2012 saw British motorcycle racer, John McGuiness, take his 19th win at the Isle of Man TT. His sponsor, Monster Energy, put together this tribute video for him emphasizing just how special of an accomplishment his collection of wins is. McGuiness also placed second in the TT Zero on the Mugen Shinden electric motorcycle this year.
I think if I ever get around to starting a motorcycle project, it’ll be something pretty similar to this one. I’m a big guy, so I would need a larger dual-sport bike for proper ergonomics but I would still want it to be sporty. Carlos Roscio and his brother spent two years transforming a 2003 Ducati Multistrada into the machine you see in the pictures. They did a fantastic job bringing out what makes Cafe Racers/Streetfighters so beautiful. Everything is there purely for function and what’s not needed has been removed. The bike looks better because of what’s not there. Definitely head over to Asphalt and Rubber to see the rest of the pictures of the bike.
This year was a significant one for the Isle of Man TT Zero electric motorcycle time trial. It was the first year an electric motorcycle broke the 100 mph average lap speed otherwise known as the “ton lap.” In fact, all three riders on the podium were able to achieve ton laps. The all new MotoCzysz Ep1c took first and third and the Mugen Shinden placed second at it’s debut race.
Asphalt and Rubber was able to get a good look at the Mugen Shinden at the Isle of Man TT. Mugen is the Honda factory tuning company that was founded by Soichiro Honda’s son. It’s thought the racing program for the Honda electric motorcycle was put under the Mugen brand so that it wouldn’t tarnish Honda’s reputation if it were to be a failure. A&R is reporting that most of the bike is carbon fiber and the battery pack makes up over half of its weight which is good evidence that it won’t be a failure. Head over to Asphalt and Rubber to see the rest of the pictures.
Icon Motorsports posted this video about Canadian motorcycle drag racing champion Ethan Barkley. He rides a 2006 Suzuki GSX-R1000 that’s been turbocharged to 500 horsepower.