Discovery_Birth of a Racer
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00:00:00When you consider the internal combustion engine has been around for a little over a hundred years,
00:00:06actually a little longer than that,
00:00:08to come up with a whole bunch of new ideas that qualifies for a patent
00:00:13from a guy that doesn't have an engineering background is an astounding achievement.
00:00:17It's not about solving the problem for the next six months or one year.
00:00:21We're looking at things that maybe won't come to fruition for 10 or 20 years.
00:00:25The long and the short of it is, unless you have huge resources,
00:00:33it is very, very, very costly to try and develop an engine and a MotoGP bike.
00:00:40Because the company wants to also be like Honda, which is 50 years old, or Harley, which is 100 years old.
00:00:57For somebody to come in who has no experience manufacturing motorcycles,
00:01:02starting from scratch with new technology, I think it's going to be...
00:01:08impossible.
00:01:11The rules state that the motorcycle has to be a prototype.
00:01:15MotoGP actually comes from the blue-ribboned class of motorcycle racing.
00:01:20There was a letter, somebody sent me a two-page letter today,
00:01:24about, you know, how I'm a modern-day fool.
00:01:31I don't think it'll ever happen, to be honest. Not in my lifetime.
00:01:36How I will be the laughingstock of the century if we fail.
00:01:41He's going against all the odds.
00:01:43I don't know.
00:01:45How I'll end up being like a Tucker or a DeLorean.
00:01:54What he's doing is a giant leap of faith, and it's going to be a hell of a lot of work.
00:01:59It's a big mountain. I mean, it's a big mountain.
00:02:04You can go out there and ride around, but to compete,
00:02:07you've got to have the backing of the factory.
00:02:09Everybody likes the David versus Goliath type stuff.
00:02:12I actually hand-wrote on that letter.
00:02:14I thought I'd fax it back to him, then I just threw it away.
00:02:16But it was like, you know, I know the cost of failure,
00:02:20and what I know of that cost is greater than he'll ever imagine.
00:02:23If you've got a bike, and you've got something that's competitive,
00:02:26and you can get it on the track, why not?
00:02:29I mean, he has no idea what I've risked.
00:02:31I mean, I literally, I'll risk my life for this project right now.
00:02:40This is a guy that took his own money, sat on an airplane,
00:02:45and decided that I don't have an engineering background,
00:02:49but I can potentially look at something, and with a clean slate,
00:02:55come up with some interesting new ideas.
00:02:58And he actually managed it.
00:03:07They say it's a fine line between genius and madness.
00:03:11I guess we'll see.
00:03:18The very, very beginning, it was just me.
00:03:20I probably spent three or four months on my own.
00:03:28Moto Sizz is born in Michael Sizz's garage two years ago.
00:03:32Michael first imagines the concepts that will become the foundation
00:03:35of his new state-of-the-art motorcycle effort.
00:03:38It was honest, true, grassroots startup.
00:03:43The hours were primarily after work, and at night, and on the weekends,
00:03:46so it made sense doing it at home.
00:03:48We did everything here. The bike was built here.
00:03:50The bike started here for the first time, and it lived here,
00:03:53except for the body work.
00:03:55When we started getting into needing to do sanding and stuff,
00:03:57that was just more than this little room could handle.
00:03:59So I borrowed a neighbor's garage down the street
00:04:03and would ride back and forth on one of these little dirt bikes.
00:04:06When we originally had it here, we had, like I said, four desks along here
00:04:10with the heater there and the computers here, and the C1 was here.
00:04:15The engine was built on that desk. The mule engine sat in the corner.
00:04:18And we had a drill press and a milling machine and just a few items.
00:04:24After learning of his son's quest to build a race bike like no other,
00:04:28Michael's father, Terry, joins Team Motocyz as chief engineer.
00:04:33So I wanted to be there with him and to make it as safe as possible.
00:04:40I know the dangers of the sport. I've seen it for a very long time,
00:04:44and I just wanted to help.
00:04:47Before I was born, my father was into motorcycles,
00:04:51and specifically Nortons.
00:04:54I walked into this one shop that had a Norton just like this,
00:04:59and it had a special signature on the back.
00:05:04It was the original bike that Buddy Perriott rode.
00:05:08And lo and behold, CYZ is stamped on the engine.
00:05:12Motocyz moves from the small carriage house to an empty warehouse closer to town.
00:05:19Within these four walls, Michael CYZ's dream will be born.
00:05:23I fully expect us to be reviewing drawings in the next two or three months,
00:05:26finished drawings in four to five months, rapid prototype parts in less than six,
00:05:30and real parts in seven and eight, and be writing in nine and ten.
00:05:33We're part of a significant business.
00:05:36We're trying to be a player in a huge show that's already existing.
00:05:39And we've got a window of opportunity that all of us would like to try to take on,
00:05:43and if we do that, we need to have a world-class bike done in 11 months.
00:05:48Taking on the monumental task of designing, engineering,
00:05:51and manufacturing a MotoGP-caliber motorcycle from scratch,
00:05:55Michael assembles a team of brilliant, cutting-edge engineers from around the world.
00:06:00What we were looking for was experience,
00:06:02and we really reached out to get guys with great experience,
00:06:04but what we ended up with, since most of the people contacted me first,
00:06:07What?
00:06:08Together, they will attempt to reinvent what we know of engine technology
00:06:12and build a motorcycle like none other in existence.
00:06:43Right now, where we're headed is to our machinist, which I've never been to.
00:06:50Oh, did you bring schedules, Federico?
00:06:52I will be eternally grateful to Michael for having given me this opportunity.
00:06:57I mean, because he basically hired me on the spot.
00:07:00I went in, and he's just like that.
00:07:03We don't talk much. It's really like, between us,
00:07:06it's, you know, we just understand what we want from each other.
00:07:10I really enjoy the American way of doing things.
00:07:13I really enjoy the attitude.
00:07:16I really enjoy the fact that you never start beaten.
00:07:23You always think you can make it, even if you are the underdog or if you're nobody.
00:07:29We have a big business plan laid ahead for the next 10 years or so.
00:07:34We want to start competing in MotoGP.
00:07:37We want to go there and see how we compete against the big guys.
00:07:43Two, three years from now, we want to be compared to Caddy and MV Agusta.
00:07:48Do you guys need to call Simon in?
00:07:52Simon's here.
00:07:53Hey, Joe, Michael.
00:07:54Oh, that's great.
00:07:55Designing and engineering the MotoGP bike requires major communication
00:07:59between each international team member.
00:08:01Wow, Monday morning, that's really a big deal here.
00:08:06This might be a big problem.
00:08:09You won't like that.
00:08:11What's up? No bad play?
00:08:14He got a revision in the drawing from Scott.
00:08:17What?
00:08:18We are just a small team and we just do everything in-house.
00:08:22Everything is under our own control.
00:08:24That's a big thing.
00:08:26If you look at MotoGP, it's all Japanese, Ducati.
00:08:30Ducati is a bit different, but Japanese, you know, they're huge factories
00:08:35with 250 engineers working on those MotoGP bikes only.
00:08:39We are quite a restricted number compared to that.
00:08:44We are very small.
00:08:45It's quite interesting, really.
00:08:47On the personal side, it's very exciting because it's always a new experience.
00:08:50And professionally, whether you work with English or Americans or French,
00:08:55maybe it doesn't change that much as long as people know what they're doing.
00:08:59What I like very much is really the different culture that you have grouped inside the same project.
00:09:06So this is pretty good. This is very exciting.
00:09:11Team MotoSis hopes to race their new C1 within one year.
00:09:16But first, they have three months to present a working prototype to the public
00:09:20or they risk losing all outside financing and their dream will end.
00:09:25This is no easy task considering they're building the engine from the ground up.
00:09:29They first must put it through a comprehensive process called dyno testing.
00:09:38My part is looking after the development dyno testing
00:09:43and my chief areas of design will be for the internal rotating, reciprocating components.
00:09:56Being involved from inception through to be there,
00:09:59when it finally coughs into life for the first time on a dyno,
00:10:02when it first takes to the track and then when it goes to its first race and hopefully on to its first win,
00:10:07this represents a very rare opportunity to actually be involved from the grassroots all the way up.
00:10:17It's nice to be a part of a project that brings another layer to it, another layer of design in effect.
00:10:21It's a great opportunity for us to actually stretch our wings, I guess.
00:10:25That was probably one of the largest motivators, that there was this opportunity there for us to bring our skills together.
00:10:32Do you need to be looking at the one after the signal?
00:10:35Yes, that's what he said. So directly after the two.
00:10:38So it has to be a two or a three.
00:10:42Can you pull one millimetre out?
00:10:45I'm responsible for the carbon fibre parts, for the bodywork parts as well as the structural parts.
00:10:52From the engineering side, obviously the structural parts are the more interesting ones.
00:10:58I worked in other companies where it was way more difficult to be accepted as a woman in this kind of job.
00:11:10It's very easy here.
00:11:13I think it's more important to have a few people who are really dedicated to their job
00:11:19than to have a huge team of people who are not really dedicated.
00:11:24I think Michael did a great job to get all the people together.
00:11:29The truth of it is, I really haven't heard anything negative.
00:11:32I think the only thing that possibly worries people is,
00:11:36can he survive?
00:11:37I mean, everybody knows the challenges and the expense that's involved in this.
00:11:42I would estimate a MotoGP team, you've got to be looking at between probably $50 or $60 million.
00:11:50Apparently Ducati had spent $32 million to build their Desmo Sedici.
00:11:54Honda spent $100 million last year and will have spent to date about $3.5 million.
00:12:02It actually started off as the 500cc class back in the 2-stroke days.
00:12:072-stroke engines complete the processes of intake, compression, power and exhaust in only 2-strokes as opposed to 4.
00:12:15This gives them more power than the 4-stroke engines used by street-legal motorcycles.
00:12:20In the 60s, it was a lot of fun.
00:12:24This gives them more power than the 4-stroke engines used by street-legal motorcycles.
00:12:29In the 60s, it was dominated by 4-strokes.
00:12:32In fact, it was dominated by a brand called MV Agusta.
00:12:35In about the mid-70s, Yamaha came along with their 2-stroke machines and started winning.
00:12:42Until pretty much the turn of the century, the new millennium,
00:12:46when really 2-stroke machines were starting to become less popular.
00:12:50Although they're incredibly efficient, they are somewhat environmentally unfriendly.
00:12:54You can't really get 2-strokes licensed on the streets, so development of 2-strokes had really slowed down and even stopped.
00:13:00And Dorna, the rights holder of MotoGP, decided that it would be smart to really start addressing the real manufacturer's needs, which was 4-stroke.
00:13:10So they changed the rules, went to 900cc or 990cc, I think, 4-stroke machines, and the thing's gone crazy ever since.
00:13:19For 2007, the formula changed again, and the 4-strokes are now running with 800cc engines.
00:13:26The vast majority of motors in cars, boats and motorcycles are piston-driven combustion engines.
00:13:32This engine design was popularized by Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz in 1885.
00:13:38This same technology powers every MotoGP bike on the raceway today.
00:13:44As they blaze through turns, the gyroscopic effects of the crankshaft forces the rider to exert extraordinary effort in order to maintain stability in the curves.
00:13:54During a MotoGP race, this battle takes an incredible toll on the rider's stamina.
00:14:00The MotoCis C1 has a cure for this, with their new counter-revolution Z-Line 4 engine that splits the crank,
00:14:08counter-rotates the two halves and places them longitudinally in the chassis.
00:14:13The counter-revolutionary engine is an amazing concept. It's brilliantly simple.
00:14:19For Michael Cis to not only develop his own chassis, but to also develop his own engine is incredible.
00:14:31The head engineer at Honda said the problem with that engine is you'd have inconsistent intakes and inconsistent exhaust,
00:14:43meaning two intakes would be short and two would be long because of the way the staggering is.
00:14:47What we've got around that, we have four identical intakes and four identical exhausts.
00:14:51If you can imagine, these two cranks are rotating opposite to each other.
00:14:55So you look at a side view, one of them actually, the power goes into a side gear,
00:15:00which if this is rotating clockwise, this rotates counter-clockwise and the torque tube rotates clockwise.
00:15:06There must be a whole bunch of people just sitting there going, damn it, why didn't we think of that?
00:15:10I've raced motorcycles all my life and been around them since I was seven years old.
00:15:15And I saw this and I thought...
00:15:17Because it's a race bike, we like to ensure that we can have a transmission that can be removed at the track,
00:15:23gears changed, put back together quite quickly.
00:15:26The counter-revolution engine has a removable bottom-mounted transmission.
00:15:30Its ease of access greatly reduces pit repair time.
00:15:34Additionally, the MotoSys C1 is designed to be completely customisable
00:15:39and adaptable to each individual rider and track condition.
00:15:46Each racetrack is different in terms of its corners,
00:15:50what they lead on to, straight or whatever aspect of the track.
00:15:54So it's important to actually ensure that the rider and bike are in a gear ratio
00:16:01that will get them onto the straight in the most efficient way.
00:16:05So in order to do that, you actually now need to swap out all six of the individual gears.
00:16:10Each one of these is a separate piece, so we can change each ratio, anything we want.
00:16:16We can have them all the same.
00:16:17It's a unique transmission in and of itself.
00:16:19It's 100% designed in-house.
00:16:22All the major components are completely custom designed.
00:16:25In addition to engine advancements, the MotoSys team improves upon other traditional designs too.
00:16:31On a conventional fork, you would have those two legs.
00:16:35That would be a cylinder for each of them.
00:16:38And inside those two legs, you would have a spring and the damping system.
00:16:42So basically, the two legs would have two functions.
00:16:45The damper, and at the same time, they would guide the fork up and down.
00:16:50Here we have separated systems.
00:16:52You can see the damper with its spring right in the middle.
00:16:55And on each side, we have the two legs just for the guidance.
00:17:00So the functions are completely separated and optimized by individual components.
00:17:06So basically, when the suspension moves up and down,
00:17:11inside there, you have this inner tube,
00:17:14this outer tube with some flat faces on the inside also,
00:17:18and between, you have linear bearings.
00:17:20Linear bearings with rollers.
00:17:23They are very strong to cope with the load under braking.
00:17:27The front end he's developed, his slipper clutch, the way he's laid out the motor,
00:17:30the rear end geometry he's got going,
00:17:32I mean, there are significant reasons as a racer that I can see that thing leading the world.
00:17:37MotoSys has approximately 20 patent applications on file,
00:17:42and we have about 10 that's just sitting there waiting to be written.
00:17:47Before MotoSys can become a fully self-sustaining company,
00:17:51they must secure venture capital by proving that the cutting-edge technology
00:17:55in the C1 motorcycle actually works.
00:17:58What I definitely want to do, Simon, is have them put another shield in this area,
00:18:03a quarter of an inch just for two little standoffs, and that'll help a little bit.
00:18:08I've never invested in a startup in my life,
00:18:11but I became very impressed with Michael and his ability.
00:18:17When I started researching what he'd done with his life
00:18:20and then his commitment to this project, I believed he could do it.
00:18:28With only a couple of months before the public unveiling,
00:18:31Team MotoSys must push themselves to turn their design dreams into hard reality.
00:18:38Armed with designs to build the most advanced motorcycle ever conceived,
00:18:42Team MotoSys prepares for their public debut.
00:18:46If the C1 proves to be MotoGP-worthy,
00:18:49Team MotoSys will secure financing into the future.
00:18:53If not, their dream of changing the motorcycle world will never see the racetrack.
00:19:03Okay, I'll see you in a little bit.
00:19:07He's a great student of the market and a great student of race technology,
00:19:11and he has tremendous passion for motorsports and great commitment to his own ideas.
00:19:18There's a lot of passion at the origin of that project.
00:19:21It's not, you know, it's a huge hill to climb to build from scratch a MotoGP bike
00:19:29to go fight the top factories,
00:19:32but that's also what has been moving a lot of the racing industry.
00:19:36And to do that by using revolutionary concepts,
00:19:42I think those are pretty much the two defining concepts behind this project,
00:19:48passion and revolution.
00:19:50As far as the resources he had financially to complete what he wanted to do,
00:19:56I still thought that that was going to be a pretty daunting task,
00:19:59but when I realized his true vision and how passionate he was about it,
00:20:06I thought, okay, all he needs is a couple of breaks and he'll get there eventually.
00:20:12It all looks cool and it all looks fun,
00:20:15but right now it is an absolutely fucking nightmare.
00:20:18Without a working engine, the bike can't be assembled.
00:20:21The situation is critical.
00:20:23We can't really do hardly anything until the engine gets there
00:20:26because it's a stress member and it is a big part of the frame.
00:20:29So effectively you really only have until the 22nd at noon to do all of it.
00:20:36Now that we know the program has told us what size tool we can use
00:20:41and it's still clear going inside, now we don't have the proper tool
00:20:45and it needs to be at least five inches long and we need to be able to turn it back.
00:20:48We don't have that in stock and I don't know if anyone here locally does.
00:20:52So we'd have to red it in.
00:20:54That's the worst case.
00:20:56But being since it's after 5 o'clock, we can't call anyone.
00:21:03Hey, Jim, Michael.
00:21:05Are you still at the shop?
00:21:08Okay, we're having trouble getting through.
00:21:10We need to have Simon go to Scott
00:21:13and Scott make a dummy valve guide.
00:21:20Okay.
00:21:21Yeah, it's an impossibly short period of time.
00:21:23I mean, when the bike comes together, even if it comes together perfectly,
00:21:27it is in a complete raw state.
00:21:30The next two months after Laguna needs to all be spent on
00:21:34or as much as possible on development.
00:21:36All you can do is just make the bike as rideable as it can be in that period of time
00:21:39and go with what you have and just hope that it's enough
00:21:42that you don't get lapped.
00:21:45With 34 days until the first public showing of the C1,
00:21:48the team tests Niko's new suspension elements
00:21:51by attaching them to an MV Agusta.
00:21:54The team is on edge as they await the results of the first real track test
00:21:58of the unconventional MotoSys suspension design.
00:22:01Any mistakes could mean severe injury or even death to the rider.
00:22:06And in this case, it's Michael Sears.
00:22:09Today, we focus on the bottom end of the front suspension.
00:22:13He'll push the bike as much as he can.
00:22:16You have a very long straight.
00:22:18End of the straight, he'll be at about 270 kilometers per hour,
00:22:22which makes it 170 miles per hour.
00:22:28One lap time will be one minute, 13 seconds.
00:22:33Because you'll never run lighter than this.
00:22:35I mean, this could be the bottom of the race, to be honest.
00:22:37Yeah, we're lucky.
00:22:39Not on the rebound yet.
00:22:41No, the compression.
00:22:43But Niko, I'll make the compression for setting next time.
00:22:46We should send all the three shocks back and have them in various stages.
00:22:50Oh, we only have two.
00:22:53Yeah, because we missed the bucket.
00:22:56We're changing the weight distribution,
00:22:58so we're loading the front end a little bit more,
00:23:03erasing the rear.
00:23:05That gives him a better feel on the front end.
00:23:08Unfortunately, the whole bike is higher than it was,
00:23:11and it's so heavy.
00:23:13It's a lot of weight.
00:23:15It's a lot of weight.
00:23:17It's a lot of weight.
00:23:19It's a lot of weight.
00:23:21It's a lot of weight.
00:23:24It's a little tippy.
00:23:26We have the same attitude.
00:23:28We can't drop the front on this bike anymore,
00:23:30so we have to compensate by raising the rear,
00:23:32which will raise the entire bike up.
00:23:54He's going way faster.
00:23:56We did a little bit of adjustment on the rear,
00:23:58and that made him more confident on the front,
00:24:01so he can push a little bit more on the front.
00:24:16You can just feel that he's pushing a bit harder,
00:24:18so he's more confident in what he's doing.
00:24:21But only the feedback will really tell us
00:24:24how it feels physically.
00:24:26You need to talk to the rider for that.
00:24:31Morning.
00:24:33What's up, big man?
00:24:34How are you?
00:24:35Good.
00:24:36Kagan, is this the same setup we had in the rear last time?
00:24:38Yeah.
00:24:39It seemed softer.
00:24:40It was hooking up like...
00:24:42It was hooking up like crazy.
00:24:44You have to have apex speed,
00:24:47have that thing compressed
00:24:49before you really start feeling how it moves.
00:24:51Yeah, and he doesn't feel much difference
00:24:54between the two springs, whereas you do,
00:24:57which probably means that he's not pushing well enough
00:24:59yet mid-corner to really get that feel.
00:25:01Indeed, I think it was a very positive test.
00:25:04Not everything was perfect, technically.
00:25:07I'll go into the details.
00:25:08But I think it was very positive
00:25:10by the quality of the feedback we had.
00:25:12The front end,
00:25:14Michael found an adjustment that he liked very much.
00:25:17This adjustment is about the trail, basically.
00:25:20That's the main thing.
00:25:21He's not so happy about the ride height,
00:25:23but we can modify this pretty easily.
00:25:25Negative point was the shock, the front shock,
00:25:28that is not ready yet for what we need.
00:25:30So, basically, for those parts that will happen
00:25:32between Michael and I,
00:25:33and I will do the changes myself.
00:25:35Standard cylindrical forks are limited
00:25:37in the amount of flex they give the rider
00:25:39while in the turns.
00:25:41The Modus's unconventional fork design
00:25:43adds more flexibility and control
00:25:46to the suspension system.
00:25:48Quite likely, it's going to flex
00:25:50a little bit more than the part we had before.
00:25:52If you look at the blade,
00:25:55the section of it,
00:25:59this part here,
00:26:00it's not a circle.
00:26:02So this dimension here is way longer
00:26:04than this dimension here.
00:26:06So that's how you can control the flexion
00:26:09differently in two directions.
00:26:11Normally, in any kind of testing
00:26:13or any kind of development,
00:26:15there's normally no big, like,
00:26:18you know, Shazam moments.
00:26:20It's normally little bitty steps
00:26:22to reach an end goal.
00:26:46T-MODO CIRCLE
00:27:07Only days from their debut and test ride,
00:27:09T-MODO CIRCLE works with little to no margin for error.
00:27:12Everything must fall into place perfectly
00:27:15to be ready for the first public showing of the C1.
00:27:23Once he has something that he likes,
00:27:25design-wise, engineering-wise,
00:27:27just, you know, looks and everything,
00:27:29he'll actually bring the sketches to me,
00:27:32show me exactly everything that he's done,
00:27:35how he wants it to look.
00:27:37Then I'll transfer all his information
00:27:39onto CAD, onto SOLIDWORKS,
00:27:42and then I'll model it up,
00:27:44make sure everything works,
00:27:45go over it with him, finalize some details.
00:27:47In a perfect world, it would be like this.
00:27:49And you can look at that if you want,
00:27:51which means the flats would be out there.
00:27:53Right.
00:27:54But it's going to be quite...
00:27:55It's going to be really small.
00:27:56And I don't know if it's going to add...
00:27:58You know, we're great here.
00:27:59Now, these are counterbored.
00:28:00Maybe we can spot face those or whatever,
00:28:03clean them up to get a better face
00:28:05to mount that bracket on.
00:28:06That would be great.
00:28:07Three weeks away, and we're still kind of
00:28:08don't have the bottom completely resolved.
00:28:11Finish design, go into CAD, get cut,
00:28:13and laid up all within days.
00:28:15An unbelievably concentrated amount of time.
00:28:17Nico has relied on outside vendors
00:28:19for work on the suspension parts,
00:28:21sometimes with mixed results.
00:28:24This is the new swingarm.
00:28:25It's made in aluminum.
00:28:27What you see here is a jig for the welding,
00:28:29but the swingarm is this big aluminum part.
00:28:32It's made out of six parts,
00:28:35which are the legs, one on each side,
00:28:38the cups, one on each side,
00:28:39and the middle part,
00:28:40which you can't really see it anymore.
00:28:42Actually, maybe you can still see it,
00:28:44are welded together in the middle.
00:28:47Unfortunately, those parts in the middle
00:28:49are not exactly like what we had specified.
00:28:52The reason for that is that
00:28:54when we welded everything together,
00:28:57those parts in the middle started to crack badly,
00:29:00so bad that we know we will not be able
00:29:03to use this swingarm.
00:29:05The cracks I'm talking about,
00:29:08all the welds have cracked right in the middle.
00:29:12This is not supposed to happen.
00:29:14A weld is supposed to be really beautiful like this.
00:29:17This is a sign that the material is too strong
00:29:22and too brittle.
00:29:23At this point, we still don't know
00:29:26what is the cause of this,
00:29:28and we need absolutely to make sure
00:29:29that this doesn't happen again to the next swingarm,
00:29:32because we have only one chance now
00:29:34to have it right for Laguna Seca.
00:29:44The second attempt meets with Nico's approval.
00:29:47This is the new one,
00:29:48so it's all been brushed,
00:29:50and now it's all beautiful.
00:29:52We just have to do the post-machining
00:29:55and then color-coat it,
00:29:57so anti-black, basically.
00:30:01The welder did a beautiful job here
00:30:03to make it really smooth and really beautiful,
00:30:06so it's quite pleasant.
00:30:07The good news is that it's 4.5 pounds lighter
00:30:10than the one you've just seen,
00:30:12so that would be a compensation
00:30:14for it's still very, very good start.
00:30:17I'm pretty pleased with that.
00:30:21A major element in the design of the Modo SIS C1
00:30:25is the carbon fiber outer shell.
00:30:27Making the carbon fiber as light as possible
00:30:29without sacrificing strength
00:30:31requires patience and concentration
00:30:34throughout the molding process.
00:30:36On Monday it became quite hot,
00:30:38so we had kind of troubles with the layup
00:30:41to do it early in the morning or late in the night,
00:30:44because during the day
00:30:45it was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit or more,
00:30:49and that's not the temperature you can have
00:30:51when you do a carbon fiber layup,
00:30:54simply because you brush on the surface coating
00:30:59and the surface coating still needs to be tacky
00:31:03when you start the layup of the rest of the carbon fiber,
00:31:07so it started to react too quick
00:31:12because of the temperature,
00:31:14and it was quite tricky to get the first layer in
00:31:17before this is hardened,
00:31:19because if it's hardened,
00:31:21you don't get a perfect connection
00:31:23between the surface coating and your layup.
00:31:52It's always the first part that's the hardest to mold,
00:31:56because you don't know 100%
00:31:58where's the right point to pull it out.
00:32:02Well, I walked in there,
00:32:04and I was all gingerly
00:32:05and trying to just take my fingers
00:32:07and lift up little corners of carbon fiber,
00:32:09and I saw particularly the girl Germans on the table
00:32:13with huge channel locks
00:32:15and pounding and banging,
00:32:18and a half hour, I got desensitized.
00:32:21The thing we were most eager to see was this whole shape.
00:32:24I mean, there's a lot of design going on,
00:32:26and we wanted a very aggressive but fluid shape,
00:32:29hard but soft, all those kind of,
00:32:31the dichotomy is when you talk about design,
00:32:34and it came out just spectacular.
00:32:36There were some areas where it was quite tricky.
00:32:39It was not that it was sticking in the tool,
00:32:42it was just you have a lot of layers
00:32:45where it's not so stiff,
00:32:47and you have the ribs where it's quite stiff.
00:32:50Actually, it's stiffer than I expected it to be.
00:32:53Yeah, so this is the right-hand fairing,
00:32:55so the rider basically is in this area.
00:32:57There's another one on this side, the windscreen there,
00:33:00and this is the cockpit area that you work from,
00:33:03and in fact, of course, the rider is basically like that.
00:33:06There's, of course, more panels and trims and cutouts
00:33:09and tons of work to do,
00:33:11but this is amazing stuff.
00:33:13How light it is and just absolutely how strong it is.
00:33:16It's not like we're making big flat panels that can pop out easy.
00:33:20So, you know, we could put more splits in the mould,
00:33:23but Andrea is an absolute perfectionist.
00:33:25Days before the public unveiling of the C1,
00:33:28Andrea is under incredible pressure
00:33:30to rush out a finished carbon-fibre frame.
00:33:33Because they're shorthanded,
00:33:35she's been forced to farm out one of the key tasks,
00:33:38and it's not up to her standards.
00:33:40They said, OK, if I would have done this, you would have fired me.
00:33:44And, unfortunately, it's true.
00:33:47I wouldn't have accepted something like this.
00:33:50If you look on the fibre direction here,
00:33:54you would have a visual direction
00:33:59with a perfect lay-up like this,
00:34:02and it's actually like this.
00:34:05And a few degrees of changing the direction of the carbon fibre
00:34:11makes a lot of difference in the strength.
00:34:13And these are just things that make me worried about everything,
00:34:18because I don't want to kill anyone.
00:34:21I prefer to pee and shit
00:34:23than to kill a person riding this bike.
00:34:27And that's just the nature of making the part
00:34:30to the standards that we want to make them.
00:34:36This film was made with the support of
00:34:38the Department of Conservation,
00:34:40the Department of Environment,
00:34:42the Department of Environment,
00:34:44the Department of Conservation,
00:34:46the Department of Environment,
00:34:48the Department of Conservation,
00:34:50the Department of Conservation,
00:34:52the Department of Conservation,
00:34:54the Department of Conservation,
00:34:56the Department of Conservation,
00:34:58the Department of Conservation,
00:35:00the Department of Conservation,
00:35:03the Department of Conservation,
00:35:05the Department of Conservation,
00:35:07the Department of Conservation,
00:35:09the Department of Conservation,
00:35:11the Department of Conservation,
00:35:13the Department of Conservation,
00:35:15The last schedule showed that the engine
00:35:17should start being assembled today.
00:35:19That was already some 30 to 60 days
00:35:21from what we wanted at the beginning of the year.
00:35:23But then we just had another slip the last couple of weeks,
00:35:26so we're supposed to start construction on the engine today.
00:35:29It'll actually start on Friday.
00:35:30We have to keep our fingers crossed if that happens.
00:35:32And if that happens, that's literally,
00:35:34it's down to days and hours on how long we have to construct it,
00:35:37to mock it up, to dyno test it,
00:35:39to take it, tear it back down, put it back in a bike,
00:35:42chassis test it, tear it back down,
00:35:44and then take it to a track.
00:35:52With the engine build falling further behind schedule,
00:35:55Adrian goes to check on the monoblock status.
00:35:58I think the realization that the original deadlines
00:36:03that we had hoped for and the milestones we had hoped for
00:36:07post-design and post-prototyping,
00:36:09when we were actually going to start doing track testing,
00:36:12just got completely delayed and completely derailed.
00:36:14It's not a reflection really on the team.
00:36:16It's not a reflection on, you know,
00:36:18we made some bad choices and bad decisions
00:36:20and there's some faulty concepts.
00:36:22I mean, those are still yet to be proved out.
00:36:24We may have done that.
00:36:25We don't have an engine that we can run at full speed,
00:36:27and we don't have an engine you can run at full speed.
00:36:29You just can't do anything.
00:36:31As soon as we get back today,
00:36:33we'll bring in the finished,
00:36:35basically the finished article from the machine shop.
00:36:38We will have four more liners to press in,
00:36:41and then there's a skimming operation just to clean those off,
00:36:44and then that is it, ready for build.
00:36:46Production Tool Manufacturing is a manufacturing firm,
00:36:49and we got hooked up with Modasys through a local tool guy.
00:36:54Once they realized who we were,
00:36:56and our technical ability and our capacities,
00:36:59not a small shop, not a large shop,
00:37:02but right in the middle that could handle their prototyping
00:37:05in the onset and flexible with their schedule,
00:37:09certainly we're committed to that.
00:37:11We were awarded the monoblock.
00:37:14Getting very close to being finished now.
00:37:17There's a few more operations, a few more assembly operations.
00:37:20The bore in here for the crank,
00:37:23a bore down the bottom for the torque tube,
00:37:25and then another bore here for the idler gear and alternator.
00:37:29Then that's going to be finished.
00:37:32That's pretty good.
00:37:34I guess, I mean, how do you inspect?
00:37:36You can't, can you?
00:37:38You can check with minor diameters,
00:37:40and major diameters make sure.
00:37:42That's about what you can do, isn't it?
00:37:44But in terms of its runoff.
00:37:46It looks just like the drawing.
00:37:48Yeah.
00:37:51It's great.
00:37:53It's the first time I've seen them together, actually, machined.
00:37:55Yeah, it's looking good.
00:37:57Adrian rushes the engine monoblock
00:37:59back to ModoSys for immediate assembly.
00:38:16After two and a half months of wait,
00:38:19we finally got our monoblock in,
00:38:21so it was a really great day.
00:38:24We're all excited because it looks beautiful.
00:38:34With all the work that has been going on,
00:38:36it was kind of finally, I felt like that,
00:38:39finally something was going to start.
00:38:42We've seen it through all the steps.
00:38:44You know, it was first sketched out nine months ago,
00:38:46seen it in the modeling, seen it in the CAD drawings,
00:38:48seen it in rapid prototypes,
00:38:50and we've seen it in the castings.
00:38:52It's just, we've just been in so much anticipation
00:38:54waiting for it to get here,
00:38:55the stage where we can start building it.
00:38:57It looks very good.
00:39:01Kick-ass.
00:39:02It really does.
00:39:04Although the machining work has been done to perfection,
00:39:07Terry Sears discovers holes
00:39:09in the original casting of the monoblock.
00:39:15It's right under the seat.
00:39:17Yeah, right there.
00:39:19So that's a huge problem.
00:39:22Fortunately, we figured out
00:39:24that the monoblock was leaking pretty badly.
00:39:27Just a big mess.
00:39:29What I think we should do
00:39:31is take and put this in water.
00:39:33Definitely. Absolutely.
00:39:35And then we can tell if we have other problems.
00:39:38Unfortunately, we could not use the monoblock as it was.
00:39:42Put it in the bathroom.
00:39:44So we went from a peak down,
00:39:48we plummeted down to a big valley.
00:39:53See if we can plug this one up.
00:39:58With the debut only days away,
00:40:00Team Moto-Sys scrambles to find a solution.
00:40:03I think the time and energy put into this,
00:40:07trying to fix it, would be better.
00:40:10As soon as you do this,
00:40:12you stop her from going forward.
00:40:14The only thing you could do
00:40:16is perhaps take it to Frank,
00:40:18because he does all this stuff.
00:40:20Who wants to run it over there?
00:40:22I'm happy, I know where he is.
00:40:24Let's give it a ring and do it.
00:40:26Just take it exactly where it is.
00:40:28Good idea.
00:40:29Honestly, if we can find the guy who cut the seats
00:40:32to be able to yank him out,
00:40:34weld it up, and cut him back in.
00:40:36Yes.
00:40:40We need the new block as fast as we can have it.
00:40:43If we can fix this one faster.
00:40:45This is not a for sure fixable solution.
00:40:50This is a backup plan.
00:40:52The way I see this, this is a backup plan.
00:40:56The real solution is getting a real block.
00:40:59That's going to be ten days from now,
00:41:01so it's impossible.
00:41:03Once the fixture came off of the block,
00:41:07we lost all our reference points.
00:41:10Yeah, it's a bit of a setback for us, that's for sure.
00:41:13We had a number of leaks between the valve seat
00:41:16and the casting, so you could witness that.
00:41:19There's an air bubble coming out between the two of them.
00:41:22People running around, looking for a box,
00:41:24and it was like, what's going on here?
00:41:26Then just literally went onto the internet
00:41:28with the mil-spec and tried to find someone
00:41:31as close to Oregon as we could that did the process.
00:41:35That turned out that there was a company in Oakland,
00:41:38in California.
00:41:40Simon flew down with the engine all wrapped,
00:41:43with the monoblock all wrapped in bubble wrap.
00:41:45He knows that there's a company in San Francisco
00:41:48that does stuff for the military,
00:41:50and they can infiltrate the monoblock
00:41:54with some ceramic coating,
00:41:56so effectively they put some liquid
00:41:59into these cracks, they suck it with a vacuum system,
00:42:02and then it sort of like solidifies
00:42:04and cooks in the little cracks,
00:42:06so it fills the cracks with ceramic.
00:42:09The costly process of filling the cracks in a precision engine
00:42:13puts Michael and his company in a deep financial bind.
00:42:17He contacts the casting manufacturer.
00:42:20Hello, this is Mike.
00:42:22Hi, Mike, Michael Sizz from Moto Sizz.
00:42:24Hi, how are you?
00:42:26Well, I'm all right, could be better.
00:42:28All right, let's just get into it.
00:42:30So we received the block, and we took it over to Michelle.
00:42:33We did our initial inspection.
00:42:35There were some areas of surface porosity.
00:42:38We really thought it was probably just air bubbles.
00:42:41That looked to be the case. We were pretty optimistic.
00:42:44We dove into it, and after 2 days of machining,
00:42:47we've come up with holes
00:42:49that you can literally stick your pinky into.
00:42:52Prior to coming to Moto Sizz,
00:42:54I saw a large number of castings over an 8, 10-year time span.
00:42:58I've never seen anything like this before,
00:43:01certainly never seen anything as bad.
00:43:03I want a casting that is 99.9% aluminium,
00:43:07not 90% aluminium and 10% holes.
00:43:11It's clearly unacceptable to us.
00:43:13It will cripple the company
00:43:15if we can't find some sort of resolution to it.
00:43:18There's no way that you're going to put something as compromised as this
00:43:22onto a bike whereby if there are any issues with it,
00:43:25either catastrophically because it has failed
00:43:27and you put a rod out the side of your block,
00:43:29or in any other fashion,
00:43:31and it dumps all of its coolant or oil onto the back wheel,
00:43:34where clearly you're going to put the rider down.
00:43:36Nobody wants to put anybody into that position.
00:43:38We would choose not to put anybody into that position.
00:43:40I don't think we can keep going down this path.
00:43:42We need to be reimbursed for the machine time
00:43:44that we've spent on these blocks,
00:43:46and we need to go someplace that has already done this type of work.
00:43:49But I need to get reimbursed on the work we did
00:43:51so I can go someplace and get two engines built,
00:43:53otherwise we're essentially done.
00:43:57Team MotoSys receives their repaired engine.
00:44:00However, there can be no guarantee
00:44:02that the ceramic process plugged the holes.
00:44:05Only by putting the engine on the dyno tester and starting it up
00:44:08will they know for sure that it's ready.
00:44:10If it's not, the engine could literally blow up,
00:44:13taking with it the MotoSys dream.
00:44:16Whilst there are no guarantees,
00:44:18it certainly looks inordinately better than it did before,
00:44:21and we've been able to negate
00:44:23any excessive machining or welding processes.
00:44:27So we'll find out when we get on the dyno.
00:44:32Whatever happens, if there are small leaks, we can live with it.
00:44:37It's not wanted, but it is normal for these things to happen.
00:44:41First off, castings can be a bit troublesome.
00:44:44It's just a problem, you've got to solve it,
00:44:46and the next one is as simple as that.
00:44:48So we've probably lost another day on the build.
00:44:51The very nature of this thing is all problem-solving,
00:44:54emergency, solve, and repeat.
00:44:58The engine has now gone through its dummy build,
00:45:02the first build,
00:45:04which is just to check how everything fits.
00:45:06We've had a reasonable amount of issues
00:45:09with the castings being a little bit off
00:45:12and the machining not being particularly accurate,
00:45:14so the actual build has been a little bit painful
00:45:17in terms of you have to fit everything,
00:45:19check it all rotates, take it apart, clean it up, etc.
00:45:22So that's been done, and this is the actual final assembly
00:45:25that you're seeing here.
00:45:27This is how the engine is going to run when we hit the dyno.
00:45:30I believe we're just waiting on an O-ring
00:45:33for this transmission to go on,
00:45:35then that will slide under the bottom of the bike.
00:45:38And we're waiting on the cam cover as well,
00:45:41which is being machined at the moment in our machine shop.
00:45:45And I believe that is it.
00:45:47We've got a rapid prototype cam cover there
00:45:50that we can use while we're waiting
00:45:53for the main cam cover.
00:45:56It's like a resin impregnated
00:45:59with a superglue or a Loctite.
00:46:03Actually, it's a glass-filled resin, that's right.
00:46:07It'll take about 120 degrees C.
00:46:10It'll withstand the oil, so we can actually use this to run,
00:46:13just for the first crank over of the engine
00:46:16while we wait for the real piece.
00:46:18Hopefully we don't have to do that,
00:46:20but if it comes to it, we will.
00:46:22We weighed the engine the other day.
00:46:24It's so light. It really is impressive.
00:46:26It's a lot lighter than I thought it would turn out.
00:46:29It was 125 pounds, which is really light.
00:46:32We're very impressed with that.
00:46:34So it means the bike will actually come,
00:46:36should be underweight.
00:46:38We are getting there, you bet.
00:46:41So we're putting in some wait hours
00:46:44and trying to get everything addressed as we go.
00:46:50So it's looking pretty good.
00:47:02As the deadline approaches,
00:47:04many team members stay awake for days at a time
00:47:07to prepare the engine for the dyno test.
00:47:10I got home about 3 o'clock last night
00:47:13and slept in until 9 o'clock this morning.
00:47:17So, you know, charged, ready to go.
00:47:20If we were to take an engine straight out of the build shop,
00:47:22what are we going to do with it?
00:47:24We're not going to stick it in a motorcycle frame.
00:47:26We need to verify, first of all, that it will start and run,
00:47:28that it will make a reasonable amount of power.
00:47:30We need to verify that there's nothing wrong with it.
00:47:32So what we're going to do is stick it on a dyno,
00:47:35very similar to this installation here.
00:47:37First thing we're going to do is fire it up and make sure it idles.
00:47:40And our idle on a race engine is going to be significantly higher
00:47:43than you might expect on a street bike motor.
00:47:45We're going to go straight to 3,000 or 4,000 RPM on this.
00:47:48In conversations with the former Cosworth engineers
00:47:51who designed this, Simon and Adrian,
00:47:54their target horsepower is in excess of 200 horsepower.
00:47:58This is reasonable in their estimation
00:48:01based on their experience with racing engines from Cosworth.
00:48:04And by careful observation of competitive horsepower
00:48:07from similar MotoGP engines.
00:48:09There's going to be varying degrees of success, I think.
00:48:13This is going to be a sliding scale, if you will.
00:48:16On this first engine, for the bike that has to go to Laguna,
00:48:19I'm going to be happy if the thing lives to 10,000 RPM.
00:48:23I am not at all concerned with horsepower at this point.
00:48:27I know that Michael has invested a lot of his energy and time
00:48:31and emotion in this project.
00:48:33I don't want to see this thing wrapped up in a single number.
00:48:36In a standard engineering process,
00:48:38bringing up an engine like this, of this complexity,
00:48:42you would like to see a schedule and a test plan
00:48:47that assumes you're going to have to iterate on this.
00:48:50So you take some baby steps.
00:48:53You think you're going to make a partial power run.
00:48:55You're going to tear the engine apart
00:48:57and verify that you're not damaging it in any way.
00:49:00And then you approach the target gradually
00:49:04so that you can sort of minimize
00:49:06any catastrophic failures that might occur.
00:49:08We just don't have that luxury here.
00:49:10We have to choose a path that will lead to success,
00:49:13and we don't really have the option of iteration at this point.
00:49:17So it's a risky approach,
00:49:19but ultimately is really the only way
00:49:21that we're ever going to get successful with that.
00:49:23So we have to get the engine on the dyno.
00:49:25It has to make some power.
00:49:27And if it doesn't, if we have some setbacks,
00:49:29well, you know, we're not really in a position
00:49:32to plan for that at this point.
00:49:49We're almost ready for the big bang.
00:49:52With less than an hour to first engine start,
00:49:55the crew has not slept in three days.
00:50:19So getting the swing on earlier doesn't really matter.
00:50:22That's cutting too close for my comfort.
00:50:28Yeah, it's pretty tight, isn't it?
00:50:52It's going to be...
00:50:59Good work, man.
00:51:01You're welcome.
00:51:03All right, we've got a coolant leak.
00:51:05It's coming out of your stellar plumbing job there, Adrian.
00:51:10As a plumber, you make a great beer drinker.
00:51:14We need to tie him up.
00:51:16No!
00:51:18Hang on one sec.
00:51:20There we go.
00:51:35It's better than you just having a black shelf in your car,
00:51:37isn't it?
00:51:46Yeah.
00:52:04Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry, one and three are... Yeah.
00:52:07Right.
00:52:09That's a 60 gear.
00:52:12I'm hoping that'll work, yeah.
00:52:14It looks really... Yeah.
00:52:16What's our voltage on the start?
00:52:2060 gear now.
00:52:22Are we still on first gear?
00:52:24I didn't change it.
00:52:26No, no-one's changed anything.
00:52:28After months of anticipation,
00:52:30the moment to fire up the engine has finally arrived.
00:52:33OK.
00:52:42Whoa, whoa, whoa!
00:52:44Fire! Fire!
00:52:46Holy sh...
00:52:51An engine fire threatens to torch the hopes of everyone in Modo Sears.
00:52:55They must now decide whether to continue with the dyno test
00:52:58and get the car back on track.
00:53:00It's time to go.
00:53:02It's time to go.
00:53:04It's time to go.
00:53:06It's time to go.
00:53:08It's time to go.
00:53:10They decide whether to go with the dyno test
00:53:12and risk destroying the engine
00:53:14or go back to the drawing board.
00:53:16Put it in first gear.
00:53:18If we had a torsional vibration in the crank coupling
00:53:21that we were not easily able to account for
00:53:23in the initial stage of the design,
00:53:26we could quite realistically split the whole engine apart on the dyno
00:53:31as we pass through an engine speed operating point.
00:53:34This would be devastating to program.
00:53:37Okay, so what are your pulse widths going to be at this point?
00:53:39Are we in the 1 to 1.2 millisecond range?
00:53:41No, about 0.5.
00:53:43That's probably just on the borderline of cracking those things open.
00:53:46No, but that's the...
00:53:48That's the effective pulse width?
00:53:50Okay, so you've added in the turn-off time.
00:53:54We may be mis-synced.
00:53:56We're not getting anything.
00:54:00Realising they have but one choice, they push to start the engine.
00:54:07ENGINE REVS
00:54:12CHEERING
00:54:31That's awesome, man.
00:54:34That's great.
00:54:36I think you're done here today, finally.
00:54:38Yes!
00:54:40I would do it in a minute.
00:54:50All right, Dad. See you tomorrow. Sleep well.
00:54:54Sleep well.
00:55:04UNTIL WE RACE
00:55:07Until we race, it probably doesn't mean a lot.
00:55:10But what it did mean was we were able to build a bike,
00:55:15design a bike and build a bike in nine months.
00:55:18And, you know, we hit that deadline.
00:55:24We put the last penalty against France for the World Cup final.
00:55:29The same exact... It's like I won the World Cup twice this year.
00:55:32That was the feeling.
00:55:34Quite an unpleasant birth for the engine.
00:55:36Lack of dyno control.
00:55:38I think it's one of the coolest-looking bikes out there.
00:55:41And it's so nice to see a fresh mind like his.
00:55:45It's kind of like this.
00:55:47Michael, palsiest move I've ever seen.
00:55:49That's right.
00:55:52That's right.
00:56:02I know you guys.
00:56:04My father Terry, Jen and Norm.
00:56:07Adrian.
00:56:11So they're gear driven up on one side.
00:56:14And it's a triple overhead cam.
00:56:17Because we wanted to make the intake as narrow as possible.
00:56:20But have the things as straight as possible.
00:56:22Thank you, Ryan.
00:56:24What happens is our intakes actually go between...
00:56:29Take a look there.
00:56:31The throttle bodies go between the intake and the exhaust cam.
00:56:35It dumps it straight down.
00:56:37And what's cool about that, when you have all four of them there,
00:56:40they sit in this absolute wonderful gigantic air box.
00:56:44Remember it was fed with those two air ducts?
00:56:47It comes right in.
00:56:49The air filters are this long on either side.
00:56:51One, two, three.
00:57:09MotoSys, having built a bike from the ground up,
00:57:12has had to design and manufacture more than 1,000 custom parts for the C1.
00:57:19You guys got some pretty pieces.
00:57:22215 and 225.
00:57:24This may be the best slipper clutch in the business.
00:57:28It's actually an electronic hydraulic clutch.
00:57:32It's the most expensive machine I've ever been around.
00:57:36Totally. I absolutely guarantee you'll get a new clutch on me.
00:57:41You know, you have to see it to believe it.
00:57:44It's one of those things that, to actually see it happen,
00:57:47you've seen special bikes made here and there,
00:57:49but they weren't raced on this kind of level.
00:57:52First impression, definitely on a cool factor scale of 1 to 10, it's a 10.
00:57:57The most exciting part would be the fact that they started from scratch.
00:58:03I think if any of us took a bike,
00:58:05we would start with an idea that was already there,
00:58:09and say, ooh, I've got a good idea to modify that.
00:58:13But no one's going to sit there with this blank piece of material right here.
00:58:18So let's just start building something.
00:58:20It's almost like when you look at the Japanese bike or the Italian bike,
00:58:24they're completely different. It's crazy.
00:58:27But to think that there's a whole third train of thought with this American bike,
00:58:32it's really ground-up and outside-the-box thinking.
00:58:35It's unbelievable. It's going to be good.
00:58:39The bike's beautiful.
00:58:41I guess on the scale of the undertaking of the task ahead,
00:58:47it's got to be a 10 as well.
00:58:50For one man to try to put together something like this,
00:58:55it's really amazing.
00:59:11Jumbo! Jumbo!
00:59:16Jumbo! Jumbo!
00:59:21Jumbo! Jumbo!
00:59:26Jumbo!
00:59:28And after months of effort, the time to debut the MotoSys C1 has finally arrived.
00:59:34Being at Laguna with our new bike was instrumental for us in many ways.
00:59:41We probably couldn't survive if we didn't show up.
00:59:50The team gets the C1 together just minutes before the unveiling.
00:59:57And finally, the C1 has its day.
01:00:00Ladies and gentlemen, the new MotoSys.
01:00:11I'm willing to take a couple of Q&As.
01:00:14We were told we couldn't start the bike, but I'm kind of willing to give it a shot.
01:00:41We did it, and we met with the people we wanted to meet in order to pull our plans forward.
01:00:48I do not know of anybody that would even come close to wishing Michael Sears anything other than absolute success.
01:00:55Six months ago, we could have ceased to exist six months, which we've been today.
01:00:59That hasn't happened.
01:01:01And it continues to grow and grow and grow.
01:01:05For Michael and his team, an important milestone is accomplished.
01:01:09Now, in order for them to secure future funding, they must prove their concepts where it really counts.
01:01:16They take two C1s, a black bike and a silver bike, out onto the test track.
01:01:23I actually see it go around the track.
01:01:24Right.
01:01:25That's a nice point to get to.
01:01:26I'm so sorry, sir.
01:01:27We've both gone out for the test.
01:01:28I don't know what the bike has been up to, but it's been good.
01:01:30It's been relatively smooth.
01:01:31It's only been about, I think 16 seconds or so.
01:01:33The speed is kind of crazy.
01:01:34It's been adjusting the time, and not as much as it should have been.
01:01:37It's kind of a very, very quick and easy bit to go.
01:01:40But we've done well.
01:01:41It's been a great experience.
01:01:42It's been a great experience for all of us.
01:01:44It's a great experience, but it's been a good experience for all of us.
01:01:46It's been a really great experience.
01:01:47We've only runnered up to 10,000 miles per hour.
01:02:11There is a washer in the engine.
01:02:14A fairly complex washer used to hold the torque tube together,
01:02:18that had some pieces crack off of it.
01:02:24The pieces fell down into the oil and subsequently got sucked into the oil pump
01:02:28where they bound the pump up and sheared the drive.
01:02:31At that point the pump stops turning
01:02:34and potentially causes catastrophic damage to the rest of the engine.
01:02:38Well, I am hanging out on the front door of the car
01:02:41Well, I am hanging out on the front doorstep of Lawless Engines
01:02:45right in front of the sign that says open at 7 a.m.
01:02:48and it is now a quarter to eight.
01:02:52No evidence of this guy showing up yet
01:02:55and he's not answering his phone.
01:02:57We've got nothing.
01:02:59We could have wiped out every bearing in the crankshaft and the transmission.
01:03:03We looked at the data.
01:03:05We could see when the oil pressure dropped off,
01:03:08clearly indicating the pump shear.
01:03:10And at that point Michael saw a warning indicator on the dash.
01:03:14He was concentrating on other things, obviously,
01:03:17so the bike continued to run for about 24 seconds after the oil pressure went zero.
01:03:24Team Modo-Sys is forced to make repairs in a matter of hours
01:03:28that usually take days to accomplish.
01:03:31Exactly. I am at the spot based on both locations
01:03:33because it's going to be right on the edge.
01:03:35All right, so we are going to use the same end mill for both ops?
01:03:37Yeah, that's what I was going to do.
01:03:39Okay, so we are basically held on to those things?
01:03:42Yeah.
01:03:43If they are wrong about any of their adjustments,
01:03:45the result could be serious injury to the rider.
01:03:56All right, I am going to open the valve.
01:03:59Perfect. I am closing the valve.
01:04:01Okay. All right.
01:04:02Hold it up and see if it still works, right?
01:04:05What we are going to be doing is stroking the clutch through its travel.
01:04:08I'll keep the valve closed and we'll see if we can keep the clutch in its disengaged position.
01:04:12It's kind of wobbly. It feels like the pegs are real far forward
01:04:16and the seat and all is disconnected from the gear.
01:04:19Creator and test rider Michael Sys and the Modo-Sys team
01:04:23must test the bikes to the edge of their limits
01:04:26to get the critical data that they need.
01:04:36He's never picked the throttle in the mid-corner here in the chicane.
01:04:38Yeah.
01:04:39That's the first time I've heard that word.
01:04:40I know.
01:04:41He was coasting through that area on the other one.
01:04:43Right.
01:04:45It sounds wicked, mean.
01:04:50I really hope it doesn't crash.
01:04:54This is a scary test right now.
01:04:58We've raised the rev limit.
01:05:06The bike is in neutral.
01:05:10The bike is in neutral.
01:05:17It's more of a throttle.
01:05:18No, it's the rev limit.
01:05:21No, the oil dropout.
01:05:22If I just mess up at all, I'm going to the corner,
01:05:24it will start chattering at any point.
01:05:25As soon as it starts chattering, it just runs so it's in the water.
01:05:29So I'm not aggressive going in at all.
01:05:30It's a fun thing to try and outdo on the damper.
01:05:34Yeah, I think so.
01:05:35I think the dampers are the biggest problem.
01:05:36And then, of course, the throttle.
01:05:38This is not really surprising to me.
01:05:41These engines are still in development,
01:05:43so there were changes made on the black bike that aren't present on the silver.
01:05:47So they are essentially different in some subtle ways.
01:05:52And we've also got different cams, so the torque curve is going to be different.
01:05:58Not surprising.
01:05:59It just points to the fact that we have to develop these two bikes separately.
01:06:04Emotionally and personally, I told everybody this is a one-shot deal.
01:06:09We have one shot to do this.
01:06:11Yeah, if you actually feel like you're on the back foot,
01:06:13you're going to be on the back foot mentally.
01:06:15So we came here, the whole team, with a lot of confidence.
01:06:18I think the entire team has an awareness that it's vital.
01:06:22If we don't perform this, we will not get more money,
01:06:24and we can't move into the production aspects of it.
01:06:29Michael takes both bikes out onto the track and pushes them hard.
01:07:29Go!
01:07:59Go!
01:08:07These two look really good.
01:08:10The problem is, I just can't push it in the corner.
01:08:13I just don't have the confidence yet with the chatter.
01:08:15You're going quicker on this through the corner.
01:08:18Well, I was riding slow.
01:08:21It could be better.
01:08:25The trial run has shown that the C1 is not yet ready to perform at MotoGP levels.
01:08:30The unsuccessful track test ripples disappointment through the MotoSys team.
01:08:35They are tired, disappointed, and running out of money.
01:08:39We have to get more organized.
01:08:42We have a lot of things that we're going to have to figure out.
01:08:46All these things have to be addressed and everything in between.
01:08:48It's going to be a long path.
01:08:50I think as engineers, we all like to take a measured approach to our task.
01:08:54The pace of Michael's plans have not really allowed that.
01:09:00It's going to be a long, long road.
01:09:02Well into next year.
01:09:03This thing doesn't have good torque response, and it had lots of trouble
01:09:08developing a linear torque curve with response to throttle.
01:09:12Motorcycles are not all about power.
01:09:14They're not all about peak speed.
01:09:16It's all about the ability of the machine to respond precisely to the rider's input.
01:09:20He would twist the throttle.
01:09:23He's essentially asking the motorcycle.
01:09:25He's providing a request to the motorcycle for more torque.
01:09:27And in some cases, he would get less, or he would get more than he anticipated.
01:09:31And ultimately, what this does is destroys the rider's confidence in the bike.
01:09:37With money running out,
01:09:40MotoSys has one final opportunity to prove their new technology
01:09:45with an upcoming track test in a few weeks.
01:09:49A year ago, we had runway, and we weren't close to that finish line of,
01:09:53well, now the bike should be up to running.
01:09:55I mean, it was still early days.
01:09:57I mean, listen, it's still extremely early days.
01:09:59But, you know, days are limited anyway.
01:10:01And we're right up to that edge.
01:10:03So, 30 days from now, you guys will know probably if we're moving forward or not.
01:10:09I'll be frank.
01:10:11A lot of the guys are hanging in there, but morale is taking a hit.
01:10:14It's pretty low.
01:10:16You know, there were very, very hard times.
01:10:19There were several times where I was wondering,
01:10:23You know, there were very, very hard times.
01:10:25There were several times where I was wondering,
01:10:29where I was, you know, just asking myself,
01:10:32why the hell I was doing this.
01:10:34You know, it's just like a couple of days ago,
01:10:37one of the guys just said,
01:10:39Michael, are you okay?
01:10:41Is everything okay?
01:10:44Yeah.
01:10:49You've got an amazing project, amazing design,
01:10:53an amazing thing that's being done on one side,
01:10:55which holds you in the situation.
01:11:00And then you've got all the negative aspects of the stress,
01:11:04the hours, the lack of people.
01:11:07Not everybody has the heart that it takes.
01:11:11Some of our team felt that they put in all they could put in,
01:11:16and so they had to move on.
01:11:24This is the nature of a startup.
01:11:26You have plans, and you have to reevaluate them.
01:11:29For the next several weeks, Michael and the MotoSys team
01:11:32focuses on raising the C1's engine to competitive levels.
01:11:36Hello, Michael.
01:11:39We blew the engine up on the dyno on Thursday night.
01:11:46I haven't seen the damage, but Kagan has told me
01:11:48that it split the tank on the cooler.
01:11:50So I'm not sure when it happened,
01:11:53but clearly we over-pressurized that system and popped the cooler.
01:11:59So Terry had to jump through hoops to build the engine on Friday,
01:12:02which Terry resolved this morning,
01:12:04pulled it off the chassis dyno, swapped out the oil cooler
01:12:07with another one, and effectively we only had an hour's worth of running
01:12:12versus the eight that we were hoping to get to today.
01:12:27With the future in doubt, the MotoSys dream hinges on one final test.
01:12:37Michael's at a stage where, A, he doesn't have that high level
01:12:43of competitive experience that a world championship standard driver or rider has.
01:12:50We will trickle more riders in as the bike gets better.
01:12:53It's just getting to the point now where I can really hand it off to other riders.
01:12:56We had a good look. I was going to say we didn't hear the bike running.
01:12:59This is the first I've heard it running this morning, and it's pretty impressive.
01:13:04It's got that growl, hasn't it?
01:13:24The time has now come for Michael to entrust the C1 to a top-level test rider.
01:13:29I'm very privileged. I feel very privileged to be here and to ride the bike
01:13:34in what seems to be the first of the serious testing.
01:13:38Up until now, it's been, let's try to prove what we've got,
01:13:42and now the serious part comes along, and I'm quite happy to be part of that.
01:13:46Jeremy McWilliams is a phenomenal rider.
01:13:50In his own right, he carries very high credentials,
01:13:55has done some phenomenal stuff in MotoGP,
01:13:59and to have him test our bike is quite an honor, to be honest.
01:14:03It would only validate all the effort that we've put in,
01:14:07and there's been a lot of people involved in the project, a lot of effort,
01:14:12and that would be a huge validation.
01:14:18Michael fine-tunes the C1 prior to Jeremy McWilliams' ride.
01:14:25As Michael runs the back curve, disaster strikes the C1 engine as a valve blows.
01:14:30It renders the engine useless.
01:14:55I don't know if we popped a hose or a cap or something.
01:14:59Yeah, that's not good.
01:15:03This is a devastating emotional and financial blow to the MotoSys team.
01:15:08Big dogs like Honda and Yamaha have huge resources and deep pockets.
01:15:14MotoSys only has two bikes, the one laying broken on the track
01:15:18and the other on the road.
01:15:22MotoSys only has two bikes, the one laying broken on the track
01:15:26and the other back at their offices hundreds of miles away.
01:15:43Hey, couldn't be worse.
01:15:47So here's what we need to do. Pass this on to Brandon.
01:15:51There's a bike there that's in some state to finish.
01:15:55It needs to leave in one hour, absolutely one hour.
01:15:58And I don't care who loads it, I don't care who drives it here,
01:16:01I don't care how you do it here, so we'll need to get a rental van.
01:16:05But we just ran into some problems this morning,
01:16:08and I was wondering if I can change that flight or not,
01:16:12the one I have from Salt Lake to New York, and New York into Heathrow.
01:16:19I'm just afraid it would happen again. We build them identical.
01:16:23It's like somebody just took metal shavings and just dumped them in the airbox.
01:16:26Are there big chips?
01:16:28Yeah, big chips.
01:16:30In those situations, a lot of times it's getting into the piston,
01:16:34and if you keep going, then you have a little end of the rod slinging around,
01:16:37and it can be ugly. At least you've got to shut down.
01:16:40If they can leave, let's say they leave by even worse case, noon,
01:16:44get in by midnight, we can pull all night,
01:16:46get marks to dial in the suspension the same way it was,
01:16:49get it running, get it smooth.
01:16:51The concern I have is that there was a lot of fabrication effort required
01:16:55to get the black bike running.
01:16:57We had to weld up new coolers, weld up new exhaust systems,
01:17:00make sure all, you know, these are essentially hand-built bikes.
01:17:04So if it turns out that bike number two still requires a lot of that similar effort
01:17:09to be done to it, then we're just going to abandon it
01:17:13and just swap the engines over because we know that the bike number one already works.
01:17:20After a 10-hour drive, the Companion C1, with an identical engine,
01:17:25arrives in a rented truck.
01:17:35What's up, man?
01:17:37So what I'll do is I'll run over security and get the garage open.
01:17:40Very good.
01:17:42Ooh.
01:17:51Tightening, guys.
01:17:53Okay.
01:18:09What we're doing is just taking a few of the components off of this bike
01:18:14and putting it on the bike we're going to run.
01:18:24After working straight through the night,
01:18:26the team hands the bike off to MotoGP test rider Jeremy McWilliams.
01:18:53Let's go.
01:18:55All right.
01:19:21Hey.
01:19:22All over, it felt all right.
01:19:25It's got bags of torque.
01:19:27When you come in here in fourth gear.
01:19:29Over this is always the difficult part.
01:19:31And the first feelings from your bike is that there is no effort required to go from left to right.
01:19:38You could go as fast as you needed to change direction.
01:19:41Plus, when it's upright, if you need to make a direction change on brakes or whatever,
01:19:45it goes there.
01:19:47None of us have ever ridden a bike with that configuration.
01:19:50It's so conceptual that there's no bike out there that I can think of
01:19:56that doesn't have a big weight spinning on the outside of the engine.
01:20:00It doesn't matter where you go.
01:20:02There's nothing.
01:20:04I want to ride it again.
01:20:09Yeah.
01:20:20Yeah.
01:20:51Yeah.
01:21:09He's down.
01:21:10He's down.
01:21:11He's down, Michael.
01:21:12What happened?
01:21:13What happened?
01:21:14Somebody get on the side of the track.
01:21:16He's down.
01:21:17He's down.
01:21:18Okay.
01:21:19Ambulance on it.
01:21:21Jeremy intended to explore the C1's awesome potential on his second ride,
01:21:25but wind and dusty track conditions would deliver a brutal one-two punch to Modo Ciz.
01:21:31One of the world's greatest riders would fall into harm's way,
01:21:35and the only remaining C1 would suffer serious damage.
01:21:38Yeah, I'm all right.
01:21:39The bike's not.
01:21:40It's all right.
01:21:41I don't care.
01:21:42It slid, but it's dirty.
01:21:44When you came by, I can't believe you made the first corner.
01:21:46You went so fast.
01:21:47It was so dirty.
01:21:48Both tires.
01:21:49I stopped just where it happened.
01:21:50Go on.
01:21:51You go up.
01:21:52It feels like something came out, but it doesn't look like there's anything on the bike.
01:21:54It could only have been dirt.
01:21:56Are you sorry about that?
01:21:57Dude, don't.
01:21:58I told him.
01:21:59I swear to God.
01:22:00I honestly mean it.
01:22:01I don't care.
01:22:07You can look at the front tire and tell he was.
01:22:09Yeah, his front was definitely shattered.
01:22:12Yeah, we didn't crash the valves.
01:22:14Most of us would have given up,
01:22:16but undaunted through sheer will,
01:22:18the Motosys team resolves to piece together a working bike
01:22:23from broken and worn out parts.
01:22:42Can I tell you I want to ride a motorcycle?
01:22:44Just so you know, I want to ride fat.
01:22:52My name is Shane Turpin.
01:22:54In 1994, I won the AMACCS Race of Champions at Daytona.
01:22:58I had about seven, eight number one cars.
01:23:01I was the fastest.
01:23:02I was the fastest.
01:23:03I was the fastest.
01:23:04I was the fastest.
01:23:05I was the fastest.
01:23:06I was the fastest.
01:23:07I was the fastest.
01:23:08I was the fastest.
01:23:09I was the fastest.
01:23:10I had seven, eight number one plates.
01:23:12I'm a four-time national champion.
01:23:14I'm excited.
01:23:15I'm so excited to ride this thing.
01:23:17I got butterflies.
01:23:20You should.
01:23:21Can I tell you one thing?
01:23:22Absolutely.
01:23:23I'm not exaggerating.
01:23:24Replace the bike.
01:23:25Oh, no, no, no.
01:23:26One million dollars.
01:23:27Minimum.
01:23:28Minimum.
01:23:31And I just bought a new Z06 Corvette.
01:23:33So it's like 14 of those.
01:23:36With the input received from Jeremy McWilliams,
01:23:39the team has made important adjustments.
01:23:41The bike is now ready for track speed record holder Shane Turpin.
01:23:45With investors watching, this final test could make or break the future of MotoSis.
01:24:05Let's go.
01:24:35Let's go.
01:24:45That's ridiculous.
01:24:47I don't know where to begin.
01:24:50Transmission is unreal.
01:24:52I had so much going through my head because there were so many things that I was going,
01:24:56holy shit, that's awesome, that's awesome, you know?
01:24:58I was like trying to like, okay, okay, when's it going to stop?
01:25:02Braking, accelerating, the shifter.
01:25:04I mean, everything about it is so not anything you can get.
01:25:08So amazing.
01:25:09It tracks good.
01:25:10I mean, I started to accelerate and it just, it was planted the whole time.
01:25:14I never felt it move underneath me or anything.
01:25:17It's just rock steady the whole time.
01:25:19You got to learn how to ride this thing in the turns because it's not a motorcycle.
01:25:22It's so different.
01:25:23Everything I've rode for 18 years on a racetrack, this is something,
01:25:27this is like all starting all over again.
01:25:29In riding, you don't understand.
01:25:31You physically, nobody understands the possibilities of a motorcycle until you get on that.
01:25:38The suspension is so smooth and so, I mean, you felt everything that was going on
01:25:47that you needed to feel as a rider.
01:25:49It was just state of the art.
01:25:52I mean, I've been on the best suspension.
01:25:53I've been on the best Olin stuff you can ride on.
01:25:55And I mean, that bike, you know, in one lap was money.
01:25:59It was good.
01:26:00I mean, it was amazing.
01:26:01Most motorcycles, you know, the manufacturers will call them thin and they're real narrow.
01:26:06I mean, this motorcycle is half of that.
01:26:08Your legs are real tight in the chassis.
01:26:10You're sitting up.
01:26:12The turn in of the motorcycle with that, like you're talking about, that gyroscopic effect,
01:26:17you know, you've got a crank spinning and he's got two going in different directions.
01:26:20There's basically no motion.
01:26:23The thing just, you can turn it and put it where you want to.
01:26:25You know, this bike has got the bones of a champion.
01:26:28But it's up to us to put the muscles on it.
01:26:30The potential is all there, but again, the success is going to come in the details.
01:26:35And we just need to persevere and get around these small throttle opening issues,
01:26:39the problems with the oil cooling, some of the chatter problems.
01:26:42These are all going to be resolved with effort.
01:26:44And I think that we're going to be able to bring out the potential of this bike.
01:26:48I mean, this is about my favorite time of the day at about my favorite place.
01:26:53This is an environment that's incredibly stressful and hectic
01:26:57and gives you lots of anxiety and tension.
01:27:01And when you're out here like this, when nobody's out here,
01:27:04it actually ends up being this almost surreal kind of, you know, I feel like it's like my church.
01:27:11My dad is the one guy that, you know, he's the eternal optimist, I guess, like I am.
01:27:17And, you know, I mean, right now, we stripped an entire bike
01:27:22and we're ready to tear it down, ready to pull all-nighter.
01:27:24He slept an hour and a half last night.
01:27:26And, you know, there's no option.
01:27:29We don't talk about, well, I don't think we can do it.
01:27:32I mean, that bike will be on the track tomorrow morning.
01:27:34We're going to do it.
01:27:36And, you know, when all those other guys see the oldest team member never complaining,
01:27:40being the first person to jump in on a strip down, tear down,
01:27:44you know, I think that helps inspire people too.
01:27:46So, you know, to date, we've had five engines.
01:27:50That's it.
01:27:51I mean, I was talking to several team owners.
01:27:53They have more than five engines in their transporter today
01:27:55and most of them will go through all five this weekend.
01:27:58We've had five engines since the day we started.
01:28:00So, you know, we're going to do it.
01:28:03We've had five engines since the day we started.
01:28:05So it's time for us to do that.
01:28:07We need to have a small trailer with five engines that we can have constantly running on the dyno
01:28:11and constantly out at the track.
01:28:13And it will actually make us more efficient.
01:28:15Honestly, I probably said it about two weeks ago.
01:28:17I said if I knew what I know now, I think I probably, I mean, a wise person wouldn't do it.
01:28:23But today, right now, I would do it over again.
01:28:27You know, we're getting closer.
01:28:28I mean, we're paddocked with the big guys.
01:28:30And we're going to be running with them tomorrow.
01:28:32And, you know, we're not quite ready yet, but that's a lot closer than we were 18 months ago.
01:28:37This is something I could pass down to my kids.
01:28:39There's no question.
01:28:40That was kind of the romantic side of this.
01:28:43I cannot wait.
01:28:44We've started that bike thousands of times.
01:28:46I can't wait to hear that bike start again every single time.
01:28:51I don't think there's a lot of gray area.
01:28:53I think what really happens to us is in two years, we're gone.
01:28:57Or in two years, we're in this paddock racing head-to-head against these other manufacturers.
01:29:02And Formula of Speed Day continues in a moment on turbo as Wayne Carini goes in search of a vintage 1964 Ferrari Superfast.
01:29:30It's one of the world's most expensive cars next.