| Founded in 1999, OCC, short for Orange County Choppers, manufactures custom-built motorcycles. Based at Orange County, New York, the company started off as a side venture to the Teutul family’s steel enterprise, Orange County Ironworks, which was founded in the 1970s. Paul Teutul Sr. began manufacturing custom motorcycles and OCC’s first bike, True Blue, made its debut at the 1999 Daytona Bike Oktoberfest.
The company’s production facility, initially located at Rock Tavern, is now situated at Montgomery. OCC also has a retail store at Scotts Corners. The company has its own reality TV show on the Discovery Channel. Named “American Chopper”, the show debuted in September 2002, contributing to the company’s growing fame. The popularity of the show is due to the endless verbal battles between father and son, Paul Sr. and Paul Jr as well as the comical quacks from Michael Teutul fondly called Mikey. The biker makers always fuss over design elements, deadlines, design team and many other subjects. Along with their fabricators and mechanics, they design and assemble dozens of custom motorbikes based on a particular theme or specification. For instance, the United States Air Force commissioned a $ 150,000, ten-feet long “Raptor Bike” designed after the F/A-22 Raptor jet by OCC. One of Orange County’s most famous choppers is the “Black Widow Spider Bike”.
OCC markets a wide variety of products ranging from sunglasses, caps, colognes and apparel to automotive accessories, besides scaled-down models of their own bikes. A toy model of Paulie Jr. is also available. |