Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

:ft ~ .'. . How Micha rolls i o n IMERI I Dream ace it: We've all dared to dream of building our own bike, incorporating all those why-not wheezes we thought up while riding to work or lying in the sun. Preferably, of course, it is a grand prix racer capable of whipping the best of Italy and Japan, but at the very least one that could prove the hard way, out on the racetrack, just how good all those same brilliant ideas really are. It's just that, for most of us, such foolish fantasies are destined forever to remain strictly mind candy; the bikes we concoct, mere what-if whimsies that coulda been a contender, if only... Just once in a very long while, however, someone comes along with the drive, the determination, and above all the resources to buck that trend and make dreams come true. Motorcycling visionaries like the late John Britten in the early I990s, or ELF's Andre de Cortanze and his French compatriot Claude Fior a decade before that, whose avant-garde bikes signposted an alternative route for two-wheeled technology to mainstream manufacturers. Don't believe me? Then look at any Honda or Ducati motorcycle with an ELF-type single-sided swingarm, or the Fior front suspension on BMW's new-generation K-model range, or the Britten's rear-mounted radiator on the F 46 MAY 11, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS achinel Benelli Tornado - and that's just for starters. Now meet the new millennium's most flamboyant proponent of twowheeled original thought: 40-year-old American architect Michael Czysz. Portland, Oregon-based Czysz (pronounced "sis," as in sister) has made his mark on the American psyche by working for A-list celebrities such as Cindy Crawford and Lenny Kravitz in creating their cover-story residences, with his architectural practice Architropolis also a frequent front-runner in designing hip, high-end hotels or upscale bars and spas all over the United States. But he's never allowed his high-profile career to shut out his family motorcycle heritage. Granddad Clarence Czysz was a top Manx Norton tuner in the post-World War II era, and dad Terry followed in his tire tracks by preparing bikes for others to ride, most recently for son Michael in an amateur road racing career mainly spent riding RSV2S0 Aprilia GP bikes, which earned him AMA National points-scoring finishes in a radical release from the pressures of the day job. But from there to contriving an avant-garde alternative to current conventional two-wheeled wisdom (as manifested by the MotoCzysz C I 990, which recently catapulted out of nowhere to center stage in the public consciousness) was quite a step, especially when it entailed the clean-sheet conception and construction of a four-cylinder, I-liter superbike engine with staggered cylinder blocks and stacked counter-rotating cranks, positioned lengthways in a carbon-fiber chassis equipped with radical front and rear suspension solutions, and entirely created with Michael Czysz's own creative resources, owing no debts to any other manufacturer. An invitation to join him and his crew - which includes dad Terry - at Las Vegas Speedway for shakedown tests of the proof-of-concept prototype of the MotoCzysz C I, provided a chance to evaluate Michael's handiwork by actually riding the bike he personally designed and is in the process of developing, with himself as the hands-on test rider. The result proved quite an eye-opener even for someone who spent three years racing the factory Bimota Tesi, then later the equally radical Saxon-Triumph. So, I guess yours truly already has some history with alternative engineering on two wheels - and the MotoCzysz embodies exactly that. Fitted with a single headlamp in the left corner of the fairing's Evo-RI race face, presumably to give a hint of how the future C I street bike will look, the silver MotoCzysz C I 990 prototype sat waiting for me on the pit apron at Las Vegas Speedway, with bright-red tire warmers

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