Mugen TT bike at Cadwell Park

John McGuinness tests the Mugen TT Zero machine at Cadwell Park

Posted: 25 May 2012
by Visordown News

17-time TT winner tests Mugen electric racer at Cadwell Park

JOHN McGUINNESS was out testing his Mugen electric bike at Cadwell on Tuesday and posted a couple of pictures on Twitter to show its progress.

While the bike looks much the same as it did when first unveiled and is the definitive version that will be raced at the TT this year (Mugen had two of them at Cadwell, the racer and a spare), Mugen itself was simultaneously testing another of the machines in Japan.

The Japanese version, finished entirely in carbon fibre, shows off the bike's carbon chassis more clearly, revealing it to be a true monocoque design where the bodywork and frame are one and the same. You can see a full gallery of the pictures here.

If, as suspected, this bike has more than a little Honda in its DNA, we could be looking forward to some seriously good electric racing in the near future. Just as many – like Casey Stoner – are mourning the fact that MotoGP appears to be moving away from the pure prototype formula, it seems that electric race bikes are becoming the testbeds for some of the more interesting technological ideas...

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john mcguinness, cadwell park, tt, tt zero, cadwell park, test, mugen, electric racer

Discuss this story

J S 8

it seems that electric race bikes are becoming the testbeds for some of the more interesting technological ideas...

Like what? I still see telescopic forks and chain drive being used, hardly revolutionary.

Oh, and one other thing Visor Down, there's something wrong with your security image input requirement - I type the code correctly first time-every time but I always get the "The text you have entered does not match the text in the security image" message.

Posted: 25/05/2012 at 19:10

MKJ

Yeh JS8..! Because a full carbon fibre perimeter monocoque chassis is so common on modern racing motorcycles it’s almost passé. I mean, since Honda first tried it on the NR500 GP bike in 1979 it’s become almost de rigueur, used on nearly... uuum...(?) no bikes in the intervening 33 years.

Really, to claim that a bike isn’t using innovative technology because it has telescopic front suspension and a link chain rear drive is nearly as silly as saying it can’t be innovative because it still has round wheels and rubber tyres.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been a lover of unorthodox front suspension solutions for as long as I can remember, and would dearly love to see them make some kind of high profile return to modern racing. But it’s not the be-all and end-all of alternative motorcycle technology, and (this being a Mugen/Honda bike) I’d be willing to make a pretty hefty bet that a full monocoque carbon fibre chassis is literally just the surface of the innovative tech incorporated into this “conventional” motorcycle.

Posted: 26/05/2012 at 11:53