Orange County Choppers
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One of the most successful media ventures having to do with motorcycles is the reality TV show, “American Chopper,” on the Learning Channel. It follows the real life adventures of the family business, Orange County Choppers, located in New York state (not California as many people assume) that specializes in custom-made, high-end chop-jobs. Like many reality shows, this one combines personal and familial drama with the actual work of turning a stock bike (or pieces thereof) into a personal statement.
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The Orange County Choppers company started with the family patriarch Paul Teutel, a metalworker since the 1970s, putting the finishing touches on his first chop-job (from the family basement) in 1999. Just three years later, Discovery channel decided to make a show about the exhaustively intricate and innovative work that he and his sons were producing. Today, many of Orange City Chopper's bikes find their way into competitions and motorcycle shows. Some have even been featured on other TV shows. However, some of Orange County Choppers most impressive work has been commissioned show-piece projects for some of the world's largest corporations and even the US military. Many of the bikes are themed, such as the “Liberty” bike made with copper from the Statue of Liberty's renovation and the NYC Fire Department bike that commemorates the lives lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center.
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The response and demand for genuine Orange County Choppers bikes far outstrips supply, so production model bikes have been introduced and are for sale at the Orange County Choppers retail store – if you have to ask the price, you don't want to know. That is, however, not the case at online auction sites such as motoyard.com, where just about anything to do with Orange County Choppers -- from die-cast toys to t-shirts -- can be bought or sold.
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