Back when Keanu Reeves and Gard Hollinger founded Arch Motorcycle, the pair started out by building one of the prettiest muscle cruisers to ever grace asphalt: The KRGT-1, a raucous foot-forward bike with over two full liters of raw whining power. From there, the company edged sportier with the mid-controlled 1S and leaned-over Method143. Its next bike, though, is so sporty that it apparently dragged the entire company out to the race track.
At least, that’s how Reeves and Hollinger tell the story. The pair worked with Samsung TV to make a show about their racing efforts with Arch in MotoAmerica’s Super Hooligan series, and I got a few minutes on the press junket to chat with them about the new bike. It’s a major step forward for Arch in terms of technology and development, but it’s also a step into a more modern era — and, if the cards fall in Arch’s favor, a step onto dealership showroom floors.
When you build an engine!
Reeves and Hollinger said the idea to go racing came from the experience of riding the new bike, not the other way around. I asked when in the development process Arch decided to hit the track, and Reeves responded simply, “When you build an engine!” Hollinger had a bit more to say, expanding that “In the development of our next-generation product, we were riding our test mule and I think we were both sort of struck by the performance of it. And then we started to think, ‘Well, maybe we could be competitive if we went racing.'”
That new engine is a collaboration between Arch and Suter Industries, which took Hollinger and Reeves’ “wish list” and turned it into an air-cooled, overhead cam V-twin: “I think when we decided that we would develop our own engine, we sort of just sat down and made a wish list, right? And then with the help of Suter Industries, the Swiss engineering company that we’ve worked with to develop it, we were able to get all those things.” Those things included a cassette gearbox slotted in the side, and a block that could be mounted as a stressed member in the new bike’s frame — advancements that bring Arch firmly into modern bike design.
The goal wasn’t to entirely shed Arch’s heritage. “We wanted the identity to still be that of an American air-cooled V-twin, but to have a little bit more tech and performance,” Hollinger said. And they think Suter nailed it on the engine, which Hollinger said, “Feels amazing. I mean, very torquey, lots of bottom end. That was part of what we wanted to do, maintain a lot of the characteristics of our current engine.” Reeves chimed in to point out that the new mill ekes out “a little more rpm” than prior engines, with a 7,500-rpm redline in race guise. “Still low for a race bike, but for a big V-twin it’s getting up there,” Hollinger said.
The new bike sounds like a blast, and it looks like a big step forward for Arch as a whole. I asked if Arch is looking to bring this to market as a consumer bike now that they’ve got racing experience under their belt, and Hollinger says the street bike is still hopefully coming in 2027. To see it in action before that, though, both you and I will just have to tune in to “Hooligans: The Arch Racing Project” on Samsung TV Plus.
