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Hitcher
28th April 2005, 20:53
Discovery Channel. Paul Senior, Paul Junior, Mikey, Vinnie. Two-wheeled American steel.

John
28th April 2005, 20:59
Discovery Channel. Paul Senior, Paul Junior, Mikey, Vinnie. Two-wheeled American steel.
Watched it a few times, its very very different - abit over the top.

But still entertaining and alot of skill involved. Much respect to them.

Timber020
28th April 2005, 21:03
I like the show, Paul Sr would be an arse to work for. They do good work though.
But seriously, how much of the bikes do they make? As far as I can tell they dont do the wheels, main tank fabrication, engines, frames, exhausts, carbs or paint. Doesnt leave alot of bike really!

Wellyman
28th April 2005, 21:16
Great show. My favourite actually as well as the MX.

dss3
28th April 2005, 21:27
I luv it aye, the father son relationship is surprising like where I work. Believe it or not I would say that my boss and his two sons actually shout more than Paul Sr... seriously!

Some of the bikes look a little boring where they have a frame ready built that they pretty much chuck a tank onto and drop in a motor. But other ones are real works of art. Especially all of the hand crafted parts, no computers used to work anything out, its all cardboard and trial and error.

Got to be the ultimate job, doing something you really luv, with your family, and (pressumably) making a lot of money at the same time. Did you catch the "american chopper marathonon" sky1 a couple of weeks back? Good times!

Who's keen to start up a NZ sportsbike equivalent!?

_daryl

Badcat
28th April 2005, 21:50
i enjoy it.
the bikes are not of my taste at all - but i love the paint and fabrication.
and it's fun to watch the old boy steam up..
hee hee

k

Kickaha
28th April 2005, 22:06
you forgot the option,the bikes are crap and so is the show :yes:

wkid_one
28th April 2005, 22:55
fabrication.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

You mean the cutting of supplied fenders, and extensions of supplied tanks - and bolting them on to supplied frames, and adding supplied wheels......

They are bike assemblers - not fabricators. Conceptually yes, practically no....without Justin (painter) and Da Vinci Wheels - they would be very little. How many times on that programme do you see them waiting and nearing deadline because they are waiting on SUPPLIED parts! Seldom are they delayed due to excessive fabrication!

They have only made one tank from scratch and that was just to prove to Paul Jr that Rick could do it.

They only guy I have seen fully fabricate is the Ozzy on Biker Build Off who made almost the whole bike from Alu by HAND. And with NO paint or bog.

onearmedbandit
28th April 2005, 23:55
wkid one is right, these guys are only in the assembly process. Saw a small bit about Jesse James the other night on C4, showed some solid billet blocks that were soon to be turned into rims. I believe they do mostly fabrication work there.

SlashWylde
29th April 2005, 00:06
Americal Chopper is cool. The Father-son BS gets tiresome pretty quickly but the bikes they assemble are cool.

I prefer the Great Biker Build-off. Awesome bikes built in record time, almost completely fabricated by the builders themselves. Then the guys ride them accross country to the shows, giving us highlights of some of Americas' most beautiful country vistas.

Two Smoker
29th April 2005, 07:21
Dont mind it, but hate it how they dont do fuck all fabrication... Jesse James and West Coast Choppers on the other hand..... pure skill and art...

k14
29th April 2005, 08:14
Gotta love how they represent the stereotypical white trash american family. With the compulsory senior and junior (how original).

I like watching it for its comedy value more than anything else, wouldn't be seen dead on one of the bikes but some of the things they do are cool.

Eurodave
29th April 2005, 08:25
"To be honest witcha", "I gotta tell ya" I feel that last nights episode portrayed Mikey & Vinnie as clowns fooling around & generally playing up while trying to "build", or should that be assemble another stretched out bike the same as all the other stretched out bikes B4. Who else liked Mikeys chrome german helmet?., imagine being seen in NZ wearing that anywhere other than a fancy dress party?
The only ray of hope Ive seen so far is the Dixie Bike powered by, of all things, a lawnmower motor. This is really the only original bike thus far.
All the others are S&S/ Harley clone motors.
I reckon they need to do more original stuff with unusual motors/ frames
But for all that, they are living the american dream, I myself love building bikes & parts for them as a living :ride:

Drunken Monkey
29th April 2005, 08:44
Those guys are pretty rough buggers though...few things like tyring to drill a hole in steel with a battery powered drill (don't they have mains power?) - hmmm, wonder why they burnt the drill out? And all the bog they use - The biker build off was cool, those Aussies built there one with no bog at all. Maybe if they spent more time & care in their 'construction' process, they wouldn't need so much filler to tidy up the finished product.

Wonder how they end up costing around US150,000 as well?

We build a lot of cool replica and kit car cars here in NZ, maybe we should tackle some custom choppers as well?

TwoSeven
29th April 2005, 11:06
I think the design of their bikes is crap, and they should learn about health and saftey as well.

However, sometimes you see one of them actually working (ie. welding, cutting, shaping etc), and you must respect some pretty good skills. I liked the episode where the guy builds the face of the statue of liberty. Thats some pretty good metal work.

Big Dave
29th April 2005, 12:46
I don't watch the show - If you want to see an old biker bitch and argue with his son - just come to my house.
I like their bikes however and I have some good mates with really wild child choppers back in NSW.
But there are some fantastic customs being turned out in Auckland.
The boys downstairs at AMPS manufacture some wicked custom harleys too.
IF you are interested in that type of bike - go and see Dave Anderson in their workshop and have a look at their artistry. Carlos Spencer and some other famous kiwis are on Road rage Customs or similar.
They are going to have a display at their upcoming open day
http://www.davidcohen.co.nz/open_day_proof.jpg
I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Ghost Lemur
29th April 2005, 12:50
wkid one is right, these guys are only in the assembly process. Saw a small bit about Jesse James the other night on C4, showed some solid billet blocks that were soon to be turned into rims. I believe they do mostly fabrication work there.

I've got the show he did that in.

It's called Motorcycle Mania 3. James decides to build himself a copper bike. You follow him as he goes out to the mid west and visits some old timer metal worker, who's an old mentor of his, and they do the tank. Watching the riviting work later on to join the two sides of the tank was cool.

Not a fan of choppers/cruisers but that guy does do some damn good work.

And the wheels you mentioned were each made out of solid blocks of metal. Him and kid rock (who Westcoast had just build a bike for) then took off to Mexico on their new machines.

During this whole thing you see James go from being single, to being married, to being single again. Which sort of gave some insight to this man driven to be a craftsman/artist in the traditional sense of the word.

All in all I really quite liked it. More so then the stupid series we're talking about.

THEY'RE ASSEMBLERS. Like 95% of the "Custom" world.

Flyingpony
29th April 2005, 17:46
Don't have a subscription to Sky. :doh:

:whistle: Might ring and find out if Sky finally has a plan where I can pick only the channels that I want to watch. :spudwhat:

Teflon
29th April 2005, 18:25
Excellent program.

World biker build off is also a good program.

Motu
29th April 2005, 18:26
I don't have sky so have never seen it either.I don't like Jessie James either,but I do like the fact he can really work metal,that a young guy is keen and wants to keep these old arts alive.When I stated working in 1970 there were still some of the old guys around,who learnt to work metal without using filler,when it was cheaper to pay the labour for one of these guys to make a complete door skin from a sheet of steel than buy a new one...4 guys with a sheet of steel on ''the wheel'' making a complete roof for an A40 Devon...

Back then we had a guy in Auckland who could work metal like no one else,he could also paint and upholster - we had our own ''chopper shop'',a Meca for guys who wanted something different,it was part of the little scene we had going,our focal point.We would just hang around and watch him work,hear the gossip,plan the weekend,swap parts....I still don't know how he did some of that stuff...

betti
29th April 2005, 18:45
Billy lane from choppers inc. and Russell Mitchell from Exile are the guys who really seem to put their skills to work and actually fabricate bikes, the stuff that Exile build is just proper EVIL
www.exilecycles.com
:devil2:

wkid_one
29th April 2005, 22:05
Americal Chopper is cool. The Father-son BS gets tiresome pretty quickly but the bikes they assemble are cool.

I prefer the Great Biker Build-off. Awesome bikes built in record time, almost completely fabricated by the builders themselves. Then the guys ride them accross country to the shows, giving us highlights of some of Americas' most beautiful country vistas.

You obviously didn't watch GBB then - the POM built the bike straight from supplied parts off the shelf - and the US team BOUGHT parts from him.

The main frame stay on the US bike was fabricated well - and he should have stayed with the bent sprung forks I reckon. And the only good bit on the Poms bike was the brake built in to the suicide shifter.

SlashWylde
2nd May 2005, 21:36
You obviously didn't watch GBB then - the POM built the bike straight from supplied parts off the shelf - and the US team BOUGHT parts from him.

The main frame stay on the US bike was fabricated well - and he should have stayed with the bent sprung forks I reckon. And the only good bit on the Poms bike was the brake built in to the suicide shifter.

Umm, yes I did watch the GBB. I have 14 episodes on my PC. Mmn Kay... I just make a brief statement summarising the differences which stuck in my mind between GBB and American Chopper, thats all.

On the whole I think guys like Billy Lane, Russell Mitchel and the late great Indian Larry are more inspired and more interesting builders than the folks at OCC.

Waylander
2nd May 2005, 22:06
Umm, yes I did watch the GBB. I have 14 episodes on my PC. Mmn Kay... I just make a brief statement summarising the differences which stuck in my mind between GBB and American Chopper, thats all.

On the whole I think guys like Billy Lane, Russell Mitchel and the late great Indian Larry are more inspired and more interesting builders than the folks at OCC.
Do you have the ones from the Wolrd biker build off? If so are they good quality and can you email them to me? Been wanting to see that since christmas but I don't have sky.

Late great Indian Larry? You mean he died? Ah shit. He was one of the few old school shopper builders that still hold true to that style. sucks

Waylander
2nd May 2005, 22:10
Shops like OCC or West Coast choppers have just become to comercialized for me. OCC even has a franchise in schinn bicycles, they put out one in the states shortly before I left. Good on them for making heaps of money and all that but they just arn't about the bikes anymore.

Waylander
6th May 2005, 17:53
Something for those that watch the show. And also kinda proves my point about the over comercialization.

Check this. (http://http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Motorbikes/Motorbikes/Sports-tourer/auction-26356431.htm)

saiko
6th May 2005, 21:35
Jesse James does it better.

Waylander
6th May 2005, 21:37
Jesse James does it better.
Yea I like the lower profile of his bikes, still don't like the franchise things.