The Rise and Fall of Orange County Choppers... What REALLY Happened!?
In this video, we go through what REALLY happened to Orange County Choppers from the popular TV show: "American Chopper." Orange County Choppers' (OCC) merchandising division, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy a few years ago. Fans have been wondering what happened to the shop and its employees. We will uncover the poor financial management and sketchy business deals Paul Teutul Sr has made through the years to cause this filing.
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#OrangeCountyChoppers #PaulTeutulSr #AmericanChopper
There's a KZheadr 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 KZhead. 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.
TRUTH!
The KZheadrs channel is called Bikes & Beards. I just watched it right before seeing this. 😂 Your comment is right on point
neither said that
his channel is a croc and gave no reason at all except that of bike not started in years@@JAYTEAM187
@@1godgodgodgodgodhmhmm... Ok
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. 😆
Yeah some people really believe they own the world. Lol
Even Jay Leno says the bike they built for him was junk. It didn't handle good. and it was just junk
bot, same comments at every video. man, what leno says its just him opinion, thats ir. make your own, dont be stupid.
flashy, unrideable machines that cost a fortune and have no utility use whatsoever. What could go wrong?
make good boat anchors
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.
You speak the truth like Jesus himself, or Jay Leno
1975- “ I’d rather eat worms than ride a Honda.“ 2024- “ I’d rather eat a Honda than ride an OCC.”
Are you Paul Sr.?
He stopped taking steroids and his body deflated😂😂😂
I'm hollering 🤣 😂 💀
The bikes they built were crap. Young Paul had no work ethic and Sr. yelled at him. Reality TV at it's worst.
Have you ever touched an OCC bike ? The build quality is just fine. What you're forgetting is those bikes were built to the specs of the customers, as show displays. They were not actually made for riding.
@@thefreedomguyuk Are you really that stupid?
Mikey was just a bum, trying to shy from work 'im and artist'
@thefreedomguyuk useless junk. How do you even register and insure this garbage. Vin numbers,no registration for recalls,etc,..the stuff is scrap metal.
@thefreedomguyuk seen many and never saw one worth a shit... they made junk
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.
Biker build off was great. They actually *gasp* rode the bikes together on real roads...
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.
People finally realized what junk bikes they were selling for way to much money.
I wouldn't buy any of that junk that he sells.
not rideabul
But it looks good pinned to a wall :D
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.
Also, Paul Sr. insulated himself with "yes" people. "Yes" people are comfy short-term but catastrophic long-term.
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.
Okay, point taken. One can own and ride an OCC-bike and live another day 😂
@@EricLaermans I've never owned or ridden an OCC bike.
@@dabprod Would you ever admit you had one? 😅
@@EricLaermans Can you read? Why would I own one of their over priced pieces of junk, when I already have my own chopper. And have had them since the 60's.
@@dabprod Many reasons. You many times visited their showroom and looked at their bikes for sale. You even bought an OCC key ring. Perhaps you fancied Michael Teutel and considered proposing to him one day with this ring. You don’t have to be ashamed of having an OCC motorbike. You can still ride it without anyone noticing after sunset. Selling it might be a challenge.
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.
You dont buy or build a chopper for engineering or comfort. It's the two wheeled equivalent of a hotrod. The less practical, the better.
@@jakeviolet2195 Yeah, totally agree. Choppers are useless pieces of shit, ideal for the infantile type of man.
They were pretty much trailer queens. Only driven to/from presentation stages.
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.
Garbage bikes. Garbage TV.
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!
They also gave their corporate customers hours and hours of advertising through occ reruns on Discovery. These companies were buying airtime, not a bike.
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 😄
OCC was just as bad as Pimp My Ride. Producing over the top junk.
Jr famously said that the place would burn to the ground without him 🤷♂️
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.
Jesse James often said that OCC were nothing more than cake decorators.
the price gouging that happened after this series came out are what got me out of bike building...Larry was king though!
Loved russ mitchell with his exile bikes they were awesome
JJ sold overpriced boring bikes, and he is a Nazi@@messemphanger
@@messemphanger Jesse James was also a douche bag who was bitter because his show got cancelled while the Teutuls made a killing... they were smart in the beginning on branding out
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.
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.
It's a platypus lol if asked Mikey Rtard Tuttle
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.
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.
Ha ha exactly very similar to what’s happening with gender stuff now !- I am a real woman says a trans woman. Okay ,but somebody that likes to ride the real thing may spot the difference.! 😂
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....
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.
rigid frames (no rear suspension) are called BACK BREAKERS !!
You know the front springer simply does all the work ! You don't ride a hard tail for comfort, you ride it for the fun.
take off the shock absorbers on your car - see how long the fun lasts !!
Friend has an old Civic for his winter beater, back suspension is just blocks of wood. Rides like a gokart, but not fun on bumps.@@markhellman-pn3hn
** @Garage54ENG has entered the chat
I imagine they failed because they produced totally impractical, over priced, crap.
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.
You just made that up. Lol
Amazing how so many people bought into this shit
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.
i'm guessing people just woke up to the crap they was dishing out or got sick of the bullshit
It was a terrible show !! But, to be honest, it taught me a lot about how not to treat my kids !!
A mechanic told me; no gauges whatsoever no turn signals, brake lights no cushion, no suspension on seat belt dangerously close to leg while riding PLUS Paul Sr.= roid rage (getting mad at everything)
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.
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 😂
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
you showed a map of Orange County California
That was done on purpose.
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.
😂😂😂
@@veganhigler6541 that's the least confusing part of that statement... Honestly the one that made it real in my mind for a split second
Man this probably the strangest statements I've ever read lol
If he can do all those things simultaneously, he apparently is talented in at least one thing
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.
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
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!
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.
All started in a two car garage with Vinny and then Cody. He built a small empire and now it's a fading memory.
What you expect from cake decorators,!! Just ask jesse james!!!!!!!!
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.
Loved this back in the day.
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...
Solid! Top KEK! Peace be with you.
I'll always remember the statistic that motorcycle theft had tripled since that show became popular.
My favorite build was the Barking Brown Spider bike built for the guy who replaced the original leather biker guy in The Village People.
The Hairy Bikers is a cooking show, nothing to do with bikes🤣
... And has recently stopped due to death.
still more relevant to bikes than OCC every was. (functional bikes I mean.)
And it is shit !!!
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..
Weren't their choppers also known for being unsafe deathtraps on wheels? 😁
Well, they now are at Florida with a giant building with a museum, restaurant and hundred of motorcycle riders everyday. So.... they just moved!
Ok
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.
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.
He is great and not a loud mouth Ahole
Allen Millyard is a genius is the biggest understatement ever. He is a magician with a hacksaw.
Those who are so megalomaniacal fall very low and rightly so, period!
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?
immaturity and sheer stupidity from both of them
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.
Junk - who would buy one of those today after all this dirt ??
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
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"?
The last name is pronounced the same as Tuttle.
Correct. Our new voice actor mispronounced but it will be corrected in the future!
@@TunaNoCrustOfficialAI voice
these bikes are ridiculously expensive SHOW bikes !! ... they are NOT street legal !!
When I was a kid I thought this show was about hulk hogan
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._
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.
They're not real bikes, they're just pieces of art.
OCC the bike company that made unridable bikes
These guys made a lot of money from uncomfortable bikes. Never could understand how anyone could ride those bikes.
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.
They built the worst choppers made.
You pay yourselves millions then say the LLC is broke. Right.
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.
what happened to OCC ? they made over priced junk something you buy and hang it on a wall
He just made his own channel 10 days ago! Paul Sr. Unchained - So cool actually :D
As for styling of them there bikes: They mostly resembles chromed up bananas. No lines to be found.
If The Hairy Bikers is a Motorcycle Centric Show...is the original Magnum P.I. a Ferrari-centric car show?
Nice show
Decorating two wheel Cakes for people who ride once or twice a year..
Auctioned off for 1.3 million… cost over 11 million to build😂
OCC losers
A Man unable to save His Business..use of Substance.and a broken Minded Person ..been Out of Control..Wat a loser
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.
OCC bikes were/are crap junk and lose their value quickly.
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.
He left that train wreck in NY only to grace FL with more of the same. Buy him a beer mate.
I bet they still ride like crap too.
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...?
Like we need to ask. They made clown bikes for fools. What could go wrong? 😂😂😂
Hmm - reality TV and custom motorcycles. What could go wrong? 🤣
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.
their bike were crap...
The Nickleback of the motorcycle world.
Well said
More like the MC Hammer of the motorcycle world. Nickleback is still very popular and relatively down-to-earth.
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.
"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