Luckily for us, Sam’s Club didn’t want a bike shaped like their store or shrink wrapped with their logo. Instead, the execs seemed to like the I, Robot bike and asked Orange County Choppers to build them something similar: a way out, futuristic chopper. Rick Petko was put in charge of the mock up and parts ordering. He started out with a Racing Innovations rigid frame with 12” of stretch out, 4” up and a curved downtube. He then asked that the rear of the frame be stretched out 3” giving the bike its very unique stance. A special Karata primary belt was ordered to reach the transmission which was now a little further away than normal.

H & L was contacted to supply a 131 show polished engine. Diamondhead took charge of the fins and did their trademark diamond cutting to them. A six speed, right side drive Baker transmission was fitted with a chain final drive powering the 300 series rear tire. Hallcraft’s supplied the wheels and OCC’s in house painter Ralph Estrada painted the stripes on them. The oil tank was hidden away under the air dam, no problems with clearing the front wheel, the two parts missed each other by about two feet.

To keep with the futuristic and curvy styling of the frame, a set of Goldammer forks were installed. Check out the shot of the top triple clamp, no straight lines allowed apparently. A 3D Eurocomponents headlamp was used which OCC said was carved out of solid aluminum, weighing what felt like ten pounds. It fit in with the curves of the forks perfectly giving the Sam’s Club bike it sleek, almost alien appearance at the front. Kind of expect a War of the Worlds death ray to shoot out of that headlamp at any time.

An OCC custom exhaust, winding its way to each side of the bike complimented the exotic, curved gas tank build by Rick. There are no skulls or demons painted on the bike in deference to Sam’s / Walmart’s family customer base. No sense in scaring the kids. Handmade handlebars and a Danny Gray alligator skinned seat completed the build along with Ness controls, OMP mirrors, D&M air cleaner, and HHI brakes.

After the mock up was complete, the bike was torn down and everything was sent to the finishers for paint, chrome, powdercoating, and the like. And through the miracle of television, it always seems like they get it back the next day. Well, as mentioned earlier, this bike build wasn’t filmed and in reality, about three months went by from parts ordering to rolling the beauty into its first wholesale warehouse store. OCC’s Nick Hansford and Christian Welter handled the build up when the parts came back.

Special thanks go to Ron Salsbury at Orange County for getting all the info and great pictures to us in a timely fashion. The Sam’s Club bike is super custom able to compete and do well at any bike show. Now if only we could get one at a discounted, Sam’s Club price……