In the late 1980s, General Motors - which has had a long-standing, multibillion-dollar commitment to R&D over the decades - began pursuing a new type of catalytic converter that used a novel welding technique to create wavy layers of stainless steel that expose exhaust to more of the cat’s internal filtering surfaces.īut ever-changing environmental regulations, global politics, corner-office shuffles and consumer preferences caused GM’s cat project to ebb and flow for years, until the downturn of the late 2000s, when GM filed for bankruptcy. Unlike Arch, which has spooled up relatively quickly in less than a decade, Acat’s story is much longer. “To our knowledge, no one else has figured out how to weld stainless steel this thin,” Moch said. Acat says its patented technology increases emissions filtration by up to 20% increases fuel efficiency by 1.5 to 3.5 miles per gallon, depending on vehicle type runs cooler is quieter and smaller and, in certain applications, adds horsepower compared with its competition. What makes Acat’s cats so much better than standard catalytic converters in wide use today?Īccording to Chief Executive Joe Moch, the company uses a patented “herringbone” interior structure - think lasagna noodles - that allows exhaust to flow through faster and uses fewer precious metals to “comb out” particulate matter. The EPA estimates that, thanks to cats, overall emission levels from new vehicles since the early 1970s have been reduced by 99%. Without them, we would not have achieved Euro 4.”Īccording to the Society of Automotive Engineers, the catalytic converter - the device that filters out most pollutants from the exhaust of an internal combustion engine and increases fuel efficiency - is one of the 10 most important innovations in the history of the automobile. We started to understand that Acat had a better way to handle hydrocarbons. We’d ask for something ridiculous, and they’d do it. “But when we started explaining to them what we needed, they said yes to everything. ![]() “We didn’t seek Acat out - they came to us,” Hollinger said. “In every case there’s a wheel, a suspension part, a tire decision to be made,” Hollinger said, “we always go for the best product that makes the motorcycle work better.”įrom the exhaust side, Arch needed three catalytic converters for each bike, a part not typically made in small volumes, let alone engineered into the custom shapes Arch required. And then there’s the torque-rich V-Twin engine custom-tuned for Arch by gold-standard S&S, whose work helped Arch achieve California Air Resources Board, EPA and Euro 4 certification. Hollinger and Reeves have won over some clever supplier partners to help them pull together the components they don’t make in-house, including Bosch, Michelin, TE Connectivity and K&N. “No matter how much you explain what they might expect, they’re never prepared for it - it’s indescribable.” “One of the really pleasurable things for me is always the reaction from people after riding our motorcycle,” Hollinger said. Not to mention rarity and a well-balanced and high-performance ride. Much of the appeal comes from the bespoke componentry and the levels of customization Arch encourages each buyer to consider during the bike’s 90-day build. “So we committed to actually producing such a bike to showcase our ambitions in terms of design, approach and sophistication.” “A lot of companies unveil concepts but never build them,” Reeves said. “But the custom bike Gard had built for me, which eventually became our prototype, was such an amazing motorcycle to ride that I knew it was something we needed to share with the world.” “I had no idea when I brought up the idea of starting a motorcycle company what that really meant,” Reeves said on a Zoom call from Berlin. The story of these two companies shows that the path some innovative products take to get to market - motorcycles and components alike - isn’t always straightforward.Īrch was born in 2011, after Reeves commissioned a one-off bike from Hollinger and tried to talk him into turning it into a business. With Euro 4 approval, Arch can now go global. “When we began the Euro 4 process in early 2017, we put together a binder of all the regulatory stuff, and it was 4 inches thick,” Hollinger said. ![]() They have helped Arch meet not only California Air Resources Board and Environmental Protection Agency standards but also stringent Euro 4 emissions requirements. A two-year collaboration between Arch and Acat resulted in cats that are custom-designed to fit into the KRGT-1’s unique architecture while reducing the amount of noxious exhaust gases emitted from conventional cat designs. Acat Global, a Michigan-based company, is the supplier of Arch’s catalytic converters, or “cats,” as they’re called.
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