This Build-Off competition proves again that it is mainly about popularity and not necessarily about the bikes. Paul Jr, this year, like last, demonstrates that he owns the TV audience regardless of how unpractical and sometimes goofy his bikes may look. You don’t have a 10-year show on a major network without being extremely popular. Why? It’s somewhat a mystery to many, especially to professionals of the motorcycle industry. Junior please the audience and won again because he was voted TV favorite builder by fans, not because he always build the best bike. Sorry, Paulie. In a Build-Off, should bikes only be part of the competition?
Discovery Channel Build-Off. Chopper Live – The Revenge. And The Winner Is Team Paul Jr.
Published by December 12th, 2012 in Builders, Customs and Events.110 Responses to “Discovery Channel Build-Off. Chopper Live – The Revenge. And The Winner Is Team Paul Jr.”
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They should then have a competition between the four teams and not divulge who built what bike and then have the voting take place. Although one may be able to guess who built which bike.
No surprise there. A decent send off to the era of chopper related TV programming.
Wonder if jesse was paid the most to do the show? If he hadn’t shown up what would the ratings be? I like how gas monkey gets second place to add drama before the winner is declared. I voted for the bike thats on this months cover of the horse backstreet chopper. lol did sr. and Jesse tie for buell buildoff??
God that was a terrible show…That MTV reject of an MC with the high pitch screaming almost sent me digging for the remote..what finally did was Lynryd skynyrd ….can we please move on from 1970’s southern rock as motorcycle anthem.
Am I the only one who noticed that Jr. ripped off the Arlen Ness 1995 ’57 Chevy Bike Nesstalgia design?
The boy with the giant nosrils should thank god for 14 year old girls and their ability to text vote.
If this was a real “Chopper King” biker Build Off by Hugh King, JR would be hard pressed to win.
Maybe they should be judged by their peers! Not that any of the bikes are bad but the general public doesn’t have a clue what they are looking at! For example, one of the shows I was in only a woman knew what she was looking At when she picked my 48 ridged custom apart. & the bike has a ton of hand fabricated parts ! The men were clueless,just like most of the audience/ voters!fast n loud built a nice street bike, but nothing any one of my friends couldn’t build in their garage,& I do like their show. But the creativity engineering n design that went into the other three were above n beyond! Pure individual fabrication talent goes to James!he has hands of gold! Paul junior has a very creative mind! Sr.has some decent ideas & has a talented team.By & large the show was entertaining for the most part! Chuck
What I liked in the biker builds on the Discovery channel a decade ago was learning about the bikes, and far from people being ticked at each other, there was respect and competitors wanting to see the other guys stuff.
Bring back authentic bike builders who are not part of the reality show branding. builders who are respected nationally for what they do, but not needing a tv show. Then you got me.
That said, I thought Jessie and Jr had the best bikes (can only judge by looks, not anything else).
And I hope there are more biker build competitions on cable in general. (remember Indian larry helping out one guy in one of the competitions get his bike started, not show boating, not a set up, no acting, no ego, just good, fair, and cool competition)
Your off in your opinion, Jesse had the most twitter followers of all four group by a good margin. How many specials had Discovery and own show on Spike?
Jr is good at what he does, and that’s supply a niche market with themed motorcycles. Love it or hate it there is a market for what he does. He’s not trying to be the best bike builder on the planet, just the best theme bike builder. Unashamedly at that.
LOL
…… Am I the only person who heard that regard of an MC say that Senior was the “godfather of choppers”???? Are you f@cking kidding me??? That title belongs to the one and only ARLEN NESS!! He should have been there, not those retards of gas smelly garage. Aaron is the only one who does any work there!!
I understand the anti-jr aspect because of the popularity argument but to say his bike wasn’t cool is just wrong. It was not as good as the Gears of War trike or the Cadillac bike but it was still very very cool.
Jesse’s concept was awesome but his ending result was rather ugly….his drawing actually looked better.
SR’s bike was rather cool…it looked like an industrial sport bike. I’m actually more of a fan of sport bikes than choppers but the show is called American Chopper and Chopper Live…though I think that is poor branding…it would be much better if the live shows was more in general terms than so in your face with “chopper”.
Aaron & Richard, Aaron does good work but his work is restoring not building. He made an old piece of crap look like a new piece of crap. That’s nice but it was still a bike that you basically fixed and assembled you didn’t really do anything creative or interesting. Richard is funny but does no actual work so meh.
My Ratings
JR (1), SR (2), Jesse (3), GMG (4)
It is actually hard to choose over JR and SR because I think SR is a dick but the industrial sport bike is a badass concept. JR’s just has so much style that it barely edges past the industrial sport.
My favorite was the Gas Monkey bike .I think all of them had their good points but in reality I want a bike I can ride, that holds enough gas to get me somewhere, is comfortable and nice to look at. The frame and tanks of Srs was cool, Jrs bike was just for looking at, JJs bike looked horribly uncomfortable and was ugly. All of them come across as pretty cool guys in the interviews except JJ, can he be anymore of a douche?
The Fast and Loud guys should of one just for the “fun” they brought to the show! There’s some “living” going on there!
Man that is crap the 67 Harley Chopper should have won. if it was not for Harley . their would be now choppers in the first place .So the have wit New York cry baby won that just proves how retarded this country really is and if it get any worse. I will move to Australia were the government is not in a financial crisis and the government don’t have its head up its butt . so thanks for ruining Motor cycles for the next generation thank you half monkey retards. you make me ashamed to be american.
and for further more that you are all Bigots for rapping the human right of millions of your fellow Americans that happen to be homosexual yeah go Nazi american rejects.
Paul Jr wins again with some oversized trailor queen, do these people who vote even ride a bike? Craftsmanship goes to Jesse, it’s about the best bike not about the popularity of a tv show. They should have done it the way they used to…meet somewhere and ride 600 miles to the rally and motorcycle riders voted on the best bike.
I’m convinced the American public are dolts,they re-elect an incompetetent loser ,now this…………………………..
That bike is an ugly piece of crapola. To compare it to Ness-stalgia is an insult.
Jr wins because the voting public are idiots and feel sorry for him. Sr or JJ should have won for building something different. Ass Monkey just copied everything they’ve read about in the A5 zines for the past 6 years.
Yuk!
I hate Paul Jr bike.
If it was not because he won this stupid build-off, Cyril would never pick Junior’s bike to be featured in his website. As a matter of fact none of them.
I thought the best shows were the Hugh King biker build offs & the original Motorcycle Mania shows with JJ. That said, I would rather watch this Biker drama show then Amish Mafia!
Gas Monkey was the best of the bunch. Built for the average rider and not meant to be a trailer
queen like that ugly POS thing that Junior put on the stage.
Sr and JJ bikes were just sport bikes. Yes,they both had loads of custom fabrication, but the average
40 something rider isnt looking for a humped over the handle bar looking like hes ready to take a shit designed motorcycle.
The CLEAR cut winner is Gas Monkey Garage.
JD HOOKER.
What a bunch of moaning baby’s. This was a “chopper” build-off. By description alone, Jr had it won. Sr and JJ did not produce choppers, and GM restored an old Harley. Now, having said that, I like the restored bike of GM, it had a lot of class, and I really enjoy their show, partly because it doesn’t have all the crap drama of American Chopper. Sr’s bike, while very cool engineering wise, was a small bobber. If he had put that design and engineering into a chopper, he’d won that competition hands down. JJ also showed up with something between a bobber and a crotch rocket. I hate JJ’s attitude about everything, but I respect his passion, knowledge and skills when it comes to building bikes. No one there can do what he does. He is a master fabricator in all aspects of the word. Jr had my vote. He put a lot of thought and effort into his design, and it shows. He built a “chopper”. He (like GM), finished his bike on time, which shows a lot about his designing, planning, executing, and delivering skills. I’m sure that popularity played a big part in the voting poles, but nevertheless, Jr had the best (only) chopper there. He is a young builder, and I look forward to seeing how is building style matures over the years to come. Jr also was the only one with some class when it came to the other competitors. He kept the personal comments to himself when it came to the builder bashing. All in all, four bikes were built; each showed its builder’s skill set; the vote was counted; it’s over. Maybe the next time Discovery will be more specific about the type of bike the competitors will build.
Hasn’t JJ ever seen the old biker build off’s. To say what he built has never been done is not true. Roland Sands built several sport bike HD’s. Buell mass produces them. A cool bike but it has been done before.
Sr’s bike was well done too. Jr’s needs to take JJ up on his offer. He has skill and creativity but he needs to drop the “theme” thing. He also needs to quit with the goofy exhaust.
Tom and Jerry did a resto. Nice but not exactly what I would have expected in a bike build off.
Gosh, the amount of butt-hurt is enormous, though not unexpected. The only correct thing the author said in this blog-rant was that it’s not JUST about the bike. It’s also about the process, the creativity, skills of course and for a part the personality.
By childishly persisting that Jr only won on personality, a potential win by JJ could be justified by him being a complete egomaniac a-hole. A win by senior because he’s loaded and a win by gas monkeys on having the luxury of being relative unknown.
Whatever personal taste, people should man the f up and recognize that Jr had the best cards in all areas that matter and that the win is fair and just.
If this is to hard to do, then maybe the problem lies with you. Grumpy conservative purist bikers who can’t keep up. I thought the chopper movement was born out of rebellious progressiveness!!
The thing I didn’t like was when dude said they are “the best builders in the world”.
BS! They are simply the best (only) builders on TV. There are tons of others out there that would have made it a much more interesting show!
It’s ironic that some of the posts say this should not be based on popularity. This was a show on prime time television live from Las Vegas (there are some true, pure build competitions out there, but they don’t rate prime time TV – remember, the television industry is a business). Jr’s bike was aesthetically appealing and still a “chopper” if you will. Aaron did a great resto-mod, but this was a “build” competition. Perhaps JJ and Sr lost because they are extreme narcissists or perhaps because they brought sport bikes to a chopper competition. They were both pretty unique and pretty cool bikes, but not choppers. Fortunately for both of them, all of the voters were just stupid and they each built the best bike ever since the dawn of time (this is sarcasm, for those of you who missed it).
Turned off as soon as the host started prompting for trash talk
I would have liked to hear about the bike details…
That was an hour and a half of my life i will never get back. At least i learned about the history of the tommy gun in my guns and ammo mag hoping the reading would ignore the most non biker host in the planet. Come on, they could have deep dived into the specs and challenges of at least the gas money bike and JJ sportbike.
Hey Jesse, all that hard work and you built an Buell S1 Lightning. He should has stuck with the original concept 70’s bubble fairing for a retro look. Your so badass, you can even talk when your asked a question. And you wonder why you have so many personal problems! What? Were you really going to fight someone for saying the truth about your personal disgraceful actions. Go back to being someone never thinks about because we all love those hideous master cylinder on your handlebars.
The fast and loud guys should have won.
Jesse James is full of punk ass lame ass same ole same ole….
Jesse and Sr. need to tag team Bombshell MaGee and just MAN UP…they both remind me of the submariners creed…150 sailors down and 75 couples up….drama drama drama…
Voting hahahaha….You should have known it cocked to start with.
Like I said yesterday here
Git Real Dec 11th, 2012 at 5:35 pm
Jr. gonna take it by a landside.
GM 2nd.
The hell with JJ and SR…egotistical infidels.
Git Real
I disagree that it was a popularity contest. I think the right bike won the build off.
Reason one, FastNLoud flipped a bike they did not build a bike. Reason two, Jesse and Sr. Built these cafe type bikes that although nice looking, they looked structurally off as if built for children and certainly not a comfortable ride. reason three, Jesse may have been allowed to stay in the competition but his own banter took him out of the competition, after all his chest thumping and bragging last year about his glorified ape hanger bike that you can’t even drive without risking an accident due to No visibility he comes out this year and says he half assed last years bike. Really Jesse?. My fiance who refuses to watch american chopper looked at the bikes and came to the same conclusion as America last night. The right team won the event based on the parameters that should win a bike build.
Two hunch backs of Notre Dame , A super ugly batmobile bike and a true chopper that the motor didn’t come in a box. The Buell remakes were last, the Batmobile won but the true chopper was the class of the show and the only true CHOPPER! JJ and Senior should team up and for a show called the Butt Hole builders!
I voted for the bikes I would like to ride the most, not who built them. My results were the same as they order that they won. I think sport bikes suck!
No surprise unfortunately . When it comes to ” Reality ” TV .. BS triumphs over Substance every time . And yes Godfather I noticed the blatant Ness Rip off right off the bat . Except when Ness did it it made sense . Paul Jr’s just looking like a mish mosh of ripped off ideas stuffed under the cover of too much chrome and paint to hide the reality underneath .
I noticed more than a few of you turned the show off after a bit which was a whole lot better than I faired . Two seconds of the first half Monday was more than I could take of all the Discovery Channels scripted ‘ reality ‘ BS . Everything from JJ being late to the so called winner ….. scripted from day one for your entertainment and ( cough ) enjoyment
Seriously guys . No one here believes anything on this or any other ‘ Reality TV ‘ show is actually real and not scripted now …. do you ? 😉
So bye bye Paulie . Off to Has Been Obscurity Land for you sonny boy . You won’t be missed … trophy or not . Whereas assuming Jesse doesn’t self destruct I’m betting he’ll be around for years to come
Jessie looked ridiculous coming out there on that bike. It looked like that old gag of a clown riding a micro-minibike.
Once again, the kinder, gentler, new-age, non-riding public shuns the 3 rude, crude and tatooed bad boys and votes for a weenie car-bike. Un – f’n – believable!!!!!!!!!
My wife actually sat and watched it with me last night. She never watches the show, but definitely has an interest in bikes since I ride and she likes to ride with me. She voted for Jr’s bike about halfway through the ordeal.
Her biggest reason was this. She asked me “Which bike will you remember a year from now?” I had to admit that Jr’s bike was probably the most memorable of the four, but that it wasn’t necessarily for good reasons. She said that doesn’t matter, the one most memorable is all that matters.
I voted for Sr’s bike for its’s technical/proportional look, and had the GMG guys as my second choice and the bike I’d like to actually own.
That, and she said JJ was an absolute dufus and it turned her off bigtime, not that she liked the buellish bike he came out on anyway.
I FEEL IT SHOULD HAVE A SET OF RULES AND EQUAL PLAYING FIELD SAME BUDGET SAME EQUIPMENT AND OPEN IT TO EVERYONE NOT JUST TV SHOW ASSES. THERE ARE ALOT OF SMALL SHOPS AND BACK YARDERS BUILDING AWSOME PRACTICAL SAFE BIKES NOT USLESS SHOW BIKES
All the reality shows, the gold miners, the fisher men, the loggers, the “bikers”, the gun builders, etc. are all designed to be the new “Soap Operas” with all the re-takes, and added in confrontation. We get all the drama, with little knowledge of actually how to do the job.
I think Paul Jr got the message from last years Build-off. This years bike was much more practical. Sr. stepped up and had a wonderful design….. Jesse can’t say he bought that frame. Jesse did not help himself with missing the deadlines. All in all, Discovery was the winner. Too bad others were not invited.
I’m sure glad I didn’t watch the show.
TV is for entertainment and as it went I found the host to be annoying and lame, as well as Skynard a dated mismatch for the demographic. I liked all of the bikes except the PJD bike. Senior stepped out of his comfort zone and I liked what he did, Jesse of course built something crazy and even though alot of folks have done the v twin in a sport chasis it looked like a fun bike to ride, Gas Monkey made a solid clean rider and I liked that bike too. I miss Melrose place ( Just Sayin’).
The only thing worse than the actual show is some of the comments on here… Fucking hysterical… I think my wife (who had been around bike her entire life) nailed it when she said it would be a whole lot more entertaining to here about the actual bikes and the builds vs. JJ claiming how bad-ass he is or Sal trying to start shit between JJ and the GM guys. What a joke of a show.
The whole ordeal was like eating a loaf of stale bread under florescent lights; eyes began hurting and stomach got quezzy. A real mental and physical struggle to endure.
Lynard Skynard? Hipster host? Flickering lights on a stage with animated audience members?
It was like a really cheesy Euro TV game show OR a Government mind programming exercise gone bad.
Oh wait, those were motorcycles they were using as a device to keep the viewer’s attention?
My choice was the ‘pure’ OS chopper built by GMG. JJ talked trash and BS and his bike was uglier than the Buell it copied. Senior has little to do with building bikes these fays. I’d call the GMG bike a hot-rod and the PJD bike a custom. Both were fine examples of their type.
I’m tired of Jesse. I can’t fault his skills, except his onterpersonal ones.
That was a 1.5 hour commercial for Discovery Channel with little to no information or entertainment.
Here is my humble opinion about the melee. Three “teams” with every machine and material available to them vs. a few guys in their repair shop. OF COURSE the Gas Monkey guys arent going to have some tricked out lavish bike.. they are the most regular guys in the comp.
Gas Monkey bike,- sure you could look at is as a restoration, but I only see a lathe and milling machine in their shop, no waterjet, powerhammers, CNC turning centers, etc. Im pretty sure that all three othe teams forgot that they too came from the SAME place as these guys before Discovery gave them all TV shows and an influx of money. I still stand by that OCC, PJD and JJ would not be where they are today without Discovery….and Wal-Mart.
OCC bike could have been really, really nice if it wasnt for that awful fork setup… that was the only unappealing part of that bikes appearance. Well, that and Paul Sr. sitting on it. Built by many.
The Paul Jr. bike was interesting but not my cup of tea. the flat black, as usual, makes the vehicle look more unfinsihed than badass. the paint work wasnt that impressive, and way less that what I would expect for a championship bike. Again, built my many.
Jesse James, holy crap… still the same cocky attitude, and claiming he’s the badass, yet still has a whole bunch of people coming in to help him because he CAN’T do it all, jus tlike last year. The bike looks odd with the steep forks, but as said before the fab work is great! I just cant figure how he thinks its something different when it looks the same as a Wakan bike. He has A LOT of talent, no doubt about it, but he has even MORE ego. Built by many.
As for the 6week deadline…. Discovery should have taken a page from stupid show Monster Garage and crushed any bike ( like they did that poor Anglina) that wasnt finished on time. Six weeks? Not done? SMASH!!!!
The after party on board like is just as entertaining as the show itself. It’s monstrously hilarious seeing people go ballistic over the fact that a their sense of style, taste and what’s supposed to be right isn’t the same as that of the majority!
All excuses for rejecting the end-result are more fabricated then a JJ or OCC bike and only hide the fact that the writers can’t stand other people having opinions.
It’s a human circus freak show! How do you people survive in the real world where differences of opinion have real measurable consequences?
The fact that you have a bike does not make you voice more important.
The fact that you ride does not make your vote count more heavily.
The fact that you like a certain style does not mean this style is better
The fact that you prefer one approach over another does not mean everybody should.
PjD won, deal with it, enjoy being a minority!
It was a very lame show and i wonder if all the contestants were embarrassed about being a part of this. Watching this was torturous, hopefully someone will cover a world class build off with open entries one of these days. that would be a show worth watching, this was not!
I like what all of you write. We all know the players and the game. No one should be surprised. What I really didn’t like was, the whole damn show was some type of adds for all the sponsors or Discovery. They had the builders lead into the ‘promo movie trailers’.
The builders, the bikes, same O’ – same O’…. We could all guess what everyone has posted. But the production of the show sucked donkey &@($&@&$….. Like Dave Hester said, the whole show is fake (storage wars)
SUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to all ya’ll, ya’ll… where was mean Gene to MC the whole thing like some bad wrestling pre-match interview…
Pjd built a nice bike and has good vission. maybe not practical but cool looking. The V8 logo is lame and he needs to get over the header look. Senior just has too much $, guys and computer doing his work….no respect. Monkey guys basically did a resto mod and went after the HD fan base. Jessie with the most fabricating skill talked too much trash (again) and I think it hurt him. If I was junior I’d take Jessie on his offer to get some real fabrication skills. Might make for a good show.
None of these guys have won or even been invited to the AMD world biker build-off which is arguably the pinnacle of bike building contests.
It really was a lame-ass show, and what was with the MC! I think all 4 bike builders have lost what the real fans wanted to see. It is a shame.
Not the best of their shows, but this was done to make a bigger commercial for Discovery Channel. The show was lame.
Didn’t watch. Don’t think I missed much.
This is not the end folks. There will be a junior or sr spin off show.
No matter what……if you were jr……..its all about keeping your brand in the spotlight and he is doing just that. Like him or hate him.
For me……take me back a decade…….pretty please!
Ks
pjd makes pretty bikes that are unrideable and unserviceable with all that crap tacked on.
jesse is a master at fabrication. the gas monkey boys did a good job on their bike ‘fred’. i knew fred in his original state. they produced a great , true ‘old school’ bike that was not garrish and could be ridden.
i MISSED IT. i WAS IN THE GARAGE FINISHING THE WELDS ON MY HARDTAIL FRAME.
Just more staged TV bullshit & typical Las Vegas rip-off artists. I doubt any of these builders or their motorcycles will get an invite to a real show such as 2013 The Grand National Roadster Show.
It doesn’t really matter what JJ builds as long as he continues to act like an ass,,,,he’s not going to win a popular vote. I don’t care is his theme. Well, if he don’t care, then why all the damn whining?????
It was a CHOPPER build off folks. Gas Monkey Garage CHOPPED a ’67 FL, on time, and rode it to the show. THAT’S HOW IT’S DONE!
It’s sad to see this joke of a show, and I for one am glad that I won’t have to be bombarded with any more jr or sr “bikes”. It’s supposed to be about the bikes and it should be about bikes that can be ridden hard and ridden regularly. I’m not really crazy about Jesse’s bike BUT, he built what was in his mind and what he wanted…..and to hell with what others think. Isn’t that where the whole chopper/make a bike yours came from? Craftsmanship doesn’t come from a CNC machine or bolting on a bunch of gaudy crap, it comes from the sweat of your brow and having a passion for what you’re doing. That’s why I appreciate the bike Jesse built and the one Gas Monkey built.
Just goes to show that this show was geared towards the yuppies / casual riders that never really put miles, time, and memories on a bike headed down the back roads.
Just my two cents
This show was a disgrace to the entire industry, the people building bikes for a living, parts manufacturers and portrayed an industry that bashes people, talk about their family issues on TV, drink beer while listening to “Sweet Home Alabama” (are you kidding me? this was the music choice??? nice cliche, morons….).
It was predicted that Jr’s bike would win because it was the one with the most “in-trend” appeal. I am very glad that Gas Monkey came out second, not because the bike was cool (which it was) but because they were able to place before Jesse James or Sr. with a 45-year shovelhead bobber, painted in pink. To me there are the real winners just because they won the public vote with a $5000 bike and didn’t have people behind them to help, expensive CNC machines, and other than some bad comments, they were able to compete correctly.
The show was absolutely disgusting, where out of 2 hours, 85% of it was to try to make people fight on stage. Everybody was uncomfortable with their answers, no real interviews (harder to actually be good on TV when nothing is scripted, huh guys? —- Jesse, why did you build this bike? huhhhhh I don’t know….), no real interest or comments from competitors on the bikes or the technology behind them, no nice shots of riding them, 20 seconds at the end of the show to crown the winner who didn’t even get a chance to thank people on TV, a host that absolutely shouldn’t be there and a musical choice that basically brought back all the crappy cliches of this industry.
Not only the entire thing was embarrassing, it showed once again the industry as a bunch of greasy losers who don’t have anything else to show than trash talking each other, fighting in casinos, cheat on their wife(s), and trying to compensate for something. Considering what 10 years of American Choppers brought to the industry, it was the worse way a production company could have ended the show. From a marketing perceptive, it was suicide. Of course, Allstate was interested in gathering phone leads with the voting by text and they probably got what they paid for.
Everything else was pure crap… I’d rather watch an episode of Dance Moms a this point. I lost total interest and respect in all those stupid morons who think they are better than slice bread because they know how to bend a piece of tubing.
Does someone knows what the exact results were: Jr. (1), Gas Monkey (2), Sr. (3) and JJ (4)?
The biggest loser of the bunch is Jesse James with his big mouth, shitty attitude and knock-off 20-year Buell design. Sr.’s bike probably deserved to be 2nd. But I don’t think the public realized the amount of technology behind it. Congratulations to Jr and GMG.
This show and entire masquerade reminded me why I don’t hang out with industry people anymore.
I certainly don’t miss it.
It amazes me that just because Jesse says it people think it is true. Eric Buell built the HD engine sports bike years ago. Don’t forget Sr. had one on stage too! If Jesse had this bike “in his head” 10 years age why did it take him this long to build? He sure didn’t have much of a plan. Also Bert Baker had to come in and help with the build. How is that fair? Imagine how different the other builds would have been in that time limit. Jesse even admitted that he “phoned it in” last year. Weak excuse he forgot how to use his tools???? Last year he said he was the only one to build a real & rideable chopper (JUST LIKE GAS MONKEY) and therefore he should win. By his standards he Gas Monkey should win. Funny how he and most people forget what he says.
He brought a sports bike to a Chopper Show. He claims it is a popularity contest yet he is the most popular? The right bikes won first and second. Gas Monkey was so underfunded, but they beat the rich giants!! The lies sure do come out of Jesse’s mouth very easy. I’ll bet Sandy must have laughed when Jesse had to sit there quietly with his head down while they decided his fate. For a guy who did not care about the build he sure wanted to win…
Funny how Discovery wanted Jesse to win. Seems they have a big investment in his new show. He even gets American Chopper’s time slot. Anybody willing to admit that Jesse has become the new Paul Sr.? He mostly just brags and belittle the workers, just like Sr.
I doubt that Discovery wants to let us know how much money they made so we probably won’t get the real numbers. From what I saw on another poll it was PJD @59%, Gas Monkey @ 20%, Jesse @ 13%, and Sr @ 7%
I can see those numbers being close to accurate. I think it is funny that Gas Monkey got almost as many votes as Jesse and Sr. combined. I guess the “Real Garage Builders” have spoken. I’ll bet Sr is really bashing his son with Jesse. Poor Sr., he bought a car from jesse and sided with jesse against his own son, just to keep jesse from picking on him!! He sure is afraid of Jesse!! Very sad old man. And he still doesn’t understand why his kids stay away from him.
Think about this, OCC has to return to TV to get the big $250,000 infomercial builds because of national exposure. Sr. will still get the glorified production bike casino builds, but probably not many. They can only rely on tourist t-shirt money for so long, and their production bikes blow. If the restaurant sells alcohol, it will help sustain for a while.
When Jr. gets his tv show (and he will) he can/will use the same formula to make his “production company” or whatever it is to grow business.
Why and where in the hell did the get the mc? Poor Choice…… With Discovery Channels contacts it should have been a judging panel of fabricators, etc….. I won’t be watching again.
Jr’s four exhaust pipes would’ve been a whole lot cooler coming out of four cylinders.
@ Ron:
If Paulie did get a show, it’s not going to last. Without the drama of the Teutuls fighting, people won’t watch it. As far as appealing to the biker community, Paulie (in my opinion) is out of touch of what people are looking for in buying a bike.
@Irish Rose
I think that is a bit cynical. A lot of people have enjoyed the shows where the Pauls rebuild their relationship. Without the drama focus lies on the build and a lot of people like that too.
You can’t say that people watch occ for the drama and JJ for the skill or the other way around. that is hypocritical.
Paul, Jr. can load up his jap truck and leave this planet. He is a traitor.
I would have liked to have gotten the 1967 Electra-glide named ‘Fred’ and restore it.
Waste of a good ‘Classic’ in my opinion.
Smaller lighter Harley, get a Sportster
jrs bike looked the best and he won again. sr bike was nice ,not as nice as jrs,jesse bike looked a bit strange and would have burn you if ridden for long ,like the gas monkeys guys said. anyway sr an jesse should retire they had their time ,years ago.
Jr was only the winner because all the under 21 crowd that has never swung a leg over a bike, didn’t mind spending mommy and daddy’s money sending a text to discovery channel. Did I watch the show NO!!! I could not stomach the dribble, Boring host’s, please someone shoot the guy who keeps hiring lynrd skynrerd (sic) for biker shows. It is getting old, no one younger than 60 wants to listen to the same old southern rock that was only marginally popular in the 70’s I never listen to them then or now. I wanted to gouge out my eyes and punch holes in my ears.
The only “real” winner?? Discovery Channel for suckering so many people into watching this mindless dribble. The only real loosers are all the people who beg for real BIKE programming which has been so lacking in the past 5 years at least. PLEASE someone listen bring back quality bike programming .
ZZZZZZZ !!!!!!!
Um, Ick, Snort, what did I miss????
Looks like NOTHING !!!!
Jr. copied Ness
Sr. & Jesse copied Buell
Niice refurbushing job by Fast & Loud guys, but nothing new & not a chopper
Lots of noise & saying/showing,again, NOTHING !!!!
I’m comment 76, are we going for 100 ???
LOL !!!!
American Chopper Live had a TV audience of 3,900,000 viewers. All Nielsen results are here. http://goo.gl/3QAZP
Are you kidding me? I cannot believe I watched the whole show. i expected something entirely different. All I saw was a “goodbye show” for Jr and Sr. All of the bikes should have been “choppers”. What? Whats the name of the show? “American Chopper Build-Off: The Revenge” Yes, that was it. “American Chopper Build-Off: The Revenge”. How quaint there were only two choppers. What? My wife hated so much, she doesn’t even want to take the time to add her 2 cents. I dont blame her. I don’t really know why I’m wasting my time throwing in mine. I can’t wait for the next biker “fake” crap show to hit the airwaves.
Who cares what the Nielson results are?????
I want to know what the vote count was Doh!
@ deucyycued,
A new show from Pilgrim Studios is in the works to replace American Chopper.
A soon to be Motorcycle Restoration program is looking for a shop.
Another soon to be televised dysfunctional program portraying motorcycle builders as idiots.
http://pilgrimstudios.com/casting/bikeflippers/
I agree with Littlerider22 – This show was a disgrace to the entire industry, the people building bikes for a living, and bikers in general…
One of the best things about the Hugh King Biker Build Offs was that they highlighted the build process and then the builders actually rode the bikes after they were built. (or it appeared that was the case).
I say the builders should have ridden the bikes from Phoenix to Las Vegas as part of the show.
Wonder why Jr. doesn’t talk about the PP100 Indian engine he uses in his bikes. I understand they are the junk ones from the 2002-2004 Gilroy ere. However they have supposedly been rebuilt and updated to more reliable standards. Somebody has skills to take and put that header exhaust on the bike and actually make it run. I’m sure non of the 4 bikes on the show meet any emission standards but that’s another subject. Anyway, my thinking was with Polaris getting ready to release their new Indian bikes in 2013, this would have been a great opportunity to talk about the engines Jr. uses.
irish Rose, I could really care if Paulie gets a show or not. As far as not lasting, nothing lasts forever. I was just saying it would really help his other venues. But then who thought crab fishermen, alligator hunters, loggers and such would last. You never know if a show will catch on or not!!
I have to laugh at the people who hate the show, but tune in to watch it. What were they really expecting? If they are intelligent, they know that all everything on tv is “not real”. Much of the old build offs were faked. I am just glad to have some type of motorcycle show to watch. If you don’t support the genre, you won’t get any more “motorcycle” shows. If there were no Jesse shows or OCC shows, most people would have never heard of Indian Larry, Billy Lane, Mondo, Ron Simms, Trotta, Covington, Kendell Johnson, Perewitz, Finch, Yaffe, Fairless, Martins, and many others. The motorcycle business would never have grown to what it is today. For that I thank them both Jesse and OCC.
I thought that the Bikes from Sr., Jr. and Jessie were all Great. The idea’s and craftmanship were Fantastic. The Fast and Loud Dudes were really way out of their League. They have No money compared to the other 3.. I really thought that Jessie was the Biggest “Jerkoff”. He is so in Love with himself that he has created a new image of Himself. if one thought Jessie, is a Legend, that would be an Insult to Jessie. He believes he is the God, the Allah, the Messiah of Motorcycle Manufacturing. He appears to be a total, Ass ! I am sure that Cyril might edit my opinion. Cyril, He is a real “SCHMUCK”! I am sorry to report this Truth about your Hero.
And now we find out that the production co. for Storage Wars on A&E is stuffing the storage units with all the good booty? What a Shock that a Reality TV show would do such a thing…..I’m horrified !!!!!!
REALLY !!! 🙂
SSDD;David
Let’s go to 100 comments to show that we didn’t watch the show!
@ Ron…. dude open your eyes… the OCC show or Jesse show have not helped the industry. It helped the t-shirt and mug industry, the insurance companies who sponsored the shows and built database of customers, and a couple of people gravitating like coyotes around those guys.
The people who watched the shows are the same people watching Gold Rush, American Pickers, Deadliest Catch and the Price is Right. They don’t buy OCC bikes (how many have you seen on the road? and from which dealer network??), they don’t give a shit who Billy Lane is, or rush to buy a $80,000 Arlen Ness bike. The buy a t-shirt and a mug because they can barely afford to keep their house. All those other guys got about 2 years of “fame” and now everybody is gone. Take 90% of the people watching the OCC show and I bet you that you can show them a picture of Perewitz, Yaffe or Trotta and none of them would recognize any of them.
What the OCC show brought was the introduction to products to the public (household stuff, destinations, etc…). It’s a marketing show where everything is scripted and designed to promote certain products or services. It’s not helping Baker sell more transmissions or Renegade sell more wheels. It helps the Dell Computers, Inc. marketing department because they have their banners on the back of the screen for one hour in prime time, or Skill Saws do a product demo for 4 minutes while Jr builds them a bike. Cost a lot less money than a 30-sec commercial on Discovery. Period.
Nobody learned anything from this show, other than the fact that a CNC machine can basically build a bike on its own. Major distributors in this industry did mot get involved once in 10 years!!! HD barely did in the last couple of years or so.
All what this industry can bring to TV is tits, a couple of burnouts, 2 jackasses fighting over who took their screwdrivers, and couple of nice riding shots on the back roads of Florida to boost plane tickets sales during the high season. Biker Build offs didn’t triple the sales of anybody. Last time I checked, a lot of shops have not survived, HD has closed a lot of dealerships, parts manufacturers have downsized, brands have disappeared.
Believe me, it takes a lot more than a bunch of retards on TV comparing dick size and fighting about who gets company shares and lot more than banging ugly strippers behind your wife’s back to build credibility and sustainability. I can bet you $100K that corporate bike building for Jr and Sr will go down 80% now that the show is not on TV because there is no leverage or interest if their company logo is not featured for an hour on a Monday night.
Dave Hester is Da Bomb. I love fake storage wars. I understand one of these build off bike will be in a storage locker. All this stuff is fake. Lol
Discovery is ending a few guys and prepping for the next stage, que up billy and a few new dudes. It’s in the works. Your bike “shows” are not going anywhere. To much add money to make.
All these post crack me up. I love it. Keep posting.
@Littlerider22
I didn’t realize most “real riding biker fans” also ran demographic research facilities!
But I don’t think that these shows ever made it more difficult for real bike riding demographic scientists to buy or build your own bike and just ride it.
Or do you have a problem with the fact that “the industry” also caters to the wants and needs of other people? Perhaps your real riding biker bike is considered mundane and ordinary and it’s that you can’t stand. Really, it’s all reeks a bit of performance issues on your part.
Perhaps in stead of rationalizing your misguided egocentric feelings with bogus numbers, useless assumptions, conspiracy theories and generalisations, you should just admit to yourself that you are a conservative biker who hates that the majority does not share his tastes, likes and dislikes.
@ovxnulla. I am confused by your email. I am not sure any of this has to do with real riding biker fans or performance. I never questioned any of this in my statement above. I study these things for a living and I have some rigorous facts and numbers, as opposed to you. I am not sure where you get your negative comments from here. I never said the show did stop people from buying anything related to this industry. I am just telling you that shops who stayed in business, people who engage in honest business and kept their customers made it possible, a lot more than wrenching on a bike on TV or shooting guns while drinking beer.
Please explain your “industry” caters to the wants and needs of other people? what other people? The definition of biker has changed dramatically over the past 10 years and there are certainly not misguided feelings or assumptions here. Just plain facts. See not only I am not a conservative biker, but what I actually do around this industry and others is to find new ways to create dynamics. I can tell you that this particular industry is the most conservative ones I have ever worked for. At the exception of a very few select people, most of everybody has done business the same way as 25 years ago and they hate change.
All I was saying is that watching a show on TV (as bad as it was), did not change buying habits from “real” bikers, new bikers, conservative ones or not. It had a very limited effect. And I can tell you that numbers of parts sales, bikes sales or service slips won’t move up and down now that the show is gone. It will stay the same. TV doesn’t help industries unless it’s mainstream (this industry is not). People working everyday at their shop or dealership are the one driving the industry, not Jesse James, Sr, Jr or anybody who had the opportunity to be on TV for 20 minutes.
Please go ask Big Dog, Saxon, TP Engineering, Custom Chrome, S&S, and many other how these wonderful shows and ‘connections’ has helped them over the past 5 or 6 years. I actually worked with 5 of the companies who have had bikes on these shows…so Voxnulla, I know a few things you don’t here. Don’t make yourself look like you do. We’re not playing in the same league here.
Littlerider22, I said that these shows helped make the industry bigger than it was. How do you explain the growth of motorcycling in the last 10+++ years? I did not say everything was great about it. I know that most of these people make the bulk of their money selling T shirts, that includes Jesse. Trust me, none of this is new to me. I have been riding over 43+ years., raced motocross, and still have 7 street bikes in my garage all immaculate. They all run and I do my work. I have seen tons of people who watched tv and bought a bike. I have seen tons of people sell these same bikes. I have a close friend that never rode a bike before. He watched OCC 8 years ago with me, and now he is a member of the largest 1%er club in the world. Is he a “real biker”? That is really more of a question I would ask to these people that are always throwing around the term “real biker”. Funny how reality really is. As for as you saying about “corporate bike builds” diminishing for OCC. I already said that in my post above. No new news there!
These shows also have influenced hundreds if not thousands of new “garage builders” too. So tell me Is that Wrong? Selling T-shirts really isn’t wrong either. Small local shops do it as advertising AND as a way to help pay their rent!! Is it wrong for the “real” builders, Ness, Perewitz, and the rest to sell t-shirts? People like you that say/think people like OCC “HURT THE BUSINESS” are just repeating what some other fool said. How are they “hurting” the business? They definitely aren’t causing people to not buy motorcycles. If you are old enough to remember they said that Hells Angels were destroying motorcycling. I’m sure the same thing was said about Ness in the beginning of his career. They didn’t! Just because you don’t like something (OCC) does not mean it is not all bad. Whatever your personal beef is with them you are letting that cloud your judgement. No one group own motorcycles. Motorcycles were developed as a somewhat cheap mode of transportation. THOSE WERE THE REAL BIKERS. Everyone else came later to the game.
You said that “Nobody learned anything from this show…”. I never try or expect to learn anything from TV. Why do you? TV is for entertainment. It does however spark an interest or expose you to new things. If it does then you can try and learn more about something. THAT is what those shows have done, inspired others to discover, ride, and maybe build motorcycles. People try motorcycles, some like it, some don’t. So What? These shows inspired them to do something. AGAIN, what is wrong with that? OCC and Jesse got you to watch the show didn’t they? Sorry.
All you Industry Dudes, these so called reality shows has made the F_cking Motorcycle Industry a well respected, nice to own and nice to ride, nice to fix and nice to talk about Industry. Yeah, and Renegade sold more Wheels, many more and Baker transmission sold many more transmissions and If you never heard of Baker he was mentioned 50 times, “how he “rescued Jessie”, flying to help his engineering woo’s. Cyril has his Blog because of Discovery TV. weather he believe’s it or not! Daytona Bike Week and BiketoberFest and Sturgess and The Love Ride and every other Shindig has grown greatly because of the OCC Boy’s and the other names in the Industry. Even our own Legend Arlen Ness has been kept alive long enough to make his Son and Grandson “Little Legends”. The Discovery and OCC Dudes are a BIGGER part of why all you Industry Legends and Part time Enthusiasts turned Bike Builders are in the Business. I bet you thought it was your “Passion”, that made you follow your Dreams! Well Bullshit, if no one is looking then no one is buying. The Internet brings us in the Business quicker or gets out of Business quicker. That is my opinion of the Internets influence. The biggest indicater of the positive influence of what the motorcycle business is “How we are not hated when we ride down the Street or we pull up to the local Shopping Centers”! we are really accepted as positive members of Society’! I hope you don’t think that the, greatest Show right now, Sons of Anarchy are a positive Influence on Motorcycles. I think that you will be entertained only, no growth for the Builders, maybe some revenue for HD.
Littlerider22, read my last paragraph again and again until you get it. The channel is called the “Discovery Channel” for a reason. In this case it, with people like Jesse, OCC, Crab Boats, Gold shows, and others, helped people “discover” about these different things. Somewhere someone watched these shows and said “I want to do that”. That was the point I was making about Jesse and OCC. If “real bikers” are beyond that stage in life they don’t watch it fine. I can count, therefore I do not watch Sesame Street. I don’t care about cooking, but there are entire channels devoted to it. I don’t watch it NOR do I complain about it. There is one show called “Hells Kitchen” where it seems Chef Gordon Ramsey just yells at everybody. I certainly don’t think it is destroying food, nor do I think (borrowing a quote from you) “This show was a disgrace to the entire industry”. Every show is not for everyone. It is just TV, turn it off..
izadore007, well said! If it was not for Jesse and OCC’s shows, we would not be talking about this right now.
@Littlerider22
“…so Voxnulla, I know a few things you don’t here. Don’t make yourself look like you do. We’re not playing in the same league here.”
You are nuts!
Jess made this time the best bike.
I thought the name of the show was Chopper Live? I have never seen any of the builders build a chopper except for the Fast @Loud guys. From my understanding a Chopper is an OEM bike striped and modified to the owners taste, not a bike built from scratch to resemble a Chopper. That being said the Fast and Loud guys should have won. As SR. said they should have left their bike home because it does not compare with the ingenuity of the other three. Nice ride but in a different league. “But Anyway” I enjoyed watching the show because of the style, class, and elocution of the contestants and the MC. ..Z
I watch it for the same reason I watch SOA. It’s got motorcycles on it.
Did someone say “sycophantic” here, or was that a different forum? Either way, I happen to agree.
Oh, there’s your magic 100 for anyone who gives a damn.
Paul had the closest bike there that was a chopper it is chopper build off gas monkey was next with their bobber just my opinion
Who couldn’t build, even by mistake some kind of eye candy motorcycle (two wheel something’s),
with a zillion dollar “shop”, full of CNC’s, and a ringmaster with trained seals. Wouldn’t ya just love
to see their “scrap” barrels. The only thing missing from the show was Mikey coming on live eating,
well….anything that wasn’t nailed down, or our fearless leader “Barry” calling in live saying “You
didn’t build that”. Hey Cril, how about an on-line build off ( with real H-D’s built by, you ready..
US ), with photos of our idea of a chopper.That means nothing stock or bolt-on, old (real) school.
Nothing special, just a few photos, style, when built, by who (or owner). You make up the rules
(short and sweet). Could be fun (funny).
Don’t care what anyone say’s theme bikes suck. It was a motorcycle biuld off. Jr. needs to put his Lego’s away and build a bike.
Sorry to come tho the party late, but I recorded it and just watched it last night.
Random Thoughts:
While I tend to like Jr’s design style over the others I really liked the GM bike best
Jesse is a social misfit/ego maniac
Sr is totally delusional, second only to Jesse, and from what I saw never laid a hand on “His” bike during the build process.
The show was lame and filled with false drama and Hugh Masekala should grow his dreads back
The fans got it back asswards. Sr’s bike was better than Jr’s bike, and Gas Monkey’s bike was a joke. 1st Jesse James, 2nd Paul Sr., 3rd Paul Jr., and 10th Gas Monkey.
This show was stupid from concept to execution. The host really made it extra bad.
I love everything about motorcycles. My friends have build better bikes than all four as a weekend projects.
The Gas Monkey guys could build a good one if they had a little more experience with Bikes.
– Sr. made a good Bike.
– Jesse made his typical garbage bike. This guy is just a clown with no real bike knowledge. He has a crap load of tattoos and he thinks he ‘gets it’ but he is a little powder puff and had no business on the show. A poser and has become a joke.
– Jr clearly had the best bike here by a long shot. It wasn’t even close. Having said that my +Brothers+ turn out better bikes every week.
4th goes to James – Disqualified! I’m so happy you can flip a tranny Jesse but that thing you created is worthless for ANY type of riding. And you sound like a whiny baby…
3rd to SR – NICE bike, ridiculous front end.
2nd to JR – Nice showpiece, unrideable.
F and L – Winners by a mile. Took a basket case, WORKED it over to the point of creating a new (TITLED) HD, and RODE that bitch to Vegas! Hands down winner.
ERNIE L — 1000% Correct! What an awful show!!! This coming from a long time
American Chopper fan.
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