American Chopper Bike Buildoff with Jessie James. Thoughts??

Cafe Society
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I enjoyed the 2 hour special of American Chopper that included Jessie James. It was very interesting to see how Jessie hand forged the chopper frame. Paul Jr. radically changed his style with a WWII Mustang inspired bike. Shiny Aluminum finish with brass trim and rivets. Totally different than anything I’ve ever seen Paul jr. do.

OCC?? :stuck_out_tongue: Well it was a bit lame IMHO. They built this snowmobile looking thing with wide tracks instead of wheels. It was a repeat of the Electric Bike they built a year or so ago. One guy damn near broke a leg trying to test it out. It required laying down on the thing just to drive it. It looked extremely uncomfortable.

I was very, very, very disappointed they didn’t follow the rules and program style of the Discovery Bike Build Off shows from 2004-2007. Remember those guys? Indian Larry, Billy Lane, Cory Ness, Arlen Ness etc. Legendary builders. The Bike Build Off kept it classy with almost no trash talk. **Best of all every builder had to ride his bike across country. ** These bikes were road tested to see if they’d break.

Well, American Chopper had to take the low road. First Jessie James trash talk was disgusting and embarrassing for any professional bike builder. To their credit both Teutuls avoided answering back with trash talk. Worst of all the bikes weren’t road tested at all. WTF is up with that? If you can’t ride a bike across country it’s not worth a shit. IMHO

Of the three Jessie’s was the only real motorcycle that probably could be ridden for real. Paul Jr’s only had a one gallon tank and that frame he had didn’t look like it would hold up under any real serious riding.

OCC’s crap wouldn’t make it 20 miles before the track came off. Or maybe the driver would slide off the thing and kill himself. :smiley:

I don’t know what Jessie’s problem was. I watched every episode of Monster Garage and can’t recall him every being such a flaming asshole. He really hurt himself with all the trash talk. It was just plain stupid and unprofessional. This wasn’t the legendary Jessie James I remember from West Coast Choppers. This guy looked desperate to rekindle his old glory. The bike he built was just a retread of the stuff he did in 2000.

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Pics of the bikes here. Click on the photo and you’ll get a full screen photo.

Paul jr.'s looks really cool. But, I don’t like how the rear wheel attaches below the seat spring. Looks pretty shaky. I wouldn’t ride it to Sturgis. No Way. Not without a support truck following me in case it broke down. Course with a 1 gallon tank this motorcycle can’t go on any road trips anyhow.

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[slight hijack]

I have watched American Chopper from time to time, because I like watching them create the bike.

However, the appeal of the “chopper” evades me. They look so uncomfortable to ride, with the rider’s arms spread out as far as they can reach just to get to the handle bars, and some of them let the riders spread their legs wide also, making balance next to impossible.

Honestly, I don’t know what the rules are any more… make the rider as uncomfortable as possible and you win? After a while, the bikes start looking the same to me.

Sorry to have slightly hi-jacked your thread.
[/sh]

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I watched it. IMO, Sr. picked that electric track-drive vehicle as a total cop-out move. He wanted to be able to say that he only lost because of the unconventional non-bike/electric design. Had he built an actual motorcycle and lost, he would have no excuses for losing.

As for Jesse James, he’s always been an arrogant dick from what I’ve seen from him in the past. But that sure was a nice bike. I was impressed by Junior’s bike, but I would have preferred to see him build a non-theme bike.

If I had my pick of all 3, I would definitely take Jesse James’ bike, even though I dislike him and I’m not even a chopper kind of guy.

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I only watched a few of Jesse’s old shows, but I remember him being a monumental dick on at least one of them. The challenge was to build a motorcycle powered by a semi-truck’s engine. The designers and builders involved in the build determined that a traditional, two-wheeled motorcycle was incapable of supporting the huge engine and the thing would be dangerous to ride, so they decided to make it a trike instead.

Jesse went ape, saying that it’d be the most pussy thing in the world and how could you wuss out and do it my way and on and on. It was really revolting. I was hoping that the builders and designers would say fine and build it Jesse’s way, so that when he went to ride it it’d turn him into a grease stain on the pavement. They didn’t, they made it a trike like they decided, and then Jesse thought it was great when it was finished. And I was pissed. Such a disgusting piece of work, Jesse James.

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I thought Paul Jr’s bike looked pretty cool on TV, but from close-up pics I’ve seen, it looks pretty cheesy, cheap even. And it has way too much going on. Jesse’s on the other hand looked like a real chopper, but his assertion on the results show that he built “everything you see” was obvious bullshit. And I’m no bike rider, so I’d like to ask those who know, how much of a “rider” is his bike when, as it appeared to me in a short clip last night, you can’t see over the gas tank and have to lean your head to the side just to see where you’re going? Agreed that Paul Sr didn’t try to build a real chopper, because he thought he would lose and didn’t want to suffer the humiliation.

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Paulie was impressed by the rivets and the four exhaust outlets on the Titan T-51 kit plane that was shown flying and sitting in the shop.

But the rivets on a real P-51 aren’t like those, and there are six exhaust pipes one each side of a P-51.

The tank could have been stretched for six exhausts, if they had known.

Are the three-bladed wooden propellers in the wheels a tribute to a World War I plane?

Paul Jr Design’s website claims it is inspired by features of WW II aircraft.

Sloppy work.

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Maybe the skin of a C-47 (DC-3) had rivets that stuck out like the “P-51” Bike.

And the 3-blade wooden props?

The P-51 has four-blade metal props.

The old C-47 had three blades, but they were metal too.

In summation, the bike was not inspired by a WWII Mustang at all, as aceplace57, The Discovery Channel, PJD and the TV episode claim.

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Inspired -> influenced. Plus, factor in artistic interpretation and adaption.

So, yeah, PJDs bike was “inspired” by the P51 Mustang despite some of the inaccuracies that have previously been mentioned. One thing to remember is that the shows do not depict the actual timeline for a bike build. You might think that OCC can build a bike in 45 minutes or whatever when in reality it can be more like a week. I remember back in one episode where OCC had stated that it took them six years to get everything dialed in to make a bike in a week. That’s everything from equipment on hand, personnel trained to operate such equipment, fabricators, assemblers, supply lines, etc. With PJD, being smaller, not having as much equipment plus the staff to support such equipment, probably takes more like three weeks if not longer. He probably had to put other orders on hold to make his bike for the contest.

I think that episode mentioned the timeline, a month, for the build-off? PJD definitely had to outsource a lot of the design work. Being someone who has actually done this, not to the complexity of a bike build, you end up making decisions in relation to cost and time. As much as you want to go the extra mile, you have a time deadline, and a budget to conform too. Also, there is also the “coolness” factor of having metal inlaid with wood. It certainly makes it stand out a lot more than metal within metal. Adds an extra degree of complexity as well. He also is trying to introduce design elements that he has not done before.

I will agree that I was looking for the “ride” at the end. Where they all meet like in the older episodes and then ride the bikes. But, I’m sure there were some contractual issues that impacted the timeline. I had the feeling that the show itself, not the bikes, was somewhat hastily done. They chose some venue in Vegas versus a bike show and the crowd was really small as well. And, what was it, 2,000 people entered to win an OCC bike? Only? Who knows what was going on in the background for this episode. Maybe someone was going to drop out at ay minute.

IMPO: I did not like any of the bikes. OCC was not a bike and I can not imagine trying to law down like that for hours on end. Propping your upper-body up like that and having to keep your wrists and hands free to control the thing. PJD is neat but it’s just too much for me. Especially his logos everywhere. And, I question the long-term reliability of that bike. It reminds me of concept cars where they look really cool but it’s just a shell. Jesse James: other than the stainless steel frame, made from scratch, it was kinda the same 'ol same 'ol. I don’t understand why he thought he’d win with a bike design that emulates a lot of his earlier bikes.