---
title: "Honda Fat Shames Champion Motorcycle Racer John McGuinness"
description: "And John McGuinness thinks it’s hilarious. Because John McGuinness is the best bloke on two wheels."
date: "2016-02-01"
modified: "2016-02-01"
authors:
  - name: "Ben Keeshin"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/ben-keeshin"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/motorcycles/1969/honda-fat-shames-champion-motorcycle-racer-john-mcguinness"
categories:
  - "Motorcycles"
  - "News"
  - "The Garage"
tags:
  - "honda"
---

# Honda Fat Shames Champion Motorcycle Racer John McGuinness

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/020116-john-mcguinness-fat-hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

John McGuinness is a motorcycle racing legend. He has won the prestigious, terrifying [Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT)](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkPl3hJ3mis>)—in which racers sustain triple-digit speeds across sinuous public roads—on 23 occasions. More recently, with his long-time racing outfit, Mugen Motorsports, McGuinness made the switch to electric superbikes in the TT Zero class, where he took fastest lap with a neutron-crackling 119.28 mph average speed. But beyond being a world-class racer, McGuinness is also a Brit, with all the jolly appetite that implies. He craves a banger and loves a lager, and as such, does not have the jockey-esque physique of other competitors. He is a champion, he is a clotted-cream aficionado. He’s a bloke in all the best ways.

But, in racing, every pound matters. If engineers spend a month prying an extra 2 horsepower from an engine and, in that same month, the rider goes on a muffin binge, all that hard work goes up in… crumbs. With that reality in mind, Mugen Motorsports has made a wager with John McGuinness: Lose 10 kilos (22 pounds) by this year’s Isle of Man TT, and Mugen will set him up with gorgeous, carbon-fiber, all-electric TT zero bike for his private collection.

According to [MotorcycleNews.com](<https://www.motorcyclenews.com/sport/tt-road-races/2016/january/mcguinness-if-i-lose-10kg-mugen-will-give-me-tt-zero-bike/>), McGuinness is considering grave measures to secure the limited-edition, Shinden Yon superbike: “I worked it out though and it’s only about £8,000 for liposuction, so if I get stuck it’s a lot cheaper than losing a million quid bike!”

That may well be in jest, but the math *is* striking.

Should Honda start chastising obese families—*I’m sorry ma’am, but our models didn’t account for your family’s girth*—for killing the new Civic’s 42-mpg highway rating? Probably not. But using a zero-emissions superbike as a carrot to tempt John McGuinness, world racing champion and apparent chip enthusiast, into giving up some grub? Yeah, he can take it.

## Author
Ben Keeshin is a former staff writer for Maxim, and before that, contributed writing to the digital sides of Road & Track and Vanity Fair.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/BnKshn>)