After the bike comes back from paint, we reassemble it, fire it up, and test it out. Then comes the unveil, which can be at a corporate location, a trade show, or a public or private event.
One of the fun parts of working with others is that the rest of the team can’t see what’s inside my head. (Actually, that might be scary if they could.) They have to trust me and walk through the build with me. Quite often, they’re like, “Hmm, I don’t know about this.” And I have to tell them to trust me, that once the pieces start going onto the bike, it will make sense.
With the second build-off bike, we were nearing the end of the project and everybody on the team still was doubting me. The whole team. Not until the final pieces went onto the bike could they see what I had envisioned. When that bike came back from paint, everybody was like, “That’s it!” Seeing that final product, and seeing that everything came together the way you had hoped, is a cool moment to share with everyone involved.
In that regard, we benefited from being one of the first reality shows, and specifically the first reality show like ours: The production company did not dictate how we made our show. Instead, we simply did what came natural to us; then the crew filmed it and went back to the studio to turn it into a story.
We enjoyed how active our viewers were in giving us feedback. With truckloads of mail coming in to us, we never had to wonder what our audience liked and didn’t like about the show. Fans also kept us on our toes. We heard from fans when we didn’t wear safety glasses or tack-welded without a helmet. Some would get really upset with us over those things.
Viewers also brought baked goods by the shop, and of course we couldn’t let their efforts (and the food) go to waste! I made a remark in one episode about eating Ho Hos, and after that, I received a bunch of Ho Hos from fans. That gave us the idea to mention different products to see if, first, what we said would make it on air and then, second, if fans would send us what we hinted for.
KEEPING RUNNING WHILE WE COULD
Travel associated with the show just about wore us out at times. We might fly out to California on Tuesday to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, spend the night there, and then fly back to New York early the next morning. After we landed, it was directly back to work. Then it wasn’t uncommon to have to return to California a couple of days later for a meeting with Discovery officials. We could not afford, time-wise, to stay in California between trips because we had to get back because of a bike project deadline.
Often, twice a week we were in two different states because of appearances, shows, and unveils. We flew comfortably—first class, because Discovery took good care of us—but the schedule could get brutal because we had to be in the shop as much as possible for the builds and filming.
There was no pacing ourselves. We never knew when our run was going to come to an end; it could have stopped just as quickly as it started. Coming from our background, of working really hard to make little money and then working just as hard but making a lot more money, we felt like we needed to keep going as long as the opportunity existed. We knew what it was like to kill ourselves and not make money, and killing ourselves and making good money was a much better option.
But, as with most everything else when it came to the opportunities afforded us through American Chopper, the positives far, far outweighed the negatives.
We received police escorts to events, which will really spoil someone for dealing with traffic. Restaurants seated us at tables without us having to wait. Random people paid for our meals. We didn’t expect fans to buy our dinners, but those who have not been thrust into celebrity status like we experienced would be surprised to learn how often that happened.
A loss of privacy also came with the show, largely because of the show’s effect on regular viewers. Because we played ourselves on the show—we weren’t actors in character roles—when people met us, it seemed like they felt they already knew us. I think that gave them a comfort level that would lead them to take more liberties with us. So the element that made our show so effective also caused people to cross boundaries that otherwise would not have been crossed.
For example, my wife and I would be enjoying a quiet dinner at a restaurant and someone who recognized us would come and sit at our table. I got accustomed to people coming over and saying hello or asking for an autograph, but someone thinking it was okay to join us for dinner always struck me as strange. And people would joke with us in a way that only those who knew us well should.
An odd but big deal to me was people walking up and slapping me on the back and putting their arms around my shoulders. I’m a little touchy, pardon the pun, about people making physical contact with me.
The boundaries were down during the height of American Chopper’s popularity because of how our viewers felt they could relate to us. I tend to give people a lot of leeway anyway, so I tried to be as flexible as possible in matters that didn’t involve the security of me, Rachael, or anyone else with us.
I’ve had people trail me home, with children in the back seat of their car, and follow me to my front door. None were dangerous, and they acted like they had never done that before, but they had seen someone they knew from television and decided to follow me.
We had a guy show up at the shop once who was mentally ill and had some kind of thing for George W. Bush and me. He used to be a security guard and owned a gun, so that was a little spooky. He left his Hummer and keys at the shop with a message that I could drive it whenever I wanted. He never posed a threat to us, but he wound up being placed in a mental hospital.
Another man came to the shop and said, “I’m here for the job.” We asked him what he meant, and he answered, “You hired me.” We asked when we had hired him, and he said, “On one of the episodes.” I felt bad for him because he obviously had a mental illness, and we had to call the cops to come help him.
The loss of privacy, however, was more than made up for by the celebrities we were able to get to know and build bikes for.
It was bizarre to read celebrities mentioning American Chopper as their favorite show and to have celebrities recognize us. One of my “Is this really happening?” moments early on came when Kevin Bacon and Mario Lopez recognized us.
Growing up, I was a huge New York Giants fan, and it was a thrill to build a bike for my favorite team after they defeated the unbeaten New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. We unveiled that bike at OCC. Offensive lineman David Diehl and former defensive end Michael Strahan, who had retired following the previous season, came for the unveil. So did former tight end Mark Bavaro, my all-time favorite Giant. I also did a charity event with Strahan that included a private concert by Alicia Keys.
We built bikes for hockey player Mark Messier, football player Jared Allen, and baseball player Aaron Rowand. We played Wiffle Ball in the shop with Aaron. He was a cool dude.
We built a bike for Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly and his Hunter’s Hope charity, which was named for his son, who died of Krabbe’s disease at the age of eight. We were able to toss a football around with Jim, Dan Marino, and Boomer Esiason. Those three combined to throw 961 touchdown passes in the NFL and passed for 143,721 yards. That is more than an 81-mile bike ride’s worth of completions!
We made a bike for the New York Yankees and spent time with catcher Jorge Posada and pitcher Joba Chamberlain, and we did some cool projects with NASCAR. But sports-wise, nothing topped being able to build a tribute bike for my New York Giants.
While I’m on the topic of sports, here’s a funny story from our show’s first season. Before the Giants and Jets moved into their current stadium, we built a bike for the Jets and were taking that bike along with the Fire Bike to the Meadowlands for a pregame ceremony kicking off the new season. On our way to the stadium, we met up with a part of the city where the roads needed repair, and our trailer popped off the hitch. The trailer was chained to the hitch, but it fishtailed around pretty good and damaged the Fire Bike.
The NYFD was ca
lled to the scene—this was after we had built the 9/11 tribute bike—and offered to let us bring the bike to their station, where they had the equipment to fix the bike and trailer in time for us to get to the game. During the pregame, my father and I rode the length of the field carrying American flags. The Jets Bike’s exhaust faced down, and the exhaust melted part of the artificial surface playing field. Jets officials loved the bike, but I don’t think they were happy with the damaged turf.
That happened in 2003, four years before I met Rachael. Come to find out, Rachael’s father was a Jets season-ticket holder, and he, her brother, and her grandfather were there that day and saw my father and me on the field. Little did they know…
RUBBING SHOULDERS
Actor Bill Murray is one of my favorite guys for whom we’ve built a bike. He had been one of my favorite actors for years, and when we met Bill, he was the guy I’d hoped he would be: cool, funny, down to earth, and awesome to hang out with. We built a Caddyshack bike for his charity. Caddyshack, in my opinion, is one of the most iconic movies of all time. I played golf with Bill and his brothers, who appear in all his movies. I spent that day riding around in a golf cart with Bill. He is a great guy, and I appreciate so much that he was the guy I thought he was—the guy I knew from movies and television.
Steven Tyler was awesome, too. He was an avid viewer of the show and a great guy to talk with. We met through Bruce Rossmeyer, a gentleman in Florida who owned a bunch of Harley dealerships before he passed away. We were going to Florida to do a bike ride for Paul Newman’s charity, the Hole in the Wall Gang. Mr. Rossmeyer sent his jet to New Hampshire to pick up Steven, and then they came for us. It was amazing to spend the flight from New York to Florida talking about some early day music acts, because Steven had been around so long that he was on the scene while Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were performing. He shared great stories with us about those days in music. Then we spent a lot of time riding with Steven at Daytona.
FIRST RIDES: THEME, FUNCTION, OR BOTH?
Yes, we take our bikes out of the shop for test rides. There is a delicate balance to the testing, though.
Every bike has a different level of theme and function that impacts the testing. Some bikes are high on theme and low on function. A bike designed primarily to show on a multistop media tour might be ridden only from the trailer to its display area and needs little testing. A bike higher on function than theme requires more testing because it will be ridden frequently. Some bikes have an even balance between function and theme.
We ride the bike to make sure it rides well, the feel of the bike is good, and the reach on the handlebars is comfortable. We dial in the speedometer so it’s accurate. We make sure the blinkers work properly.
After we bring the bike back to the shop, we go over the entire thing to make sure all the attachments, like the screws and bolts, are still tight. We ensure the torque specifications are correct. Even though we’re in the business of building great-looking bikes, first and foremost, they must be safe for our clients.
When we determine a bike is ready to go, we clean and detail it and, if an unveil is planned, load it onto the trailer.
Once my father and I became more established in the business, we were able to hire people to drive the trailer to unveils long distances from our shop, and then we flew out to the location. Avoiding long drives was a clear benefit of American Chopper!
Several builds went so down to the wire on the deadline that we test rode the bike at night, drove it into the trailer, and the trailer pulled out as soon as we closed the doors.
Fortunately, we’ve never experienced a catastrophe of any sort during testing. The closest call came when my father and I first started building bikes. A guy helping us put the bike’s oil lines on backward, and while I was test riding, oil spilled onto the rear wheel. The rear tire slicked without warning, and the bike went out from under me and slid down the road on its side. Somehow—and I still don’t know how—I managed to stay up, sliding on my feet. I actually fared better than the bike!
In addition to being on Jay Leno’s show, we made several late-night appearances with David Letterman, who was one of our biggest supporters through the years. Letterman might have been our number one advocate. He talked about American Chopper even when we weren’t on his show because he liked the family dynamic and the builds. Letterman loved to ride bikes, and every time we appeared with him, we took bikes and at the end of the show, Letterman, my father, other guests, and I rode around Manhattan that night. One episode, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone rode with us. It was raining and sleeting, but we rode anyway. And when we took a left turn, Willis kept going straight because he wanted to keep riding. That was the only time I met Willis, but he was a great guy, too.
Will Smith came to our shop during the second season when we made a bike to coincide with the release of his movie I, Robot and brought his son Jaden, who was five then. Will was such a cool, regular guy. How could he not be? He was the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air! His father had owned a refrigerator business, and he told stories about his father’s business and how he enjoyed watching our family interact. We unveiled the bike at the I, Robot premiere in Los Angeles.
We built a bike for Billy Joel and unveiled it during a concert at the Superdome, so we were onstage with Billy Joel at one of his concerts. He came up to visit us while we were building the bike, and we went out to eat lunch. We were able to spend good time with him. What a good guy.
We did a bike for Jason Lee of My Name Is Earl. We met Oprah Winfrey at a party.
After I’d been fired and opened my shop for Paul Jr. Designs, King Abdullah II of Jordan dropped in to see us one day. A security guy came in and said someone wanted to meet me, but he wouldn’t say who. Then a line of black cars pulled into the parking lot and the king came inside and said he was a big fan of the show. He was a fighter pilot trained in hand-to-hand combat. He gave Rachael and me three Israeli fighting knives made of Damascus steel, then showed us how he was trained to fight with them. How about a real live king stopping by a motorcycle shop?
We were characters on an episode of King of the Hill. Tom Petty and Brittany Murphy were readers on the show, and we read our parts alongside them. We sat backstage with Journey, right behind the drummer. We were in AOL and 7-Eleven commercials, and we were even in commercials that aired during Super Bowls. Plus we were in video games, and we also had PEZ dispensers made in our likenesses—the first living people so honored.
That is a lot of name-dropping, but I share those stories to further demonstrate just how big American Chopper became. And to think, we got the chance because the proposed pilot episode didn’t work out with the bike shop in New Hampshire.
I had traveled very little before we landed our show because there hadn’t been time given how much we worked. But American Chopper changed that. We visited Europe in the third season, Australia in the fourth, and Brazil and South Africa in the fifth.
The Europe trip was my first outside of the United States. Because of a tight filming schedule, we squeezed five countries into twelve days. After a seven-hour flight, my father, Mikey, and I landed at Heathrow Airport in London and didn’t even go to our hotel to drop off our luggage before boarding an open-top bus and seeing the sites. Like Chevy Chase in the movie National Lampoon’s European Vacation, it was basically, “Look, kids, it’s Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament!” We were all upside down because of the long flight and the five-hour time difference.
Highlights of the trip included visiting the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in northern France and listening to the historian describe the Allied D-day invasion during World War II. Emotions poured while we viewed the more than nine thousand white crosses and stars of David lined up perfectly overlooking Omaha Beach and the English Channel. Visiting Scotland—which meant wearing kilts and driving scooters—was another memorable time.
Without doubt, the best part of the trip was our one day in Ireland. The Irish are amazing people. They h
ave a song in their voice, and their land is exactly as portrayed in movies. Ireland is one of my favorite places I’ve ever visited.
I have to be honest, though: overall, the trip was not enjoyable. Ireland was awesome and there were other fun points, but for television we billed the trip as a family vacation. The schedule was packed, however, and we filmed virtually everything we did, so it was anything but a vacation. But, hey, the show made it possible for me to go to Europe, and although I would have liked to spread out the sightseeing, I’m definitely not complaining.
Leading up to the Europe trip, we met with Discovery execs in New York City, including three from Discovery Europe. We were asked to take part in an annual motorbike ride in England from London to Brighton. That sounded like fun, but we brought up the fact that we received tons of e-mails from English fans and expressed our desire to have security provided. The three English execs said security would not be necessary.
“Only Americans act that way,” we were told. “The English don’t get too excited about that kind of stuff.”
We arrived at the Ace Café in London, which was the starting point of the ride, and a crowd was beginning to assemble. A table had been set up for us to sign autographs, and the growing crowd began pressing toward the table. I looked over to the three execs from Discovery Europe who said we wouldn’t need security, and they were being pushed by the crowd. They looked befuddled, as though they couldn’t believe what was happening with this English crowd.
We had to cancel the signing. Three Harleys were brought to us, and we managed to drive out of the crowd.
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