Like him or not, I'd swing my leg over one of his bikes. In fact I'd swing my leg over one of his bikes before the "american made" Harley Davidson. Not that I dislike a HD I just think the resale on one of his would be much better.

 

His bikes are great, but the "Monster Garage" show kind of sucks all the way around. His metal working skills are awesome, but the show would be off the air in two weeks if they consentrated on the hard work that goes into forming tanks, fenders and frames.

The items they build in the "Monter Garage" remind me of the "Riced" Hondas I see cruising around. "Does it look cool?" seems to be the question, not "Will it work and last"? You want to see some extreme machines, look in the barns of some of creative farmers, they operate on a extremely tight budget and still build things that would cost thousands, if not hundreds of thousand to buy. The biggest project I have seen is one guy who built his own house trailer from a couple junked out semi trailers and started moving houses for a living. I have seen guys build mower (swathers), spray rigs, and grain trucks from delivery vans. And they expect their stuff to last years, not long enough to get a 3 minute action shot.

 

Jesse James is definitely skilled at what he does, and I have enjoyed watching monster garage, but the last few episodes have been pretty boring. I thought the show was all about creating vehicles into something they definitely weren't indended to do: a golf ball collector out of a porsche, a lawn mower out of a 5.0 mustang, a zamboni out of an impala s.s., etc. Lately, the challenges have gotten kind of boring. Yeah, it's cool to see a rock crawler made out of a bronco, or a figure 8 car out of an el-camino, but those have been done many times before! Sure, it's a challenge to build one in 7 days, but I thought these cars were supposed to appear "totally stock" until their moment of "transformation" arrives. Next I think I saw they were making a "Totally cool wheelchair van".. News flash - it's been done before. I think they should start heading back to the Dunkin Doughnuts cop cars and PT cruiser tree shredders... they've lost my interest!

 

I couldn't agree more with that statement. I have always thought that Snap-On, MAC, Black hawk and a few other tool makers were on CRACK. I have 6 (yes 6) roll around toolboxes with nearly every mechanics tool that craftsman makes. The only Snap-on tools I have are torque wrenches. Only reason I have those is it is easier to get the Snap-on guy to cal his own stuff. It is always a challenge for my wife to find a tool that I don't have when the new catalog comes in. Then if she does she runs out and picks it up. What a good woman.

As for Jesse, I give him credit for having a lost talent for metal working. Plus at least he builds his own bikes unlike the Orange County Chopper guys who basically just put together model kits with a touch of custom fab work. I don't think that Jesse is rolling in cash though. From the shows I have seen he always seems to be in a cash crunch. Keep in mind that even though he may sell a bike for $50k + his overhead must be pretty high and then he has his suppliers to pay and I bet he doesn't sell a $50k bike every week. I am sure he is not hurting for cash but hell neither am I an I can't remember the last time I put in a 16 hour day like he does on the show. Add to that the fact that my wife doesn't go for the "biker type" and I can say that I am not in the least jealous of him.

Now for Monster Garage I think it like most good things has just gone to hell. The first few were good when they had a budget and made something from almost nothing. Now they have Dynatrac and other companies donating $10K worth of "freebies". Hell anyone could build those rigs if there was no budget and someone gave you all of the parts. I will stick with Junk Yard Wars. At least they actually build something from nothing still.

 

Some people do what they do for a living, and die little by little every day...

At least Jesse is living his dreams, and ya gotta hand it to the man there!

I've put almost twenty years into a career that went stale for me about ten years ago, but it still has a few high points from time to time. All of that to get to where I want to be - hopefully in six months I'll be doing what I've always wanted to do, I guess we'll see.

I could care less about money, notoriety, babes, net worth, and a lot of things. PROVIDED I'm doing what I do with one thing;

HEART!

And if I had to explain that, you probably wouldn't understand.

 

I don't think Jesse is hurting for money. And with a staff of 30 he better be selling more than one bike a week. Plus his T shirts and paraphania are for sale nation wide and in magazines. Add to that royalties from the show and the uncountable reruns.

 

I agree with you on that. As popular as the show is, he's making money off the advertising time he sells during the show, his merchandise sales and to a lesser extent, the bikes and other customs he sells. Few people can actually afford a bike like that, and even less who could afford it would buy one. At this point, I think he's just making money off the name "west coast choppers" in the form of t shirts and hats and that kind of thing.

 

I skipped over about 10 of the posts.
But I will go back and re-read them.
But anyways.... Jesse James... I have met him in person, and I know a guy that used to "work" with him.
He owns his own motocycle shop here, and has competed with him and won over a few of his bikes in Memphis.
Anyways... From what Ive met of him, he's a real jerk.
He does do some good motorcycle work, and some stuff looks good, I just wouldnt want it... Then he makes stuff I would like.
Just depends on taste.
As for his show... Its ok but when he did tear up that Bronco... that kinda broke it yanno.
That Bronco was way to nice.

 

I like Jesse a whole lot better that the Teutels, (Paul sr. and Paul jr.) at OCC. Jesse BUILDS his bikes from the ground up, OCC uses a pre fabbed frame, tanks and fenders off of the shelf. Yeah paul jr has SOME talent but Jesse's bike blow OCC's out of the game. As for monster garage, it's first few episodes were great. The last few have really sucked.

 

Last night it was kind of cool that they made something worthwhile, the Mercedes handicap suv. I bet it didn't get the Neilson's the SS Elky did though.
Jesse and Paul Jr. are two totally different builders and Jesse is definately the better crafstman. Paul jr. is limited by his environment I think. I would like to see what kind of stuff he could turn out if he was just a broke bike tramp with a one car garage and basic hand tools. I bet he could turn out some amazing pieces if he was just left alone to his own resources, but it would probably take him a year to build a bike without his old man riding his case. I still think the kid is an artist, but he needs to broaden his horizons.

 

willowbilly3
I think I agree with your last complete post.

Side note if jesse james actually gave the suv to the fellow on his own dime then ***hole or not then I would think of him as a little better person for it, but odds are the producers said hey give it to him and we will edit what the mother says to make it look like your a hero, as mentioned I don't know if that is true or not so I cannot say. But as I mentioned in my first post, I could care less about him or what he does, just another face on a tv show.

I think if a hand crafted bike is what a person wants then jesse james is the man, with that in mind that billy fellow (can't remember is name, you know the quy with the bike that had a see thru rear wheel, that was cool, the cadillac bike) he does really nice more old style choppers and while we are at it indian larry turned out a nice bike and seems like a fairly decent person as long as your on his good side, but the teutals occ shop if they can purchase someone elses tank/ frame/ or whatever then so be it more likely than not they save money as in time spent and can sell the bike cheaper and in some cases for more (profit) so it works out both ways. Still think the old man is on roids with all that mood changes and boo hooing he does. Later

Anyone see the episode of biker build off where indian larry was up against some guy who thought he was picaso of the motorcyle world? I thought it was funny cause he menitoned well I never heard of indian larry before, I was thinking who the h*** are you I never heard of you either. That fellow was an arrogant jackass no two ways about it, and indian larry was laid back and calm and won, the other fellow had a nice bike but I was happy he lost. just thought I would throw that out there

 

jwtaylor-

I saw the episode you mentioned. The guy is Paul Yaffe. I can't believe you don't know who he is. He builds some sick bikes. I don't really believe that he doesn't know who Indian Larry is. I thought it was funny that the winners were old-school builders. The modern guys like Yaffe and Roger Bourget got beat. Bourget's bike was my pick.

 

Well I don't really consider myself a motorcyle enthusiast I buy a motorcyle mag once a year and turn my head everytime I hear one rumbling by. I also try and catch the cable programs. Don't get me wrong if I could afford one, I would have already gotten one. I have heard the name Yaffe but like I said it meant nothing to me due to my lack of exposure. It seems old school wins out everytime like the Roger Bourget vs. Billy Lane, one side you have million dollar machines punching out custom parts with a full staff of qualified engineers and mechanics not to mention painters. Other side you have exhuast bend rejects being turned into whatever and hand crafted parts. This is one time I was conflicted as I wanted the fellow to win because his daughter had passed and he was kinda using the bike as a commemoration of the loss, and I have seen bourget bikes, very nice clean bikes. With that in mind, I still liked the fact that Billy Lane won, just because you know he had to make that extra effort in building his bike. I guess every style does come back around and please the masses after all, from bikes to cars to bellbottoms. Hell I been considering primering my truck, oh man, whats the world coming too. Later

 

jesse james is frickin cool and he's an awesome fabricator.

 

Indian Larry is a class act. He pitched in to help the other guy get his bike running and then himself called it a tie after he won. I really like the old school bikes but I wish Indian Larry would get off those Paugo mustang tanks. They were ugly 30 years ago and still are. And one cylinder a pan and the other a shovel, wow that took some huevos in a competition like that.
The fads and builders come and go. 20 years or so ago it was Arlen Ness. I haven't heard much about him lately and I think he should have been a contender.