Plot Synopsis

PHILLY THROTTLE is a reality series that follows vintage bike-builder Adam Cramer and his motley crew of mechanics, as they restore, repair, and flip motorcycles at Liberty Vintage Motorcycles in Philadelphia. Unlike the new choppers of today, each of Adam's creations comes with a unique history, and he celebrates that history in the meticulous detail he puts into his restorations. Before each project, he creates a vision of the perfect bike, but executing his dream vision is a battle against available parts, time and customer's tight budgets. Plus, Adam is an artist and an intellect, not a businessman. In his shop there are over 200 bikes, and 2/3 of those rides are Adam's -- and many more of them he'll never sell unless his wife makes him. Juggling the dual roles of ownership and artistic integrity always collide and threaten to sink Liberty Vintage forever. Pressing deadlines, finicky customers, tight budgets, and new employees all add to the chaos as Adam navigates the perils of owning a small business in one of the roughest corners of Philadelphia -- Fishtown. Adam's crew includes: Big Al, Adam's most trusted mechanic and a man of few words, who is a near prodigy of vintage British motorcycles; Fran, a Jersey transplant, who first rolled through the front doors on a motorcycle that had nothing but a welded beer can holding the engine block together and is willing to voice the hard truths about what it will take (good or bad) to make Liberty Vintage the business it can be; Slo, a vintage Harley Davidson specialist, who first worked with Adam more than 20 years ago at a local bike shop in West Philly; Nicky Vivo, the shop's "cultural liaison," who just recently rented a house behind the shop and with a new girlfriend and mother of two moving in; Al Jones, a former bartender at an after-hours club, whose heart stopped beating after an accident on a motorcycle that Adam lent him and who is now "recovering from death," according to Adam; and Derek, a part-time Philadelphia firefighter, who is slowly working his way back into Adam's good graces after totaling one of the shop's prized Norton motorcycles.