Yup, I saw that too! Team C1 had originally planned on competing in the 2007 season but because there was a rule change in MotoGP to where the engine size was limited to 800cc instead of 990 cc they couldn't design and build a smaller engine on their non-sponsored/funded budget.
Kinda shady if you ask me that MotoGP would change the rules the first season that the only American sport bike company wanted to enter.

 

I can just about assure you that had absolutely nothing to do with the rule changes.

They were trying to make it "safer" by slowing it down with smaller engines but the riders are still breaking lap records almost every race due to higher corner speeds and just evolution of the bikes.

 

Ohhh gotcha! I don't follow it much except for maybe stumbling on a race here or there but do enjoy watching it. It is a shame that they couldn't enter when they were planning it though!

 

Seems to me centripetal force of acceleration would make more of that effect? and no I didnt read any of the links or anything lol.

 

Them's all might purty words, but the effect is to lessen the gyroscope's resistance to changing direction. If you have dirt bike experience, you know that a 450 turns the hardest, a 250 is easier, an a 125 the easiest. Although a 250 (two stroke) is only about 15 lbs heavier than a 125, most of the difference is in the crankshaft. When you try to forcefully turn them, the 125 feels 50 lbs lighter, because its gyroscope is so much smaller.

 

The C1 takes an inline four and mounts it longitudinally, vs. the transverse setups found in most motorcycles.

They change it up by slitting the four into two parallel twins. The crankshafts spin in opposite directions, effectively canceling any gyroscopic tendencies found in an engine with a crankshaft spinning only one direction. Plus, if I remember correctly, the two banks of cylinders are on a 15* included angle.


Czysz also had some really trick linear bearings on the forks to virtually eliminate sticktion caused by regular telescopic forks.

 

Yeah! He also designed a new swing arm and a completely new transmission that was pretty revolutionary! Guy is a smart one but it's sad to see that the MotoGP governing body changed the rules on him the same year he was planning on running his bike in the series.
From what I've read he's building an electric motoGP bike...