The much-trumpeted “Black Widow” bike gets a makeover at PJD tonight.
Is the Black Widow getting a redo?
Appears it is so.
This week, the Black Widow, the long-heralded bike created at OCC and ultimately part of the lawsuit settlement between OCC and PJD, is getting a facelift.
“There’s just a lot of wear and tear on it through the years,” Junior says in tonight’s all-new episode.
“One of our most famous bikes is now sitting in a pile of pieces,” Vinnie says.
“If parts don’t need to be restored, we’re not going to restore them. If they do, we do, simple as that.”
Is part of that “restoration” removing the OCC logo?
“There’s a couple of things I can probably almost guarantee they’re gonna change,” one PJD employee says.
“There’s a few logos on there that I’m sure he’s gonna want to change and revise, so that’s one thing I can probably almost guarantee he’s gonna change.”
“Yeah, you know,” Junior confirms, “unquestionably it’s gonna be fun to change the logo from my original logo to the one we have now, and, you know, it’s home. So, we’re gonna make that official.”
It’s been a long time, though—a lot of memories.
“I haven’t had this thing in my hands in 10 years,” Junior marvels, turning a part over. “Yeah, you know, it does bring back a lot of memories.
When they were pulling it apart I was checking it out, and I feel like I don’t remember a lot of certain parts of it, as far as how it went together.”
Changes will be made to the bike, to bring it into the day, but nothing, Junior insists, will change the characteristics that make the bike the “Black Widow.”
“This is still the Black Widow,” Junior says firmly. “We made some tweaks, a few updates—nothing that changes the overall look that much from the original.”
Some parts were just changed because technology has been updated so much, and others because the techniques used to create the pieces have been improved to the point that the parts seem, in Junior’s words, “primitive.”
“Overall, the bike’s more functional than it’s ever been,” Junior explains, “and that’s the whole idea.”
“Junior and Vinnie built this bike 10 years ago,” one PJD employee says. “It’s always had the Orange County Chopper umbrella.
And, now that he’s out on his own, he’s given the credit that was initially due, that was taken from him years ago.”
