My Take on American Chopper: Jesse James vs. PJD. vs. OCC

So since I have this soapbox, I wanted to put my own 2 cents out there regarding this whole Jesse James, OCC & PJD build off.

First off, I’m going to put it out there and agree with James that his is the only bike that’s a “rider.” Jesse James did build a bike for the real bikers out there—and a real nice one at that. I don’t think anyone will disagree with him in that regard. That’s as far as I will go though. It seems like what he doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to see is that even though, “true bikers” watch American Chopper, we’re watching it to see how far the art of fabrication can be pushed. Just because OCC or PJD isn’t cranking out Frisco styled choppers, café racers, board trackers or bobbers every episode doesn’t make OCC or PJD any less skilled. Vinnie made a great point during one of the episodes when he said something to the effect of, I don’t see [Jesse James] making the engines out of scratch or smelting iron ore. If we were to use James’ definition of a true bike builder, none are true bike builders. They don’t exist you say? Go on Chopcult.com and read a bit and you’ll see Garage Joe’s ripping into their engines and doing all the work themselves, doing the things the three camps do--and more.  So, Jesse James, build that engine from scratch and then let’s start talking shit. I loved when he was ragging on OCC/PJD for not doing their own work and the next thing he says is something about sending some pieces out to get polished. Come on! I thought you were going to do it ALL Jesse James! From the shows standpoint and as a viewer myself, I can tell you that I wouldn’t want to see the same old shit made every week. Week 1, bobber with some apes. Week 2, bobber with some drag bars. Week 3, narrow Sportster tank with a Springer front end. You get what I’m saying. I’ve watched a few episodes of Café Racer and I can tell you, it’s getting repetitive. Hai Gais! I made a café racer out of junk yard parts! Week 2, hai gais! I made a café racer out of junk yard parts and a 2 stroke motor this time! Weeee! Either you’ll see the bikes on the show heading towards the gaudy crap you’ve seen on American Chopper or you’ll see the ratings drop from the lack of interest. The biggest gripe I can derive from watching the show is that Jesse James just needs to vomit every time he see’s OCC & PJD’s styled bikes. Which leads me to my next point.

Can you really blame the two for cranking out these acid reflux inducing bikes? PAYING customers are willing to pony up with the cash to have these built. I wonder if James would have turned down that Dubai fucker that wanted a bike modeled after his stupid horse. Okay, I think he would’ve and I think 99% of us would have, but you get what I’m saying. Then there’s the viewers –aka ratings, and indirectly customers– which were initially drawn to the show to watch them build bikes. Commercials funded the show and we were contributing by tuning in. So thank yourself for their ghastly creations. If they didn’t sell out and build bikes for the masses, the show wouldn’t have made it out of the second season. I’m just sayin. So if you want to turn down customers because you don’t want to “sell out,” get the fuck out of here, I'm not buyin it. Jesse James is a biker and a fabricator and he’s out to make money. I respect that. That’s the other two’s hustle as well but they just got there a different way. I’ve seen some of James’ shit and man, some of that shit is just as bad as OCC’s.

Then somewhere down the road it turned into the male version of that estrogen filled Kardashian show except with fat ugly dudes and motorcyles. Shit, hearing it explained like that I’d rather watch the former. At least there’s bitches to look at. Luckily DVR’s were created, otherwise I’d never watch the show due to the drama. Come on Discovery Channel, I want to watch American Chopper, not Dysfunctional-American-Family-With-A-Sprinkle-of-Motorcycles-Tossed-In.

Finally, my soap boxing wouldn’t be complete with a personal review on the three bikes.

PJD – Great fabrication work, great ideas. I don’t personally care for the style of the bike, but I see the amount of work he’s put into it. This bike reminds me of a concept car shown at auto shows. When the production model actual drops, it’s a huge watered down version of its concept in regards to the wheels and body work. I have to say that my favorite part is the exhaust out of the tank. The single side front fork was pretty cool too. This is something I could see filtering down into street bikes just like single sided swing arms.

Jesse James – My real world pick. It oozed real fucking style and looked like a band of misfits could cause some mayhem on it. I can even picture it on the El Diablo Run. I loved the fact that he went with stainless steel for the frame and the fact that he worked all that shit himself. I said I liked Jr’s bike for the work he put into it, so that means I gotta give it up to JJ for that as well. In this regard, James beats out Jr. As a build for TV with mainstream tastes and preferences, it was too plain. Like some other blogger said, its fine, let the masses have those monstrosities that OCC and PJD make, we’ll keep the real shit to ourselves.

OCC – First off, I say OCC because Sr. had all of 5 seconds of involvement in the building of this bike. He said, “I want to blow minds when I come out on this thing.” That was the extent of his involvement. Second, this is some fucking stupid impractical trike-videogame-wanna be. Try riding that thing down the road for 10 minutes and see how your neck feels. I think OCC escaped ridicule for their creation because they simply missed the point of the build off. This is a simple case of overcompensating for losing its last build off against Jr. Jr. even called it in the beginning of the episode. I mean is it cool? Sure. Who would ride it? Batman.

Oh.. I guess not.