John McGuinness rides Honda’s electric race bike

“The bike was, as you would expect from a company such as Mugen, a well-designed and well put together proper race bike,” stated 17 time Isle of Man TT winner John McGuinness shortly after his first ride aboard the Mugen Shinden. “As soon as I got underway it felt natural and I almost forgot it was fully electric while I was also learning the Twin Ring Motegi circuit for the first time.”

“We are very happy with the performance of the Mugen Shinden at this first major test for the bike,” continued Team Mugen Principal Satoshi Katsumata. “The package performed as expected and, despite some unseasonal weather on day one, we were able to run through our planned programme and collect some very valuable data. Of course having a rider with such experience as John McGuinness, and the unique TT-specific feedback he is able to give us is a tremendous boost to the team and the whole Team Mugen TT programme.”

The Shinden, “Electric God,” uses what appears to be a very similar motor and locates it identically to last year’s Honda RC-E concept. This arrangement is unique to the Shinden and RC-E, other electric superbikes like the Mission R and MotoCzysz E1pc position the motor in a similar location, but don’t use it as the swingarm pivot. Having said that, the race bike develops a far healthier 121bhp and 162lb/ft. The Mugen also uses that motor to connect the swingarm to the twin-spar frame, with the swingarm pivoting on the motors center. But here, that frame and swingarm are carbon fiber. Bodywork and suspension are unique to the Mugen, but, extrapolating the motor’s size, the whole package appears to be in similar proportion to the Honda concept. Mugen is a japanese race team and tuning company that’s long existed as sort of a Skunk Works-like, external R&D company for Honda. Having said all that, there’s no public link between Honda and the Shinden. On the other hand, McGuinness is contracted, in ICE racing, to the Honda TT Legends team and Motegi belongs to the giant manufacturer.

No lap times were forthcoming.