Orange County Choppers` new Splitback

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IRON HORSE WORLD EXCLUSIVE!
NEW FROM:
ORANGE
COUNTY
CHOPPERS!
THE
SPLIT
BACK
Interview by Shahram Shiva
he magic hour at the world-famous Orange
County Choppers never ends, it's on 24/7.
This highly successful team of father and
sons has produced more hits than a hot rock band.
They have managed to expand their once littleknown corner of the American choppers industry
into a global marketing force. Every few months
they seem to explore smart new ideas to put more
T
44
photos by Dino Petrocelli
OCC products in people's homes, workplace and
garages. American Choppers, their popular
Discovery Channel series, has been signed for a
new term. They just made a deal with the motorcycle manufacturer, Triumph, to produce an all-new
“Teutul Triumph” production bike. They are creating a new Saturday morning OCC-based cartoon
series for CBS, and are wrapping up the construc-
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YA
U
B
U
YO
D
L
U
M
O
O
W
R
F
E
IK
B
W
E
N
N?
E
M
E
S
THE
ORANGE COUNTY CHOPPERS
UNVEILS THEIR FIRST
PRODUCTION BIKE:
“THE SPLITBACK!”
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tion on their brand new, 100,000 square feet
OCC Pavilion, with its own theme restaurant
and two-and four-wheel museum. If they only
add a motorcycle-style roller coaster, they
might give Universal Studios a run for their
money.
The Wall Street Journal, maybe the last
place you'd expect to read about choppers, has
tapped Paul Teutul Senior as one of the most
popular and successful American entrepreneurs in the Journal's upcoming “Every
Journey Needs a Journal” promotional campaign. So, with all this expansion, do they
have time to build bikes? It seems that they
are, in fact, planning to double their production within the next few years. And the reason
for this optimistic new projection is that the
Teutul's are about to release a really big gun.
Iron Horse received an exclusive invitation from OCC to photograph the Splitback,
their brand-new and quite beautiful production bike. This is their very first production
motorcycle designed to be sold through a
national dealer network. The Teutuls take their
choppers very seriously and the Splitback
looks custom out of the box. This is a highend premium chopper, made entirely by hand
at OCC. I spoke with Paul Sr. and Jr. about the
new Splitback, and the health of the chopper
industry in general at their factory in Orange
County, NY.
IH: It's good to see you guys again and
congratulations on truly a beautiful
machine. What made you decide to start a
line of production bikes?
Paul Sr.: The thought of building a production bike has been in the works for a couple of years now. We just didn't want to step
into it ahead of our time. We felt that now,
with the equipment that we have and the staff
that we have was a good time to start. We are
experienced enough now to create a good
workflow. The other reason is that we are now
ready to build everything in-house. These are
reasons that we decided to create the Splitback
production bike.
IH: How are you going to make the
Splitback available to the public?
Paul Sr.: Through qualified dealers.
Paul Jr.: The Bikes are going to be sold
to dealers who are qualified to carry the new
Splitback, wherever they might be in the
country. They'll go through a process of
screening.
IH: Is the Splitback made entirely by
hand at OCC?
Paul Sr.: Absolutely. We are most concerned about quality control.
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If looks could kill:
the Splitback coiled
and ready to strike
like a rattler.
Paul Jr.: We aren't going to start making
a production bike unless we are able to do
everything in-house. We are at a stage where
we are able to do that. We make everything:
the fenders, frame, rocker box covers, handlebars all made here.
IH: Are all Splitbacks going to look
similar?
Paul Jr.: In the sense of the whole style,
yes, but there are variations within the models,
such as paint schemes and other details. This
is our high-end production bike. We also are
going to have production bikes that are less
expensive and more traditional. We are going
to have different levels of bikes available to
our customers.
IH: What makes the Splitback special?
Paul Jr.: When we designed the
Splitback we tried to outdo every other bike in
this price and style category. I think we offer
a better quality than our competitors. For
example, we came out with a very unique
design--- we haven't done that before. We
came out with the split tank design with an
arched exposed backbone, which is our own
design, also our own custom oil tank. We have
managed to eliminate the rider's height problem. With the new forward controls, no mat-
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“THE TEUTULS TAKE THEIR
CHOPPERS VERY SERIOUSLY AND
THE SPLITBACK
LOOKS CUSTOM OUT
OF THE BOX.”
The OCC team
assembling a
Splitback.
Each machine is
handcrafted entirely
at Orange County
Choppers.
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Pick a Pair of Pickled
Splitbacks... no, it’s not a
Biker Nursey Rhyme, just a
couple of the color options
available from OCC.
The tank is
split in two
and all the
wiring is
hidden in
between.
Handlebars
are unique to
the Splitback.
Below: An
OCC tech
hard at work.
Nice shirt.
ter what your height you can easily ride the
Splitback. We took our best and most popular
wheel and put it on the Splitback. We have our
own front end on this bike that is a step above
from anything else out there in this price
range. We have a crown-style rocker box cover
that really makes the motor pop. We have a
custom air cleaner. We have a locking system
called Road Lok. It's maintenance-free and it's
built into the bike. With only one key, you can
lock up the whole bike.
Paul Sr.: I think most bikes that start at
$20,000 range will wind up being well into
the 30's by the time you customize it, because
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very few like those bikes just the way they
come. In our Splitback, every piece is
chrome. Inner and outer primaries are
chrome.
Paul Jr.: And everything is built for the
bike and, specifically, the handlebars are a
very unique design, something you won't find
other people doing. And for each individual
bike there is a handmade exhaust. With this
frame geometry we had to come into a situation where we had to build everything just for
this bike. You couldn't take that exhaust and
put it on another bike.
IH: How would a customer go about
customizing their Splitback further?
Paul Sr.: Let's be real, if you look at the
bike carefully, what are you going to change?
The Splitback is a complete package, is priced
at about $58,000 and there isn't much you can
upgrade. It's all there. Our wiring, for example, it is all hidden between the two gas tanks,
almost invisible, you don't see any wires.
Paul Jr.: In matter a fact we made sure
that there was no upgrade you could do on the
bike. Nothing to bolt on! You can show it off
without having to buy a piece from an aftermarket company.
Paul Sr.: However if some people want to
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customize even further, ultimately, the sky is
the limit and we can alter them any way that
the customer wants.
Paul Jr.: We are also coming out with the
Web concept bike, which is stylized like the
Black Widow. So the Web concept can be our
second production bike.
Paul Sr.: In the industry we are known
for standing behind what we do. Therefore, we
offer a two-year warranty. We've been in positions in the past where our bikes may have
exceeded their warranty, but we still stand
behind them. The most important thing is our
reputation and we stand behind our product.
IH: How many colors will you offer for
the Splitback?
Paul Sr.: The dealers are going to offer
the bike in 3 different colors, and custom colors will be available as an option.
IH: Can your shop handle the increase
in production?
Paul Sr.: Absolutely. Right now we are
producing about 120 custom bikes a year. By
2007 we will be in our new shop, which is
100,000 square feet.
Above: These beautiful
chrome rims are the most
popular to ever come out
of the OCC shop.
Right: This custom seat is
offered only on the
Splitback.
Below: Very trick dual taillights and chrome brake
calipers.
Right: The
Splitback
features all
chrome parts,
a handmade
unique
exhaust and a
sculpted oil
tank.
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The soul of Orange County:
the Teufuls and their hard-working crew.
At right is the OCC
service center. They’ll work on anything....
as long as it’s a V-twin!
Paul Jr.: Soon, we are going to have
33,000 square feet in our current shop plus
100,000 in our future shop so we would be
able to make as many bikes as the public will
demand.
IH: When will the Splitback be available for sale?
Paul Sr.: We are looking to introduce the
bike in early 2007.
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Paul Jr.: We are aiming to be in full production by late 2007.
IH: What type of dealerships have you
been interviewing?
Paul Sr.: To be frank, some of the most
demands seem to come from high-end auto
dealerships. For example Mercedes dealerships are very interested. A lot of high-end
car dealerships and also Harley dealerships
are very interested as well.
IH: How are you promoting the
Splitback?
Paul Sr.: We sent out information and
flyers to about a thousand dealerships, which
we received tremendous response on. We are
also going to be doing print ads.
IH: Where is the best place for our
readers to find out more about Splitback
and to locate dealers?
Paul Sr.: They can contact Mike
Burkhouse or Tommy Joyce with serious
inquires at our offices 845-457-1992.
Paul Jr.: It will all be posted to our web
site once we have our dealer network up
(www.orangecountychoppers.com).
IH: Paul Sr., last time we talked, which
was about a year ago you said that there is
no way this industry could sustain itself at
this high rate. Now a year later, things
aren't exactly the same.
Paul Sr.: Not only things aren't the same
they are actually, from what I understand, not
good. We don't get a chance to talk to the people in the industry, because we are in a different position. To be frank, we can't really go out
in public. But when we do have an opportunity to talk to people, we hear that things aren't
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good. A lot of people that had high volume
businesses are down to barely anything. I
think even Harley is affected by it. The industry is funny right now. A lot of people are
afraid and a lot of things are changing. There
was a boom in our industry, but I think it will
make a circle again and the strong will survive. Sometimes, and I have seen this in other
industries, when things get very popular, people come out from everywhere and saturate
the market and that actually hurts that industry. You know, everybody and their brother is
building a bike in their garage. Basically,
everywhere you turn people are doing the
same thing. But I think our industry is going
to make a come back, and the top players will
be the only ones left. Then, you'll notice that
the quality of what you are buying will also
increase, because right now there is a lot of
shabby stuff. But what's interesting is that, we
have received tremendous response for our
new Splitback production bike. And a lot of
responses that we have are from Harley dealerships that want to carry this new line. They
see our bikes as a motivation to draw people
into their dealerships.
IH: What else is on the horizon?
Paul Sr.: I think this would be a good
time to reveal this. We have formed a partnership with Triumph, where they are going to
make a production bike called the “Teutul
Triumph.” We are going to design a bike for
them in 2007 and look for it to appear in their
dealerships worldwide later on.
Paul Jr.: We picked Triumph, because we
really do love their bikes.
Paul Sr.: I have a few old Triumphs.
They are making great bikes now.
IH: What else is new
with OCC?
Paul Sr.: We are launching a new OCC line of clothing. It debuted in Vegas to huge
response and so look for it in
your favorite clothing store.
Paul Jr.: We are also
launching a new OCC
Saturday morning cartoon for
kids on CBS. That's going to be
fun. We also have a new service center at our factory where
we can fix any bike. So bring
your bikes over to our new
service center.
Paul Sr.: We are constantly evolving and
our biggest asset is our standard of quality that
we aim to maintain as we go through various
enterprises.
IH: It's great to talk with you guys
again. Thanks very much for you time and
best of luck with your new adventures and
especially the Splitback production bike.