The Isle of Man TT is still two months away, but Team Mugen is looking ready to make it a three-peat in the TT Zero electric race. Mugen’s 2016 bike is called the Shinden Go, and while “go” might be Japanese for “five” the name is very appropriate for the electric superbike.
Many expect Mugen to break the 120 mph lap barrier at the Isle of Man TT, especially since John McGuinness came extremely close to the mark last year, with a 119.279 mph lap.
Caught testing in Japan this month, here are our first glimpses of the Mugen Shinden Go, with test rider Hikaru Miyagi on-board at the Tsukuba Circuit (above) and Sodegaura Forest Raceway (photos after the jump).
We won’t have move information about the Mugen Shinden Go until this weekend’s Tokyo Motorcycle Show, but from these photos we can see a few noticeable changes.
The most obvious change is the the shape of the carbon fiber swingarm, which looks to have a more “box” design and has been mounted higher up in the Shinden Go’s chassis than it predecessors. The width of the swingarm beam also looks to be reduced, which should help with unsprung weight.
The tail section also looks cleaner, and lacks the noticeably protruding box o’battery that was visible on the Shinden Yon. Otherwise, the visible changes to the fairings appear to be less obvious. We would expect to hear that the critical changes to 2016 have taken place underneath the fairings, though.
We would also expect to hear that Mugen is looking for advantages anywhere the company can find them, which brings us to the fact that Mugen has even enticed John McGuinness to lose 10kg, saying that if he did so, the British rider could have one of the TT-winning bikes.
Photos: Team Mugen
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