Tag Archives: black widow bike

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Rick’s News

5 Mar

March 5, 2012

Last week Discovery had a little fun at your expense. They posted the episode title but not the description. They knew that people would jump to the conclusion that Rick was leaving OCC and moving to PJD. Not me, I don’t see that happening, and if somehow it did, the news would leak out long before the show aired. Anyway, here is the description of tonight’s show.

RICK’S NEWS March 5, 2012
Rick’s news? He’s ENGAGED! Meanwhile, Junior decides to revamp the Black Widow Bike he recently reclaimed from Senior, and OCC works on a two-bike build for John Christner Trucking.

The plot threads tonight: 1- Will Rick invite Paul Sr. and Paulie to his wedding?  2- Paulie takes the OCC logo off the Black Widow bike and puts on a PJD logo. 3- Mikey hires a personal trainer. (Not the first time, IIRC.)

I have not yet seen the show, we are only 3 minutes in. I understand him wanting to remove the OCC logo but I disagree. It was an OCC bike. Why deny history? It was NEVER a PJD build. OK, he doesn’t want to advertise OCC, but at the very least, leave it without a logo.

OCC is hired to build a pair of bikes for John Christner Trucking, one old-fashioned, one modern. PJD will be working on the Black Widow. They had a flashback to season one with Senior talking about the bike. Senior had a fatter face and darker hair. Time has worn on. Anyway, the bike needs an overhaul, the frame needs work, the paint needs to be redone, it just looks like a ten year-old bike.

Over at OCC, Rick is in charge of the old-school bike, and it appears he is even designing it. It goes without saying how smooth the build will go. Rick is building it like Paulie would, on the go, coming up with ideas as he goes along. As the episode goes along, Rick just shows more and more of the skill we’ve seen over the years. Sad that skill and talent are not rewarded at OCC as much as other things. Yes, Rick is paid well (I assume) and has a good job, but why doesn’t he have more say in the builds?

BTW- the bike Jason “drawed?” It had a design problem: unbuildable exhaust pipes.

Rick is getting married and yes, he is inviting everyone to the wedding, OCC, PJD, whoever. Will they fight? Will they get along? Will they all show up?

Mikey goes on the radio show that they always seem to be on, the big guy with the hoarse voice, to plug the weight loss challenge he entered last week. He is 350 pounds! He’s raising money for a leukemia charity and he is getting sponsored, so much per pound lost. If he shaves his beard and cuts his hair there goes 20 pounds, easy. So Mikey now has a personal trainer. He doesn’t seem to have his blind, Dungeons + Dragons-looking sidekick anymore.

His trainer is Carlos Kremer, a buff but not toned looking guy who seemed more interested in mentally motivating Mikey than training him. He claims to be a former marine, but for a tough military man he seemed more interested in asking about his relationship with his father than building Mikey up. At any rate, he gets Mikey lifting weights, so good for him.

“He seems a bit misdirected.” -Carlos on Mikey, and man, is that an understatement. He is a “master motivator and life coach.” Sounds like BS to me, but I am ready to be convinced. If there is one thing Mikey needs, it is a life coach. 

Nub got some screen time, talking about how bad he feels that he has to take off the OCC logo. He called up Shane from OCC, the original painter, to tell him the logo he painted is coming off. On the one hand, I commend Nub for having the loyalty to tell the guy. On the other hand, where is the loyalty to Paulie? If Shane said not to touch it, would Nub have not done the job? And who is Shane (and Nub for that matter) to make the call. Paulie is both the owner of the bike and the guy paying Nub. Do what he says. End of story.

After all the time that has passed, Rick and Vinnie meet up at a diner to catch up and talk about Rick’s upcoming wedding. Vinnie is going to the wedding regardless of who else is or is not. Vinnie again showed himself to be a class act talking about Senior and his mother, who passed away recently.

Paulie, his wife, and his mother sat down to talk about the Helen situation. Bottom line, he feels it should be handled in private. As he pointed out, he didn’t allow discovery to film his wedding and there were no cameras in the courtroom during all the legal drama with his father. He has a point, but does it take a family sit down to get him to tell his father how sorry he is?

I was prepared to write that the show spent more time on the builds, which it did, but I then realized that while they are showing more, nothing is being explained. There is very little on the technical side of things. This show is still not for people who are into the builds. (No news there, I know.)

BTW- remember Odie? The guy Paulie fired for being total turd and who was later hired by Senior because he badmouthed his son? Haven’t seen him in a long time, have we?

PJD unveiled the revamped Black Widow at the Javits Center in NYC and Vinnie pointed out that most of the people who built it ten years ago were standing on stage with one exception: Paul Senior.

Next Week:

THE CALL March 12, 2012
After weeks of silence, Junior calls Senior to give his condolences on Helen’s passing. Then PJD starts a charity build for the March of Dimes while OCC finishes a two-bike build for John Christner Trucking.

From the commercial: Paulie calls Senior.

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American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Operation Reconciliation

27 Feb

February 27, 2012


OPERATION RECONCILIATION Feb. 27, 2012
OCC builds a bike for Veterans Airlift Command and PJD finishes a bike for One Call Concepts. Then, more determined than ever to reconcile with Mikey and Junior, Senior invites Mikey to join him at a painting class.

Last week, Senior’s mother died and he was very upset by the lack of reaction by his sons. Vinnie was the lone person from the Paulie side of the divide to offer his condolences to Sr.

9:01- Jason walks into Senior’s office with drawings for a Veterans Airlift Command wounded warriors bike, with a Purple Heart theme. The way he explained it to Senior, it was like Sr. never heard of it before. Who is running that company? Or rather, who set up that shot for television? Anyway, I’ve said it in recent recaps, Jason is getting more and more freedom and independence in that company. That will be their downfall.

PJD is finishing up the OCC bike. No, that’s not a typo, they are building a bike for One Call Concepts. Forgive me for reusing their lame joke from last week.

9:05- we see Mikey’s Gallery of Bad Finger Paint Art. Mikey is announcing that he is losing weight to raise money for a leukemia charity. Good for him, quite honestly. Not only is he near-morbidly obese, he is 350 pounds,  but it is a good charity. Of course, does anyone believe Mikey will lose much? Anything?

So from 9:01 to 9:08 the show has focused on Jason and Mikey. Can it go anywhere but up from here?

Things take a turn for the better, when Rick, always a professional, takes us through the build of the Veterans Airlift Command bike. He certainly is not the only guy at OCC who knows bikes, but is there a better front man? Senior needs to take Rick along on some of the customer meetings to make OCC look good. I know I said Rick takes us through the build, but really, it was about 3 minutes of build. This is not much of a show about building bikes anymore. If Rick would grin like a moron, put stupid amounts of gel in his hair, act like a pampered obnoxious brat who knows nothing about bikes and insist on saying “motor-sickle” he’d get more screen time. Kissing butt should help too. (Not that I am describing any particular Jason around the shop.)

After the break, Rick took us through another couple of minutes of fabrication. From about 9:08 to 9:15, including a commercial break, the bike is nearly fabricated. And speaking of fabricating, it was pointed out that Jason’s design was nice to look at, very hard to build. The parts are heavy and hard to machine. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone who knew how to build a bike had some say in the design process?

Senior, in an attempt to reconcile, invited Mikey to come to his house and meet wounded veterans and an artist.  “I really do miss him.”

It isn’t a bad idea, they won’t be alone and there will be things going on to keep them distracted from their problems. I’m already on record as saying that Mikey is the bigger jerk here. No matter what wacko condition he put on a meeting, no matter what silly thing he had his father do, he always found a reason to chicken out. Even if the promos did not give it away, there is no way I’d believe Mikey would man up and go. He discussed it with Vinnie and of course, Mikey was suspicious and uncomfortable. (Really, anything to not go.) Vinnie advised him that it would be a strange situation and said Mikey should not go. I think Vinnie was wrong but if it was not Vinnie, it would be Paulie, or his blind assistant, or some random barking dog giving him a reason not to go. As my brother just said, Mikey refuses to get out of his own way.

And not only did he stay away, he didn’t even give his father the courtesy of a reply.

So the OCC crew set  up their easels and did their best to paint an eagle. Hey, an art project! This is perfect for Jason, the big “drawer” at OCC, right? Wrong, he wasn’t there. I guess he wouldn’t do so well without his computer.

Mikey, however, was right in his element painting in his studio with some children from the charity. If nothing else, he is great with kids. But when you consider that the kids’ art was about as good as Mikey’s, that tells the story right there.

Forty minutes in, and for a program titled “Operation Reconciliation” there has been very little attempt at reconciliation. And in teh next twenty minutes, don’t expect much more.

Just before the commercial break we saw the finished OCC Veterans Airlift Command bike and with an eagle head for the headlight and claws on the forks and a great paint job, it was a very nice bike.

The One Call Concepts also had a great paint job, by Nub as usual. Throughout the show I wasn’t too crazy about the bike but seeing it all together has started to change my mind. I like it, though I wasn’t too wild about the green.

At 9:57, we get Sad Senior, unhappy that his sons won’t talk to him. Don’t be fooled, last week he badmouthed his kids to Donald Trump and outright lied about how Paulie treated him.

For next week, Discovery has not listed a description, only a title.

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior March 5th, 2012
Rick’s News

Let the rampant speculation begin.

The commercial, however, told a different story. As part of the settlement, Paulie got the Black Widow bike. Next week he takes it apart, restores it, and makes one little change. The OCC logo? Gone.

We’ll get into it next week but he is making a mistake.

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