Hollinger (left) and Reeves. - Arch pic
NEW YORK: Don’t mistake Keanu Reeves for some nice-guy motorcycle dilettante. He doesn’t care about your trendy Scrambler-riding blue jeans or your fashion-forward “motorcycle” jacket. And he definitely doesn’t want to ride your pretty little café racer.
He is, on the other hand, more than happy to talk with you about the Arch Motorcycles KRGT-1 superbikes he makes with his longtime friend, Gard Hollinger, a revered designer in the motorcycle world. The US$78,000 (RM313,424) motorcycles are based off a prototype Hollinger made for Reeves years ago; each of the 2,032cc, V-Twin-engine beasts are made-to-order in Hawthorne, an hour south of Los Angeles.
“Building that [first] bike is where we got to know each other,” Reeves said in July during an interview at their shop. Unlike most experienced riders who started riding from a very young age on dirt bikes, scooters and Groms, Keanu learned to ride as an adult. But he has already logged tens of thousands of miles on the backs of Nortons, Suzukis, a 1974 BMW 750, a Kawasaki KZ 900, a 1984 Harley Shovelhead, and a Moto Guzzi racer-all from his own personal collection.
Practicality and extreme design are often mutually exclusive when it comes to expensive bikes (just look at the awkward angles of the extreme choppers that cruise up and down the 405 every weekend). But that is what Reeves wanted.
Arch has sold a handful KRGT-1s since 2014 (the guys won’t specify how many). Hollinger says he expects to make roughly 30 or just slightly more a year-exclusivity is important. The bikes are made of more than 200 individual parts, most of which he fabricates with a small team of workers in the Hawthorne shop. (Arch is possibly the first motorcycle brand to be completely assembled in LA since a company called Crocker made V-Twins there in the 1930s.)
Each is bespoke to its owner, so speed and power specs are subject to change, but in general they weigh around 244kg and, at 121hp, can cruise easily at 160kph. With their six gears, scooped-out insides, ultralight carbon fibre wheels, and aluminum bodies, they’re heavier than, say a 220kg Ducati xDiavel S but much lighter than something like a 290kg Harley-Davidson V-Rod. Their 19-litre petrol tanks will take you 322km before a fill-up. Each requires a US$15,000 (RM60,274) deposit even before that US$78,000 price tag.
“It's a bike that's really confident feeling going straight,” Reeves told me, rattling off engine specs and power calibrations like a true gear head. “Our bike has a lot of torque-115 pounds-so whenever you get on the throttle you really feel the pull and push of the motorcycle. It can turn and handle.”
If you see an Arch motorcycle on the road, you’ll know it in a second. They’re rounded at the front, with a dip in the middle for the single seat before curving up again at the rear. (This is a lone-wolf bike, no passengers allowed.) They have a single LED headlight and low, short handlebars. The rear Michelin tyre is fatter than the front, but not so wide as to distract; their reflective aluminum rear cowling makes them unmistakable at night.
Similar to buying a custom suit, buying your own KRGT-1 requires multiple sessions of measurements-Hollinger fits the pedals, the handlebars, the seat angle to your exact size. The proprietary Arch suspension is also adjustable according to riding style and preference. Once you settle on your model, delivery time takes 90 days or so-the Arch billet aluminum swing arm requires over 17 hours of machining alone-though most of that time is spent working with outside vendors for finishes like custom paint, engraving and metal finishes to make the bike personalised for the customer.
In actual work time it takes only a couple weeks to build the bike. Then Reeves takes it out for a test drive. “It has to work,” he said, laughing. “After that it's aesthetics and feel and taste. The bike started off as a classic American big V-twin, but because of the way that it handles and the ergonomics and the telemetry that Gard has designed, I feel like it's in a new class of motorcycle which might be called a ‘performance cruiser.’”
Whatever you call them-that term is a new one-they’ll keep even the most experienced rider occupied. The bikes are not fat and low like a hog, nor are they flat-seated for extra passengers like a café racer. For urban riding and highway cruising they hit the Goldilocks sweet spot: Just right.
