Too Much Of Nothing

Paul (Senior) Teutul -- The Hair Club Motorcycle

That’s how I would described American Chopper, the reality television show based on the Teutul family business, Orange County Chopper custom-built motorcycles.

Unless you live in a cave you’ve been unable to avoid hearing about Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. revving up their litigators and fighting it out in the courtroom — a shareholder dispute or family feud?  If you’ve missed it I’ve previously blog about this father/son feud HERE and HERE.

At this point I suspect that Paul Jr. is doing a victory break dance after the decision by the appeals court reversed a lower court’s ruling that would have forced him to sell his 20% interest in Orange County Choppers to his father, at a price to be determined by the court.  Teutul v. Teutul, 2010 NY Slip Op 09248 (2d Dept Dec. 14, 2010).

You may recall that the lower court’s April 2010 ruling enforced Senior’s exercise of a buyout option contained in a January 2009 letter agreement that had temporarily patched up the father-son business relationship, and avoided cancellation of their television deal with Discovery Channel, following Senior’s on-air firing of Junior.  The court enforced the option notwithstanding that the buyout price was expressed in terms of “fair market value as determined by a procedure to be agreed to by the parties as soon as practicable.  The solution to the parties’ inability to agree on valuation procedure, the court concluded, was for the court itself to step in and determine the fair market value of Junior’s shares.

Only a legal student would find the previous two years of this business divorce interesting.  I did find it curious that according to Discovery Channel the Jan. 3rd premiere show garnered 2M+ viewers and was the number #1 cable program (excluding sports and movies) during prime time among the male 18-54 demographic.

American Chopper’s Hair Club Motorcycle

The next new episode of Senior vs. Junior is Jan. 17th where Paul Sr. will unveil the newest completed chopper built for the 35th Anniversary of the Hair Club.  Most notable is the brushed metal skull-themed paint which illustrates Hair Club’s signature “magic” where one skull is bald and the other has a full head of hair, flowing like flames.  In addition there is a promotional opportunity that I wanted to make you aware of where you can win the Hair Club motorcycle by entering their contest HERE.

Thanks to Sam Mazzarelli of Marlo Marketing and Communications for the  email with this information and corresponding photos.  The Hair Club motorcycle will be unveiled for what is expected to be a large crowd at Washington State University (Pullman, WA) on January 17th.

Photos courtesy of American Chopper, OCC and Marlo Marketing.

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Renegade Partners With Paul Jr.

Renegade Wheels Owner - Chuck Frederick

He joins an elite club of A-listers who love to flaunt their fabulous machines and high quality wares.

I’m talking about Chuck Frederick, owner of Renegade Wheels.

I was recently contacted by the co-founder of MaleStandard.com, a men’s lifestyle source of information on grooming, dating and other esoteric items that men care about, in regards to an exclusive article about the man behind Renegade Wheels.

It turns out that Renegade Wheels developed a customer set of wheels for Paul Jr. (of OCC fame) Designs of American Chopper and this article covers the story behind the business as well as the new relationship with Paul Jr.

Here is an excerpt:

Q: Circling back around, it’s hard to deny the excitement that is exuding out of you after your trip to Sturgis to showcase your wheels on Paul Jr.’s bike. How did that collaboration come to light?
A: It was a surprise. The collaboration wasn’t something that was pre-planned. Paul Jr. had intended on making his own wheels however he was in a real time crunch and knew he likely would miss his deadline without Renegade’s assistance, so he had Vinnie give us a call. It turned out the timing was great for us and we could get right on them.

Q: Was the custom design specific to just that bike?
A: Yes. Most of Paul Jr.’s bikes are theme or corporate and get very unique one-off wheels.

It’s well written and a good read so check it out HERE.

Full Disclosure:  I purchased (blog post HERE) a set of Renegade Wheels last year, but have no affiliation with the company.

Photo courtesy of Renegade Wheels.

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