Why Keanu Reeves took his boutique bike company to the racetrack

There’s a scene in the new docuseries about ARCH Racing’s entry into MotoAmerica’s Super Hooligan National Championship where Keanu Reeves simply says, “Yeah!”

ARCH co-founder Gard Hollinger looks mystified: “Yeah what?”

There’s a very brief pause. “Yeah we’re having fun!” Reeves replies.

Over the course of ‘Hooligans: The ARCH Racing Project with Keanu Reeves & Gard Hollinger’, which premieres at 9pm ET on July 12 on Samsung Television Network, it’s pretty clear that they are indeed having fun, even if navigating the many complications that come with taking a custom boutique bike builder to the racetrack occasionally mean they need to remind themselves of the fact.

“Absolutely,” Reeves tells RACER. “It’s the destination and the journey (that matter), for sure.”

“It doesn’t hurt to do well,” Hollinger adds. “But, yeah.”

From here the pair spin into a riff about cake, and icing, and what elements of their journey into motorsport align what specific elements of bakery-based treats. This comes with the territory of interviewing them together – you get answers, but you need to sidestep the in-jokes and their habit of finishing each other’s sentences to find them.

ARCH Motorcycles are the stuff of legend in bike circles, in part because even enthusiasts rarely have the chance to encounter one. Hand-built to order, they’re the embodiment of the quality over quantity ethos. “Art you can ride,” as one fan on Reddit put it.

The idea of turning art you can ride into art you can race had been “floating around for a while,” according to Reeves. “And when I say that, I mean years.”

The impetus for turning the idea into reality came when ARCH was working with Swiss engineering firm and regular collaborator Suter Industries on an engine that performed far beyond expectations when they put it on the dyno. An engine that good, they figured, belonged on the racetrack. And so ARCH Racing was formed.

It takes more than just a good engine to make a good race program though, especially when you’re a lean start-up – a boutique one, sure, but a start-up nonetheless – going up against mass-production bikes from giants like Yamaha, KTM and Harley Davidson, and all of the associated resources and decades of knowledge.

Hollinger and Reeves didn’t expect the task they set themselves to be easy.

“It’s bigger than what it sounds,” says Reeves of the transition from custom bike shop to race team. “And I think we’re discovering that more and more.

“You think you see it, and you’re like, oh, wait, there’s more! Wait, there’s more? Oh, there’s more… And oftentimes, there’s less.

“When you need more,” Hollinger adds.

Many of the challenges came with the territory of developing a race bike on the fly. Testing was relatively limited, so ARCH found itself tackling problems in real time during race weekends. That’s obviously less of an issue for high-volume manufacturers, and it’s those sorts of problems that Reeves and Hollinger wish they’d been able to uncover earlier in the journey.

“The valve seating in our powerplant issues,” says Reeves. “And transmission. Because (if we’d understood that earlier) then we would be farther along (now). (To Hollinger) Was that bad?”

“No, no,” Hollinger agrees. “And I wish that we had more time and more… stuff. More parts.”

“More time, stuff and parts,” Reeves concludes. “And foreknowledge of what would go wrong.”

Things didn’t always go wrong: lead rider Corey Alexander, a former AMA Supersport and MotoAmerica Stock 1000cc champion, gave the team a surprise seventh-place in an almost 50-strong field at the Daytona 200.

But for a viewer watching through a racing lens, rather than that of a pure motorcycle enthusiast or fan of celebrity culture, it’s this process of taking the craftsman’s attention to detail and perfection and applying it in a motorsports environment that holds the greatest interest.

One big milestone for the team is the mid-season addition of a second entry for team strategist and ex-MotoGP rider Jeremy McWilliams. Based on what the team had already learned in refining its race bike up to that point, was the second bike an update, or an exercise in A/B testing to help flatten the development curve?

“That’s a very good question,” says Hollinger after a pause.

“Initially we were hoping to do A/B, and it ended up being B/B. The goal was an improvement, but we were hoping to be able to validate whether it was an improvement or not. And we just got forced to deal with the new bike, which did prove to be an improvement. So we were lucky.”

First and foremost though, Reeves hopes viewers see the human story, too.

“(I want people) to be inspired,” he says. “Hopefully you’re getting to know people from all walks of life and experiences with a shared dream and vision, and going through the challenges and working in cooperation for a common goal. I think everyone can relate to that. And you get to see some racing, and hopefully you’ll be emotionally involved in how we do. You’ll root for us!

“And if you’re not already a fan of motorcycle road racing, you will be,” Hollinger adds.

“And if you are…” Keeves continues.

“Hopefully you’ll like it even more,” Hollinger says.

New episodes of the six-part docuseries “Hooligans: The ARCH Racing Project with Keanu Reeves & Gard Hollinger” will premiere every Sunday, starting on July 12 and running through August 16.