This Absurd Motorcycle Costs More Than A Nice House And Looks Like A Computer Glitch

Boutique motorcycles are such a wonderful thing. Is a Honda Gold Wing too boring for you? Is a Harley-Davidson not expensive enough? Look no further than the wild builders putting together handfuls of bold bikes. There’s a new outrageous motorcycle out there and it comes from Ransom Motorcycles. Reportedly, this shocking motorcycle, which looks like a computer glitch or melting metal, will cost “high six to seven figures” and it’s backed by a 185 HP engine. This is the Ransom Archangel, and it’s a real motorcycle you’ll be able to buy.

I ran across this motorcycle today while scrolling through Forbes cover stories. My mouth then fell to the floor and I had to figure out what was going on. A lot of motorcycle news today is dominated by new electric motorcycles, the launches of small displacement bikes, and all sorts of new models coming over from China. The Ransom Archangel is none of that. It might be the least practical motorcycle I’ve seen in a while and for the expected price of “more than some supercars,” there are probably more logical ways to spend money. Since prices get as high as over a million dollars, you could buy a really nice house!

Yet, I can’t stop looking at this Eldritch monster of a motorcycle. I want to ride it and see what it’s like to ride on something that looks like it’s melting before your eyes.

Who Is Ransom?

The Archangel is the work of custom bike builder W. Robert Ransom. Ransom describes himself as the guy you want to visit when your Bugatti no longer excites you.

According to the Forbes profile, Ransom has been building custom motorcycles since 2001 and he has been tinkering since he was a kid. Ransom founded Ransom Motorcycles in 2004 as a boutique brand catering to the most discerning of clients. In other words, you have to have the kind of wealth as Elon Musk or royalty to buy one of his motorcycles. Ransom notes that he doesn’t have a team. The motorcycles are built by his hands in his shop, and each bike is a functional piece of art. His site compares his work to that of a painter, but instead of a brush and colors, his strokes are done through welding and metal.

Aside from style, Ransom makes his bikes stand out by going with different powerplants than the typical custom chopper. Where many others do V-twins, Ransom saddles his machines with engines out of sportbikes. Forbes notes it’s not just because of being different, either, as Ransom spent his younger years swinging his legs over Honda CBRs, Kawasaki Ninjas, Suzuki GSX-Rs, and Yamaha FZRs. So, Japanese sportbikes are practically in his blood.

That said, Ransom is quick to point out that he doesn’t build sportbikes. More on that in a bit.

A portfolio of Ransom’s motorcycles can be viewed on his website and all of them look like bikes meant to be in a video game. True to his word, all of the bikes come powered with Japanese sportbike power. Last fall, Ransom got some headlines for his 2022 creation of what he called the world’s first all-titanium Suzuki Hayabusa. And I mean all-titanium, from the frame to the body panels. Back then, the motorcycle was still being built even after 2,000 hours of work went in.

The Archangel is another creation that Ransom began showing off in 2022, but it would appear that motorcycle media never noticed it until the aforementioned Forbes piece.

The Top Angel

This motorcycle is heavily about its striking looks, but that isn’t all of it.

The Archangel is constructed out of hand-formed aluminum. Ransom starts with a dagger shape over the front wheel and ends the body with a spear shape over the rear wheel. It looks like it could be a rolling sword, fitting for a bike named after heavenly warriors often depicted with swords.

This all-metal bodywork is all over the motorcycle and it bends around the motorcycle’s radiators and front wheel. Spiking off of the radiator shrouds are two long winglets, said to produce downforce at high speeds. The bodywork also covers up the headlight, then it slides out of the way when you ride the motorcycle.

When you look closer, it’s clear that Ransom doesn’t stop with bodywork. His Archangel motorcycles also get custom 4130 chromoly tube frames bent around the bodywork, and attached to those frames are the inline-four engines and thick forks with insane rakes. Everything is custom from the bike’s monocoque structure to the hand-formed swingarm. Oh yeah, there’s a 300-section width rear tire on the back. All of this is supported by a custom adjustable air suspension that uses the swingarm as its air tank. At its highest position, the motorcycle has 4.5 inches of suspension travel.

As for the engine, Ransom says it’s from a Japanese sportbike and it’s a 1000cc, four-cylinder unit that makes 185 HP while having a 13,000 RPM redline. The lack of other information about the engine is intentional. Ransom feels that when you know about the engine in other builds, you will end up focusing on it. Instead, Ransom wants you to focus on the motorcycle itself and appreciate all of the fine details that took him thousands of hours to create.

Speaking of performance. Ransom doesn’t expect his motorcycles to be daily machines and he knows that some of his very wealthy clientele will probably never put a single mile on their motorcycles. That’s ok, though, because the bikes are meant to be art that you could ride. Should you decide to take your potentially million-dollar Archangel on the work commute, you should know not to expect a sportbike ride. A rake as steep as shown here will mean a bike that wants to go straight as much as it can. Also, you don’t get a sidestand, but there is a center stand so you can display the motorcycle wherever you park it. That said, the Archangel does weigh 440 pounds, so it’s not that porky.

Who Is This For?

Ransom advertises his motorcycles through his Instagram account and Facebook. He makes it clear that his target market isn’t just your garden variety rich person, but someone who might have the label “King” in their name. Ransom doesn’t give an exact price for the Archangel, but says its starting price is in the high six-figure range and into seven figures depending on how you personalize your exact motorcycle.

If you’re reading this and happen to have about a million bucks burning a hole in your pocket, you can buy your own Archangel. Ransom is taking $2,000 refundable reservations to secure you a spot in line. After placing your deposit, you get to iron out the specifics of your motorcycle. Then, after Ransom cranks out thousands of hours of work, you’ll eventually get your ride. The motorcycle you get will have its own Ransom Motorcycles VIN and you’ll know that each bike is slightly different from the last.

This is a motorcycle I’ll almost certainly never be able to afford. I doubt I’ll ever see one in real life. But it is absurd in every measure. For the price of this bike, you can buy multiple nice houses, a really fast car, or investments that could make you richer. So, I can’t imagine many people will be lining up to place a deposit on one of these. Still, it’s one of those motorcycles that’s so silly it’s pretty cool. Someone prove me wrong and take this down I-94 in Chicago traffic.