Orange County Choppers Ride Report & Pics

[Kempo-STer]

Saturday Morning saw myself, Brian and his brother Bruce meeting at Dunking Donuts for a Coffee and a very slow bagel sandwich and a start to a good day of riding..So too speak.

1st thing was the weather..Everyone else bailed out and who could blame them (Me :p: )..Low 40s the whole day and on and off drizzle and brief periods of shower..

Our Trip began on on beautiful (Not) Rt 44 in downtown Hartford...We kept our head low and avoided getting shot..
Route 44 runs east/west and gets pretty nice past Avon and further west.
Made steady progess and jumped on Rt 202 into Torrington..Once Past Torrington I found a nice surprise in CT I did not know about which is Route 4.
Loaded with Horse farms and twisty roads, this was a beautiful stretch which turned into 343 and took us into NY. Too bad it was rainy and wet..I will return to this road again for some fun.
IN any case we returned to rt 44 and made our way south down 9W.
Intersected I84 and did slab for 5 minutes, exit onto 17K and 10 minutes later pulled into "OCC"..the store..Not it wasn't the shop. In my mind I had pictured their store to be physically connected to the shop but I guess that would not make sense.
Nice store..Some of their famous bikes they made on the show were there..Including my favorite, the 'Fire Bike'..Lance Armstrong Bike, Reindeer bike, black widow and one that I did not recognize leaking some fluid underneath it and I don;t think it was coffee :eek: ..
My impression of these bikes was that they are HUGE..Very long, very high, of course unridable and basically show pieces..
In any case, very nice store, these guys are making money hand over fist.
We decided to grab a bite to eat and slab it home. I will save the trip into the Catskill Mountains for another time and a good guide that lives in the area :)

Good riding with you Bruce and Brian..
Enjoy the pics everyone.

Kempo Todd

[Kempo-STer]

Some more...

[Kempo-STer]

A couple more..BTW Mileage was about 260..

[georgeorge]

Great pix....wish I was there.....OH WAIT!...I WAS THERE!

I just wanted to add that Todd's right. Those theme bikes are huge! You can kinda get a feel for the hugeness (is that a word?) by keeping in mind that those are 12"x12" tiles on the floor.

Gotta love my heated seat! It kept my butt toasty!

[SteveST1300]

NIce Todd wish I could have met you there I had to go to my granddaughters cheerleading competition I t was fun :confused: Maybe another weekend. :03biker:

[georgeorge]

On another note.......OCC cheated! Check out the first photo. It's taken right from the OCC webpage and shows the theme bike as built on the show. Look at the shape of the tank. It was built to be shaped like lance armstrongs bike helmet. Then look at the phto of the bike we saw in the store. Completely different tank! I don't know why.

[EdsST]

Great Pics - thanks for sharing them with us. I have to add it to make wish list of places to visit

[NormanPCN]

On another note.......OCC cheated! Check out the first photo. It's taken right from the OCC webpage and shows the theme bike as built on the show. Look at the shape of the tank. It was built to be shaped like lance armstrongs bike helmet. Then look at the phto of the bike we saw in the store. Completely different tank! I don't know why.

Maybe the bike is a "duplicate" and they cheated some on the tank. Supposedly the original was to be auctioned off to raise money for the Live Strong foundation.

[nm6r]

As long as you guys had fun. Thanks for posting the pictures. I now know not to waste my time when I make it into that part of the country. It amazes me that HD is able to sell a bike. These guys make them even worse and make even more money. Truly f***ing amazing.

Ray
http://www.frontiernet.net/~st1300rider/smile04Bikerwheelie.gif

[Jeff F]

Hey thanks for posting that Todd.

As I looked at your cool pics I wondered if the latest chopper craze with its TV shows & T shirts is for real, .... or is it just a passing fad.

Is anybody really buying these bikes in any number? (meaning the more rideable ones like Vengeance, Big Dog etc).

Michelle Smith is doing her best - and with new improved cleavage I see. :)

[georgeorge]

Actually when I went to Daytona Speedway in February, I parked right next to a Vengence, so someones buyin em.

[Horst]

"...My impression of these bikes was that they are HUGE..Very long, very high, of course unridable and basically show pieces..."

YOU SAID IT ! ... UN-RIDEABLE is right ... :rolleyes:

You talk to the unwashed masses and they just dont get it ... I point out the raked out front end, usually no brakes up front, un-human seating positions, etc. etc. ... then a light usually goes on .... Ohhhhh .... DOH! :o:

[Carl_T]

I will save the trip into the Catskill Mountains for another time and a good guide that lives in the area :couch1: Ehhh... what's that you say???? Who you talkin' about boy, I'm an old man an' my bike aint got no heated nothin' and no windshield worthy of the name…. You better have at least one bottle of black and tan in your back pocket for "after the ride warm up", if'n you want these old bones to pull on the carharts and snowmobile gloves. Man the ST was a goody for riding this time of year. The SV leaves your upper jacket as the wind protection. :wt1: :mcrider:

You better arrive incognito, that Trojan Man costume would attract some shotgun totin’ suspicious hairy eyeballs in the mountains. :rocket1:

I've got a leaky fork seal to get fixed too, but I've been out between raindrops for an hour or two here and there anyway.

You missed nothing at all by not going to the shop. I took a friend there a couple of years ago, and no one was allowed in. They had two lesser examples of bikes parked outside behind cones next to a trailer selling T-shirts. It was not a worthy destination. The store at least looks like you could see some of their better examples and spend a bit of time looking.

With those ground clearances, it looks like 4 degrees of lean before scraping hard parts. I've seen a few on the road though. They just wouldn't interest me as a rider. :chop1:

[CruisingDog]

It amazes me that HD is able to sell a bike. These guys make them even worse and make even more money. Truly f***ing amazing.

Ray
http://www.frontiernet.net/~st1300rider/smile04Bikerwheelie.gif

OK, there's one word to describe this phenomena:

"Hollywood"

Image is everything to a lot of people!

[Bones]

I've got a leaky fork seal to get fixed
Carl, maybe if you turned to the other side when doing U-turns you'd have more balanced wear. Just a thought.

P.S. You can lead a Catskill route anytime, in my book.

[Carl_T]

Fair warning though guys. I've been looking at all the options and anything actually worth showing up for at all is going to take anywhere from 5.5 hrs to 8.5 hrs with lunch and a couple of rest (and a gas for me) stop.

That makes it a best to do thing in daylight savings time with warm enough weather to tent overnight or some such for you guys that don't live right here.

A tent over thing would give time for including the Ashokan Reservoir, sliding by the Rondout Reservoir and Neversink, and doing a FULL loop around the Pepacton Reservoir (which is worth the ride road wise). Could pop over Friday night, ride Saturday, and home Sunday. Otherwise you barely get to do much and the ride here to home becomes the ride instead. The nice stuff is kind of spread out here. The scenery is a real plus.

Oh yeah, Todd, I'm just yanking your chain about the beer.

[Kempo-STer]

Fair warning though guys. I've been looking at all the options and anything actually worth showing up for at all is going to take anywhere from 5.5 hrs to 8.5 hrs with lunch and a couple of rest (and a gas for me) stop.

That makes it a best to do thing in daylight savings time with warm enough weather to tent overnight or some such for you guys that don't live right here.

A tent over thing would give time for including the Ashokan Reservoir, sliding by the Rondout Reservoir and Neversink, and doing a FULL loop around the Pepacton Reservoir (which is worth the ride road wise). Could pop over Friday night, ride Saturday, and home Sunday. Otherwise you barely get to do much and the ride here to home becomes the ride instead. The nice stuff is kind of spread out here. The scenery is a real plus.

Oh yeah, Todd, I'm just yanking your chain about the beer.

I'll take you seriously on beer even if your yanking my chain and bring some anyway :p:

In any case My original 'guide' comment really meant most likely springtime for this ride..We're just running out of time and I know you're wicked busy so I'll save a trip to the Catskills for the spring for now.

Looks Like a nice Sunday is coming up (Mid to High 50's) but I only have the morning until around 1 pm..So I may take a ride up route 8 across 23 and back down route 7 in MA..BONES??? BRIAN?? STEVE? (Shavlan)
I want to leave early and take MO-mo (Michele) with me but gotta make some kid arrangements first..I'll send some communications out to you guys via email..

[Carl_T]

Spring would be a very good time. :)