King of the (data) Mountain

Why is John McGuinness so fast around the TT? Is it the 21-time TT winner’s track knowledge? Is it his bravery or bike skills? Just how much faster is the legend compared to a normal rider?

All these questions are asked every year with the sure knowledge that we’re unlikely to ever get demonstrable answers. But maybe those answers are finally within our grasp.

MCN have teamed up with EMC, an American data acquisition and analysis giant, to see if you really can measure genius. Volunteering our own Senior Road Tester and TT rider Adam ‘Chad’ Child as the control, EMC then equipped both John and Chad with a full ‘data suit’ that measured all the rider’s physical data in real time, while also measuring the bike’s performance, and GPS tracking this all to lap times and track position.

The team worked in close partnership with Alpinestars and Freescale Semiconductor to collect the data, and after two days of exhaustively lapping the Monteblanco race track, we can finally see where the differences exist. For the first time ever we can see what TT legend John is actually doing on the bike, how much lean he carries, what his throttle inputs are, what gears he’s using, how fast his heart is beating, and much more.

“For 25 years I’ve known I was fast,” says McGuinness. “Fast in the corners; even faster on the straights. 200 miles an hour. What happens to my body at that speed? My brain? My reactions? Where any mistake could be my last. Yeah, I’ve always known I was fast—but I’ve never known why—until now.”

The first results from the test can be seen on the EMC Moreambe Missile microsite, and you can read a full feature about this incredible research in the April 22 issue of MCN.