Keanu Reeves Shows Us His Most Prized Motorcycles | Collected | GQ

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 that I'm barely a collective 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 New York ville those bikes those people those pirates I think touched that ten-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 in Durham and I asked her if she'd teach me how to ride it and when I came back to Los Angeles this is probably around 86 87 I got my first motorcycle 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 Marc - a Norton commando had 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 featherbed 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 [Music] in films I wrote a motorcycle in chain reaction and a film called My Own Private Idaho in my own private Idaho the gentlemen came out with a canary yellow Norton and the guys like so do you know this bike and well this is how you know I was like I got it that was a fun day to ride that bike and ride with River Phoenix what about John wick didn't you read in that yeah so recently in John wick Chapter three yeah I got onto the bike so I had to write it down an alleyway and yeah I did write it down a bridge and there's a fight sequence yeah I wrote in John League three Norton's the year that I bought the 73 the shift patterns 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 you know it's not as super scary fast you know especially for a young rider you know I didn't get on a motorcycle that's a hundred 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 mmm I haven't actually gone that fast I'm like another 135 [Music] this is the Ducati that was in the Matrix Reloaded spectacular bike beautiful motorcycle Ducati did a special green and kind of matrix green which makes it kind of 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 nine nine eight the motorcycle was with the rich house keys 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 you know in the past they would you know have contracts that said you couldn't ride a motorcycle you know you're in a set and they don't want you to crash so I would 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 because you know if you've ridden a bicycle you kind of get it and 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 you know when I don't ride a motorcycle I'd go through withdrawal it's not good for my health 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 guard 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 kr GT 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-party so we have an öhlins high-end front suspension south african company called BST four carbon wheels we're working with a great company out of Wisconsin called S&S for the power plant what else we got we've got some michelin tires which are pretty awesome we work with an italian company called rhizoma signals mirrors foot controls we also make the seat custom for the owner so it's you know fitted see when you start this thing [Music] it sound good they ride amazing so in terms of the company definitely I'm involved with the the dream of the company the ambition of the company I can't assemble a motorcycle and you don't want me to fix it I can test ride it and I can tell you what's wrong and I can you know what quality control how do we want it to feel what are we doing I'm not doing any of the drawing guard is doing that but he'll show me and we'll you know talk about it and then infrastructure and what's the voice of the company what who are we what are we presenting and I don't work with that so if the KRG t1 is a performance cruiser then this motorcycle is like a performance cruiser sport what makes it sport so the riding position instead of having four controls we have a mid control it has a different rake on the 1s it's brought in a little bit so handling is a little different also we're gonna have different wheels obviously different bodywork so it's got some other kind of 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 KRG t1 it's not exposed and what's going on inside is a little bit different we also like the two-track rides so there's the ponies for when we want to go fast on a racetrack I'm riding the zx10 here the ninja guards got the r1 Ross who works the company he's dealing with the Aprilia and that might be Simon's really amazing all of them amazing motorcycles and it's really fun just to to get together we do a lot of riding with the arches and going arch events and ride all through the Santa Monica Mountains and and that's great but we all love riding and if you're on a track you don't have to worry about traffic or speed limits yeah let's see bikes that I have them written that wouldn't mind well I mean of course the Vincent Black Shadow and there's a couple of examples those probably some 20s brough superiors I've never been on a MotoGP modern MotoGP motorcycle that might be kind of fun you know gotta be insane oh my god anyway I've never ridden one of those well if I get on a brough in a Vincent Black Shadow and get the chance to ride emoji MotoGP bike that'd be pretty awesome [Music] what we have here is what we call the method one four three this is a prototype so you can't jump on this yet and ride it it's it's kind of like a 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 powerplant is an S&S but it's gonna be ridiculous it's a 143 cubic inches it's a little futuristic we like the idea of just how we're overlaying into integrating different materials the aluminum 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 going to be developing a new wheel for us it'll be outrageous this motorcycle is outrageous but that's part of the fun [Music] advice to a new rider I mean if you're in the kid and your legs starting off with a little minibike I mean that's you're gonna people are gonna show you what to do if you're a young adult and you're not dirt riding and you want to get on the street take a class you know 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 you know if you're not gonna do all of that just don't go crazy like if you're have never ridden a motorcycle don't get you know a sport bike that's got a lot of horsepower but yeah be comfortable on it don't get too much power that you know it can overwhelm you too quickly and have fun

Channel: GQ

Views: 33,513,106

Rating: 4.9495049 out of 5

Keywords: keanu reeves, motorcycle, collected, keanu reeves motorcycles, keanu reeves motorcycle, keanu reeves interview, keanu reeves gq, keanu reeves 2019, keanu reeves collected, motorcycle collection, keanu reeves motorcycle collection, keanu reeves motorcycle shop, keanu reeves arch, keanu reeves collection, keanu, arch motorcycles, keanu motorcycle, custom bike, custom motorcycle, keanu reeeves bike, keanu reeves biking, keanu reeves chipper, arch motorcycle, gq, gq magazine

Id: O4iGNXsqghs

Length: 11min 40sec (700 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 15 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/spellbunny]

this could be 11 minutes of "Keanu Reeves Shows Us His Most Prized Cardboard Boxes" and I would still be on board.

[u/moly5]

Charming chap with a few quirky fun facts.

[u/fraudisokay]

The Matrix Ducati! I'd love to take a ride on that thing.

[u/totallythebadguy]

LOL motorcycle gangs would come into Yorkville!!!! The most expensive area in the city and one of the most expensive in the country.

[u/catduodenum]

I legitimately did not know that Keanu Reeves is Canadian before now.

[u/Azipcoder]

r/KeanuBeingAwesome

[u/RagnarRipper]

This guy! I just really and genuinely LIKE him.

[u/Just_Masterpiece]

Can't wait watching him driving his motorcycle in John Wick chapter 3

[u/Marin80s]

Amazing collection he has!