How Orange County Choppers Chassis Were Built so Quickly, Top Fuel Bike Legend Sam Wills Explains

Watch more awesome FAST MOTORCYCLE action video playlists here on our channel:

Watch more of our recent & related videos!

[budgreene]

How do you lose $60, 000 in 10 years? Buying an Orange county chopper 10 years ago

[gibbontakeit]

What's crazy is these frames have probably spent more time aboard an airplane getting shipped, than with the kickstand up.

[danielt]

Vinnie DiMartino and Rick Petko seemed to be the only two worth their salt at OCC. Everything else was a TV train wreck.

[MX]

Im from Orange County. 10 minutes away from their shop. People in the area did not feel the same love for them as most of the people in the country. They cranked out garbage but you wouldnt know because "TV". They bankrupt their steel companyt and sold property to themselves. The most honest person on the show was Vinney. He currently owns a shop a block away from where i currently work. Oh, Mikey. He was a legit guy. JR and Senior played it up for the camera and for money all while ruining their personal relationship. Its really sad what money did to them.

[jmmyjimmy]

Man I YouTube's formula is crazy, I haven't seen anything about OCC in like 5 years but saw my grandfather watching on his TV and this pops up on my homepage not an hour later.

[richfarfugnuven]

A friend of a friend appeared on that show and got a bike. Fell apart in the first 6 months. He called the old man and was told the bikes were for "promotional purposes." He told him to buy a Harley if he wanted something reliable. He took the bike to a legitimate bike builder here in town and had it completely rebuilt so that he can ride it. I think OCC are a bunch of carnival barkers, not bike

[Rags]

I think some people forget or never knew the history of OCC. When they started out, they were just one of many shops that were grinding out "custom" choppers. Harley helped them and every other custom builder get started by creating "wait lists" to get a HD. "Wait 18 months to get a HD when I can buy a pre-made chopper? No way!". If my memory is correct, they had 3 specific models they built, and then would do different paint jobs to make each one "unique". I remember they had a billboard just off the NY Thruway or Rt 17 south. ( Keep that billboard in mind, it resulted in their success). The TV guys in NYC decided to hop on the public interest programming train and decided to do a show about motorcycle/chopper builders. And sent some guy up to Connecticut to try and sign up a small shop in that state to be the focal point of that program. Story is a bit unclear, but what I heard was the shop turned the deal down because it would be too disruptive to their business. So, here is this TV guy driving back to NYC to tell his bosses that the shop bailed on him, and he spots the billboard for OCC. What the heck, worth a try, right? So he stops in pitches his deal and gets them to sign on the dotted line. OCC continued to make their street sale bikes, and did the TV show bikes. Some people have said they built junk. Fact is, HD woke up and realized by working on custom built choppers they completed the loop for the clone industry and "discouraged" dealerships working on non-HD bikes. I have spent a ton of time in indy shops and can tell you for a fact the OCC bikes are not something indys want to work on unless they are real hungry and their customers have deep pockets. Oh, motors and trannys are usually fine, but hardware and wiring are a mechanics worst nightmare.

[hommie]

"it can take years to build a frame"? I built my frame in my garage, i built a jig and then built the frame and welded it in one weekend. Not a lot of people just some idiot ignoring his wife tucked away in his garage and did it. I built the fenders and bought a tank but modified it. Painted it and rode that thing until it got written off on the highway. I miss that ole bitch...not the wife but the bike.

[raiderjohnthemadbomber]

I'm in awe of your skills Sam. I welded a few frames in jigs with 0.6 chrome moly tubes for a buddy. He gave me a couple of them. They were designing low rider frames because the factory frame starts vibrating around 70 mph. He built two with turn down shocks.

[jeffreyhinman]

That’s why Vinney and Rick left. Owners didn’t know their worth.

[socalbeeguy]

Fun fact: Those guys never built bikes until a producer walked into their machine shop and decided the drama was good, but needed extra interest with a product- so they told them to build bikes. I know because I tattooed the producer. As this video shows, they have experts for frames and wiring and things, and the Teutuls just weld on some ginger and call it their own.

[tomthompson]

occ wasnt about bikes, it was a tv show about family life, for shell suited tv consumers, , there just happened to be bikes in it.

[markweaver]

That’s some fine hardware behind him. You can sow freedom seeds from quite a distance with those optics. Man after my own heart

[waylonmccrae]

Watched The American Chopper Soap Opera Drama For Years .... And Every Now & Then A Bike Was Built !! 🤣👍

[upsidedowndog]

No offense but I am glad that fad is over again. This guy is obviously talented though.

[davidbostock]

I recall watching more than one episode of OCC, now I wonder how.

[Imnotyourdoormat]

vinnie and rick did most of the work....i knew it!!!

[Willis]

So he didn't know he wasn't dealing with his guy rick when he wasn't talking to Rick about business?Come on!😂😂

[johnmcvay]

I went to MMI while they were on. Every week we'd discuss the episode and discuss what they did that you should never do.

[DodgyBrothersEngineering]

2:03 I hear stories of chassis taking years to complete... All I can say is chassis building is not for them.