The Rise and Fall of Orange County Choppers... What REALLY Happened!? 

They built mannequins not motorcycles. None, literally none, of their bikes were rideable for more than 25m. All of their bikes were uncomfortable, unstable, safety hazards.

There's a RU-vidr that does bike videos. He has an OCC bike. $80,000 when new. He picked it up for $8,000. Called it junk. Jay Leno was just in a MotorCycle centric video on RU-vid. Called OCC bikes junk. I believe he said, they ran the engine wiring through the tail light. If the tail light got damaged, the engine would stop.

flashy, unrideable machines that cost a fortune and have no utility use whatsoever. What could go wrong?

I pulled into a gas station a few years back near here and there was a luxury car filling up at one of the pumps. The car was pulled so far forward it was basically blocking the other open pump. I was about to run out of gas so I squeezed in like an inch from their bumper. I remember thinking what a$$hole parks like this at a gas pump... then a moment later a big old dude with a handle bar mustache pops his head out and starts mean mugging me, it was Sr. 😆

Even Jay Leno says the bike they built for him was junk. It didn't handle good. and it was just junk

OCC was just as bad as Pimp My Ride. Producing over the top junk.

Just to let you know, OCC bikes are not made to be ridden. And once you break down the product they gave their customers a 100,000.00 bike that cost OCC $15K to make and they all were junk. Pretty junk, but junk!

I won't lie, I enjoyed the show for a while waaay back in the day. I thought some of their bikes were neat, but most were generic and m'eh. I've heard they are not good bikes, and watching a few snips from the old shows I can absolutely believe that.

I wouldn't buy any of that junk that he sells.

The bikes they built were crap. Young Paul had no work ethic and Sr. yelled at him. Reality TV at it's worst.

1975- “ I’d rather eat worms than ride a Honda.“ 2024- “ I’d rather eat a Honda than ride an OCC.”

major motorcycle manufacturers offer superior engineering, greater comfort, by an order of magnitude better safety, & cost a fraction of OCC "customs"; I guess there are enough guys going through a midlife crisis to keep Senior's garage sculpture business open.

People finally realized what junk bikes they were selling for way to much money.

I think Sr fell victim to what many folks do. When the money is coming in bigtime they assume it will never slow down or stop all together. Just look at all the professional athletes that show up broke once the big paychecks stop. Would like to think I would do better BUT it claims a bunch of folks.

I live one county over from OCC and used to drive through Montgomery NY pretty often. Have seen Paul Sr several times, once driving a Ford Cobra. Then they opened their first showroom in an old A&P grocery store in a plaza down the road from the shop. I used to stop in and look at the bikes for sale. Bought an OCC key ring and mailed it to an old riding buddy in FL for his birthday. Never saw their new showroom over in Newburgh NY. I'm 80 and still ride, Harley Low Rider and a 1968 BSA chopper.

He stopped taking steroids and his body deflated😂😂😂

OCC the bike company that made unridable bikes

They weren’t spectacular bikes. They were cookie cutter bikes made from pre-fab parts with crap stuck to them and then called a theme bike. Biker build off had real bikes and builders, OCC was for non-bikers who didn’t know the difference.

Garbage bikes. Garbage TV.

I remember the show very well. To be honest, it was a lot of fun. I'm spanish but I used to live in Ireland at the time and it was extremely popular there. Sometime after, in one trip to the U.S. I did stop by the showroom and bought a couple tshirts which I still have and well, they always bring a smile when I wear them. Some young guys would ask me what are the shirts about and I'd say it's a long long american story 😄

Biker build off got me into bikes. The O.C.C bikes always looked like they couldn't be ridden far and the shop drama wasn't my thing. Jesse James and Indian Larry built much better bikes.

It was a terrible show !! But, to be honest, it taught me a lot about how not to treat my kids !!

If you produce something that is completely useless and is not a motorcycle yet you brand it as a motorcycle don't be surprised if motorcycle riders turn their backs on you.

I was working just up the street back in 2009. Used to drive through the parking lot daily. Watched a lot of crappy bikes come out of there. Used to see Mikey at the local strip clubs passed out in a corner.

When it comes to Paul Sr., if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks likes a duck, it's a duck.

I imagine they failed because they produced totally impractical, over priced, crap.

rigid frames (no rear suspension) are called BACK BREAKERS !!

You did not pay for a custom “theme bike” built to ride. You bought advertising on two episodes of TV. Companies paid 80K or whatever and got their brand talked about for two episodes. Probably a lot cheaper than the usual 30 commercials. Most of those bikes were never picked up or delivered because the companies only cared about the two weeks exposure on popular TV show. They had no use for the bike.

I was on a flight once where Paul Sr. and one of his ex wives were on. He was a complete loud jerk to all the flight attendants.

overpriced deathtraps on two wheels.... here in germany, we saw that "company" as a comedy show... none of those "bikes" would have any chance to get a street licence in germany or most of europe... they are good as art to gather dust, or for people, that want a guarantee, to NOT survive even a small a crash....

They're not real bikes, they're just pieces of art.

I liked the show back in the days, it was funny. But the bikes were always art for me, like a picure or sculpture. Not really for driving on a street.

Junior and others built occ and after they left occ could not continue to earn like they had Senior spent more than he earned and still owes a lot of money Moving to Florida doesn't change anything

Junk - who would buy one of those today after all this dirt ??

I've read numerous articles where people claim that the engines they paid for were not the large displacement engines claimed, but were simply off the shelf smaller displacement mid -range performance engines.

I'm not a bike guy, but when I watched this show, I felt like the bikes were uncomfortable pieces of garbage. It looks like I was correct...

With OCC guys were not really paying for a badly designed over priced pile of junk. They were paying big money for a very impressive moustache screaming at them shouting: Wow this chopper is fantastic, buy it for only 80,000 USD!

They built decorative pieces made to look like motorcycles, and then they showed the world that Sr was just a jerk that nobody wanted to work with or give money to.

Bikes were good when they had small shop and only working people were SR, JR and one other guy. But when they got that big monster building which was outrageously stupid, they went down on quality

I remember when they road them to the bike show. One caught fire, parts fell off the other one. Could not make it 20 miles.

Weren't their choppers also known for being unsafe deathtraps on wheels? 😁

All started in a two car garage with Vinny and then Cody. He built a small empire and now it's a fading memory.

Jr famously said that the place would burn to the ground without him 🤷‍♂️

i'm guessing people just woke up to the crap they was dishing out or got sick of the bullshit

The problem is that their motorcycles are junk. They look good on display, when you look at them from 15 feet away, but they are unridable, if you want to ride one on a regular basis, poorly made and once the reality show died, there ain't no point for them to continue.

I saw Paul Jr in Daytona Beach around 2006. I was drunk and he was on a moped eating a bag of Cheetos as he pulled out of the gas station and he waved 😂

What you expect from cake decorators,!! Just ask jesse james!!!!!!!!

It starts at the top. Sr and Jr couldn't get along and they didn't make FUNCTIONAL bikes. They made overpriced artwork you could (sorta) ride. A bike that was an OCC custom job was purchased for only 8k by another youtuber and was revealed to be an absolute nightmare and completely unsafe to ride

None of their bikes are usable. Unsafe and not street legal. The claims of value like the Geico bike were very inflated and the claims of HP of 300 were proven false.

Keanu Reeves has his own motorcycle company where his name as owner is as far as it goes leaving the quality of the bikes to his expert staff to good reviews.

Loved this back in the day.

I'll always remember the statistic that motorcycle theft had tripled since that show became popular.

This is the kind of video you get from someone who thinks they know how to make good videos but doesn’t, instead turning out tabloid grade crap.

My favorite build was the Barking Brown Spider bike built for the guy who replaced the original leather biker guy in The Village People.

Well, they now are at Florida with a giant building with a museum, restaurant and hundred of motorcycle riders everyday. So.... they just moved!

So the old man spent more than he made. And mortgaged everything up the yingyang to keep it going. _A tale as old as time._

Any chopper will break your body. Theres so many other bikes you can buy from proper factories that ride far better and have much more power than these junk 70hp Harley twins. Paul Snr always looked a real dork riding one of these crap creations with that clunge nugget half helmet he used to wear..

A buddy of mine bought one of the OCC bikes for around $70k and going up 575 towards Ellijay GA the thing shorted out and the battery on fire and burned up on the side of the road. OCC wouldn’t return his calls. After the bike was torn down to be rebuilt there were cracks found in the frame and the whole thing was scrapped for what parts were left.

That was just a show you watch it and become happy that your life is just way better than this misery. Happy its over, every moment of it was an embarrasment.

Biker build off was my show. They had this wild idea to actually *gasp* ride the bikes to the final competiton - on real roads and everything.

When egos clash, I'm not into motorcycles just cars and I've never seen this show but it sounds like typical family conflict, the fact that they were pseudo tv stars, they were probably told to be dramatic and it got out of hand.

I think that logo totally sucked from an esthetic perspective. At the expense of putting the wrong kind of emphasis on the integration of the lettering into the design they made it ugly. And yes, I’m a designer, and I ride, and I can do better, but no one asked me.

When I was a kid I thought this show was about hulk hogan

These newer voiceover videos are so incredibly lame. It's clear that zero thought goes into them as they're all AI generated, including the actual voice. Mikey "Tootle"?

These guys made a lot of money from uncomfortable bikes. Never could understand how anyone could ride those bikes.

Those who are so megalomaniacal fall very low and rightly so, period!

these bikes are ridiculously expensive SHOW bikes !! ... they are NOT street legal !!

They built the worst choppers made.

They were crooks. Paul Sr was a welder. They don't manufacture bikes. They put together junk parts & call it a designer bike. Many fell for it. Their shop was a circus.

He just made his own channel 10 days ago! Paul Sr. Unchained - So cool actually :D

I once saw Paul Snr riding around on a unicycle. He had a meat pie in one hand and a can of fosters in the other hand he was abusing the shit out of an old woman at the time.

I enjoyed the show for a bit, but it was pretty obvious that companies were buying bikes just so they could get a 45 minute advert for the cost of an over priced bike. Most of these things would never actually be ridden, and that's probably a good thing. Once the show was cancelled all of those companies buying bikes likely also disappeared.

The Hairy Bikers is a cooking show, nothing to do with bikes🤣

You pay yourselves millions then say the LLC is broke. Right.

A “chopper" is inherently uncomfortable, unstable and unsafe. Add to that a despicable human being who treats even his loved ones like garbage and what can possibly go wrong?

The last name is pronounced the same as Tuttle.

Quite fascinating how what was once one a very large show left so little extra to its stars. And they were stars, more well-known than many Hollywood A-listers.

As for styling of them there bikes: They mostly resembles chromed up bananas. No lines to be found.

immaturity and sheer stupidity from both of them

allen millyards youtube channel is a nice motorbike "show". and as a build show better than the biker buildoffs or whatever. everything fits just perfect and the cupcakes look delish.

They made some real over priced junk...one off garbage..any fool who bought this junk got hosed cant be street legal. They wiuld cut painted parts to make feet all junk

Decorating two wheel Cakes for people who ride once or twice a year..

This company sells their motorbikes through they are on TV. There are mass reviews regarding this company, you can always "Polish a sausage" so everyone thinks it's OK. I can admit that the series when they build motorbikes is really interesting, but I would never buy anything from them. This company survives only because a TV channel has made a series about them.

These bikes were never meant to be ridden, they were advertisements and tax write offs for the corporations that bought them

The in-fighting ruined the show. The antics were good for ratings, but most people got sick of the constant bickering. I heard the bikes weren't very good "riders" either.

their bike were crap...

Nice show

Auctioned off for 1.3 million… cost over 11 million to build😂

That house had 2 garages full of cars

OCC bikes were/are crap junk and lose their value quickly.

If The Hairy Bikers is a Motorcycle Centric Show...is the original Magnum P.I. a Ferrari-centric car show?

I think Jr made some amazing looking bikes as a designer and Rick and Vin worked really hard to finish them off.... As far as riding them...?

what happened to OCC ? they made over priced junk something you buy and hang it on a wall

"If we dont finish this dumb ass build in the next 3 days we're screwed!" Or we'll just finish it later... LOL reality TV BS

you showed a map of Orange County California

A Man unable to save His Business..use of Substance.and a broken Minded Person ..been Out of Control..Wat a loser

I never understood the appeal of choppers when they were popular. I was riding motorcycles when these were big but riding Ninja's and GSXr's...this was before I destroyed my back/neck/knees/shoulder, and I couldn't imagine having that awkward outstretched arm position for longer than 5 minutes. I remember getting sore riding in general after an hour while crouching forward...when I was half the age I am now, do all people who were into these have severe elbow issues now? haha. My wrecked body is from motorcycle accidents that I walked away from without going to the hospital (going 70mph and cut off on 2 of them)...although I still think I'd feel like shit if I had gone. I have double bone density so I only broke my hand twice and my foot once, the rest of my injuries were always ligament and muscle related, and with bones not breaking they definitely bent in different areas.

Like we need to ask. They made clown bikes for fools. What could go wrong? 😂😂😂

I always suspected OCC bikes were junk just watching how poorly they were put together.

Paul senior lives in my home town of Brooksville Florida. I have seen him numerous times around. Him and his wife frequent a restaurant that my sister is a restaurant manager at. The first time I saw him, I thought holy shit that guy could be Paul Senior’s brother and then I found out he lived here. I would have never thought he would move to small town Brooksville Fl. He actually lives a ways out in the country on a good amount of property.