John McGuinness is a famous man in the world of motorcycle racing. He holds an impressive 131.671-mile per hour lap record on the Isle of Man and 20 wins. While motorcycle racing fans should take not of this accomplishment, he’s also just set another milestone, the fastest track record for the TT Zero. This is a special Isle of Man racing category for electric motorcycles.
Keep in mind the Isle of Man is no ordinary track since it is not technically a race track. The legendary race circuit is made of public roads on the small Isle of Man island off the British coast. The track is famous for being small, tight, and extremely hard even for seasoned motorcycle riders or drivers to navigate. Still McGuinness wowed onlookers as he was able to ride Honda’s Mugen Shinden, meaning “God of Electricity” in Japanese, through 37 miles of difficult twists and turns.
This amazing electric motorcycle track record on the Isle of Man gave the Mugen Shinden bike the win for the TT Zero class this year. More importantly this puts Honda on the map for electric motorcycles. Race wins and records are always good PR for companies. Does this mean the Japanese conglomerate might be building and selling electric motorcycles to the public soon? Possibly, but currently there are only 2 copies of the Mugen Shiden and they will be getting shipped back to Japan. We can only hope that Honda will offer a tuned-down street legal version at some point.
If you want to watch John McGuinness’s mind blowing fast lap around the Isle of Man, you can watch it right here. FYI, the video is almost 20 minutes so you better get a beer.
TT legend John McGuinness won his 21st TT race on Wednesday morning when he took the SES TT Zero race in record-breaking style. Riding the Mugen Shinden, McGuinness was always in the lead and with a stunning new lap record of 117.366mph, he came home 23.3s clear of team-mate Bruce Anstey. Rob Barber, on the Ohio State University Buckeye machine, took third.
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