VOL. 52 ISSUE 49 DECEMBER 8, 2015 P59
R
acing improves the breed,
right? Yet the ever-
increasing performance
of E-Superbikes has until now
been almost exclusively driven
by the success of American
companies in the world's ma-
jor E-races—whether it's four-
time TT-winner MotoCzysz,
U.S. TTXGP victor Mission
Motors, World Land Speed
E-record holder and overall
Pike's Peak winner Lightning
Motorcycles, or Polaris Corp.
with its gearbox-equipped
Victory (a.k.a. Brammo) U.S.
Champion, now a TT Zero
contender. In the absence of
Italy's Energica Ego from the
racetrack altogether, it's taken
Japan's Mugen to finally break
the American dominance of
this increasingly less arcane
competition sector by posting
1-2 finishes at both the last two
Isle of Man TT Zero events,
courtesy of Kiwi Bruce Anstey,
runner-up each time, and his
victorious teammate John
McGuinness.
The chance to ride John
McGuinness's TT Zero-winning
Mugen Shinden Yon came on
a glorious Japanese autumn
day at Honda's Motegi race
circuit, although sadly not the
full GP layout, but a shorter
version used for testing by a
variety of companies other
than Honda affiliates—we had
to finish up promptly to let the
waiting Suzuki MotoGP team
take their turn on the track!
But this shorter segment
did have a couple of straights
which allowed full exploitation
of the impressive aerodynamic
qualities of the Shinden Yon
Despite a solid
550 pounds to
push around, the
Mugen is still a
very potent race
machine.
SPARK OF
INSPIRATION
