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He’s created shockwaves by recently announcing his dramatic return to the sport that loves him so much, the Isle of Man TT, and today all-round biking hero Guy Martin has confirmed he’ll also be piloting a Mugen electric bike for the TT Zero section of the race event.
Guy is teaming up with island champ John McGuinness in the Senior event with the Honda works team, and also joins the Morecambe rider at Mugen, replacing Bruce Anstey who won the TT Zero race last year on a Mugen machine (with a 119.279mph average speed). Things are looking promising all-round, then!
Breaking new ground
As the TT Zero electric bikes relentlessly creep ever closer to the internal combustion machines, Mugen confidently claims it is expecting to break the 120mph average lap speed this year – just 14 mph off the quickest lap ever recorded. The question is: just when will the electric bikes have the grunt and stamina to tackle the petrol beasts head-on?
Mugen is a Japanese company which you may be familiar with for its Honda tuning parts or Honda F1 engines. A team statement said: “In April both riders will fly out to Tokyo where they will meet up with their 2017 TT Zero machines, Shinden Roku (Shinden 6), and the dedicated team behind the machine that is expected to break the land-mark 120mph barrier for the first time this year.
“Having been an integral part of the Mugen Shinden project since the start of the programme in 2012, for John McGuinness it will be like returning to family, and for Guy Martin it will be an introduction to the battery-powered bike that he hopes will take him to his first TT Zero victory.”
We’ll be on the crazy island in June with all the latest at the very source of the action…
