Tag Archives: Roadblock

American Chopper: Full Circle

22 Oct

October 22, 2012

As always, I will update this blog live as the show progresses.

American Chopper (Season 8)
Full Circle
Junior visits OCC and brainstorms with Senior about potential future collaborations including creating a production line of bikes.  Meanwhile, PJD finishes a bike for RoadLoK while OCC starts a SuperBike build

According to the tease, OCC and PJD will be working together on a project. Sounds good, and then it smash cuts to Jason who is making funny voices and you wonder how anyone, anyone at all, from PJD can stand to be in the same room as that dunce cap.

OCC is building their first high-performance bike, which for some reason sounds wrong. And you know what else sounds wrong? Hearing Jason gleefully cream his pants about a “crotch rocket.” Meanwhile Skeeter, the old man in the shop who pops up from time to time, is front and center because he seems to be the only one in the shop who ever built that kind of bike.

PJD is assembling the RoadBlok bike and they’ll unveil it in Sturgis. Strange who they edit this show, you’d think that one of the shops goes down to Sturgis every other week. If you believed the show, Sturgis is a non-stop biker party.

And at 9:07… Paulie goes to OCC to talk about the commercial they discussed last week.

Mike seemed happy to see Paulie, and of course Rick too. Lots of small talk, but not too strained. Amiable, friendly.
“I don’t feel the way I did four years ago walking through there.” – Paulie. “There’s a little distance, emotionally.”

Jr. and Sr. begin to discuss making a production bike together, which could be a good idea. I’ve always been surprised OCC didn’t have one. (According to an info screen, they had one in 2005.) And they even discuss Paulie throwing the chair across the room four years ago with a smile and a laugh. They really have progresses. And they make fun of how fat Jason has gotten, which was a plus.

This professional poker player is named Jason Pohl. He needs to change his name.

So Cody, for the third week in a row, screwed up. He messed up the wiring, mis-measuring and running them in the wrong place.  He is still learning, he’s still young, but he has to pick up his game. And he has to not get an attitude.

Meanwhile, the new PJD Studios is coming along nicely. That’s where Paulie is going to shot the commercial for the OCC Cafe.

Both bikes for both companies are moving right along and little by little each week, it seems to me that they are adding more focus to the builds. Not as much as there used to be yet, but it is creeping back in. I don’t mean the guys doing nonsense around the builds, I mean a little more (just a little) of the technical aspect that used to be in the show.

At 9:45 it gets interesting. Both companies got to gether at OCC. A lot of the PJD guys have bad memories of their time at OCC. For some others, it was a little bit of a reunion with former coworkers. None of them know what is going on. They stood in two lines across from each other, which reminded me of the WWE WCW Invasion angle. (Google it- it was full of potential but the execution was lousy.)

So how did the news of the joint projects go over? No one seemed happy.
“I don’t want to work for OCC.” -Cody.
“I don’t know what (Paulie) will want from me.” – Jason.

By “coincidence,” Vinnie was on vacation during this get-together. Hmmm. I smell drama.

NEXT WEEK:
American Chopper (Season 9)
Episode 1

Seriously? So this was the season finale and next week is the season premiere? Do seasons mean anything any more?

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American Chopper: New Venture

15 Oct

October 15, 2012

Once again, I will update this blog as the show progresses, so check back throughout the hour.

Tonight on The New Adventures of American Chopper:
New Venture
Senior receives a stern, on-air lecture from a late night celebrity, Junior launches a new business venture and Senior visits PJD for the first time ever. Then, at Sturgis, Senior rides side by side with a bike industry icon.

I hope this is better than the line of dog toys Paulie tried to launch during his no-complete period.

Meanwhile, the celebrity is David Letterman, so how stern is it?

Look how happy he is to sign autographs for his fans!

This episode is built around, in part, to Paulie and Senior’s trip to the David Letterman show. I did not see that episode but it aired back in August. I’m more interested in seeing Senior’s visit to PJD and his reunion with Vinnie. Vince has been fairly vocal in his criticism of Senior so let’s see how it goes.

Senior is continuing his old-school build for Sturgis, and PJD is starting a new build for RoadLok, a system to lock your bike’s front wheel. As I said last week, OCC is building the bike on the fly according to whatever Senior wants so for once the guys who know how to build and design a bike- like Rick and, I have to admit, Mike- are in charge and are not simply trying to recreate a kid’s sketch. PJD’s bike will be retro too.

Letterman: “I took Paul’s side in this.” (Scattered applause and a loud “yeah!” from the audience.)
“You said things in public about your family I can’t believe anyone would say.”
“Do you know that in certain places you behave poorly?”

Senior (smiling): “He hammered me a little.”

And that’s it. The Late Show stuff ran for about 5 minutes. At 9:15 it is back to the OCC build. Then at 9:17 it is back to PJD, who- and who knew?- created PJD Studios, to do commercials, animation, all kinds of graphic design. Ok, the reality is it is four or five guys in a hot cramped room, but even so, it is a smart move to diversify but Paulie says they need studio space. I say kick Mikey out of his waste of space studio and take over. Much like when OCC expanded, Paulie is going to find some space and build a studio. The bottom line is that Paulie has always been a visual thinker and designer. This “new venture” should be a nice fit. “It is so we can offer the clients we are working with a little more.”

Over at the Roadlok build, Vinnie was not liking the gas tank. “I guess Brendon and Cody like it.”
Paulie: “Looks good, huh?”
Vinnie: “If you’re Ray Charles.” “You know what I want to get you for your birthday? A pair of glasses.”
And guess what? At 9:53 Paulie decides to change the tank.

Cody, despite his missteps last week, is a good person and a good employee. This week, Paulie asks him to go the new studio space and do some demolition. He said “this isn’t the best work but I’m one of Paulie’s employees so whatever he needs done I’m here to do it for him.” Of course, that doesn’t stop him from attacking people in the shop with fireworks.

Senior, while test-riding his Sturgis bike, decides to pop in at PJD. The bike, BTW, is as long as a truck. Both Teutul’s seemed happy and Senior shook hands with the PJD crew, many of whom he fired or quit on him. Even Vinnie got a curt handshake and body language tells all, Vinnie immediately crossed his arms and looked like he wanted to be anywhere but next to Senior. He didn’t look uncomfortable, he looked angry.

“I think his shop is pretty (bleep) cool.” -Senior. “I think he learned a lot from me.”

Paulie has the idea to produce a commercial for the OCC Cafe, which is a nice fit in my book.
“I’m not paying you (bleep)” -Senior, laughing
“We’ll talk about it.” -Paulie, rubbing his hands and laughing
“You can have a cheeseburger.” -Senior

To wrap up the show, Senior goes to Sturgis and rides with Sugar Bear himself, who made the bike’s front end.

NEXT WEEK: In the midst of an all-day American Chopper marathon, there is no new show. As of this moment, it is all repeats next week. However, check back since Discovery has been known to release titles and descriptions late.

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