The world’s quickest motorcycle drag racer, Larry “Spiderman” McBride will again be featured on TLC’s American Chopper, Thursday, Oct. 7. Last week’s episode will air at 8 PM ET and a new episode, highlighting the 10-time world champion and the Orange County Choppers team’s quest to record the quickest and fastest electric dragbike pass will air at 9 PM ET.
Like the rest of the world, McBride will be viewing this week’s show for the very first time.
“I’m really excited to see how the second show came out,” McBride said. “I thought last week’s show was great.”
On last week’s episode, McBride’s first task was helping the OCC crew make final adjustments to the unique motorcycle. Due to the ultra-wide electric motor, McBride requested the team add some seat height to the bike so that he could better grip it at high speeds.
“At first it felt like I was sitting on a 55-gallon drum,” laughed McBride. “I was too low on the bike to get my legs to spread right. I give the OCC crew a lot of credit. That night, they didn’t leave until they had me perfectly happy. They went right out to the show room and started cutting up seat foam to get it right.”
From there it was off to Lebanon Valley Raceway where Paul Tuetul Sr. proclaimed it to be, “The biggest day in OCC history.” On McBride’s first pass, with the batteries turned down to half-power, McBride recorded a 14.64 at 104 mph. The team turned the machine up to 100-percent and McBride improved to a 9.47 at 155 mph on his second and final run. Although a drastic improvement was made, the numbers were still short of the team’s goal of surpassing the 7.82, 168 mph world record.
“I was looking for a drive-through to get some burgers,” laughed McBride, who is more accustomed to speeds in the 240 mph range.
On the next episode the crew plans to makes several improvements to the bike, including changing the gear ratio, modifying the electric Zilla boxes and replacing a defective front wheel.
“The gear ratio needs to be lower because it’s not coming out of the hole right,” Tuetul Sr. said. “We have one more chance to break the world record before we head to Sturgis for the unveil.”
“The capabilities of it going much quicker and faster are definitely there,” McBride said. “It should be a very interesting show.”
McBride reports he is trying to bring the Lawless electric dragbike to the Manufacture’s Cup Finals in Valdosta, Ga., Nov. 12-14.