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Posted on 02/10/2010 12:48:20 PM PST by martin_fierro
TLC's 'American Chopper' reaches end of the road 54 minutes ago
(AP:NEW YORK) "American Chopper" is riding off into the sunset.
The popular TLC series based on the feuding Teutul family and their custom-built motorcycle business is going off the air after six seasons. TLC said Wednesday that the final episode will air Thursday.
The end isn't a surprise. Paul Teutul and his son, Paul Jr., have frequently fought on the air. The son recently left the New York-based Orange County Choppers to start his own business, and the two are in a court dispute over money.
The network said that "the show has always been about building one-of-a-kind bikes and the drama of running a family business. The Teutuls will always be part of the Discovery family and we congratulate them on a tremendously successful series run."
Let’s see, what’s that, about 8K a year? Yeah, that’s a lot of miles... for a Harley.
I put a minumum of 100 miles a day on a bike on average. I do 8K in less than three months. Sorry, you don’t get to comment on bike longevity, you just don’t ride enough.
Why don’t you take a look at the bikes in Iron Butt competition? The Harleys usually finish at the back of the pack or just plain DNF due to mechanical failures.
Phil Harris died last night.
I agree they are going to be hit hard and even go bankrupt. I dont see their bikes as having any sort of quality control. Paul Sr seemed like he liked to take shortcuts just to get it the bike together. A lot of the latest customization was just engraving some corporate logo in something and calling it a custom bike. I think many companies were finding it cheaper to have a bike built and receive 100 times more exposure than buying a 30 second commercial. Anyone know what happened to Vinnie ?
I've got a Honda VTX 1800. Great bike for weekend rides and the daily commute. Never breaks down, looks good, and sounds great.
I musta missed the show...I don’t care for choppers, maybe that’s the reason. >:-}
Bingo - an excellent bike. :D
http://www.carolenash.com/insidebikes/bike-news/1m-lawsuit-in-american-chopper-feud.htm
vinnie started his own shop - he was a real talent
My Road Glide had a broken belt and an oil pump failure in 40K miles (left me stranded out in Sacto). Powerful,
loud and flashy, people wave at me.
My BMW R1100RT has 144K with no unscheduled breakage (flat tire back in Texas). Rode it daily to work 140 miles round trip daily. Boringly reliable, quiet, agile and stealthy. People give me the finger more on this one.
Love both for what they are.
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With advancements in engineering and production, no major manufacturer nowadays has the problems of the past. Most design is contracted out... most part production contracted out... and most times these contracts are to the same entities from different manufacturers.
An engineer that designs a footpeg bracket for HD could be the same engineer that designs a cowl arm retention bushing for yamaha.... going by vague perimeters offered by the manufacturer.
In the end it IS marketing that builds and sells the product. The HD market does not buy a bike because it goes 0to60 in 2.5 seconds. The sportbike market will not trade chrome for performance. You end up with two different animals and human nature will make us swear that our individual preference is better.
Nonsense. Very few people put in 100 miles a day on/in any vehicle. Your commute is obviously extreme. Most folks just live, work, and play in a much smaller area than you obviously do. If I lived 50 miles from work, I’d move closer. It just wouldn’t make sense to me to spend that much time on the road on a daily basis. Outside of vehicles, I have a life, and 3 hours a day (just a guess based on a combination of city/highway driving) on the road just wouldn’t fit into that life.
Last time I checked (I do have an Iron Butt patch) it wasn’t a race. Anyone who exceeded the speed limit did it in less time than I did, because I do my best to drive under it, even in my wife’s sport’s car.
Anyone know what happened to Vinnie?....
Vinnie and Cody build their own bikes now:
Actually, most motorcycle manufacturers keep that work in house.
And if you want the same sort of thing Harley sells, you can get it with better performance, better looks, better reliability and lower prices from many other manufacturers - Honda, Yamaha and Victory comes to mind.
I don’t think my preference is better. If you’re into speed then by all means a sport bike is for you. I totally respect that, and don’t think my ride is better because I put it to different uses. My experience has been that it’s the riders of Japanese bikes who have a total hard-on for Harley riders for some reason. I’ve never understood the intense negative emotions.
As an aside, my best friend since childhood rides a Gold Wing, belongs to a Gold Wing group, and does all kinds of Wing/Honda rides. His biggest complaint? People who talk about Harley Davidson more than they talk about their own rides. By his own admission, it’s a problem.
Wake me up when Victory comes out with a mid control option like Harley offers on the Dyna and Sportster lines. Which is what I personally like best about Harley Davidson: I can get a full sized bike that actually fits me. With Honda (for example) I’m either stuck on a Rebel or a Shadow 650. Neither of which excite me.
Late last year after riding a rebuilt 1980 Honda Cx500 I picked up cheap to get back into riding I went shopping for a cruiser, nothing big or expensive, I wanted new and reliable. I knew the upcoming winter may have me laid off which is exactly what happened but back in october I tried to buy a Sportster from the local HD shop, they were not willing to use my credit union that has financed two vehicles before, HD wanted a sizable down payment, of which I did not have in my impulsive buying mood. So I meandered into the Yamaha shop an almost quite literally bought the 2009 Raider, but being that I was still wet behind the ears and again trying to safely predict my near future finances I prudently and what many say did the most intelligent decision, I bought the 2009 V Star 1300 Tourer, no down payment, very affordable payments and its big enough so I should be happy for awhile. I'm looking at it right now covered with a blanket sitting behind my TV waiting for spring, I was only able to get 43 miles on it before winter set in up here in Alaska. So in summary HD could have had me sold, but then there would have been a good chance I'd have missed payments through the winter, I pidgeonholed 4 months of the 1300 payments ahead of time. Its an awesome bike, water cooled but looks like an air cooled V-twin, belt drive, fuel injected. A comparable HD would have been half again more expensive.
If you have an IBA patch, then you know that the actual Iron Butt bi-annual events issue higher points based on (essentially) mileage.
The fact also remains that even if you discard the scoring system, most of the Harleys entered DNF due to mechanical problems. They don’t even make it across the finish line!
Also, your math is off. Around here, the speed limits are 70. 100 miles is less than two hours of running on a bike at those speeds (thank you carpool lanes).
The average US commute is 16 miles one way, 32 miles round trip. Assuming you do NOTHING but commute, no running errands or other practical uses for the vehicle, you should have at least 8320 miles on a bike in a year. Since the average vehicle use is actually 15K per year, you should have 7K more use on the vehicle if you use it for practical purposes.
Again, you don’t ride enough to comment.
Here’s your wakeup call, then. Victory offers (or at least did last year) kits to relocate the pegs forwards or backwards.
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