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Jesse James Biker Build Off Bike

Jesse James was, at one time, best known as an outlaw bike builder who'd forged a career with a welding torch in one hand and an ape hanger in the other. A high-octane bad boy with a redlining lifestyle, he was a blue-collar artisan who'd grown a homemade TV show into a cultural phenomenon and a motorcycle shop into an empire. That was before a very public breakup with now ex-wife Sandra Bullock that dragged his name into the dirt.

James gets back in the saddle with a guest appearance on "American Chopper" that is showcasing his first bike in five years as part of a three-way build-off with the Teutels. A back-to-basics machine that mirrors James' scandal-inspired embrace of his roots, the "everyday little motorcycle with sugar sprinkled on top" is the first bike he's built since closing West Coast Choppers in Long Beach and purging his 50-person staff.

Jessejamesradialbike"To do it on my own without all the resources and manpower I had in my back pocket for the last 17 years, it kind of scared me," James said of the first bike he's built in his home garage since relocating to Austin, Texas. "I'm not doing it so much for the competition as I was doing it for myself to prove that I could do stuff after West Coast Choppers and still be the same or better quality."

The last bike he built predominantly on his own was the radial bike, he said.

"This isn't a game to me. This is my whole life," said James, who chose to build the bike out of stainless steel because he's never been good at welding it. "I figured it was the best thing to build a bike out of, especially something this under the microscope. I should pick the thing I'm afraid of and use that."