Arch Motorcycle: 10 Things to Know About Keanu Reeves’s Boutique American Brand
Keanu Reeves at TIFF 2025. Photo: Gabriel Hutchinson / Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Most people know Keanu Reeves as an actor. Fewer know that since 2011, he’s been the co-founder of an American motorcycle company that builds one of the most expensive, most hand-crafted production motorcycles on sale anywhere in the world. Arch Motorcycle isn’t a celebrity vanity project. It’s a real boutique manufacturer based in Hawthorne, California, building a few dozen CNC-machined billet performance cruisers a year, each one custom-fitted to its rider, each one starting at $85,000. Here are 10 things to know about a brand whose entire annual production run could fit inside a single Harley-Davidson dealership.
TL;DR
- Founded 2011 in Hawthorne, California by Keanu Reeves and Gard Hollinger, a master builder with decades of customization experience.
- Hand-built American performance cruisers, each fitted in person to the individual rider, with starting prices from $85,000 (KRGT-1) up to $128,000 (Method 143, 1s).
- CNC-machined billet aluminum construction, S&S T124 2,032 cc V-twin in the flagship, and an annual production volume measured in dozens, not thousands. Boutique manufacturing on a level few American brands have ever attempted.
The Arch story is American motorcycle manufacturing at the opposite end of the spectrum from Harley-Davidson. Where Harley builds 200,000 motorcycles a year, Arch builds dozens. Where Harley’s bikes start at $10,000, Arch’s start at $85,000. Here are 10 things to know.
1. Founded 2011 by Keanu Reeves and Gard Hollinger in Hawthorne, California
Arch Motorcycle Company, LLC was founded in 2011 by actor Keanu Reeves and master builder Gard Hollinger. The company is based in Hawthorne, California, in the South Bay of greater Los Angeles. Reeves is the public face most people associate with the brand, but Hollinger is the engineering brain, a veteran builder with decades of experience in commercial motorcycle customization who’d run his own LA shop, LA County Choprods, for years before the partnership began. Arch was set up as a serious low-volume manufacturer, not a celebrity vanity project.
Source: Wikipedia - ARCH Motorcycle
2. The origin story - Keanu’s Harley Dyna Wide Glide
The Arch story starts in 2007. Reeves brought his Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide Glide to Hollinger’s LA County Choprods shop wanting custom work. What began as a one-off customization turned into a five-year design and development project as the two found they shared a vision for what a serious American performance cruiser could be. By the time the custom Dyna was finished, it was no longer recognizable as a Harley. That prototype was the seed of what would become the production KRGT-1, and the seed of Arch Motorcycle Company itself.
Source: Wikipedia - ARCH Motorcycle origin
3. The KRGT-1 (2014/2015) - the flagship
The first Arch production motorcycle, the KRGT-1, was unveiled in September 2014 as a 2015-model-year machine. The name comes from the project’s heritage: K for Keanu, R for Reeves, GT for Grand Touring, with the original prototype being version 1. The bike runs an S&S T124 V-twin engine (2,032 cc) producing 120 hp at 5,100 rpm and 122 lb-ft (165 Nm) of torque at 2,000 rpm. Starting price: $85,000 USD. Each KRGT-1 is built to order, takes months to produce, and very few examples leave the factory each year.
Source: Cycle World - 2015 Arch Motorcycle KRGT-1 review
4. Every motorcycle is custom-fitted to its owner
This is the part that separates Arch from most low-volume builders : the bike is physically fitted to its rider. Owners visit the Hawthorne factory in person for an ergonomic fitting where seat shape, seat materials, handlebar pull-back (2-inch or 3-inch risers), foot peg position (narrow or wide-mounted), and forward-or-mid-controls are all customized to the rider’s measurements. The aesthetic package, color, finish, and materials, is co-designed with Arch’s in-house team. No two KRGT-1s leave the factory identical.
Source: Arch Motorcycle - Bespoke process
5. CNC-machined billet aluminum, not stampings
The Arch manufacturing process is borderline aerospace. The fuel cell, which on most motorcycles is a sheet-metal stamping, on the KRGT-1 starts as a 534-pound block of billet aluminum that a CNC machine carves down over a 66-hour cycle to a 9-pound finished part. The tail section starts as five chunks of billet weighing 480 pounds combined, machined down to five integrated pieces weighing only 18 pounds. This isn’t ornamental machining; it’s how the frame, fuel cell, and bodywork are structural. Aerospace-grade manufacturing on a production motorcycle.
Source: Bike EXIF - Arch Motorcycle Review
6. The S&S T124 V-twin : 2,032 cc, 120 hp
The Arch KRGT-1 is powered by an S&S Cycle T124 air-cooled V-twin engine. The specs: 2,032 cc of displacement, 120 hp at 5,100 rpm, 122 lb-ft of torque at 2,000 rpm. It’s one of the most powerful air-cooled V-twins available in any production motorcycle in the world. S&S Cycle is a respected American engine builder based in Wisconsin ; Arch worked closely with them to spec and tune the powerplant for the KRGT-1 application. Power goes through a 6-speed transmission to a belt final drive.
Source: Wheels Updates - ARCH KRGT-1 specs
7. Ultra-low-volume production - dozens, not thousands
Arch’s annual production volume is genuinely tiny. Each motorcycle is built by a single technician responsible for the entire fit, finish, and performance integrity, end to end. The factory produces dozens of bikes per year, not hundreds, not thousands. By comparison, Harley-Davidson builds more motorcycles in a single morning than Arch builds in a year. This is the manufacturing cadence Italian super-exotic carmakers operate at, applied to American motorcycles.
Source: Glorious Motorcycles - Profile of Arch Motorcycles
8. The Method 143 (2018), 2,343 cc concept-grade hyper-cruiser
At EICMA 2017, Arch unveiled the Method 143, a concept-grade machine that put the rest of the lineup into context. The Method 143 runs a 2,343 cc S&S V-twin producing over 170 hp and close to 200 Nm of torque. It uses a carbon-fiber mono-cell chassis with integrated fuel cell, and a CNC-machined aluminum single-sided swingarm with carbon-fiber cover manufactured by Suter Industries of Switzerland, the same company that builds Moto2 race chassis. Only 23 units worldwide.
Source: Cycle World - 2018 Arch KRGT-1, 1s and Method 143 at EICMA 2017
9. The 1s (2022), the single-seat sport-cruiser
Announced in October 2022, the Arch 1s is the brand’s first production motorcycle with a single-sided swingarm and a clear move toward sportier riding. The 1s strips the second seat from the KRGT-1, adds mid-mount controls instead of forwards, and gives Arch a true sport-cruiser configuration for the first time. The S&S 2.0-liter motor produces 122 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheel. Starting price: $128,000 USD per build. Each 1s is still fully bespoke and rider-fitted.
Source: Rider Magazine - ARCH 1s launch announcement
10. Keanu’s hands-on involvement and the brand philosophy
The thing that surprises people most about Arch is how genuinely involved Keanu Reeves is. He’s not a marketing front : he’s a co-founder who shows up at the factory, helps test-ride prototypes, attends EICMA reveals, and is regularly photographed riding the production bikes. Reeves and Hollinger have said openly that Arch builds only what the two of them would want to ride personally. It’s a brand philosophy rooted in two stubborn founders’ opinions about what an American performance cruiser should be, not what the market wants, but what they think the market doesn’t yet know it wants.
Source: Petrolicious - Why Keanu Reeves had to convince Gard Hollinger to start Arch
So what is Arch Motorcycle?
Arch is what happens when a master builder with strong opinions about chassis design meets a famous co-founder with the patience and capital to back a serious manufacturing project. The bikes are objectively expensive ($85,000 to start, $128,000 for a Method 143 or a 1s) and the production volume is so low that Arch will probably never compete on units shipped with even the smallest of the established American motorcycle brands.
But Arch is doing something none of those other brands do : building motorcycles at the level of bespoke detail you usually see only on hand-built supercars. CNC-machined frames, fuel cells starting as 534-pound billets and ending as 9-pound finished parts, swingarms built by Moto2 chassis specialists, ergonomics tailored to the individual owner. The brand is what Bimota would be if Bimota were American.
If you’ve ever seen one in person, the build quality is the part that doesn’t translate to photographs. Up close the bike looks like something machined by a watch company that happens to make motorcycles. If you’ll ever own one, well, you probably already know whether or not.
