New home for motorcycling hero’s futuristic electric superbike
Motorcycling legend John McGuinness has loaned a record-breaking electric superbike to the Lakeland Motor Museum’s ever-expanding collection of two wheeled speed machines.
Known as the ‘Morecambe Missile’, John was the first man in the TT’s illustrious history to break the 130mph lap record and is the second most successful Isle of Man TT racer of all time (the late great Joey Dunlop has 26 TT victories).
John already loans five motorcycles with Isle of Man history to the Lakeland Motor Museum, as part of a special exhibition marking the astonishing achievements of riders taking on the challenge of the TT. Last week he made a surprise visit to the Backbarrow attraction to deliver his 2014 TT Zero winning Shinden San / Team Mugen electric bike, which will now take pride of place in the TT exhibition.
The electric powered Isle of Man TT race is known as TT Zero and was introduced in 2010. In 2014 John McGuinness raised the lap record for an electric bike by nearly 8mph – to 117.366 mph - on this very machine.
To keep the overall weight of this record breaking race bike as low as possible, the Shinden San is built mainly from carbon fibre and tips the scales at around 240kg. This futuristic superbike also has oil coiling to the electric motor and water cooling for the batteries.
Manager of the Lakeland Motor Museum, Chris Lowe, says, “The museum has a long-standing relationship with John McGuinness and we are very pleased he has again chosen to loan us one of his record-breaking race bikes. The name of the bike - Shinden San - literally relates to the god of lightening in Japanese, and this new addition to our collection will certainly give visitors the chance to admire an amazing futuristic electric racing bike.”
In total, there are now more than 80 motorcycles on display at the Lakeland Motor Museum, including a collection of rare Vincent motorbikes from the 1930s, 40s and 50s. See some featured exhibits here.
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