- When do you become a collector?
When you have more than
two or more than one?
Or more than three?
Is it more than three?
Then I'm barely a collector.
[hip hop music]
Hi, I'm Keanu Reeves,
co-founder of Arch Motorcycle.
Let's take a look.
Where I grew up in Toronto, every summer,
motorcycle gangs would come
into a place called Yorkville.
Those bikes, those people, those pirates,
I think touched that 10
year old kid in a way.
I learned how to ride a motorcycle
when I was doing a film in Munich.
This young woman had an Enduro,
and I asked her if she'd
teach me how to ride it.
Then when I came back to Los Angeles,
this was probably around '86, '87?
I got my first motorcycle.
[hip hop music]
So this is where it all happens.
Kind of backstage, if you will.
We have some client bikes here
being worked on and assembled.
And then personally, this
is the second motorcycle
I bought in Los Angeles around 1987.
It's a 1973 Mark 2A Norton Commando.
Have a lot of good times
with this motorcycle.
And I just grew up really loving Norton's,
the upswept pipe.
It's an English twin.
Norton was renowned for
the feather bed frame,
which means that the
engine is rubber mounted,
kind of taking a lot of
the vibration out of it.
It's got a nice sound,
smells good when it heats up the oil.
And got a lot of miles on that motorcycle.
In films I rode a motorcycle
in Chain Reaction.
And a film called My Own Private Idaho.
In My Own Private Idaho
the gentleman came out
with a canary yellow Norton.
And the guy's like so
do you know this bike?
And well this is how you,
and I was like I got it. [laughs]
That was a fun day to ride that bike
and ride with River Phoenix.
- What about John Wick,
didn't you ride in that?
- Yeah, so [laughs] recently
in John Wick Chapter three,
yeah I got on to the bike, I
had to ride it down an alleyway
and, yeah, I did ride it down a bridge.
And there's a fight sequence.
Yeah, I rode in John Wick three.
Norton's, the year that I bought, the '73,
the shift pattern's on the
other side of the motorcycle
in a different direction,
so that took a second.
And then when it came to
the reality of the Norton,
it was amazing.
It's not a super scary, fast...
Especially for a young rider,
I didn't get on a motorcycle
that's 100 horsepower
and I can go 150 miles an hour on it.
I can do that now, but
I've never gone 150,
I'm actually, I haven't
actually gone that fast.
I'm like in a 135 range.
[heavy electronic music]
This is the Ducati that
was in The Matrix Reloaded.
Spectacular bike, beautiful motorcycle.
Ducati did a special green,
a kinda Matrix green,
which makes it kinda trick.
It's got Matrix Reloaded on it.
Carrie Anne Moss Roy,
who had never ridden a
motorcycle in her life,
learned how to ride a Ducati 998, wow.
The motorcycle was with the Wachowski's,
who were the writers and
directors of the Matrix trilogy.
We have become custodians
of the motorcycle,
and it's really cool to be
able to show you this bike.
We'll go through it and
make sure everything works,
and the next time we're at the track
I think we'll take it out.
You know, when I work,
or when I work on films,
in the past they would
have contracts that said
you couldn't ride a motorcycle.
You're an asset and they
don't want you to crash.
So sometimes I would pay attention to that
and sometimes I didn't.
Oops, can't help it.
It's not difficult to communicate
what it's like to ride a motorcycle,
'cause if you've ridden a
bicycle, you kinda get it.
In a motorcycle, you're
a little more vulnerable,
so the stakes are higher, which I like.
For me, it's the visceral quality of it,
the vibration, the wind, the sound.
And then it's just really
a great place to think,
to feel, to get away.
When I don't ride a motorcycle
I go through withdrawal.
It's not good for my health. [laughs]
[rock music]
I had a Harley Davidson,
a Dyna Wide Glide,
which was an amazing motorcycle,
and I was looking to personalize it.
And then I was introduced
to Gard Hollinger,
who owned a custom building
company called Chop Rods.
We ended up working together
and he ended up building a custom bike.
He took the Harley engine
and then built a motorcycle around it,
and that became the prototype
for the Arch Motorcycle.
So this is a 2019 KRGT-1.
The company makes over 200
parts for the motorcycle,
it's all billet aluminum.
We manufacture those parts,
but we also work with
some high end other
companies, third-parties.
So we have an Ohlins high
end front suspension,
South African company called
BST for carbon wheels,
we're working with a great
company out of Wisconsin
called S and S for the power plant.
What else we got?
We got come Michelin tires,
which are pretty awesome.
We work with an Italian
company called Rizoma,
signals, mirrors, foot controls.
We also make the seat custom
for the owner so it's fitted.
Let's see if we can start this thing.
[motorcycle turns over]
They sound good and they ride amazing.
[upbeat music]
So in terms of the company,
definitely I'm involved with
the dream of the company,
the ambition of the company.
I can't assemble the motorcycle,
and you don't want me to fix it,
I can test ride it and I
can tell you what's wrong.
And quality control, how
do we want it to feel,
what are we doin'?
I'm not doing any of the
drawing, Gard is doing that,
but he'll show me and we'll talk about it.
And then infrastructure and
what's the voice of the company,
who are we, what are we presenting,
and kinda work with that.
So, if the KRGT-1 is
a performance cruiser,
then this motorcycle is like
a performance cruiser sport.
What makes it sport?
So, the riding position.
Instead of having forward
controls we have a mid control.
It has a different rake.
On the 1-S it's broadened a little bit
so handling is a little different.
Also we're gonna have different wheels.
Obviously different body work,
so it's got some other
kinda developments going on
in terms of tank design.
We're still working on our
final exhaust system for it.
And then there's a whole
bunch of other design elements
that are going on under here.
We have a new instrument panel.
The frame is different than the KRGT-1.
It's not exposed, and
what's going on inside
is a little bit different.
[hip hop music]
We also like to do track
rides, so there's the ponies
for when we wanna go fast on a racetrack.
I'm riding the ZX10 here,
the Ninja, Gard's got the R1.
Ross, who works at the company,
he's dealin' with the Aprilia,
and that might be Simon's.
Really amazing, all of
them, amazing motorcycles,
and it's really fun just to get together.
We do a lot of riding with the Arch's
and go on Arch events
and ride all through the
Santa Monica mountains,
and that's great.
But we all love riding
and if you're on a track,
you don't have to worry
about traffic. [laughs]
Or speed limits.
Yeah, let's see, bikes
that I haven't ridden
that I wouldn't mind.
Well, of course the Vincent Black Shadow,
and there's a couple of examples of those.
Probably some 20's Brough's Superiors.
I've never been on a Moto GP,
a modern Moto GP motorcycle.
That might be kinda fun.
That'd be insane, oh my god.
Anyway I've never ridden one of those.
Well, if I get on a Brough
and a Vincent Black Shadow,
and get the chance to ride a Moto GP bike,
that'd be pretty awesome.
[mellow hip hop music]
What we have here is what
we call the Method 143.
This is a prototype, so
you can't jump on this yet
and ride it, it's kind of like
how the automobile
company does concept cars.
This is kind of a concept motorcycle
that we're looking to
make into production.
It will eventually have a
carbon fiber Monocoque frame.
You can start to see the
idea of that coming down here
on the down member of the frame.
This will become carbon fiber.
The power plant is an S and S,
but it's gonna be ridiculous,
it's 143 cubic inches.
It's a little futuristic.
We like the idea of just
how we're overlaying,
integrating different materials.
The aluminum, the carbon fiber,
going into the elements
of the skins of the seat.
And then just some of the design elements
are pretty spectacular.
BST is gonna be developing
a new wheel for us.
It'll be outrageous.
This motorcycle's outrageous,
but that's part of the fun.
[hip hop music]
Advise to a new rider.
I mean, if you're a kid
and you're starting off
on a little mini bike,
I mean, people are gonna
show you what to do.
If you're a young adult
and you're not dirt riding,
and you wanna get on the
street, take a class.
Start with a small cc,
get a bike that you can get
your feet on the ground,
something that's not gonna freak you out.
If you're not gonna do all
of that, just don't go crazy.
If you've never ridden a motorcycle,
don't get a sport bike that's
got a lot of horsepower.
But yeah, be comfortable on it,
don't get too much power that
can overwhelm you too quickly,
and have fun.
