Paul Teutul Jr. of TLC's American Choppper

Custom Bikes, Ewan McGregor and Will Smith

Paul Teutul Jr. says he was born with steel in his blood. He's is a custom bike builder who co-founded Orange County Choppers with his father Paul Teutul Sr. in 1999. Now he hosts TLC's American Chopper.

Why bikes and not a desk job? I grew up in the steel business, so I’ve worked with my hands from an early age. My father was always into motorcycles, always had a bike or two that he was tinkering around with when I was young.

I share my dad’s name and many characteristics. The TV show wouldn’t be what it is without the family dynamic and we build some unique bikes. It’s not easy working with family - we spend more time together than married couples do!

My mother is more reserved, the complete opposite of my father. Biking is a real boy’s club and probably always will be, but women are more involved than they used to be. More women are riding and at bike events these days. They used to be more on the back of the bikes, and now they’re riding Choppers. We've only built two bikes for women, but I’d say probably a third of our work force is female.

Michael is the youngest boy, and I’m the oldest, so he’s carefree and laid back…maybe too laid back at times. He’s a funny guy and very intelligent. There’s no sibling rivalry, but my father is forever competing with me.

Designing Theme Bikes at Orange County Choppers

We have a niche with theme bikes - a bike that looks like a fire truck or a piece of Caterpillar equipment. We can combine function and art. A bike can be sculptural and you're still able to ride it. My father is a hard core biker. I’m not necessarily a recreational rider; I’m more into the design.

We’ve become extremely sophisticated in our use of technology, and we have more staff so I can't just design in my head. We’re able to use a computer and submit our designs to big corporations or even individuals before we build the bike.

My favorite bike is the Black Widow Bike, which was the second web-theme bike that I did on the first episode of our series. Definitely the Fire Bike, because it paid tribute to 343 firemen that died in 9/11. In our very first pilot I did the Jet Bike, which was like a military jet. There was the Space Shuttle Bike, the Statue of Liberty Bike made out of materials dipped in Statue of Liberty copper. Celebrity Guests on the Show from Ewan McGregor to Will Smith

I’m a big Giants fan and I have to build a Giants bike. I had Michael Strahan come down to the shop. Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman invited us on the last leg of their trip around the world. It was really emotional and we’ve done other things with Ewan in England since. We had Will Smith and his son down when we did the I, Robot Bike. We had Lance Armstrong, Billy Joel, Bill Murray...

We have three builds going on at the same time now, which we’ve never done before. We have Strike Ten Bowl, which is a big bowling company, we have Mercedes EMG, which is the engine company for Mercedes that builds our high performance engines. We also have the McCuff Bike that is going to be entered into a competition at the S&S 50th anniversary show. Motorcycles are our mainstay.

We have a new line of production bikes coming out, something more affordable and easily duplicated. We’re making 150 bikes annually. We’ll always have a small business feel, but we want the business to keep growing. Our show is popular in 160 countries, so right now we do a lot of travel and business overseas.

All photos courtesy Orange County Choppers.