The American who built a Racebike in his Garage

many of you liked my video covering the story of new zealand native john britton and his incredible accomplishment of building a handmade race bike on par with some of the fastest motorcycles in the world for his time and on that video i received a comment telling me to check out a man with a similar story named michael sis actually it turns out there's quite a few comments about michael and his story in a way this is the third or even fourth part of a sort of series on one-off motorcycle designers and builders people who built their own motorcycle essentially and we just finished talking about richard trobb the mysterious enthusiast from the early 1900s who built a motorcycle on par with the best of his time also my video about philip vincent could fit into this category and of course the video about john britton so if you want to watch these videos i've made a playlist that you guys can check out below if you like this kind of thing but yeah let's get into this inspiring story of michael sis and how he designed and built the fastest electric race bike of his time now michael grew up around motorcycles and specifically the world of race motorcycles born in san bernardino california in the 1960s a time when the likes of steve mcqueen ruled the streets on the coolest motorcycles of all time but sizz's childhood also took place during a massive transition in the motorcycling world the japanese manufacturers were taking over not only the sport bike segment but also the racing world along with italian manufacturers the 70s was an era of innovation like never before and michael grew up right in the middle of all of that on the race track grandson to the famous race bike tuner clarence sis and an amateur racer himself michael's father would later help him set up his 250cc aprilia race bikes but he really grew up in this world and his first motorcycle well we called a motorcycle was a sears mini bike and even from the very start michael had problems with it he liked to ride it it was fun for him but he didn't feel like it was a real motorcycle and you know one can understand why if you grew up riding these you know you know what i'm talking about his first proper motorcycle bought from long days working summer jobs was a kawasaki 175 enduro and though he was keen to motorcycles michael would go on to pursue design in a different realm which was architecture and graphic design michael always had an eye for design and really understanding how things work having moved to portland in high school michael decided to go to portland state university and then he transferred to parsons school of design in new york where he ultimately dropped out early it wasn't that michael couldn't keep up with school he was just ready to get out and get to work and that he did ultimately building up an incredibly successful architectural design studio called architropolis and sis would go on to design celebrity homes from the likes of lenny kravitz and cindy crawford he was really well known in the celebrity world and really well respected he also designed you know high-end casinos and hotels in vegas now through his 20s michael's sort of re-fell in love with life on two wheels first in the form of an old bmw r50 ii and then multiple sort of more sporty machines including ducatis and perhaps more important honda's vfr 750 that's a v4 from honda if you guys don't already know and there's a reason why that will come into play later now michael began racing on an aprilia rs250 at the ripe age of 30. though siz had experienced incredible success in architectural design at this point he was to the point where he was ready for something new it was time to take his passion for designing and building unique things and take it back to his roots back to the track and to his first passion which was motorcycles so on his wife's 40th birthday michael informed his wife that he was going to build his own race bike now the moment of realization came from mike shortly before his announcement to his wife when he found himself at the guggenheim art of the motorcycle exhibit which featured iconic bikes motorcycles like the envy agusta f4 which had just come out recently and most importantly john britton's britain v1000 and seeing the motorcycle in person that jon had built had a lasting impact on michael he'd seen pictures of the bike but witnessing it there in person really made it stand out to him and just how unique the bike was it was clear to michael that britain had built the bike with a clean slate a new approach to what speed on two wheels could look like without all the baggage of what a motorcycle has to be so michael was inspired and that was always his approach to design and it's how he would tackle the challenge of building a motorcycle from scratch now sizz's first rideable real motorcycle came about after two or so years of part-time work he was still designing mansions as his main job but on the side he was innovating straight out of his personal garage of course over this time he built a team and was able to really start to innovate his ideas and actually see them come to fruition and this first bike was known as the c1 this first motorcycle from this new company moto sis originally he built a longitudinal four so think like an inline four just turned 90 degrees similar to old indians and some other old american bikes like henderson or even think you know british cars with just a straight four or straight six or you know even old american trucks now this had massive benefits for a motorcycle over the transverse inline four you know think bikes like the cb750 and basically every inline four but in the case of a motorcycle the width could be down significantly when the engine was turned that 90 degrees and so for aerodynamics as well as the gyroscopic effect of the crankshaft being positioned in line with the bike really made for an awesome potential motorcycle but ultimately it didn't matter because once the intake and exhaust were added to the bike it ended up being just as wide as a typical inline four so they scratched that idea michael transitioned to designing and building a v4 or as it was known the v15 a 15 degree also longitudinally mounted you know imagine taking a longitudinally mounted inline four and offsetting two of the cylinders that's really all this was this configuration also utilized novel double contra counter rotating crankshafts to offset the torque effect present when on the throttle when you have a v formation positioned on the bike this way so think the likes of motoguzzi's longitudinal v twins even at idle on a bike like that or even like a boxer twin when you get on the throttle there's a rocking effect now this version of the c1 built under a hand-picked team now representing his new company featured lots of advantages over the present stock of race bikes both in world superbikes and even motogp but the newfound company began to face challenges homologation rules for world superbike meant that moto sis would need to sell 1500 of these bikes a year just to be able to compete obviously that was never going to happen and also motogp moved down to 800 cc's which meant that they would be higher revving bikes so moto sis would need to do extensive development significantly more to be able to make a bike that could rev that high regardless of the fact that the c1 would never be officially raced he and his team had successfully built one of the most advanced american race bikes in history [Music] but with these changes to the race rules michael had to do something different now he has a great quote regarding electric motorcycles and his new path to now building an electric race bike instead of a typical gas-powered motorcycle mind you this is really happening at a time about 2008 where there were rumors of electric motorcycles on the forefront but that was pretty much it he said i can try to catch up in a 100 year old industry and be the last guy to the dance or i can jump over and be maybe the leader in this new area now when it comes to building an electric vehicle there's little that you can do about weight so michael decided to tackle the need for more fully usable power the problem with electric bikes isn't the power itself or the torque it's how it's used instant torque is great but long-term acceleration on an electric motorcycle is just never on par with the capability of a powerful engine connected to a six-speed transmission a moto gp race bike makes torque everywhere you know the twins even from ducati at this time were still just incredibly torquey and fast and that is really where the problem is for an electric bike i remember driving electric golf carts at various times when i was a kid sort of living on the golf course and they always feel fast at the start and then you realize all that power is just instant but it doesn't maintain whereas our gas powered golf carts would always whoop the electric powered ones in the long run because ultimately they had more usable power throughout the entire range so moto sis was really forced to develop their own battery packs these were incredibly energy dense and also incredibly hot so if you think a moto gp bike is hot which they are this was on another level because these electric motorcycles not just for moto sis but the other ones that were created to compete at this time they were not made like production electric motorcycles that needed to last they were completely fine with these bikes getting incredibly hot and just sort of having their 20 30 minute moment and then everything was just redone so final versions of the e1 pc as it was called repped a ridiculous 200 plus horsepower 250 foot-pounds of torque that's almost a hundred more foot-pounds of torque than a rocket three on a way lighter platform a carbon fiber version of the original c1 chassis mainly to reduce weight originally these were essentially swappable packs but everything would change over the life of this bike the chassis the motor the battery every year sismoto would bring their electric bike to the isle of man to compete with the other electric race bikes and every year there'd be new groundbreaking tech on this motorcycle it was always changing you know it started out with a chassis that was just basically a leftover carbon fiber version of the c1 but ultimately it had its own completely new innovative chassis this motorcycle was built for one reason and that is to race so when michael set out building the original c1 he had both world superbike and potentially moto gp in mind and in the case of the e1 pc this was built for the 2009 ttx gp the all-new electric class for the isle of man that class was scrapped the race never happened in 09 and michael brought his bike back to the drawing board and that was when everything changed the bike slowly became entirely a creation of moto genius and just a real technological focus and on the grid for 2010 in many ways this bike was leaps and bounds ahead of really anything at the isle of man it's not that it was faster in terms of time than the gas powered bikes the bike just really was a piece of tech and they were a tech company in a lot of ways now the new electric bike for moto sys would go on to win the first four years of this new electric race the tt0 which is a little bit better name in my opinion than the ttx gp but that's another matter this was the first time an american motorcycle won a tt race at the isle of man since 1911 when indian won that first year was also the first year an american had ever won a tt on an american-made motorcycle in 2010 michael actually won at laguna seca on his own bike for the fime power race and i'm sure winning on his own bike was probably one of the highlights of his life in 2011 the ep-1 clocked an average speed of 100 miles per hour at the isle of man tt the first for an electric motorcycle ever [Music] now the moto sis wasn't without its competitors though and a rivalry was beginning to brew during those final years a true david and goliath story much like all of sizz's endeavors and really anyone's endeavors when they're trying to build their own motorcycle this time it was in the form of honda and especially the talented rider john mcginnis riding the bike honda was backing built by moojin or mugen not sure to pronounce that and fittingly called the shindin and if you don't already know what shindin is this was the name for the japanese god of electricity mujin is a company started in the 70s by soichiro honda's son known for tuning race machines built by honda but in this case this motorcycle was built for one purpose by this company and that was to race at the zero tt though in 2012 the e1 pc beat out the shinden by 23.52 seconds which is quite a bit that final year the difference was only 1.67 seconds right when things were getting exciting this is the year when things turned tragic for michael and for his family that year michael was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer known as rhabdomyosarcoma and this would be the start of about a three-year battle with cancer that would ultimately take his life far too early in 2016. during this time michael actually used motorcycling as sort of a therapy usually on the track and usually on his ducati super legera there's an amazing quote from amcn's article on michael's story which served as a great resource for many of the more detailed aspects of this video you can check out all my sources in the description below if you want to read more but that article says this if the late massimo tamborini was the michelangelo of motorcycling then sis was a two-wheeled leonardo da vinci whose capacity for innovation and eye for beauty was matched by his determination to break down the barriers of two-wheeled convention like his hero john britton sis was a radical revisionist a self-taught engineer with the capacity to smash the mold of two-wheeled design convention in favor of creating something completely unique and technically innovative which delivered success on the racetrack he was indeed a motorcycle visionary a man unprepared to break compromise and a hard taskmaster who nevertheless inspired devotion in others sharing the joint pursuit of avant-garde technology i think what's so interesting is that michael's approach was so similar to that of john britton the idea of coming to the design and structure of a motorcycle with a completely clean slate not held back by conventions or brand expectations and not afraid to be laughed at with something different whether it was how the frame and suspension and engine interacted with each other to even using a traditional combustion engine in the first place michael's dream toward the end of his life was actually to see hybrid motorcycles take over he really saw that as the future the standout aspect of his life for me is just how fast he was able to accomplish so much i think people look at john britton and michael sis and say oh they had millions of dollars to invest you know i've seen comments like that and though that is true they did have millions of dollars and they did raise millions of dollars for these projects that is just such a naive outlook in my opinion if you think that if i gave you 25 million right now you'd just be able to go build a motorcycle and build a team to do it no as much as it's true that you need money to build a motorcycle from scratch and especially a race bike i mean it's for this reason that we only have two of the big four manufacturers left in motogp going forwards it is so expensive those who sis and britain were going up against had way more money no you need something different than just money you need passion and not just from one person you need a team of people who are passionate you need incredible intelligence the ability to find the right people and stir up passion in them one of sizz's team members rightly points out how such a small group of passionate people can accomplish so much more versus just a big team of people sort of doing their job when you look back at motorcycle history there seems to often be a bit of lull before someone or some company breaks out of the mold and builds something really special that then goes on to change the course of history think people like edward turner with his parallel twin all the innovation of the 60s from companies of course to today where it seems most of the exciting new developments have been coming out of italy a lot of people doubted the sysmoto project much like they doubted the britain in the motorcycling world there's this respect for the long history before us and the way things are supposed to be done in people's minds people want things to stay the same it's like we all have this definition of what a motorcycle is i know that i do in a lot of ways but in the end there really isn't one simple way to define the motorcycle and i think it's good when brilliant minds come along and just push us a little bit the saddest part about this story is that we'll never really know what would be next for michael and for his company what he could have accomplished and how it could have shaped the industry as a whole but who knows maybe somebody watching this video could end up being the next philip vincent or john britton or michael sis time will tell alright guys thanks for watching this again if you want to check out that playlist i'll have it pop up right now for a few other similar videos or just go check out all my other videos and see if there's anything there that you find interesting also you can subscribe if you want you don't have to but you could okay thanks for watching we'll see you guys next time ride safe you're riding seven tens or eight tenths you can be a little aggressive you can't flip the bike you can do those things because you're here and the edge of adhesion is here as we move up and move up and move up you simply can't have those little spikes where you're erratic because you will simply transcend the point of adhesion so that's why we actually have to use the brakes longer so that's why your butt already has to be off because you can't make a big shift on the bike right when you're at the point where you're close to adhesion or losing it about 10 years old i wanted to become an inventor and could not find a real clear path and ended up studying architecture the call to invention was too great and in 2010 i moved towards motorcycle electric vehicle design where we introduced the modus's e1pc which popular science calls the most advanced electric motorcycle in the world we entered the two largest electric races we won them both and set two track records so any success i've had to date is exclusively due to innovation you get on this bike and i have an extreme appreciation for how fast you can go and how slow you it feels like you can go and that to me just allows i i just see uh how much these bikes can improve over the next couple years and i just you know it truly is a more zen-like experience than a gas bike if you want to go fast and you want to feel speed and you want to feel like you're acting upon speed you're asking for more speed and controlling that by degrees of percentages you can't nothing comes close to an electric [Music] you

Channel: bart

Views: 126,775

Keywords: bart, motorcycle, motorcycles, classic, top, best, bike, motorbike, the american designer who built the fastest electric motorcycle in the worlf, electric, electric motorcycle, ev, tech, tt zero, ttzero, isle of man, isle of man tt, michael czysz, csyzsmoto, e1pc, c1, v4, fastest motorcycle, motorcycle story, john britten, britten, britten 1000, sportbike, racebike, race motorcycle, motogp, world superbike, ducati, energica, honda, kawasaki, suzuki, yamaha, triumph, documentary, history, race, fastest

Id: Io6A1ZETOts

Length: 19min 17sec (1157 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 04 2022