a plank 🤣🤣🤣🤣

The show was boring very quickly.. a shit show ,,, Australia

You couldn't pay me as a rider to own one they built.

I personally was never under any illusions that the bikes you see on the show were anything more than artworks you could ride a bit--not practical motorcycles you could put serious mileage on. I was always under the impression that the day-to-day operations off camera turned out bikes that came into their facility already as solid, ridable bikes, but they put some more chrome parts on them, gave them a fancy paint job, or whatever. Since that isn't particularly sexy, we got to see the concept bikes built from scratch.

Everyone forgets that sr had a steel business and that his eldest son had to do an aggressive takeover of the company to stop sr from running it to the ground. Sr also ruined his relationship with us eldest son and they are not at all on speaking terms.

More unwanted drama and not enough down to earth bike building.

Actually believing this wasn't scripted as fuck

@@Asbjoern 😂😂😂

Plus Sr had major anger issues. Dude is going to pop an aneurysm.

I still say there was no 'right side' of this argument. They all fucked up

Hello how are you doing??

ROFLMFAO, you fell for the Hollywood illusion my man. Wake the fu*k up.

@@anonimous2451 I knew it was all tv, still enjoyed the times back then when I was watching it. Just reminiscing as I get older lol

Me too even though it was staged

The original Kardashians for men.

Better then hunter Bidens lol

biggest issue on the show wasn't lost on mikey: sheer arrogance and thinking they have more talent than they actually do. Paul Jr has some interesting designs but nothing terribly outstanding. Paul's? shyte....100% steaming piles of shyte.

Mickey was an idiot.

….& he said they work 7 days a week..

And in a years time of 7 day a week "loyalty" he'll start abusing them for not wanting to do 7 days a week any more.

Time travel.

I was just thinking that lmao

@@chubbz8129 great minds think alike

Who cares.

@@strawman3059 not that I care enough that it's going to ruin my day or affect me personally. But I decided to say something because I'm in the motorcycle industry and every once in awhile trash ass click bait channels like this show up in my recommendations. Idk what industry you're in. But what if someone made a video about someone you know? that's in your line of work and it was all false? Would you care just enough to point out that they are full of shit and that they don't know what they are talking about? In this case the truth of the matter is that Paul's a multi millionaire with a world famous brand. He wanted to move his operations to Florida where the weather is nice so he could sit out in the sun and chill and be an old man. And he's got enough money that if he has to lose a few million dollars in order to make that happen then so be it. Losing a few million dollars to Paul Is no big deal. These kinds of channels wanna make it out like people who used to be successful are now broke and down on their luck. But the fact of the matter is that Paul had to lose a few million on his New York properties so he could open up a world headquarters in Florida. Where it cost him $6.5 million just to have the place built. He did what most senior citizens that are millionaires do. He moved to Florida. That's it.

@Andrew if you set up a meeting with Paul Senior, you can probably purchase a very nice but severely impractical motorcycle from him for pretty cheap. He is liquidating everything he has, and that means just getting rid of his surplus of choppers that he has built that nobody wanted along the way. Like the Ghost Rider bike. The thing is incredible to look at but just horrible to ride. I know this cuz I rode the thing in 2006 cuz I was trying to secretly find a motorcycle for my uncle. I tested a few bikes from Paul Senior and his company, and they all were basically good-looking garbage. We went on to purchase one from Jesse James, which was legitimately designed to look spectacular and to drive cross country. Orange County's we're not even design to go cross city.

It’s not worth 30k, it’s worth whatever the next person is prepared to pay for it. Which is obviously significantly less.

You mean Junior's bikes suck. Senior's were classic and cool and rideable!

@@scarhart53 no seniors bikes also sucked. They lack crucial features that made them street legal all in an effort to maintain that underground Street look. Yeah both of them can build decent-looking bikes but they used crappy parts and they cut corners and well now they're just about bankrupt.

Every episode is on discovery +, I used to watch it with my dad when I was a kid and now I do the same with my son. I hope they appreciate the impact they’ve had on so many people growing up watching the show

I agree but I think it was fame that went to Paul seniors head not the money

pretty sure paul let money and fame get to his head just as much as his father. At end of the day lot of the arguments IMO were because paul did shit behind his fathers back and started ignoring anything he said. Realistically he was his boss so it was disrespectful thing to do and its probably what set senior off half the time. Really both of them kind of let shit fall apart.

Sadly, I think Sr. is just a bully.

I think once the business grew Sr added people (like Steve Moreau) that had very little & especially no bike building business knowledge. This lead to those people getting into Sr head in how to deal with the business & deal with Mike & Jr. They advised Sr in how to handle things. When Sr should’ve just dealt it with himself. Sure Sr dealt with it himself at 1st then let others deal with it while Sr just didn’t care anymore. Lots of the problems between Sr & Jr lead to Sr asking his Yes Men on how to handle it. They froze out Mike they came up with all kinds of stipulations in his contract. Yes Mike was lazy, no drive so he needed a kick, but this could’ve been handled much differently. Same goes for Jr. After all they were the stars of the business. Mike & Jr made the show. Jr had a creative side. Mike was the humor the show needs. When it became Jr vs Sr the show should’ve ended. The bike building game changed so much & custom show bikes weren’t used/needed anymore.

@@feeblemind exactly. its why Cody got fired. he talked so much shit to Jr about being lazy af. Lol

He's 72 years old and off the juice. This isn't 2003 anymore. He's not jacked by any means but he's 6ft tall so not sure what you mean by him being small.

@@CringeComedyTV Everyone has their way of expressing/interpreting things there are more pressing matters, like getting off the juice 😆

How is that crazy?

Pretty sure its hardly even fighting. It’s just edited to be more dramatic

I’m a big UFC fan and I’ve met some fighters, I was really surprised how small they seemed in life than on the TV.

Wait. Really? 😂😂😂

Had to read it twice to understand it😂

The Louvre🤣👍

💀💀

In the 'refrigerator classics' section.

Lol

Agree, want to see a clown go to the circus, don't hire one. As much as I loved seeing Mikey on the show, it was possibly the worst thing that could have happened to him. Easy money just delayed him taking life seriously.

@@DodgyBrothersEngineering if he actually had a drinking problem id say his head was never right from the start and how many drunks take life seriously

@@grindfreakmike5754 think it is more a case of he is basically lazy, and while there was easy money rolling in, he never had to really work for it. I mean seriously if there was no TV show and he wasn't being paid for appearances, and the business survived purely on building bikes, he would have been shown the door or told to lift his game long ago. I think the easy money allowed him to cruise for far too long.

Mikey seemed to me like the Chumlee of the Choppers.

@@rockoorbe2002 quite possibly. I think he is probably more intelligent than he acted, but I think some of that probably came down to living in Junior's shadow. Without knowing how they grew up I would speculate that Junior probably shone the most and got dads attention because he exhibited more talent. Mikey couldn't compete so he acted the clown, and found favour in his fathers eyes doing that, and set the mold for his life. Not uncommon for this to happen in families where you already have an alpha male child.

They didn't do that cause the fights and arguments created more views.

@@iiviinstiinct3064 that’s my point. Small minded thinking. Argue or make money? They chose to make short term money now almkst nobody wants to buy these almost unrideable bikes or watch that show.

Yeah now that JR is on his own you see his bikes all over the place right….. he was a tool

@@hoghs1 I think Instinct meant that the views and subsequent revenue from those went to the bank of Discovery Channel. I'm willing to guess that out of that entire production team only a few of them actually gave a shit about the bikes. most of them were just there to produce a drama show that got them the most views.. therefore money.

Donald Trump syndrome

@@The.Toaster my mom does this.. Ill make a suggestion about somrthing... and then she has to go out and get opinions from complete strangers and then go with (their ideas) the same one i said prior.. she gives money and loves my brother more it seems just because he has kids.. but im the one always fixing her car. Or house or doing everything for her. Then i get yelled at the next day.. uts so bad my gf left me.. and now im so stressed and deoressed im drinking nearly daily and contemplating pulling the trigger on .yself

@@The.Toaster thanks. Between my mom treating me like she does.. and the fighting.. and my now ex breaking up eith me over it and well she wanted to experience more men she said... I thought of pulling the trigger... 3 days ago i was nearly there... but just couldnt do it

@@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305 I know exactly how you feel man. Remember that is a final solution for a temporary problem. You can always improve your situation, but you can't do shit when you dead bro. You may not realize it, but I'm sure there will be people who miss you.

@Kirk Eby That just makes it WORSE. I would never destroy my relationship with my son because some producers wanted fake drama. That being said, you can't fake that kind of animosity, and you can tell it was genuine from the start.

@@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305 She isn't afraid to be herself around you.... for better or worse, I know how it feels, within my family I'm the one that does everything for everyone yet I'm also the one that gets the most shit, but they also are far more themselves with me then with anyone else, as in they know me better and put less of a mask on as apposed to. With other family members it's like they want to earn brownie points.

Their relationships had the authenticity of staged WWE match, all fake 😂

It was also a lesson in stupidity.

@@soulslaveone and bad barbering.

​@@O-.-Ono it wasn't They all sued each other and for a long time after the show stopped talking to each other

I met Rick briefly at Daytona Bike Week a few years ago during the first Sons of Speed event put on by Billy Lane. Super humble and laid back dude. It was a cool few days hanging out with Billy & Warren Lane, Rick, Paul Cox, Xavier Muriel, and a bunch of other bike builders and racers.

Exactly, Sr. was stuck in the 60's with his one style of old school bike, it's all he knew.

@@MotoAtheist Not only that but he never really had juniors creativity. Look at the first bike he built by himself "Sunshine" very basic bike with a basic hand painted tank, hardly the sort of thing that would make you stand out from the crowd. It was junior's ideas and out of the box thinking that got the show past the pilot.

@@DodgyBrothersEngineering Right, that's what I said, he only knew one style of bike. He couldn't move beyond it without his employees.

@@MotoAtheist I think he could have built other bikes, but they would have only been vanilla bikes without juniors creativity and Vinnie and Rick's fabrication. As you rightly say without employees he would have been dead in the water long ago.

@@MotoAtheist Yeah, as opposed to Jr's bikes that looked like lawn mowers or bulldozers.

Sad

Really? Did you have a smoke out there?

Nah, chances of police showing up out of nowhere were too high.

You use what?

I'd say Nellie and her mother added a good amount of family ugliness. :P

I got fed up with seniors roid rage on junior every day!

There would'nt have been a show without Jr's designs actually getting the show which allowed them to expand.

Yeah, bikes that JR built

@@kumakendo Nah dawg, them bikes were outsourced to China

Recently seen One of the Production Bikes, , Real Crap. They put a Cheap 80 cui. stock Rev Tech on a Bone breaker Frame,, Brakes are Crap. What a Scam.......Back Then,

Remember when they were trying to build an actual racing bike and Jr wanted to cut the frame to make it look better??? Luckily, they had an actual race bike builder there and he was like, "Uhhhh..... no."

Whoops

Hello how are you doing 😊

That’s a very narcissistic thing to say

I take it you dont like boomers?

Poor junior… do you think anyone would know who he was if it were not for the privilege his father provided. Junior has spoiled brat syndrome, even imploded his father’s life to establish his selfish quest for dominance over him. Ask yourself why Paul gets along so well with Mikey and not junior. Junior would be an upstate New York nobody if not for his dads efforts. To bad he is to unsophisticated to realize it.

@@thezyreick4289 Is it possible to be narcissistic when speaking of someone else? That seems impossible.

@@RonnieMX brainwashed into saying the word privilege I see.

His divorce did not help.

Huh? English, please.

Sounds like my driving instructor

@@Machia52612 unfortunately business attracts psychotics. There is a difference in being professional as opposed to aggressive. If you deem professionalism as being woke, your business, if you have one,& you are like Paul Sr, you are killing your business just like Sr. did.

Lol ur soft asf

@@Machia52612 You need quality to back it up as well, from what I've heard, their custom jobs were shite

I used to think that too but he now lives in cave Creek Arizona and I've talked to him several times he's a really nice guy he will be at the hideaway bar and people are scared to go up and talk to him so he sits there and by himself. He's really calm super nice guy I just think he was that way for the ratings of the show. He lived about 5 mi from me I live in Prescott now

Of course it's scripted... They're given scripts, and outlines... this week you and dad get into a fight, and go with that....

all of those shows are scripted

y'all know those shows are largely scripted right? Shit! I knew that as far back as the 90s... when this girl in college I knew was interning at MTV, NYC - and she told me they story-boarded everything --- NOTHING was left to chance!!! sheeot!!!

I can believe that......they build em to look at, not ride

@@timfremstad3434 They're trash to look at, too.

You could buy them for 80k? Always thought they were a lot more

@@bobbywhite1645 the really extensive stuff was a lot more. But their basic t rex models were 80k and they were bare bones bikes. Dont even have speedometers or a gear gauge.

I will stick with my 98 FXDWG

Yeah, and you can pick them up for about 6,000 right now, and that’s over priced. I’m not hating, I like there design’s as well as anyone, but I always knew that they would be hard to ride.

They didn't ride like bikes at all. They weren't meant to be ridden.

Give us the case numbers....

💯

Some of the fighting seemed legit, but I don't put it past the show, that some of it was faked.

Sr's ego was clearly the biggest impediment to the business and remains so today. Always thinking he can do what he likes and nothing could touch him. He has had a string of law suites brought against him because of it. If he just pulled his head in the show would probably still be on the air instead of the business heading into oblivion.

@@DodgyBrothersEngineering his head and arrogance was his downfall, you're correct in that.....When the show was big I saw "occ world headquarters" and that sprawling estate I saw "yeah the term getting too big for your britches" comes to mind. If he'd invested wisely he'd be sitting pretty today instead of trying to pawn off that property for $1.9M. That gets you a nice 2 bdrm bungalow in Toronto..... Another term comes to mind: believes his own hype......I've seen some of his creations...they are shit....downright S H I T. I've also seen some other motorcycle channels who got their hands on their production bikes....you can't give them away they're such pieces of crap. One was sold at auction for $3500 it retailed for something like $24K.....

They made over priced junk

@@stevenbrown6720 The Bikes were definitely overpriced but Rick and Vinny did do good work.I would never pay the price of their Bikes but these bikes were made for companies to advertise more than to do any real Riding.

@@markallen6818 I think people are bored so much rage these comments are crazy

Exact same here. Me and my father. We loved to watch OCC. it sure brings me good memories.

that before July what about my shirt was a two bowl of holes or extra don't ask for the Hat tell mailbox🧨📭🗞️🛎️⚰️💣💊🩹🩺🔭👕🏊🪜🪓🤏🧙🔥

Wanna rewrite that was some punctuation marks and proper grammar so people can understand what you are saying?

@@ironnads7975 what a stupid comment

@@ironnads7975 Okay. "Do you want to rewrite that with some punctuation and proper grammar, so people might understand what you are talking about?". There, happy? :)

@@ironnads7975 your grammar isn't so good itself bud, you might want to delete your comment to avoid making yourself look even more stupid.

What you're missing is the part where you write I think this is what happened. to me a lot of that sounds made up, But what do I know

Wasn't it his business to start with?

From what I saw, there was no 'right side' of this feud. Everybody was wrong to some degree. Yes, even Mikey

Two ways to lose a friend: one is to borrow the other to lend. Same goes for family. Not ussualy a good idea to go into buisness with them.

@@atticus2581 tell that to the thousands of family companies in America. Just because one shitty show, you think its a bad idea to go into business with family.

@@Kakashi1isjskks and look at how many family businesses go into the toilet (especially family restaurants). The issue isn't really the type of preexisting relationship, it's a question of the health of that relationship. The family was a ticking timebomb.

Feel bad for ya bro

Wow, Paul Senior has driven past you?! You have to drive past their old shop everyday to get to work?! 😲 Holy smokes, that's amazing! You should write a book with all of those amazing experiences👍

the shop being the big one they had made?

@@s1dew1nd3r4 yeah

@@Poker3625 where did they move to then?

As a non-riders that's definitely something I didn't pick up on when I watched as a kid. Thanks for the insight!

I couldn't have said it better, in fact in my opinion, you're being generous about their bikes.

Well yeah, a lot of there bikes were show pieces for companies or events. You don't need it to be comfy if it's just gonna sit in some corporate lobby

@@bentonfoster886 I always just envisioned someone real actually riding the bikes lol

Bikes and beards has a couple and they are horrible to drive

There s guy on youtube who bought one of they re bikes. Hunk of crap. Check it out. They re bikes are more art. Not meant for riding

Basically overgrown mini bikes with hand built gas tank.

They are garbage. Much better custom shops out there.

@@Johnnyrocks34 One of they are bikes???

@@scarhart53 yes.