What Happened To Orange County Choppers, And Where Are They Today?
Orange County Choppers (OCC) is based out of Orange County, New York — not the Los Angeles suburb of Orange County. Evidently it's such a common mistake that the patriarch of OCC, Paul Teutul Sr., has a large "OCC New York" tattooed on his frequently exposed left arm to serve as a constant reminder.
Teutul, who served with the Merchant Marines during the Vietnam War and is simply referred to as "Paul Senior," founded a successful metal fabrication business called OC Ironworks. However, his true passion was motorcycles. In the 1990s, the dream became reality when Paul Senior started building custom motorcycles out of the Ironworks basement.
The early choppers that Teutul fabricated were so highly praised that the company was able to move to a larger production facility. That evidently caught the eye of the Discovery Channel, which pitched a reality show about OCC called "American Chopper" — similar to "Monster Garage" that followed competing shop West Coast Choppers.
"American Chopper" aired for a decade between 2002 and 2012, during which time Orange County Choppers built bespoke themed motorcycles on-screen for countless high profile businesses and celebrities such as the U.S. Air Force, Geico Insurance, Intel, Billy Joel, Jay Leno, and the New York Yankees, just to name a few.
For hardcore fans, there was also a line of more affordable (but still pricey) production motorcycles available to the everyman that were powered by Harley-Davidson engines.
[Featured image by Antônio Cruz via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 3.0 BR]
OCC was hit hard by the Great Recession
Just when it seemed business couldn't be going any better, the housing bubble burst and the subsequent Great Recession of the late 2000s hit Orange County Choppers hard. Corporate clients couldn't splurge on extravagant bikes, and regular consumers were similarly cutting back on excess spending.
This financial stress created a personal and monetary rift between Teutul and his son and business partner, Paul Jr. Eventually, Paul Jr. left OCC to form his own bike-building company called Paul Jr. Designs (PJD), taking some of OCC's most talented fabricators with him.
Shortly before the end of the original "American Chopper" series, OCC was no longer able to afford its sprawling 92,000 square foot headquarters. It was surrendered to the mortgage lender, though the company continued to occupy part of the building on a lease. It was a dark period, but before too long, OCC was once again the subject of a reality show called "Orange County Choppers" on Country Music Television (CMT).
While the new series only aired for one season in 2013, it did feature a high-profile motorcycle build for basketball star Shaquille O'Neal. Paul Senior commented that it was the largest motorcycle the company had ever built at 14 feet long — approximately four feet longer than a typical chopper — to accommodate Shaq's 7'1" tall frame.
After several years of relative obscurity, 2018 marked the debut of a reboot of the original "American Chopper" series, catching up on what had transpired for the Teutul family off-camera over the past several years.
A new life was found in Florida
Not too long after the second incarnation of "American Chopper" concluded, the entire world was rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic, along with the subsequent lockdowns and supply chain issues. Once again, OCC was in dire financial straits after the core motorcycle-building business closed in March 2020, and the retail merchandising arm also suffered from not being able to ship products internationally.
These hard times caused Paul Senior to recollect a 2019 meeting with a Florida businessman named Keith Overton. He thought that the sunshine state would make an ideal location for OCC headquarters as opposed to New York, considering Florida's all-year riding season and proliferation of motorcycle events. In late-2020, it was decided to take the gamble and move the business to Florida, adjacent to a Harley-Davidson dealership near Clearwater.
With the financial backing of Overton, Orange County Choppers Roadhouse & Museum opened for business in the summer of 2021. Though smaller than OCC's old digs, the 11,000-square-foot facility packs in a museum, retail store, restaurant, and needless to say, a bike building shop. Next to the building is a spacious pavilion for bikers or just fans of the reality shows to dine, shoot billiards, or attend occasional concerts.
[Featured image by Sgt. Mary Flynn via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public domain]