BESPOKE BIKES
Keanu Reeves roars into the designer motorcycle business,
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 $78,000 (U.S.) motorcycles are based on a prototype Hollinger made for Reeves years ago; each of the 2,032 cc, V-twin-engine beasts are made to order in Hawthorne, Calif., an hour south of Los Angeles.
“Building that (first) bike is where we got to know each other,” Reeves said during an interview at their shop recently.
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 kilometres 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.
Reeves first approached Hollinger in 2007 with the request to modify his Harley with a “sissy bar” — the backrest you can attach on the rear seat of a motorcycle so your passenger can lean back. Hollinger refused. “That wasn’t really my thing,” he told me with a wry grin.
That’s when they started talking about building a completely new bike that would look beautiful and cruise, a gleaming silver prototype with thick tires and a gas tank curved like the fender of a Bugatti.
When Hollinger finished the bike, Reeves loved it so much he wanted more. A lot more — some for himself and some to share with friends. He wanted to start a motorcycle company.
“It was really riding the prototype that was the proof of the business concept, even though we didn’t know it,” Reeves said.
They never planned to start a company — he had commissioned the prototype just for laughs and long rides. But the bike was so fun, Reeves said, that he couldn’t get it out of his mind.
That’s when he started bugging Hollinger to make more.
“It was this idea of a big V-twin, a long wheel base with modern grade suspension and the telemetry that Gard had designed and the ergonomics,” he said. “It was this package that I wanted from the first time riding that bike. I’d never ridden anything like that.”
Hollinger wasn’t convinced. His company, LA County Chop Rods, already generated plenty of business; the former motocross racer had developed a cult following of riders who loved his ability to coax beauty and power out of raw metals.
But Reeves, the A-list actor, wasn’t used to hearing “no.” He asked Hollinger three more times — after long dinners and booze-filled nights brainstorming how good it could be — before winning him over.
“I told him, ‘OK, the reason that we should do this is because the machine is amazing, and we’re going to die’ (anyway),” Reeves said, laughing. “Let’s make something.”
Hollinger finally agreed. He would design the bikes himself based on Reeves’ vision, and the actor would road test them.
“I told (Gard Hollinger), ‘OK, the reason that we should do this is because the machine is amazing, and we’re going to die’ (anyway),” KEANU REEVES
It took them three years between finishing the prototype and getting the final result to production.
They called the company Arch because it “sounded good in the mouth,” Reeves said: “Arches, doorways, bridges, beautiful, functional — it made me think of tunnels and bridges and connections and journey. It was the rider to the bike, the experience of riding a motorcycle, our relationship, the idea with connecting with the company and our client.”
“The original bike was the result of Keanu expressing what he was hoping for in a motorcycle,” Hollinger said.
Practicality and extreme design are often mutually exclusive when it comes to expensive bikes ( just look at the awkward angles of the extreme choppers). But that is what Reeves wanted.
At least, that’s the official story for why two 40-somethings continue to spend countless hours and their own money building a brand. (Reeves declined to say how much, other than noting they have no outside investors.) But there’s a much simpler explanation: They’re searching for a feeling.
“It has to make you giggle when you ride it,” Hollinger says.