MythBusters (2003) s15e05 Episode Script
Transformers
1 [ projector running .]
[ ragtime music plays .]
-- Captions by vitac -- Captions paid for by discovery communications So, jamie, you know how we like to use tools and materials For purposes they were never intended for, right? Like, transforming them? It's, like, second-nature for us.
Well, now, we have an entire episode Devoted to transformers.
Well, that's cool.
Like what? Well, we got one about a guy Who supposedly took some 5-gallon water-cooler jugs And converted a bicycle Into a fully amphibious commute vehicle.
Sounds dubious But fun.
But first up, we've got an amazing story About a frenchman stranded in the african desert In his little french car.
This is the citroen deux chevaux, Except two of the wheels are busted.
He uses the remaining two wheels And rebuilds this car into a motorcycle That he uses to ride back to civilization with.
I think we should get ourselves a 2cv and try it ourselves.
Absolutely.
Narrator: It's a tall tale of french transformation.
Supposedly, using nothing but hand tools and hope, A working motorcycle was made from a broken-down car.
But before any mechanical metamorphosis, The guys must start out By meeting the motorcar from the myth -- a '67 citroen.
All right, picking up some speed here.
Oh, yeah, baby! [ laughs .]
Whoa-ho! Now, this is the actual car we are going to be turning -- Or trying to turn -- into a motorcycle.
This car feels insane! It was originally conceived of by a frenchman Named pierre-jules boulanger in 1935 But went into production in 1948.
Come on! Gimme all your power! Between then and 1990, they made over 3.
2 million of them.
And its 425cc engine puts out a blistering 12 horsepower.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you The citroen deux chevaux.
Nice dubs, homey.
Isn't it beautiful? [ laughs .]
Narrator: It's clearly not fast or furious.
But for this motorcycle-from-car conundrum Let's inspect, See what's going on under the hood here.
It'll be the car's adaptability that's key.
[ laughs .]
Where's the engine? [ laughs .]
Adam: I have to say, if ever there was a car For turning into a motorcycle, it is this baby right here.
And once you look under the hood, you can see why.
There's very little there.
I'm genuinely excited About getting our hands dirty in this thing And then seeing what we can make happen.
So, what are you thinking? Well, we've run it through its paces, And we know what it looks like mechanically.
I can't think of anything else Except for taking this out, stranding ourselves, And seeing if we can turn it into a motorcycle.
All right, then.
Road trip! All right.
[ engine turns over .]
Here we go.
[ engine revs, tires squeal .]
Off to africa.
[ laughs .]
Narrator: The frenchman in the myth got stranded in morocco.
Adam: Oh, man.
I think there's vultures circling overhead.
But adam and jamie's saharan substitute Jamie: Let's try over there.
Is a little closer to home.
Jamie: Nice little workspace.
Flat, desolate -- perfect.
Jamie: Prior to this experiment, All we know is that it's cute and it's pretty basic.
But, like any normal car, it also has four wheels And an engine under the hood in the front.
And somehow, we're gonna have to reconfigure it To where we just use two of those wheels And all the necessary components To be able to power it and steer it In such a way that we can drive it motorcycle-fashion.
I'm gonna go grab the toolkit.
Okay.
Adam: In the myth, the guy is stranded With nothing but a 2cv And a bunch of standard hand tools.
All right, sir.
We've got a jack Hacksaw And we are gonna be replicating exactly that.
Screwdrivers C-wrenches.
Perhaps, the very first thing we're gonna be testing is, Can you even take this car apart with this simplicity? Narrator: Having so few tools would seem like a hindrance, But with this car, maybe not.
How's this held down there? Ooh.
[ laughs .]
[ laughing .]
Well, that's a nice start.
If the whole car is like that, then we're home-free.
Once the hood's literally been slid off Adam, it looks like all this stuff comes off that way.
No way.
It's soon joined by the doors.
Who built this thing? [ chuckles .]
Next come the seats Now we've got a place to sit and have some lunch.
Also without any tools being touched at all.
Wow.
And while a few parts do need a helping hand I've already got the bumper half off.
Oh, oh, oh.
Aah! Aah! Whoa.
There we go.
Mostly, it's a case of unlock and unload.
I've never worked on a vehicle -- Anything close to this.
This is so basic, it's actually quite wonderful.
Taking just 60 minutes Nice! It is an encouraging start.
But stripping back the car Was never going to be the tough task.
[ grunting .]
okay.
All right.
[ both laugh .]
Yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about.
That belongs to transforming what's left into a motorcycle.
Jamie: Now, we rocketed through Removing all the stuff that we didn't need, But at this point, taking it the rest of the way, Actually removing two of the wheels And making it into something like a motorcycle, I don't have a clue how we're gonna do it.
Narrator: Without doubt, there's a lot to do.
So let's cut to the other chase.
So, tell me about this amphibious bicycle.
Well, according to the pictures we've got -- And we have a bunch of them -- All it takes is eight of these guys And a simple steel structure To turn a bicycle into, Effectively, a paddle-wheel boat.
So you want to replicate what you see in those photos And see if it works? That is exactly what I want to do.
Cool.
Narrator: Crossing one of these with one of these [ boat horn blows .]
May seem a little far out.
Yet, in the far east, That's supposedly what this invention has done -- Unless it's a case of photoshop fakery.
So, there's a lot of steps to this process, The first and foremost being That there will be paddles on this back wheel That allow it to propel forward.
But the paddles require a fair bit of re-jiggering Of the frame of this bike In order to accommodate the effectively wire back wheel.
Narrator: With a paddle wheel 5 inches fuller than its regular counterpart All right.
Here comes the part that'll make you cringe.
Narrator: Adam first removes the rear of the frame Before welding a wider version in its place, Using exactly the same bracing as in the photos.
Adam: It's not pretty, but it'll do.
Narrator: Next, adam reinvents the wheel, As he secures the 12 aluminum paddles Hoo! Bet that was riveting.
Narrator: Directly to the spokes.
Adam: Come on.
Come on.
Come on! Last bit, last bit! Let's all cooperate.
Got it! Yeah! Narrator: And when the new drive wheel fits like a glove [ laughs .]
it's totally working Narrator: It's time to get buoyant.
Now, the way this bike achieves its amphibious nature Is with these -- 5-gallon drinking-water jugs, Which I have to mount to the steel frame of the bicycle, And I'm gonna do it with these pieces of strap steel.
I'm about to roll them in a machine called aRoll.
Narrator: Despite adding a large amount of steel Beautiful! Narrator: For both the straps and the bottle-jug frame [ grunts .]
Oh, my gosh.
This is a heavy bike now.
Oh, my god.
[ laughs .]
Narrator: The bike should stay afloat, Because each jug can support 40 pounds.
And with eight jugs in total Adam: This is the part of any project Where I get genuinely kind of excited and thrilled.
Narrator: The overall buoyancy Should be plenty enough to support rider and rig.
Ah! There it is.
Ladies and gentlemen, The ugliest bike in all of creation.
Now, it should have some nuts That lock these in the upright position So you can ride around.
And then, when you get to the water, [ chuckling .]
you simply lower them down, And you're ready to ride on the water.
This might just be An amphibious bicycle.
Narrator: It may be a dead ringer for the photos But down at the pool So, what kind of job do you imagine That's an appropriate outfit for? [ grunts .]
Will it be sink or swim? Narrator: 6,000 miles from morocco I think I was supposed to turn off earlier.
And adam and jamie's motorbike from motorcar Has started well.
[ both laugh .]
Jamie: I love it.
Don't you love the suspension? But as deconstruction turns to construction, The guys' progress stalls.
The challenge is fairly significant.
We've got this heavy thing, An engine which weighs hundreds of pounds, And it's meant to drive two wheels That are way off-center to the engine.
But on a motorcycle, The engine needs to be in the center of gravity.
So we have to figure out some way To get the engine as close to center as possible While still driving a wheel so we have power.
And how that's gonna work, I have no idea.
Jamie: Um Narrator: There's two key conundrums -- How to provide power to a central drive wheel And how to do that without moving the engine.
So, sir, I guess it's time to start talking about How we're gonna get this thing balanced on a single line.
I know.
I'd love to leave the engine where it's at And have, like, a wheel there and a wheel here.
You have any thoughts? Yeah, I do, actually.
These things here are the output shafts Right.
So if that was simply placed right on a wheel Well Just having that abrade on the wheel Oh, abrade on the wheel.
It could drive the wheel.
Huh! Oh, dude.
You know what I realized? We'd rather have the engine in the rear of the bike So we're not trying to move the whole engine, And that actually works with the abrasion technique, Because it means the engine's running In the opposite direction than the wheel, So we can go in first gear and go that way.
Well, where a little while ago, We had no freaking idea what we were gonna do, Now, at least we have a plan of attack Towards investigating a possible solution.
And it feels like somewhere.
We've got our car frame with the engine at the front And the two wheels on each side.
We're going to start by discarding two of those wheels And reattaching the other two As close to the center line as possible.
The wheel under the engine will be the drive wheel, And we're basically gonna shove it Right up against the engine's output shaft, So when the shaft spins, the wheel will also turn.
Now, the wheel will actually be turning In the opposite direction of the output shaft, Which means that the thrust vector is reversed.
In other words, the back of the car Is gonna become the front of the bike.
At least, that's the theory.
Ready? Yeah.
3, 2, 1.
Narrator: It's a plan that is undoubtedly complex.
Nice.
Excellent.
But without access to power tools Ready? Uh-huh.
Okay.
Having the engine stay put is imperative.
All right.
Want me to get this thing up and in? I guess now is as good a time as any.
[ laughs .]
And after three hours of nontrivial teamwork Okay.
3, 2, 1 [ both grunting .]
The design is starting to take shape.
There we go.
Okay.
Okay.
Down.
There we are.
Ah, bingo.
Bingo.
Now we can finally explain What we've been talking about this whole time And you can see it in action.
We've taken one of the swing arms from the back of the car And put it on the front, which is the newBack of the car.
[ chuckling .]
bear with me.
That swing arm brings the tire underneath the frame, Where it is pressing into this, One of the output shafts from the engine.
Now, that output shaft goes in this direction Because this was the former front of the car, But it drives the wheel in that direction Because this is the new rear of the car.
And the groove lines up beautifully With this ridge on the output shaft.
Will this make the bike run? I'm not willing to say just yet, but I'm hopeful.
Narrator: With the untested drivetrain in place, The guys move forward -- literally.
Oh, baby, don't fail me now.
[ smooches .]
here we go.
Narrator: Adam's hacking through the car's rear-wheel swing arm My god.
This is like breaking out of jail.
Narrator: So that it'll hook securely onto the front of the frame.
[ laughs .]
Oh, my gosh.
Starting to look like a motorcycle.
Adam's right.
What was once a sassy citroen Is being transformed into a "mad max" motorcycle.
Jamie: So, we've managed to line things up Without having to unmount the engine.
We've got the front wheel up here, And we've got our suspension system.
All we have to do now is hook up the steering And then see how it balances and if we can control it.
I want to break in here and also point out That in order to control, that's the gear shifter.
That's the clutch.
That's the brake.
One of us, I believe, Will have to be sitting facing the rear of the motorcycle In order to maintain the controls, While the other's calling out what they need.
Which is kind of how it normally works with us, anyway.
[ laughs .]
Narrator: With one transformation coming together How's their water bike working out? Jamie: We're here at the brisbane community pool To test out adam's amphibious bike.
He should be done by about now.
[ laughs .]
[ laughing .]
here I come.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah.
Isn't it pretty? Jamie: Adam's done a very careful job Of replicating what we saw in the photos.
But the thing is that he's a good 50 pounds heavier Than the woman we saw floating on that bike in the water.
I step into this bathroom an ordinary mythbuster.
Jamie: And so what that means In terms of how deep the paddles on the wheel go And balance issues, Just because she floated on it Doesn't mean that he's gonna be able to.
I come out super-amphibious- vehicle-commuter-mythbuster.
So, just to recap -- If what is claimed in the pictures is true, This thing ought to be able to float, hold me up, Move me forward on the paddles, And be able to steer, All while keeping me relatively dry.
Yeah.
Good luck with that.
Here goes nothing.
[ laughs .]
Amphibious bike in 3, 2, 1Go.
[ grunts .]
Okay, it's holding me up.
Oh! Oh! Okay, here we go.
Wow! Hey! That's not bad! Okay, steering, trying to steer.
Hey, steering's not bad.
Narrator: Apart from some soggy shoes, it's a decent-enough start.
But then [ clanking .]
uh-oh.
Uh-oh.
Aah! Now, I've got a little chain problem, Which I've got to fix on the bike.
Uh-oh.
Whoa! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Narrator: Fixing this chain slip in situ is no mean feat.
But adam bends over backwards.
Yep.
Whoa! [ speaks gibberish quickly .]
[ laughs .]
[ sighing .]
okay.
I got it.
And soon, he's riding high.
Hey! This is great! Dude! I'm on an amphibious bike! Yeah, I'm gonna go in a circle.
Here we go.
Not exactly a tight circle, but pretty reasonable.
That seems like it's working really well.
Narrator: Remarkably, the bike's not only buoyant, It's also got good speed and steering I'm ready for my first day on the job.
At least, so far.
Whoa! I let my attention lapse for a second, And I go right over.
Narrator: Adam's off.
And what's more, with him being unable to remount [ grunting .]
Yes! Yes! Aah! Aw, shoot! Aah! He's effectively down for the count.
Okay.
I admit defeat.
I can't get back on this thing.
We found its fatal flaw.
Jamie: This thing works surprisingly well, Especially given that it's actually just improvised.
It could use some improvements, though.
I would say, first off, It'd be nice if you could use it without getting wet, Because if it's a commuter sort of thing, You don't want to have to change your clothes.
The pontoons aren't exactly streamlined, And if they were, you'd be able to go faster with less effort.
And then, last but not least, I would say steering also could be improved.
Well, that went beautifully Until I took my attention off it.
Then I went over, and there was no getting back on.
But all in all, it worked surprisingly well.
But, you know, it does give me an idea.
What's that? I think I can go one better.
By all means.
[ chuckles .]
Narrator: Adam and jamie's 2cv Is undergoing a mechanical metamorphosis.
It's starting to look like a motorcycle.
And their next tack is the steering.
Jamie: We were thinking that we were gonna have to use A tiller to steer this, Which is basically just a long stick, But those are real awkward.
Yeah! Ahh! [ panting .]
That was satisfying.
And since it has an existing steering system, I think I may just be able to jury-rig it to work, Even though now it's on the back side of the car.
[ chuckles .]
Narrator: A steering wheel on a bike may be a little unusual, But necessity is the mother of invention.
Okay.
Let's see here.
[ laughs .]
Jamie.
That works great.
It turns to the right, Better than it turns to the left, Well, so we'll just only make right-hand turns.
Hey.
[ both laugh .]
Narrator: Next, the guys check the engine controls Clutch.
Brake.
Okay, so the clutch works.
Brake works.
Before crossing their fingers and firing her up.
[ engine rattles .]
[ engine sputters .]
[ engine turns over .]
Yeah! That is badass, right there.
With the engine turning over, Jamie literally wires in the throttle.
Jamie: It's a little crude, But my throttle is this piece of baling wire.
If I put a little crimp in it, like so [ revving quickens .]
We accelerate.
When I straighten it back out [ revving slows .]
We slow down.
Ha ha! Narrator: And with that, their motorcycle is all set.
It's got two wheels, a unique drive system, Gears, brakes, steering, and suspension.
The only issue is that it takes two people to operate it -- A driver to control steering and throttle And a passenger for clutch and brakes.
So, will it work? I'm gonna start it up.
Okay.
Come on, baby.
[ engine turns over .]
[ laughs .]
For run 1, jamie will drive, But adam will first jog alongside, Changing gear as needed.
All right.
Clutch in! First gear.
Yeah! Yeah, baby! Yeah! That's a motorcycle! We're good! Whoa! Whoa! [ engine shuts off .]
ignition's out.
That was pretty cool! Narrator: Incredibly, their motorcycle did move, Even if 30 feet wasn't very far.
We're good! Whoa! Whoa! Can jamie better that benchmark in test 2? There we go.
Clutch in.
Okay.
First gear.
3, 2 Like last time Yeah! Yeah! That's a motorcycle.
Whoa! Jamie is in control, but just barely.
Agh! Stop it! Stop! [ engine shuts off .]
Brakes worked.
Hey, I used the brakes! [ both laugh .]
You were helping support it, though.
Oh, yeah.
I was helping support it, man.
I'll do anything at this point.
Jamie: So, the good news is that we've got steering, We have suspension, And we have an effective way of getting power to the wheels.
Stop it! Stop! The bad news is that you have to ride this sidesaddle.
Combined with the fact That you've got this massively heavy weight up high, And you're trying to balance it off to the side, It's effectively impossible to ride.
It's frustrating.
It is.
Because it's so beautiful.
I know! This is the most beautiful thing we have ever made.
[ laughs .]
Adam: Look, this little powderpuff here is beautiful, And it's postapocalyptic times five.
But what it's not is a viable motorcycle.
[ sighs .]
This is not the device that's gonna get you 20 kilometers From the middle of nowhere and into civilization.
Narrator: Yep, to get out of dodge [ both grunting .]
They're gonna need a plan b.
At the pool Adam: Dude! I'm on an amphibious bike! Narrator: The guys have proved This water-bottle bicycle is no photoshop fake.
Adam: This is great! Narrator: But with clear room for improvement Jamie wants to see if he can go one better.
I'm gonna be using the exact same frame That adam used on his amphibious bicycle.
Time to get to work.
Narrator: With a clean slate, Can jamie scratch-build a water bike Where failure is not an option? Jamie: There we go.
Narrator: To find out, He's starting -- like adam -- with the drive system.
That'll work.
But instead of 12 paddles, he's adding 20 Love that tool.
Narrator: For more power and more control.
Let's see how this looks.
Oh.
That's perfect.
[ chuckles .]
Narrator: For buoyancy, he's ditching the simplicity of the water jugs And going for some high-tech hydroforming.
Jamie: We take a piece of sheet metal And clamp it between two massive plates of steel.
We've cut out an almond-shaped hole in the top plate And attached our pressure-washer pump To a small hole in the bottom plate.
Now, here's the fun part.
All we do is start the pump, And the water pressure Pushes the sheet metal out the almond-shaped hole, Inflating it just like a balloon.
Ha! It's perfect.
Narrator: Jamie hydroforms eight half-hulls, Which are cut to size That's one.
Narrator: Before being paired together.
[ chuckles .]
The four resulting pontoons are not only super-streamlined That's it.
They should be super-buoyant.
[ chuckles .]
Jamie: There are a number of key differences between this bike And the one that adam built based on the photos.
Now, the first and most obvious one Is that the pontoons are tuna-shaped, Because they should move through the water with less effort, As well as provide me with better steering.
Now, secondly, I've made the back pontoons able to telescope out.
Oh, yeah.
That's perfect.
I'm hoping that the extra foot or two That I've put on these will keep me more stable.
Looks about right.
And then, of course, last but not least, I think it looks way cooler.
Narrator: Indeed.
But to see if it works, Adam's upped the ante with a head-to-head race.
Adam: Jamie and I now intend To test our amphibious commuter bikes fully.
That means land and sea.
So we've come here to beautiful horseshoe lake In fremont, california, Because it provides all the terrains Pretty much any bicycle commuter is going to encounter.
We've got a little bit of pavement, We've got some dirt roads, and right down there behind me, A beautiful, placid lake to ride our bikes upon.
But first up, jamie's gonna test his bike And make sure it actually floats.
Narrator: Jamie positions his front pontoons in the pond That's one set.
Narrator: Before spreading out the rear ones For extra stability.
[ laughs .]
Narrator: Then there's one last piece of mechanical modification -- An electrical crankshaft That lowers the paddle wheel into the water.
[ laughs .]
check that out! Narrator: And before you know it, he's away.
Jamie: It's working! Ha ha! It's working exactly as it was designed.
Narrator: Both forwards and backwards, Jamie's design is looking good -- Almost too good.
Jamie: One thing I'm wondering, though, is, It looks like one pontoon is sinking.
There may be a leak.
Aah! Narrator: If the goal was to improve on adam's design, It's hardly "mission accomplished.
" But with a competition coming up, Jamie's not going to abandon ship.
Narrator: The story goes that an ingenious engineer Turned a motorcar into a motorcycle To escape death in the desert.
But adam and jamie's design All right! Civilization, here we come! Came closer to causing death Stop it! Stop! Than preventing it.
But all is not lost Because back at the shop, The guys have unearthed a series of photos That supposedly show the real deal.
Adam: Oh, that's fascinating.
Back at the start of this episode, Jamie and I decided to build our motorcycle Without reference to these photos, And we did that partly because people say these are fake.
Oh! Same drive system! But given that our bike didn't work, We're now going to rebuild it to these specs.
The engine must be reversed.
What's interesting is that both of our design approaches, While incredibly similar -- For instance, we used the exact same drive system -- They differ in two distinct ways that may give his design A better chance of working than ours.
All right, graphics, help me out.
So, this is our bike.
Note the rack-and-pinion steering And the engine high up on the back.
It's these that made our bike hard to balance.
But the french guy not only replaced the steering wheel With a tiller system that ought to give better control, But he also lifted the engine up, spun it around, And placed it in the middle, giving the bike A much more easy-to-handle center of gravity.
But there's a problem when you flip the engine 180 degrees, And that is, the only gear You can make the bike move forward with is reverse.
And I don't know if the reverse gear Can actually make this thing move fast enough to be stable.
Narrator: To find out, It's time to turn transformers one last time.
We don't need this anymore.
Only now, They're not only following the frenchman's photos, They're also using power tools to power through.
We've already proven that we can put together something like this Using only those simple tools that the guy had.
So this time, We're gonna use whatever we have handy here in the shop, And that'll just make it go quicker.
That would've taken a while with a hacksaw.
Yeah, like a day or two.
[ laughs .]
Narrator: With a hole cut for the rear wheel Adam: Look at that.
The guys next centralize the engine.
Jamie: That looks about right.
We can lock it down about there.
And when jamie adds a steering system that seems stable Oh, my god.
Is it significant? Oh, yeah.
No problem.
[ laughs .]
The guys are confident.
I love that! But before this bike hits the road Two others are gonna have a river race-off.
Adam: This is a tale of two bicycles.
One is one whose design we found online and replicated it.
And it worked on the water far better than we thought it would.
Thus, we'd like to run it through A full set of amphibious commuter-vehicle paces.
Yeah! At the same time, that design gave jamie some ideas, And he thought he could improve upon the original.
Thus, he's completed a bike We're gonna run through the same paces To see if he has in fact succeeded at that task.
Narrator: Jamie's proof of concept started well Jamie: Ha ha! Narrator: But ended badly.
Aah! Narrator: But a quick leak fix later, And jamie's all set for a duck-pond drag race.
[ ducks quacking .]
All right.
You ready? Yeah.
Amphibious conversion, implement! [ chuckles .]
The rules are simple.
The guys must transform their bikes into water mode Okay, where's number 1 pin? There we go.
[ laughs .]
Before pedaling to a buoy and back.
Here we go! And we're off! First back to the beach boasts the best design.
[ laughs .]
Leaving hyneman in the dust.
Adam: I am happy to say that I handily beat jamie In the conversion to amphibious mode.
[ laughs .]
I'm way ahead.
I was in the water a good, probably, 60 seconds Before he was, and pedaling furiously -- As furiously as I could -- towards our buoy.
And I thought that I was gonna be able to keep up that lead.
I would say funnier things, but I'm getting tired.
But sadly, I was totally mistaken, Because once jamie started pedaling, It was really clear that his bike Was so much more hydrodynamic than mine.
Ohh! He's catching up! Ha ha! Come on.
Come on.
We've got to get some raw power.
Jamie's so much faster in the water That he quickly overtook me.
Daah! Now, I started pedaling harder, But I was in danger of skipping my chain.
And if I did, that was a guaranteed loss.
Aah! I thought this was mine! Agh! Come on.
Maybe I'll catch you upwind, jamie.
Yes.
Here we go.
So, I had to stay slow and steady.
Unfortunately, that didn't keep me A consistent distance behind jamie.
Good luck there, little buddy! He kept on outpacing me Look.
I can actually see a wake.
He's leaving a wake.
And ended up reaching the shore A good probably 3 or 4 minutes before I did Ding! And a lot less winded.
Worked like a champ.
His bike won -- handily.
Aah! Come on.
Jamie: I'm glad this turned out the way that it did, Because these shapes, even though they did take more work, Were far more streamlined.
And it was quite easy to move it through the water.
The amount of effort, due to the size of the paddles, Was lower.
It meant that I could pedal a little quicker.
It did sling a little more water up my butt, But I'll settle for that.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with how it behaved.
Adam: Well, I am impressed With the design we pulled off the internet.
I'd say it's confirmed.
Yeah, I'd say, as well.
This one worked better, but the concept is sound.
Absolutely.
All right.
If you don't mind, I'm gonna walk back to the car.
Okay.
I'll race you.
Okay.
Narrator: So, one tale of transformation is triumphant.
Will their motorcycle from motorcar Make it two for two? [bleep.]
[bleep.]
You know, over the years, Jamie and I have gotten the chance To ride on some pretty unconventional vehicles.
We've sailed in a boat made solely of duct tape Yee-haw! [ laughing .]
yeah! Driven a sports car mounted backwards on its frame [ laughs .]
Driven a truck with square wheels Ho! Oh! Hey! Heck, we've even taken a ride In the mouth of a great white shark.
How is this little puppy gonna compare To that litany of amazing vehicles? Well, you're gonna find out very soon.
Jamie and I have been investigating a very cool story About a frenchman who turned his car into a motorcycle To get him back to civilization.
Now, jamie and I turned our car into a motorcycle That is badass, right there.
Except that, well [sighs.]
we couldn't drive it.
Stop it! Stop! So we've gone back to our motorcycle, Reconfigured it to the frenchman's specs.
And now we've come back where this all began, At the alameda runway, To see just how drivable this motorcycle might be.
Narrator: After a double transformation, Their "mad max" motorcycle is on the final straight.
But will it be their ticket to ride? Jamie's up first.
The bike now feels much, much better.
But it's either gonna work or it isn't.
Hopefully, I can bail out without breaking my legs on it.
Narrator: With stable steering and a lower center of gravity Come on, baby.
[ engine turns over .]
Yeah! Yeah! This bike should be better balanced.
You feeling good? [ laughs .]
no! But with reverse gear as its only option, Will it go fast enough for a smooth ride? Here we go.
3, 2, 1 [bleep.]
[bleep.]
[ laughs .]
Whoo! Wha-- oh, no.
Dude! Well, it was sort of going.
That was going! But I got to say, that was That was actually a pretty good rpm, And it was barely enough to keep it upright.
Well, if that was your only way back to civilization, I would choose this over nothing.
I'm not so sure.
Narrator: Despite the unstable start, jamie did travel 100 feet -- Twice as far as his previous best.
But with reverse gear providing little in the way of thrust, Balance was still a beast.
Wha-- oh, no.
So, it's adam's final chance.
With the rpm cranked to the very max This thing is terrifying! Will he escape to victory? 3, 2, 1! [ grunts .]
Aah! [ engine slows, stops .]
Aah! [ groans .]
[ panting .]
[ chuckles .]
UmWow! Adam: I have ridden a lot of vehicles in my life.
This is hands down the scariest thing I've ever straddled.
Look at it this way -- I'm able to jump free, As evidenced by the film we just got, But if I didn't jump free, If I got any part of me caught under this 600 pounds of steel, I would be seriously, seriously damaged.
That's the definition of "scary.
" Narrator: With a total journey of just 150 feet [ grunts .]
Aah! It's not good news for the myth.
Argh! This one is so close.
It's right on the knife edge between busted and plausible.
But let's look at some of the parameters.
Every two-wheeled vehicle Needs a certain amount of forward speed In order to stay balanced.
And this thing -- which can only run in reverse gear, remember -- Because of the way it's mechanically driven, At full throttle, it's going at about jogging speed, Which in our tests is just not enough To keep it upright reliably.
Jamie: Look, adam and I, between the two of us, We can pretty well drive anything that moves.
But even in a perfectly flat surface like this And ideal conditions, This thing is undrivable.
Man, I went back and forth On whether this thing was gonna be plausible About six different times during that story.
But I think we agree where it ends up.
Yeah, it's busted.
It's totally busted.
Well, see you back at the shop.
All right.
[ ragtime music plays .]
-- Captions by vitac -- Captions paid for by discovery communications So, jamie, you know how we like to use tools and materials For purposes they were never intended for, right? Like, transforming them? It's, like, second-nature for us.
Well, now, we have an entire episode Devoted to transformers.
Well, that's cool.
Like what? Well, we got one about a guy Who supposedly took some 5-gallon water-cooler jugs And converted a bicycle Into a fully amphibious commute vehicle.
Sounds dubious But fun.
But first up, we've got an amazing story About a frenchman stranded in the african desert In his little french car.
This is the citroen deux chevaux, Except two of the wheels are busted.
He uses the remaining two wheels And rebuilds this car into a motorcycle That he uses to ride back to civilization with.
I think we should get ourselves a 2cv and try it ourselves.
Absolutely.
Narrator: It's a tall tale of french transformation.
Supposedly, using nothing but hand tools and hope, A working motorcycle was made from a broken-down car.
But before any mechanical metamorphosis, The guys must start out By meeting the motorcar from the myth -- a '67 citroen.
All right, picking up some speed here.
Oh, yeah, baby! [ laughs .]
Whoa-ho! Now, this is the actual car we are going to be turning -- Or trying to turn -- into a motorcycle.
This car feels insane! It was originally conceived of by a frenchman Named pierre-jules boulanger in 1935 But went into production in 1948.
Come on! Gimme all your power! Between then and 1990, they made over 3.
2 million of them.
And its 425cc engine puts out a blistering 12 horsepower.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you The citroen deux chevaux.
Nice dubs, homey.
Isn't it beautiful? [ laughs .]
Narrator: It's clearly not fast or furious.
But for this motorcycle-from-car conundrum Let's inspect, See what's going on under the hood here.
It'll be the car's adaptability that's key.
[ laughs .]
Where's the engine? [ laughs .]
Adam: I have to say, if ever there was a car For turning into a motorcycle, it is this baby right here.
And once you look under the hood, you can see why.
There's very little there.
I'm genuinely excited About getting our hands dirty in this thing And then seeing what we can make happen.
So, what are you thinking? Well, we've run it through its paces, And we know what it looks like mechanically.
I can't think of anything else Except for taking this out, stranding ourselves, And seeing if we can turn it into a motorcycle.
All right, then.
Road trip! All right.
[ engine turns over .]
Here we go.
[ engine revs, tires squeal .]
Off to africa.
[ laughs .]
Narrator: The frenchman in the myth got stranded in morocco.
Adam: Oh, man.
I think there's vultures circling overhead.
But adam and jamie's saharan substitute Jamie: Let's try over there.
Is a little closer to home.
Jamie: Nice little workspace.
Flat, desolate -- perfect.
Jamie: Prior to this experiment, All we know is that it's cute and it's pretty basic.
But, like any normal car, it also has four wheels And an engine under the hood in the front.
And somehow, we're gonna have to reconfigure it To where we just use two of those wheels And all the necessary components To be able to power it and steer it In such a way that we can drive it motorcycle-fashion.
I'm gonna go grab the toolkit.
Okay.
Adam: In the myth, the guy is stranded With nothing but a 2cv And a bunch of standard hand tools.
All right, sir.
We've got a jack Hacksaw And we are gonna be replicating exactly that.
Screwdrivers C-wrenches.
Perhaps, the very first thing we're gonna be testing is, Can you even take this car apart with this simplicity? Narrator: Having so few tools would seem like a hindrance, But with this car, maybe not.
How's this held down there? Ooh.
[ laughs .]
[ laughing .]
Well, that's a nice start.
If the whole car is like that, then we're home-free.
Once the hood's literally been slid off Adam, it looks like all this stuff comes off that way.
No way.
It's soon joined by the doors.
Who built this thing? [ chuckles .]
Next come the seats Now we've got a place to sit and have some lunch.
Also without any tools being touched at all.
Wow.
And while a few parts do need a helping hand I've already got the bumper half off.
Oh, oh, oh.
Aah! Aah! Whoa.
There we go.
Mostly, it's a case of unlock and unload.
I've never worked on a vehicle -- Anything close to this.
This is so basic, it's actually quite wonderful.
Taking just 60 minutes Nice! It is an encouraging start.
But stripping back the car Was never going to be the tough task.
[ grunting .]
okay.
All right.
[ both laugh .]
Yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about.
That belongs to transforming what's left into a motorcycle.
Jamie: Now, we rocketed through Removing all the stuff that we didn't need, But at this point, taking it the rest of the way, Actually removing two of the wheels And making it into something like a motorcycle, I don't have a clue how we're gonna do it.
Narrator: Without doubt, there's a lot to do.
So let's cut to the other chase.
So, tell me about this amphibious bicycle.
Well, according to the pictures we've got -- And we have a bunch of them -- All it takes is eight of these guys And a simple steel structure To turn a bicycle into, Effectively, a paddle-wheel boat.
So you want to replicate what you see in those photos And see if it works? That is exactly what I want to do.
Cool.
Narrator: Crossing one of these with one of these [ boat horn blows .]
May seem a little far out.
Yet, in the far east, That's supposedly what this invention has done -- Unless it's a case of photoshop fakery.
So, there's a lot of steps to this process, The first and foremost being That there will be paddles on this back wheel That allow it to propel forward.
But the paddles require a fair bit of re-jiggering Of the frame of this bike In order to accommodate the effectively wire back wheel.
Narrator: With a paddle wheel 5 inches fuller than its regular counterpart All right.
Here comes the part that'll make you cringe.
Narrator: Adam first removes the rear of the frame Before welding a wider version in its place, Using exactly the same bracing as in the photos.
Adam: It's not pretty, but it'll do.
Narrator: Next, adam reinvents the wheel, As he secures the 12 aluminum paddles Hoo! Bet that was riveting.
Narrator: Directly to the spokes.
Adam: Come on.
Come on.
Come on! Last bit, last bit! Let's all cooperate.
Got it! Yeah! Narrator: And when the new drive wheel fits like a glove [ laughs .]
it's totally working Narrator: It's time to get buoyant.
Now, the way this bike achieves its amphibious nature Is with these -- 5-gallon drinking-water jugs, Which I have to mount to the steel frame of the bicycle, And I'm gonna do it with these pieces of strap steel.
I'm about to roll them in a machine called aRoll.
Narrator: Despite adding a large amount of steel Beautiful! Narrator: For both the straps and the bottle-jug frame [ grunts .]
Oh, my gosh.
This is a heavy bike now.
Oh, my god.
[ laughs .]
Narrator: The bike should stay afloat, Because each jug can support 40 pounds.
And with eight jugs in total Adam: This is the part of any project Where I get genuinely kind of excited and thrilled.
Narrator: The overall buoyancy Should be plenty enough to support rider and rig.
Ah! There it is.
Ladies and gentlemen, The ugliest bike in all of creation.
Now, it should have some nuts That lock these in the upright position So you can ride around.
And then, when you get to the water, [ chuckling .]
you simply lower them down, And you're ready to ride on the water.
This might just be An amphibious bicycle.
Narrator: It may be a dead ringer for the photos But down at the pool So, what kind of job do you imagine That's an appropriate outfit for? [ grunts .]
Will it be sink or swim? Narrator: 6,000 miles from morocco I think I was supposed to turn off earlier.
And adam and jamie's motorbike from motorcar Has started well.
[ both laugh .]
Jamie: I love it.
Don't you love the suspension? But as deconstruction turns to construction, The guys' progress stalls.
The challenge is fairly significant.
We've got this heavy thing, An engine which weighs hundreds of pounds, And it's meant to drive two wheels That are way off-center to the engine.
But on a motorcycle, The engine needs to be in the center of gravity.
So we have to figure out some way To get the engine as close to center as possible While still driving a wheel so we have power.
And how that's gonna work, I have no idea.
Jamie: Um Narrator: There's two key conundrums -- How to provide power to a central drive wheel And how to do that without moving the engine.
So, sir, I guess it's time to start talking about How we're gonna get this thing balanced on a single line.
I know.
I'd love to leave the engine where it's at And have, like, a wheel there and a wheel here.
You have any thoughts? Yeah, I do, actually.
These things here are the output shafts Right.
So if that was simply placed right on a wheel Well Just having that abrade on the wheel Oh, abrade on the wheel.
It could drive the wheel.
Huh! Oh, dude.
You know what I realized? We'd rather have the engine in the rear of the bike So we're not trying to move the whole engine, And that actually works with the abrasion technique, Because it means the engine's running In the opposite direction than the wheel, So we can go in first gear and go that way.
Well, where a little while ago, We had no freaking idea what we were gonna do, Now, at least we have a plan of attack Towards investigating a possible solution.
And it feels like somewhere.
We've got our car frame with the engine at the front And the two wheels on each side.
We're going to start by discarding two of those wheels And reattaching the other two As close to the center line as possible.
The wheel under the engine will be the drive wheel, And we're basically gonna shove it Right up against the engine's output shaft, So when the shaft spins, the wheel will also turn.
Now, the wheel will actually be turning In the opposite direction of the output shaft, Which means that the thrust vector is reversed.
In other words, the back of the car Is gonna become the front of the bike.
At least, that's the theory.
Ready? Yeah.
3, 2, 1.
Narrator: It's a plan that is undoubtedly complex.
Nice.
Excellent.
But without access to power tools Ready? Uh-huh.
Okay.
Having the engine stay put is imperative.
All right.
Want me to get this thing up and in? I guess now is as good a time as any.
[ laughs .]
And after three hours of nontrivial teamwork Okay.
3, 2, 1 [ both grunting .]
The design is starting to take shape.
There we go.
Okay.
Okay.
Down.
There we are.
Ah, bingo.
Bingo.
Now we can finally explain What we've been talking about this whole time And you can see it in action.
We've taken one of the swing arms from the back of the car And put it on the front, which is the newBack of the car.
[ chuckling .]
bear with me.
That swing arm brings the tire underneath the frame, Where it is pressing into this, One of the output shafts from the engine.
Now, that output shaft goes in this direction Because this was the former front of the car, But it drives the wheel in that direction Because this is the new rear of the car.
And the groove lines up beautifully With this ridge on the output shaft.
Will this make the bike run? I'm not willing to say just yet, but I'm hopeful.
Narrator: With the untested drivetrain in place, The guys move forward -- literally.
Oh, baby, don't fail me now.
[ smooches .]
here we go.
Narrator: Adam's hacking through the car's rear-wheel swing arm My god.
This is like breaking out of jail.
Narrator: So that it'll hook securely onto the front of the frame.
[ laughs .]
Oh, my gosh.
Starting to look like a motorcycle.
Adam's right.
What was once a sassy citroen Is being transformed into a "mad max" motorcycle.
Jamie: So, we've managed to line things up Without having to unmount the engine.
We've got the front wheel up here, And we've got our suspension system.
All we have to do now is hook up the steering And then see how it balances and if we can control it.
I want to break in here and also point out That in order to control, that's the gear shifter.
That's the clutch.
That's the brake.
One of us, I believe, Will have to be sitting facing the rear of the motorcycle In order to maintain the controls, While the other's calling out what they need.
Which is kind of how it normally works with us, anyway.
[ laughs .]
Narrator: With one transformation coming together How's their water bike working out? Jamie: We're here at the brisbane community pool To test out adam's amphibious bike.
He should be done by about now.
[ laughs .]
[ laughing .]
here I come.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah.
Isn't it pretty? Jamie: Adam's done a very careful job Of replicating what we saw in the photos.
But the thing is that he's a good 50 pounds heavier Than the woman we saw floating on that bike in the water.
I step into this bathroom an ordinary mythbuster.
Jamie: And so what that means In terms of how deep the paddles on the wheel go And balance issues, Just because she floated on it Doesn't mean that he's gonna be able to.
I come out super-amphibious- vehicle-commuter-mythbuster.
So, just to recap -- If what is claimed in the pictures is true, This thing ought to be able to float, hold me up, Move me forward on the paddles, And be able to steer, All while keeping me relatively dry.
Yeah.
Good luck with that.
Here goes nothing.
[ laughs .]
Amphibious bike in 3, 2, 1Go.
[ grunts .]
Okay, it's holding me up.
Oh! Oh! Okay, here we go.
Wow! Hey! That's not bad! Okay, steering, trying to steer.
Hey, steering's not bad.
Narrator: Apart from some soggy shoes, it's a decent-enough start.
But then [ clanking .]
uh-oh.
Uh-oh.
Aah! Now, I've got a little chain problem, Which I've got to fix on the bike.
Uh-oh.
Whoa! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Narrator: Fixing this chain slip in situ is no mean feat.
But adam bends over backwards.
Yep.
Whoa! [ speaks gibberish quickly .]
[ laughs .]
[ sighing .]
okay.
I got it.
And soon, he's riding high.
Hey! This is great! Dude! I'm on an amphibious bike! Yeah, I'm gonna go in a circle.
Here we go.
Not exactly a tight circle, but pretty reasonable.
That seems like it's working really well.
Narrator: Remarkably, the bike's not only buoyant, It's also got good speed and steering I'm ready for my first day on the job.
At least, so far.
Whoa! I let my attention lapse for a second, And I go right over.
Narrator: Adam's off.
And what's more, with him being unable to remount [ grunting .]
Yes! Yes! Aah! Aw, shoot! Aah! He's effectively down for the count.
Okay.
I admit defeat.
I can't get back on this thing.
We found its fatal flaw.
Jamie: This thing works surprisingly well, Especially given that it's actually just improvised.
It could use some improvements, though.
I would say, first off, It'd be nice if you could use it without getting wet, Because if it's a commuter sort of thing, You don't want to have to change your clothes.
The pontoons aren't exactly streamlined, And if they were, you'd be able to go faster with less effort.
And then, last but not least, I would say steering also could be improved.
Well, that went beautifully Until I took my attention off it.
Then I went over, and there was no getting back on.
But all in all, it worked surprisingly well.
But, you know, it does give me an idea.
What's that? I think I can go one better.
By all means.
[ chuckles .]
Narrator: Adam and jamie's 2cv Is undergoing a mechanical metamorphosis.
It's starting to look like a motorcycle.
And their next tack is the steering.
Jamie: We were thinking that we were gonna have to use A tiller to steer this, Which is basically just a long stick, But those are real awkward.
Yeah! Ahh! [ panting .]
That was satisfying.
And since it has an existing steering system, I think I may just be able to jury-rig it to work, Even though now it's on the back side of the car.
[ chuckles .]
Narrator: A steering wheel on a bike may be a little unusual, But necessity is the mother of invention.
Okay.
Let's see here.
[ laughs .]
Jamie.
That works great.
It turns to the right, Better than it turns to the left, Well, so we'll just only make right-hand turns.
Hey.
[ both laugh .]
Narrator: Next, the guys check the engine controls Clutch.
Brake.
Okay, so the clutch works.
Brake works.
Before crossing their fingers and firing her up.
[ engine rattles .]
[ engine sputters .]
[ engine turns over .]
Yeah! That is badass, right there.
With the engine turning over, Jamie literally wires in the throttle.
Jamie: It's a little crude, But my throttle is this piece of baling wire.
If I put a little crimp in it, like so [ revving quickens .]
We accelerate.
When I straighten it back out [ revving slows .]
We slow down.
Ha ha! Narrator: And with that, their motorcycle is all set.
It's got two wheels, a unique drive system, Gears, brakes, steering, and suspension.
The only issue is that it takes two people to operate it -- A driver to control steering and throttle And a passenger for clutch and brakes.
So, will it work? I'm gonna start it up.
Okay.
Come on, baby.
[ engine turns over .]
[ laughs .]
For run 1, jamie will drive, But adam will first jog alongside, Changing gear as needed.
All right.
Clutch in! First gear.
Yeah! Yeah, baby! Yeah! That's a motorcycle! We're good! Whoa! Whoa! [ engine shuts off .]
ignition's out.
That was pretty cool! Narrator: Incredibly, their motorcycle did move, Even if 30 feet wasn't very far.
We're good! Whoa! Whoa! Can jamie better that benchmark in test 2? There we go.
Clutch in.
Okay.
First gear.
3, 2 Like last time Yeah! Yeah! That's a motorcycle.
Whoa! Jamie is in control, but just barely.
Agh! Stop it! Stop! [ engine shuts off .]
Brakes worked.
Hey, I used the brakes! [ both laugh .]
You were helping support it, though.
Oh, yeah.
I was helping support it, man.
I'll do anything at this point.
Jamie: So, the good news is that we've got steering, We have suspension, And we have an effective way of getting power to the wheels.
Stop it! Stop! The bad news is that you have to ride this sidesaddle.
Combined with the fact That you've got this massively heavy weight up high, And you're trying to balance it off to the side, It's effectively impossible to ride.
It's frustrating.
It is.
Because it's so beautiful.
I know! This is the most beautiful thing we have ever made.
[ laughs .]
Adam: Look, this little powderpuff here is beautiful, And it's postapocalyptic times five.
But what it's not is a viable motorcycle.
[ sighs .]
This is not the device that's gonna get you 20 kilometers From the middle of nowhere and into civilization.
Narrator: Yep, to get out of dodge [ both grunting .]
They're gonna need a plan b.
At the pool Adam: Dude! I'm on an amphibious bike! Narrator: The guys have proved This water-bottle bicycle is no photoshop fake.
Adam: This is great! Narrator: But with clear room for improvement Jamie wants to see if he can go one better.
I'm gonna be using the exact same frame That adam used on his amphibious bicycle.
Time to get to work.
Narrator: With a clean slate, Can jamie scratch-build a water bike Where failure is not an option? Jamie: There we go.
Narrator: To find out, He's starting -- like adam -- with the drive system.
That'll work.
But instead of 12 paddles, he's adding 20 Love that tool.
Narrator: For more power and more control.
Let's see how this looks.
Oh.
That's perfect.
[ chuckles .]
Narrator: For buoyancy, he's ditching the simplicity of the water jugs And going for some high-tech hydroforming.
Jamie: We take a piece of sheet metal And clamp it between two massive plates of steel.
We've cut out an almond-shaped hole in the top plate And attached our pressure-washer pump To a small hole in the bottom plate.
Now, here's the fun part.
All we do is start the pump, And the water pressure Pushes the sheet metal out the almond-shaped hole, Inflating it just like a balloon.
Ha! It's perfect.
Narrator: Jamie hydroforms eight half-hulls, Which are cut to size That's one.
Narrator: Before being paired together.
[ chuckles .]
The four resulting pontoons are not only super-streamlined That's it.
They should be super-buoyant.
[ chuckles .]
Jamie: There are a number of key differences between this bike And the one that adam built based on the photos.
Now, the first and most obvious one Is that the pontoons are tuna-shaped, Because they should move through the water with less effort, As well as provide me with better steering.
Now, secondly, I've made the back pontoons able to telescope out.
Oh, yeah.
That's perfect.
I'm hoping that the extra foot or two That I've put on these will keep me more stable.
Looks about right.
And then, of course, last but not least, I think it looks way cooler.
Narrator: Indeed.
But to see if it works, Adam's upped the ante with a head-to-head race.
Adam: Jamie and I now intend To test our amphibious commuter bikes fully.
That means land and sea.
So we've come here to beautiful horseshoe lake In fremont, california, Because it provides all the terrains Pretty much any bicycle commuter is going to encounter.
We've got a little bit of pavement, We've got some dirt roads, and right down there behind me, A beautiful, placid lake to ride our bikes upon.
But first up, jamie's gonna test his bike And make sure it actually floats.
Narrator: Jamie positions his front pontoons in the pond That's one set.
Narrator: Before spreading out the rear ones For extra stability.
[ laughs .]
Narrator: Then there's one last piece of mechanical modification -- An electrical crankshaft That lowers the paddle wheel into the water.
[ laughs .]
check that out! Narrator: And before you know it, he's away.
Jamie: It's working! Ha ha! It's working exactly as it was designed.
Narrator: Both forwards and backwards, Jamie's design is looking good -- Almost too good.
Jamie: One thing I'm wondering, though, is, It looks like one pontoon is sinking.
There may be a leak.
Aah! Narrator: If the goal was to improve on adam's design, It's hardly "mission accomplished.
" But with a competition coming up, Jamie's not going to abandon ship.
Narrator: The story goes that an ingenious engineer Turned a motorcar into a motorcycle To escape death in the desert.
But adam and jamie's design All right! Civilization, here we come! Came closer to causing death Stop it! Stop! Than preventing it.
But all is not lost Because back at the shop, The guys have unearthed a series of photos That supposedly show the real deal.
Adam: Oh, that's fascinating.
Back at the start of this episode, Jamie and I decided to build our motorcycle Without reference to these photos, And we did that partly because people say these are fake.
Oh! Same drive system! But given that our bike didn't work, We're now going to rebuild it to these specs.
The engine must be reversed.
What's interesting is that both of our design approaches, While incredibly similar -- For instance, we used the exact same drive system -- They differ in two distinct ways that may give his design A better chance of working than ours.
All right, graphics, help me out.
So, this is our bike.
Note the rack-and-pinion steering And the engine high up on the back.
It's these that made our bike hard to balance.
But the french guy not only replaced the steering wheel With a tiller system that ought to give better control, But he also lifted the engine up, spun it around, And placed it in the middle, giving the bike A much more easy-to-handle center of gravity.
But there's a problem when you flip the engine 180 degrees, And that is, the only gear You can make the bike move forward with is reverse.
And I don't know if the reverse gear Can actually make this thing move fast enough to be stable.
Narrator: To find out, It's time to turn transformers one last time.
We don't need this anymore.
Only now, They're not only following the frenchman's photos, They're also using power tools to power through.
We've already proven that we can put together something like this Using only those simple tools that the guy had.
So this time, We're gonna use whatever we have handy here in the shop, And that'll just make it go quicker.
That would've taken a while with a hacksaw.
Yeah, like a day or two.
[ laughs .]
Narrator: With a hole cut for the rear wheel Adam: Look at that.
The guys next centralize the engine.
Jamie: That looks about right.
We can lock it down about there.
And when jamie adds a steering system that seems stable Oh, my god.
Is it significant? Oh, yeah.
No problem.
[ laughs .]
The guys are confident.
I love that! But before this bike hits the road Two others are gonna have a river race-off.
Adam: This is a tale of two bicycles.
One is one whose design we found online and replicated it.
And it worked on the water far better than we thought it would.
Thus, we'd like to run it through A full set of amphibious commuter-vehicle paces.
Yeah! At the same time, that design gave jamie some ideas, And he thought he could improve upon the original.
Thus, he's completed a bike We're gonna run through the same paces To see if he has in fact succeeded at that task.
Narrator: Jamie's proof of concept started well Jamie: Ha ha! Narrator: But ended badly.
Aah! Narrator: But a quick leak fix later, And jamie's all set for a duck-pond drag race.
[ ducks quacking .]
All right.
You ready? Yeah.
Amphibious conversion, implement! [ chuckles .]
The rules are simple.
The guys must transform their bikes into water mode Okay, where's number 1 pin? There we go.
[ laughs .]
Before pedaling to a buoy and back.
Here we go! And we're off! First back to the beach boasts the best design.
[ laughs .]
Leaving hyneman in the dust.
Adam: I am happy to say that I handily beat jamie In the conversion to amphibious mode.
[ laughs .]
I'm way ahead.
I was in the water a good, probably, 60 seconds Before he was, and pedaling furiously -- As furiously as I could -- towards our buoy.
And I thought that I was gonna be able to keep up that lead.
I would say funnier things, but I'm getting tired.
But sadly, I was totally mistaken, Because once jamie started pedaling, It was really clear that his bike Was so much more hydrodynamic than mine.
Ohh! He's catching up! Ha ha! Come on.
Come on.
We've got to get some raw power.
Jamie's so much faster in the water That he quickly overtook me.
Daah! Now, I started pedaling harder, But I was in danger of skipping my chain.
And if I did, that was a guaranteed loss.
Aah! I thought this was mine! Agh! Come on.
Maybe I'll catch you upwind, jamie.
Yes.
Here we go.
So, I had to stay slow and steady.
Unfortunately, that didn't keep me A consistent distance behind jamie.
Good luck there, little buddy! He kept on outpacing me Look.
I can actually see a wake.
He's leaving a wake.
And ended up reaching the shore A good probably 3 or 4 minutes before I did Ding! And a lot less winded.
Worked like a champ.
His bike won -- handily.
Aah! Come on.
Jamie: I'm glad this turned out the way that it did, Because these shapes, even though they did take more work, Were far more streamlined.
And it was quite easy to move it through the water.
The amount of effort, due to the size of the paddles, Was lower.
It meant that I could pedal a little quicker.
It did sling a little more water up my butt, But I'll settle for that.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with how it behaved.
Adam: Well, I am impressed With the design we pulled off the internet.
I'd say it's confirmed.
Yeah, I'd say, as well.
This one worked better, but the concept is sound.
Absolutely.
All right.
If you don't mind, I'm gonna walk back to the car.
Okay.
I'll race you.
Okay.
Narrator: So, one tale of transformation is triumphant.
Will their motorcycle from motorcar Make it two for two? [bleep.]
[bleep.]
You know, over the years, Jamie and I have gotten the chance To ride on some pretty unconventional vehicles.
We've sailed in a boat made solely of duct tape Yee-haw! [ laughing .]
yeah! Driven a sports car mounted backwards on its frame [ laughs .]
Driven a truck with square wheels Ho! Oh! Hey! Heck, we've even taken a ride In the mouth of a great white shark.
How is this little puppy gonna compare To that litany of amazing vehicles? Well, you're gonna find out very soon.
Jamie and I have been investigating a very cool story About a frenchman who turned his car into a motorcycle To get him back to civilization.
Now, jamie and I turned our car into a motorcycle That is badass, right there.
Except that, well [sighs.]
we couldn't drive it.
Stop it! Stop! So we've gone back to our motorcycle, Reconfigured it to the frenchman's specs.
And now we've come back where this all began, At the alameda runway, To see just how drivable this motorcycle might be.
Narrator: After a double transformation, Their "mad max" motorcycle is on the final straight.
But will it be their ticket to ride? Jamie's up first.
The bike now feels much, much better.
But it's either gonna work or it isn't.
Hopefully, I can bail out without breaking my legs on it.
Narrator: With stable steering and a lower center of gravity Come on, baby.
[ engine turns over .]
Yeah! Yeah! This bike should be better balanced.
You feeling good? [ laughs .]
no! But with reverse gear as its only option, Will it go fast enough for a smooth ride? Here we go.
3, 2, 1 [bleep.]
[bleep.]
[ laughs .]
Whoo! Wha-- oh, no.
Dude! Well, it was sort of going.
That was going! But I got to say, that was That was actually a pretty good rpm, And it was barely enough to keep it upright.
Well, if that was your only way back to civilization, I would choose this over nothing.
I'm not so sure.
Narrator: Despite the unstable start, jamie did travel 100 feet -- Twice as far as his previous best.
But with reverse gear providing little in the way of thrust, Balance was still a beast.
Wha-- oh, no.
So, it's adam's final chance.
With the rpm cranked to the very max This thing is terrifying! Will he escape to victory? 3, 2, 1! [ grunts .]
Aah! [ engine slows, stops .]
Aah! [ groans .]
[ panting .]
[ chuckles .]
UmWow! Adam: I have ridden a lot of vehicles in my life.
This is hands down the scariest thing I've ever straddled.
Look at it this way -- I'm able to jump free, As evidenced by the film we just got, But if I didn't jump free, If I got any part of me caught under this 600 pounds of steel, I would be seriously, seriously damaged.
That's the definition of "scary.
" Narrator: With a total journey of just 150 feet [ grunts .]
Aah! It's not good news for the myth.
Argh! This one is so close.
It's right on the knife edge between busted and plausible.
But let's look at some of the parameters.
Every two-wheeled vehicle Needs a certain amount of forward speed In order to stay balanced.
And this thing -- which can only run in reverse gear, remember -- Because of the way it's mechanically driven, At full throttle, it's going at about jogging speed, Which in our tests is just not enough To keep it upright reliably.
Jamie: Look, adam and I, between the two of us, We can pretty well drive anything that moves.
But even in a perfectly flat surface like this And ideal conditions, This thing is undrivable.
Man, I went back and forth On whether this thing was gonna be plausible About six different times during that story.
But I think we agree where it ends up.
Yeah, it's busted.
It's totally busted.
Well, see you back at the shop.
All right.