American chopper

**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

Originally Posted by onearmedbandit

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.

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

**wkid_one** · 29th April 2005, 22:05

Originally Posted by SlashWylde

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

Originally Posted by wkid_one

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

Originally Posted by SlashWylde

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.