Ah, drama. The internet is full of it, and before the internet was full of it, the cable airwaves were full of it. While he wasn't the first person to bring drama into living rooms across America via a television show he starred in, Paul Sr. and Orange County Choppers certainly raised and/or lowered the bar, depending on where you're sitting.
But that was the early 2000s, and it's now 20-ish years later. Maybe it shouldn't have come as a surprise that with new media comes new opportunities for beef, manufactured or otherwise. And maybe, just maybe, it should come as even less of a surprise that Paul Senior, Sean from Bikes and Beards, and Craig from the Bearded Mechanic would all convene in Florida to hash out the terms of a new-era bike build-off.
Both Craig and Sean posted videos about their trip on their respective YouTube channels at about the same time earlier today. If you've watched both of them, you'll get the impression that Paul Senior has one coming on his channel as well, but at the time of writing, it's not yet posted. (Maybe he's running fashionably late?)
In any case, Craig's video shows you more around the shop at OCC, taking a good look at all the tools and machines. It's fun to see Craig seriously geeked over all this stuff, and definitely relatable. And then they get an OCC bike running again, to cap it off.
What about the planned build-off? This meeting, we're informed over the course of two videos, was really meant to lay down the ground rules and figure out how they're going to do this thing. OCC is having a festival in about two months, so that seems like the natural time to do it.
They established rules about bikes. Sean isn't really a builder, and while Craig is an experienced mechanic, he's also never built a bike from scratch before, either. So, their big plan is to work using an existing motorcycle, and build something custom from there. Paul Sr. agreed to this plan.
Very soon, all three YouTube channels will post polls asking their respective viewers which continent they should source their base build-off machine from. Sean said he's hoping enough viewers tell Paul Sr. to use a Japanese bike, just to throw him out of his comfort zone. What will actually happen remains to be seen though.
All three YouTubers will be building bikes in this challenge, with all the proceeds going to charity. Further details and videos will no doubt be posted in the weeks and months leading up to this event. If you're in Florida and you're able to catch it in person, definitely drop us a line and tell us how different it is from whatever the videos look like once they're posted.
