Vinnie and Cody from OCC create their own custom bike company
Where did Vinnie go? Ever since the American Chopper episode where it was revealed that Vincent DiMartino was leaving for greener pastures and new opportunities, fans of the show have wondered what he was up to. The answer is that he’s still building custom motorcycles, just for his own company: V-Force Customs. Not only that, but Cody Connelly, also from Orange County fame, has joined forces with Vinnie in the creation of their own custom bike operation. The company is currently working on its shop in New York, but plans to introduce its first bike at Daytona Beach for Bike Week 2008. February 29th is coming up pretty quickly, so we should be getting some more information soon enough. After touring for a year, the dynamic duo will be giving the bike to one lucky customer.
If you’re interested in knowing more, the company has set up a web forum, and it appears that both Vinnie and Cody occasionally make it there to communicate with fans directly. Considering that Vinnie was one of the best things about OCC, we are pretty sure he’ll do alright for himself and look forward to seeing his first solo effort in Daytona. For a very grainy and low-quality preview of what they are working on, check out our gallery below.
Interesting. I guess they got sick of doing all the work and the the OCC crew reaping all the rewards. Or just got sick of theme bikes :ponder
Word, especially with that huge ass building they put you can see on 87 where they’ll be mass producing bikes. OCC has built a household name for themselves, even people that don’t really know much about Choppers, most know who OCC are.
There’s so many small bike builders out there that it would never affect their business. I can name 3 shops off the top of my head that build their own bikes just in the capital district.
The last episode was interesting. Got a weird vibe from Senior… I think Vinny got screwed. Soo much money rolls through and he just wasn’t rewarded. Why? Not blood? Who cares. He got you there.
THEY didn’t do anything. The discovery channel did. Granted, Sr used to build all of his bikes by hand, including frames etc, but I dont think I’ve ever scene the guy turn a wrench on an episode. they don’t even fab most of the stuff, It’s all mail order this, mail order that.
yeah, you are right about what discovery did, and how much actual fabrication they do. up until fairly recently, they were ordering more parts than they were making. :
You’d be doing the same thing those guys are doing too if you saw their paychecks. Yea, it takes pretty much all the credibility out of “building it yourself”. Their more business man then they are fabricators. If you ask me, it’s pretty smart what they’re doing.
If they call themselves businessmen than thats all good and more power to them, but I’m pretty sure they consider themselves custom bike builders and fabricators…
But in reality they are hardly builders or fabricators anymore. Besides throwing a couple of really nice welds together on some pieces that they still hand make, most of it is machined on that flo jet machine or sent out to somebody.
I guess they could call themselves whatever they wanted to, but they are business man. They got picked up by Discovery Channel and found the opportunity to make a lot of money by marketing themselves through the show.
