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Dear: Fellow BBO'ers


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The new "so-called" MOTORCYCLE MANIA 4 (with Russell Mitchell) that aired last night on TLC was absolutely awful!!!!!

That was easily the worst biker/motorycle-themed show outside of AMERICAN CHOPPER that I've seen in years!
There was just so much wrong with the show I don't know where to begin!

FIRST, and most importantly, are the motorcycles. The bike Russ built for JOHN COUGAR MELLANCAMP was one of the ugliest pieces of over-hyped crap I've ever seen constructed on a show. Those gigantic, plastic-looking ape-hanger handlebars defines the truly uninspired, "cartoonish", junkyard plastic look repleat throughout the entire bike.
That was not a custom build....it was an assembly of a crappy-looking kit bike.
This cheesy bike is what comes from these silly deadline plots that producers/writers HUGH KING & THOM BEERS seem so enamored with. When are these guys going to learn that artifical deadlines do not lend to a quality build?
Look at AMERICAN CHOPPER & AMERICAN HOT-ROD. The cobbled-up design schemes & forcing stuff to fit that reallly should be re-done ends in a product that (to myself at least) is less in quality. I remember a recent episode of AMERICAN HOT-ROD in which they butchered some component just to make it fit. You see this forcing something to fit production style mentality on AMERICAN CHOPPER also. All of these problems are because of these severe time restrictions based on these silly deadlines.
After seeing how both shops work on T.V., I would never buy anything from OCC or Boyd Coddington.
It's just that this artificially manufactured "tension" is simply just pointless and boring!

5 days for a custom build...get outta here with that ???!!!

RUSS MITCHELL clearly has entered into OCC territory. This build of his was EXACTLY like the builds OCC does. By that I mean simply modifying stock parts to suit a theme.
The only thing I liked about the bike was that "GUN BLUE" stuff.
Other than that everything else looked absolutely rushed & terrible!
The bike overall looked like a giant plastic blob.
Even the gold-leaf on the tank -- which really could have look spectacular -- was just "pooped" on each side.


SECONDLY, in my opinion, RUSS MITCHELL is really not a crowd-pleaser in the same fashion as an INDIAN LARRY, or even a BILLY LANE. He just doesn't seem to connect to the audience on a mass level as they did. There really is nothing wrong with this if he is simply being himnself, but HUGH KING and THOM BEERS should have really considered this if they attempted to make lightning strike twice by re-presenting MOTORCYCLE MANIA with a different builder. In essence, going back to the roots of popular biker-celebrity culture (and motorcycle customization) by going back to where all of this began: MOTORCYCLE MANIA 1 with JESSE JAMES.
With INDIAN LARRY & BILLY LANE gone, there seems to be a real vacuum in terms of that personality that these biker rally audiences gravitate towards.
There is no real larger-than-life star anymore.

Also, Russ comes off as a little too conscious of the cameras, and seems to play up this "bad boy" persona in front of them.
He just doesn't come off as naturally likable as INDIAN LARRY, BILLY LANE, or even JESSE JAMES does.
But to be fair, JESSE JAMES also comes off sometimes as playing up the "bad boy" thing a little too hard.
During the rides shown, It seemed as if Russ was preening for the cameras. In contrast, INDIAN LARRY came off as very natural and comfortable.


THIRD, this BIKER-RALLY culture is really becoming tired.
I think the mainstreaming of biker culture has really subverted it.
It's about playing up to it's iconography and not really living it.
Personally, I'm sick and tired of this REDNECK PARADISE stuff that really seems to dominate biker rally culture.
Some motorcycling customization (and biker) shows would be decent If we the audience didn't have to sit there and be bombarded with this ignorance.
To me it's all fake anyway. Just a bunch of people trying to play up to an identity of rebellion, which at this point is really looking like a stereotype. The copious alcohol consumption, tatoos, leather, and tired-looking, half-dressed girls, is just boring & ignorant at this point.
It just doesn't have that "WOW....THIS IS AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT WORLD..." type of feel that It seemed to have in the past. The notion of these rallies are not interesting anymore, just annoying.

Look at the IGNORANCE shown on the show: one of the dumest things I have ever seen anyone do is have a company logo tattooed on your head like that kid did. This was compounded by the fact that the kid actually let Russ Mitchell tattoo his name on his head also. STUPID !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Other stupid crap: "COLE-SLAW WRESTLING", and Russell's facially-scarred shop foreman bragging about fighting! This guy's a grown man bragging about something a high school kid would.

I actually respect the straightforward, economically simple, hang-out world of these biker rallies, but am sick of the IGNORANCE that comes from playing up to stereotypes.

Also, I got tired of hearing JOHN COUGAR MELLANCAMP mentioning how many EXILE bikes he already has.
These rich celebrities trying to act working-class & "down home" is just phony too.
It's like what COUNTRY MUSIC STARS & RAPPERS do -- it's all FAKE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only things I liked about the entire show was the brief KENDALL JOHNSON appearance and the "GUN BLUE" stuff. That's IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Otherwise...a TERRIBLE, AWFUL presentation!!!!!!!!!!!!!


TERRIBLE BIKE in the end !!!!!!!!!!!!!!



-- THANKS --

Well put!
The first Motorcycle-Mania was good because it introduced something and someone that most people didn't know a lot about. This show needs to find someone that is much more interesting and "hands on" that's not just going w/ the flow.
Russel Mitchel is just an west coast version of Eddie Trotta. Boring!

bet he sold many bike while you wrote all that...lol who's the fake??? lol I know...do you??

Random aside here-hjas anyone seen Backyard to Battlefield on Military Channel? Looks cool-guys build cool stuff for the military out of their garage...