West Coast Choppers Motorcycles

West Coast Choppers was founded in 1992 by Jesse James in his parents' garage in Long Beach, California, growing out of a screen-printing business selling T-shirts and stickers bearing the company's iron-cross logo before any actual motorcycles had been built. James learned metal fabrication under the mentorship of hot-rod builder Boyd Coddington and built West Coast Choppers into a full custom-motorcycle operation employing more than 50 people, producing hand-built machines priced from $50,000 to $150,000. The brand became a defining name in the early-2000s chopper boom after the Discovery Channel aired Motorcycle Mania I and II in 2001, built around raw metal, rigid frames, and heavy attention to detail. In 2010, following personal and business setbacks, James closed the original Long Beach headquarters and relocated operations to Texas, where he has continued building custom machines alongside other ventures.