The self-taught machinist and Arch Motorcycle: Part I

Ryan Boyd in his natural habitat.

Ryan Boyd has been on my radar since way back in the day, in those caveman times before Instagram existed, when he bought one of what ended up being a run of seven unique Bender (of Futurama fame) sculptures I made. One day on my Facebook feed, his status said that he was moving from Colorado to Los Angeles to build motorcycles on a larger scale. It’s always inspiring not only to see someone grow as a tradesperson, but also to watch their success in business and the experiences and adventures they encounter along the way.

Plus, he works with John Wick.

OK, so technically it’s Keanu Reeves, but that’s not any less cool. Seven years ago, Keanu and bike builder Gard Hollinger joined forces to start Arch Motorcycles. It’s one thing to create a one-off motorcycle, it’s another to build prototypes, then production bikes. Gard was having a difficult time finding a machinist who could create the necessary parts in a timely manner—until he contacted Ryan. The pieces that other shops either couldn’t make or had months-long lead times took Ryan a day to fabricate. Gard was impressed, and soon was asking him to come L.A. to be his full-time machinist.

Recently, I was in SoCal and met up with Ryan at Arch Motorcycles in a building that sits in the shadows of the Space X headquarters in Hawthorne. The place is absurdly cool, with a slick industrial-chic showroom displaying the company’s bikes and offices and, of course, the assembly, parts, fabrication, and machining quarters. Here’s a recap of some highlights from our conversation:

JW: When did you know you wanted to become a machinist, and what was the point in your career where you knew you’d excel at it?

RB: I’m not sure if I ever really wanted to be a machinist. I got into it around 2006 out of necessity, I suppose. I didn’t really like anything available in the rock-crawling or custom motorcycle world, and I didn’t have the money to pay people to make the parts I wanted. I knew a few machinists and had the opportunity to watch them work. I did a couple of small projects with them, which led me to find a Bridgeport and manual lathe so that I could make my own parts, in-house at my Colorado shop [Boyd Motor Co.]

The second those two machines were wired up, you'd be hard-pressed to pry me away from them. It was always a situation where I felt, “Hey, I can make that,” and so, I did. It took a lot of hours, but it never really felt like work; I would get so immersed in the process of figuring out how to make and fixture parts on that Bridgeport. I had never programmed, or run, CNC machines before I took the job as the R&D manager here at Arch. Again, the process wasn’t a school-based one for me. It was sheer passion and an effort-based learning curve. I threw myself into learning the setup of the machines, CAD and programming of the parts, and prototype fixturing to get things rolling.

I’m not sure I’d say I excel at it, as I feel there is still so much to learn. There are plenty of people far more talented than me. But I feel that my strengths are in the accuracy of the part, the mechanical interfaces and functionality of parts, and ultimately, their aesthetic appeal. I think the machining process can lend its own mechanical sense of beauty to really any type of part.

JW: How difficult was the decision to leave Colorado? What’s life like in Los Angeles versus Colorado?

RB: It was actually a hard decision to make. I was really close to not accepting the job because I had a pretty good thing going at my shop in Colorado. But one night when I told my wife, "Hey, I think we will decline and stay in Colorado," she asked me, "OK, in one year, when you look back, what will your first thought be about not accepting the job?"

Work in progress.

Me: "Regret."

My wife: "OK then, we’re going."

And that was that! I really miss Colorado, the change of seasons, living in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, with camping, snowboarding, 4-wheeling, etc., all basically out my back door. Being away from family is tough too, especially since we now have a 1-year-old baby girl. That being said, life in LA has its perks for sure. The car and motorcycle culture is really amazing; nobody here says, “Why would you waste your money on that car or motorcycle?” They usually say, “Holy S***! You have one of those?” Then a long conversation about the love of cars or bikes follows. The weather is good—you can ride year-round, obviously. The food variety is amazing. It is a really interesting pull on me to both locales.

JW: What was the transition like from running your own business in Colorado to running the shop for Arch Motorcycles?

RB: I don’t actually run the shop here at Arch. I just run the manufacturing and oversee the mechanical and assembly process. That being said, the change was quite large. I now have many more machines at my disposal, a lot more manufacturing tech, and more networking to help push our products forward and hopefully keep them relevant.

I was basically a one-man shop before, with a little help from a few friends every now and again in Colorado. Then coming out here, it was basically Gard, Keanu, and me for the first couple of years to where we now have 10 full-time employees fulfilling various roles. So, it has been an interesting process trying to teach some of the tasks instead of just doing them myself, but it’s good. And I feel like there is a lot more growth on the horizon.

JW: Does what you’re doing now feel special? I ask because it’s very rare that three people with complementary assets click on the same vision as you, Gard, and Keanu seem to.

RB: For sure. It is really amazing to have three similar visions for what a motorcycle should be; we have a lot of shared passion for riding and for the mechanical aspects of motorcycling. The brainstorming and aspiration process of creating these machines has been a lot of fun, albeit a ton of work. There is a constant dialogue about what we are doing well and what we can improve on.

To be continued …

All images courtesy of Josh Welton, Brown Dog Welding. To see more images beyond the slideshow that accompanies this post, visit: www.browndogwelding.com/2018/07/27/thefabricator-com-ryan-boyd-part-1/.

Slide Show | 4 Images