Inside Keanu Reeves' Custom Motorcycle Shop

(motorbike engine roars)

[Narrator] Keanu Reeves may be best known

as a Hollywood action man

but in his private life

his passion is motorcycles.

Welcome to Arch.

[Narrator] Totally custom hand-made motorbikes.

This is the bike that I was like okay,

what can we do from here,

let's bring this to the world.

[Narrator] He and his friend and business partner,

Gard Hollinger, build them here at their shop south of LA.

It's a mix of old-school hand craft

and the very latest materials and tools

including virtual reality

to make some of the most custom bikes on the market.

That's Jo's bike,

this bike's going to Australia.

[Narrator] The partnership started in 2007.

It's probably best to let the guys tell the story.

Before there was Arch Motorcycle

there was Reeves looking to customize

a Harley Davidson.

I was was introduced to Gard Hollinger,

a California designer and manufacturer

of custom motorcycles,

infamous, famous, well-regarded innovator/designer.

Gard agreed to customize a bike

but then went so much further,

basically just keeping the engine

and designing everything else from scratch.

It was no longer a Harley Davidson.

It was becoming a Choprod's motorcycle

which was the company that Gard had

and in that process I'd gone looking

for a kind of chopper, big twin,

kind of California cruiser

but wanted it to perform.

Over the course of five years, four and a half years

that motorcycle was developed and built

which eventually became the prototype

for Arch Motorcycle.

Only five years?

It was only five years.

So, we went from the prototype

to the Arch KRGT-1.

The design, I mean, this exposed frame member,

the arch and of course

you've got these beautiful, long, delicious, sexy welds.

[Narrator] Now the company makes

the custom KRGT-1 by hand to order.

Every bike is totally bespoke,

built for its new owner

and prices start around $78,000.

So, this is one in process,

sort of in its rarest form,

basically just a chassis with the engine sitting in it

and some front forks

but it's a nice view of this down-draft deduction system

that we designed.

[Narrator] Building these beautiful machines

has been enough to keep the company busy

and the owners happy until now.

It's time for something new.

[Narrator] The guys are working on new bikes,

an update to the KRGT-1,

a sportier Arch 1S

and a more radical machine.

The last bike is a very, very limited production,

very I think forward-thinking design piece

with a big giant engine

'cause 124 cubic inches wasn't enough.

[Narrator] That bike will be known as the Arch Method 143.

Gard and I and everyone involved in the company

have a design ambition

and I think you wanna grow creatively

in what you make.

[Narrator] Keanu and Gard take design seriously.

They've been working with the company Vintec

which is just down the road from their workshop

to visualize the bikes from every angle

in virtual reality

before they're even built.

Right, VR, this is one of your other tools, yeah?

Get in there.

Okay.

This is when things start to feel

a little bit Hollywood.

I hope that Keanu Reeves

holding my virtual reality umbilical cord

out of the way is as close to the Matrix

as I ever actually get.

Putting the motorcycles side by side,

so there's an element go the KRGT-1,

then looking at the 1S and then looking

at the prototype 143

and you can see them side y side

and kind of experience the connections

and relationships that go from model to model

and see the story.

[Narrator] Ultimately bikes are about riding,

something that Keanu and Gard never forget

and don't want their customers to either.

They're not planning to grow too dramatically.

They still want to make hand-built, beautifully designed

and rare motorcycles.