MICHAEL CZYSZ – A TRIBUTE
P
ortland, Oregon-based
design visionary Michael
Czysz passed on May 7 at the
age of 52, after a long fight with
a rare and aggressive form of
cancer. He was an innovative
two-wheeled freethinker whose
motorcycles ultimately enjoyed
serial success on the Isle of
Man TT. Yet in a decade of
thinking outside the box in terms
of design, Czysz confronted two
completely different engineering
challenges—firstly, a prototype
MotoGP racer done differently,
then what are widely regarded
as the most successful electric
road racers built to date.
In a previous life before mo-
torcycles, Czysz acquired fame
and fortune during a 20-year
career as one of America's top
architects through his Architrop-
olis design firm, in designing Las
Vegas hotels and nightclubs,
and creating homes for A-list
celebrities like Cindy Crawford
and Lenny Kravitz.
But from there to contriving an
avant-garde alternative to con-
ventional two-wheeled wisdom,
was a big step—as manifested by
the clean-sheet conception and
construction of the four-cylinder
16-valve 1000cc C1 MotoGP
engine with twin counter-rotating
cranks which first appeared
in 2004. Set lengthwise in a
carbon fiber chassis equipped
with radical front and rear
suspension solutions, this was
entirely concocted courtesy of
Czysz's own creative resources.
Considering that he had zero
formal training in mechanical
engineering, Michael Czysz's
development of the bike bearing
his name was an undertaking
worthy of John Britten—who was
indeed the inspiration to create
the C1, according to Czysz.
However, MotoGP's reduction
in capacity to 800cc for 2007
spelled the end of the C1 proj-
ect, and after fruitless negotia-
tions with companies in Japan,
Austria and India about turning it
into a Superbike, Czysz aborted
the mission and transferred his
R&D talents to what he identified
as the next big thing: electric
bikes.
The swoopy-looking silent-
IN
THE
WIND
P46
Czysz, with his C1 MotoGP
project, was a freethinking
motorcycle innovator in
the same mold as his hero,
John Britten.
