Orange County Choppers builds Intel a Xeon-powered bike

Frankly we're a little surprised that anyone at Intel even watches a show about motorcycle building (don't they spend all their time in clean rooms trying to one up AMD?), but apparently the world's largest chipmaker has so much love for Discovery Channel's (and now TLC's) American Chopper that it commissioned Team OCC to assemble perhaps the highest tech bike in the world. This 250-horsepower workstation on wheels -- unveiled simultaneously in meatspace and Second Life in honor of the Xeon 5300 series release -- probably sports more digital kit than Sturgis or Laconia have ever seen, including either a quad or octo core chipset (sources don't make it clear), removable UMPC that doubles as a virtual dashboard, rear-facing cameras to replace the mirrors, full audio and video capabilities, GPS of course, and what sounds like a 3G data connection. The two-part build will air on July 12th and 19th, when you can probably expect to see Pauls Jr. and Sr. get into a shouting match over which OS to install on the chopper, as well as Mikey trying to play The Sims while barreling down the Taconic at 90 MPH.

[Via The Raw Feed and CIOL]

[aeo @ Apr 4th 2007 2:05PM]

Sweet! Ought to be a fun build. Discovery HD is currently airing the 2003 construction of a motorcycle for HP. So now they just need to do a chopper for Dell, AMD, and something proprietary but user-friendly for Apple (but then they get sued for using the Apple logo and calling it an iBike).

[MikeN @ Apr 4th 2007 2:17PM]

250HP? Righhhht. Maybe if it's being pulled by 125 horses, downhill.

[Brad @ Apr 4th 2007 2:20PM]

Yeah these bikes are no where near 250hp. I think they're in the range of what 90-115hp?

[MikeN @ Apr 4th 2007 2:23PM]

Yeah, barring forced induction and nitrous. Judging from the picture, this bike has neither.

[DrunkRabbit @ Apr 4th 2007 2:26PM]

Actually it is around 250 HP. If you look around at the other articles out there about the bike you'll see that the motor on this bike is actually 2 V-twin engine put together to form a "quad" motor, to fit into the quad-core intel theme. Each engine making around 125 hp, and its around 250 hp total (at the motor)

later

[MikeN @ Apr 4th 2007 2:36PM]

Haha, yeah 2 engines would do the trick I suppose!

I stand corrected. Just seemed off at first glance.

Ka-Razy

[FrankTheCrank @ Apr 4th 2007 2:36PM]

Where's Paulie?

[Alex @ Apr 4th 2007 2:39PM]

Isn't the Taconic a parkway in New York State?

[MasterCKO @ Apr 4th 2007 3:12PM]

yes, and Orange County Choppers in based in Orange County, New York. Hence, "riding down the Taconic."

2 V-twin engines?? All that tech?? That's frikkin' insane. I actually can't wait to see this one. (Hopefully it comes out on DiscHD at the same time. HD is so much better)

[Karl Viklund @ Apr 4th 2007 2:43PM]

Would have been cool if it would have been a AMD chip.

[Pete @ Apr 4th 2007 2:45PM]

Yeah and OCC is in Orange County NY not the OC in CA.

[BJ Sisco @ Jan 10th 2008 6:41PM]

Not the OC in Florida either.

[Colin @ Apr 4th 2007 2:58PM]

If it is a UMPC doesn't that infer a Vista or XP OS?

[tagami @ Apr 4th 2007 4:05PM]

You can build your own Intel Chopper in Second Life : http://slurl.com/secondlife/Intel%20Ignites%20OCC/

[JoeBob @ Apr 4th 2007 6:41PM]

They wanted to run OS X, but they could only get it with either a single 175HP engine or (up to) 4 225HP engines. They next tried Vista, but no one could tell them the right combination of wheel sizes, belt or chain drive, and headlamps to get both Aero and Windows Media to work. They tried XP next, but ended up having to kick-start it too often. They tried Linux next, but Mikey and Paulie kept arguing about which build and what features, so Senior finally threw it under his truck.

They finally settled on a hacked ColecoVision with a modified Expansion Module 2.

[johnzilla @ Apr 4th 2007 7:42PM]

I'm SOOOOOO tired of OCC theme bikes. They all look the same to me.

[Vic @ Apr 4th 2007 8:08PM]

As funny as it seems I touched that bike in person three weeks ago. I couldn't take photos in the shop tho. My family in Newburg NY is good friends with them, and I was on vacation a few weeks ago up there and got into the facility to see it. They've got 3 Tony Stewart Bikes, 3 for a Golf Company, and the Intel one. It was definitely sweet.

[Kralos @ Apr 4th 2007 10:18PM]

Their bikes all suck. They're underpowered, overpriced, loud pieces of crap. I'm sick of seeing references to this show all over the place.

[NeoK182 @ Apr 4th 2007 11:33PM]

@Kralos:

1) underpowered: they dont need a lot of power. they're choppers. they need just enough to go and thats it. it's not a crotch rocket
2) overpriced: all custom choppers are expensive. OCC only has 2 that are mass produced, the rest are all made by hand, so it's more expensive.
3) loud: choppers are suppose to be loud. go have fun with your crotch rocket.

[Borman @ Apr 5th 2007 1:20AM]

I havent seen them riding the bike around Montgomery surprisingly, thats how I usually get a sneak peak at the bikes heh.

[William @ Apr 5th 2007 6:28AM]

Nothing great about the bike. I've seen then build better ones than that.

[Andy @ Apr 5th 2007 1:29PM]

This site has some good photos of the bike and the computer they used.

[Andy @ Apr 5th 2007 1:33PM]

Whoops system dropped the URL. :(

http://www.switchbackpc.com/intel_chopper/

[jim @ Apr 5th 2007 4:47PM]

I don't think that mikie will like it!!!!!!!!!

[mrsalty @ Apr 7th 2007 9:51AM]

Though I love OCC I think the HP bike was terrible and this bike also just doesn't quite feel like Intel. I just think the boys don't quite get the whole technological computer deal. I think Johnny ive should have done the design on this. If it would have been made of lexan and silicon, but this is terrible.

[Dave @ Apr 9th 2007 5:47PM]

Doesn't surprise me since TLC just aired an OCC episode where the guys fabricated a chopper for HP, and did the reveal at the HP headquarters in California. This is just the tip of the iceburg. Before you know, they'll be an iChopper going down the road.

[hangfire @ May 8th 2007 12:35AM]

if it runs on vista they will have to re start it ever 2 miles

[arteekay @ Jan 10th 2008 3:30PM]

They would've used OS X, but they realized the chopper is aimed at Geek bikers, gay emo kids "designing" cat websites would be more interested in a scooter than a chopper.

[Hue Mann @ May 9th 2007 11:51AM]

Ya, Intel see's HP doing it and next thing you know . . .

Nothing says, 'waste of resources and time', like Intel. That would be Our Resources and Our Time.

As for the OC, isn't about time for the ol'man to come out of the closet? Sorry Senior, but between the lamb chops hanging offa your moustache and the armless Tees . . . its like your playing to the Castro crowd and I ain't talk'n Cuba.

An'ya'kno for all the fine work those guys do and the outstanding quality of their product. I'd just like to see them make some thing that doesn't look like the last one.

[caliguy39 @ Jul 9th 2007 10:57PM]

seen the bike in person today and the picture doesnt do it justice,I am not a chopper fan but the bike is sweet

[brookdrumm @ Jul 14th 2007 12:27PM]

I do the V-quad.com website for the engine builder. These engines are amazing. There are only a few in the world. One will soon power a bike attempting to break the world record in it's class. There is also a twin turbo bike in the works AND a supercharged bike. The bike builder is Carl Brouhard (brouharddesigns.com) and has designed some of Arlen Ness' best creations - as well as painted them. They both do incredible work!

[thewolfeinmaine @ Jul 17th 2007 12:06PM]

The engine design is nothing new at all. Ariel built a 'square four' back in the 1930's. And allthough Ariels had a solid cylinder block housing all four pistons, the concept is exactly the same.

It will be interesting to see if this engine has the same problems the Ariel did as in rear piston cooling problems, since the interior surface of the back pistons may not get the air flow they need.

One thing I saw on the show was, if they leave the exhaust pipes terminating in the same place they had them, the heels of your boots will melt

[T Nick @ Jul 20th 2007 11:04AM]

It's butt ugly. OCC really over-reached on this build. Good thing they got their money from Intel prior to the un-veiling. From watching the show, it seem like the Intel CEO was thinking, "Oh...My...God! What have I done? I look like a goof."

[601210 @ Jan 10th 2008 4:29AM]

IMO, it's a (series of) motorcycle crash(es) waiting to happen.