Mikey Teutul & Orange County Choppers rolling out its fifth-in-the-nation dealership

Orange County Choppers is bringing its custom-built motorcycles to town.


Orange County Choppers is rolling out its fifth-in-the-nation dealership in Tulsa, and motorcycle builder Mikey Teutul, star of "American Chopper," will be making a trip to Oklahoma to celebrate Saturday.

Customized motorcycles designed and built by New York state-based Orange County Choppers are available at the dealership, In a phone interview, Teutul, whose father Paul Teutul Sr. and brother Paul Teutul Jr. appear with him on the TLC network reality TV show "American Chopper," said custom motorcycles have been revving up in popularity during the past five or six years.

"Now they've kind of made their way into the mainstream more so than ever," Teutul said.

Custom bikes made by Orange County Choppers and other manufacturers have an appeal that spans demographic divides, leading many types of people to get interested in motorcycles.

"Motorcycles used to be associated with counterculture, like biker gangs and all that stuff. But now it's become more palatable to the average Joe. At bike shows now, it's more of a family event than it used to be," Teutul said.

People
are drawn to Orange County Choppers because of the well-known name, which appears on TV as well as on a variety of merchandise, he said.

And it doesn't hurt, Teutul said, that the company produces outstanding motorcycles as well.

"I'm going to go ahead and toot my own horn here and say that we make the best bikes out there," he said.

Trinity will sell six different production motorcycles from Orange County Choppers, ranging in cost from $30,000 to $50,000. Unique, custom-made theme bikes such as the POW/MIA bike, which was built to honor Vietnam veterans, are also available.

David Miller, owner of Trinity Restoration, said that while some people will purchase a customized motorcycle as a collectable item, the majority of buyers intend to ride them.

"It's recreational driving. They're not driving them to work. They're driving them out on the weekends to go out to Los Cabos for dinner or to cruise Brookside," Miller said.

For many people, a customized motorcycle is the fourth or fifth vehicle that they own, he said.

"Basically what you're looking at is a very small group of hard-core bike guys who can come up with the money for these custom-made bikes," he said. "They're guys that you wouldn't necessarily think are bikers. Doctors, lawyers, businessmen. It's guys with toys. Guys and gals with toys."

Miller said Tulsa was an ideal choice for Orange County Choppers because there was a gap in the market.

"In Tulsa you've got two Harley dealerships, which is a different market. You've got some Honda dealers — another different market," he said. "I felt like the Tulsa market was underserved. Tulsa is a pretty good-size market. Per capita there's more money here than some towns our size.

The dealership will also be the first store in the country outside of the company's headquarters in Orange County, N.Y., to offer the OCC Experience — a retail store featuring Orange County Choppers merchandise, Miller said.

Merchandising is a large part of the Orange County Choppers empire; the company takes in almost as much money selling non-bike accessories as it does selling motorcycles, Miller said.

He said the dealership is expected to produce more than $1 million a year for the local economy.

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