[Closed] IOM TT riders

It has to be the only major motorsport event I wouldn't want to have a go at!
Most things you think "that looks like fun" however rubbing kerbs at nearly 200mph... no thanks.

I think the passengers flinging themselves about in the sidecars are slightly unhinged as well.

I completely agree with the OP. All who participate are bonkers and have my upmost respect.

The sidecar 'ballast' men are just the most crazy. I used to watch the sidecar races at Brands Hatch and witnessed a sidecar going airborne at the end of the start/finish straight and landing upside down after spitting out the passenger. The driver then squeezed out from underneath, kicked his machine in disgust and stomped off. The crowd just clapped in awe.... they've bigger balls than most...

Regarding Sidecar monkeys I remember being on the grid at 3 sisters for a club race & the bike next to me was being warmed up by a team member. When the rider appeared I said something along the lines of 'You're cutting it fine for this one', his reply 'see all these scuffs on my leathers, they've just dragged me out from under that sidecar'! It got better after the race when the full story unfurled, he was standing in as sidecar monkey because the regular passenger hadn't turned up. The reason he hadn't turned up was because he was still in hospital from their last race! 😯

Sidecars! saw the likes of Klaus Enders & Seigfried Schauzu at Olivers Mount, way back 'in the day' on the awesome sounding BMW's.
Mad, absolutely mad.

Modern camera technology has transformed watching this stuff.

Mahoosive kahunas.

I marshalled once at a national sidecar cross MX round, saw the leader round the hairpin before my section a smidge too tight, knocking the passenger partly off but roaring up the hill out of the valley with the poor feller bouncing along behind, foot stuck in the chair - I jumped up and did some vigorous waving, can't help but think it a good job I did otherwise he'd still be towing his poor passeger along now, WFO and wondering why it wouldn't go round left handers so well. 🙂

Another sidecar one,Donington Park GP weekend in the 500 years.
After practice on Saturday they had a sidecar grasstrack meeting,well they tried to have a meet but there was so much carnage they had to abandon it as they ran out of ambulances.Those things were proper mad!! 😀

Reading Guy Martins book was an eye opener, he talks about using all the road and all the tiny changes he can make and the sense of grip. What sticks in my mind is when he said "all the road is there to be used, including the kerbs, you can berm them" 😯

Did anyone see "Road"? About the Dunlop family? It was utterly amazing. One of the most draw-dropping documentaries I've ever seen.

'Road' was my Christmas day viewing, prior to that it used to be 'TT Close to the Edge'. Both are excellent.

Thanks for the spoiler alert Boba!
Reading his book at the mo.
Sort of make sense about the kerbs as they so far leaned over it be normal contact on the tyre..... 😈
nutters the lot of them....

Sidecars the best were Webster & Hewitt. Awesome dudes.

Did anyone see connor cummins clip the kerkb earlier in the week? A proper arse twitch moment at +150 😯

If you like tt /racing books, That Near-Death Thing is a very good read.

"Did anyone see connor cummins clip the kerkb earlier in the week? A proper arse twitch moment at +150" - wasn't that Bruce Anstey or are they all doing it?

Hutchinson onto the pavement / grass in the superstock was pretty mental too. ITV4 had a clip on his big crash, recovery and showed an x ray of his leg last night, really gives some context to the talk of his comeback, horrific looking injury so an amazing achievement to even ride a bike let alone win tt's

My mate used to do the TT and the Manx Grand Prix, he has no screws loose, no insanity, he's just a normal bloke. In fact, when we used to mountain bike together it was always me who rode the scary stuff first.
As a permanent memento of his TT days he now has one leg shorter than the other and is pinned and plated on all four limbs. As he puts it, 'talent didn't match his ambition'.

Guy across the road from me runs a superbike team and is on IoM at the moment.

He gets upset if his riders come off as the cost of replacing leathers is quite high.

He used to run it all out of his garage/wet dream inducing man cave. When MrsMC wasn't working she often used to take in parcels for him, wasn't unusual to get home from work and not be able to get the bike in the garage due to a sudden influx of motorcycle chassis or shells.

I know quite a few road racers - my wedding has been planned for a weekend when there's no racing so that I have a chance of getting my best man there!

Without fail, the fast ones are not nuts, they just calculate things at a different speed to most of us!

I'm gutted not to be there right now but wedding prep has to come first this year, although seeing as my mate has had 2 DNFs this week maybe I'm not so disappointed as I'd have been pulling late nights rebuilding the bikes all week!

Also absolutely over the moon for Nuno Caetano, after getting his first ever 120+ lap in practice last week he's been consistently putting them in during the races and also broke his PB on the 600.

My mate rode passenger on sidecars at TT the last couple of years. Top 20 I think too. He's stopped racing now though. Yeah, screw that!

My dad was a sidecar guy in the seventies; he's got a 16th place IOM TT medal tucked away somewhere.

A few RON short of super unleaded those lot for sure! Hutchy almost being bucked from his bike over a jump being caught on Michael Dunlop's bike cam just as hutchy passed has to be my biggest 'oh ****!' Moment, but hutchy on the pavement and nearly the hedge, ansty tankslapping down the pavement, Dunlop doing a stoppie into a bend as he nearlyrearends ansty and many other moments have caused similar expletives. How Dunlop can ride after being taken out at speed by a back marker beats me, sore and a mind gender too. How hutchy ever got back on bike after his crash at Silverstone (?) . utter respect, I'm hooked and I don't even ride a motor bike.

Guy Martin's fireball [img] [/img]
And Conor Cummins rag doll into a field

No imagination is what I think. All I can think of is all the things that could go wrong.

Whilst some of us are here, on the IOM, stuck in work all week, I could hear the bikes racing yesterday as it was a still day(could hear the WSB lap bike yesterday just like it was outside my office window) ho hum. Brave, mad men and women. Rather them than me, etc. the Island will be dead again by Monday!!!

if you come to the TT bring your MTB - easiest way around at times....

Sidecarrists are mental at the best of times, even on normal short course track you have to be so god knows what it takes to make the TT look like a good idea. Prefer the NW for the actual racing tbh but still there's something special about the island.

I watched Road last night. Amazing documentary.

Not a big motor sport fan, but I do love the TT and supercross. Proper heart in the mouth stuff watching the clipped curbs, speed wobbles and the near misses.

I like to think that riding a mtb downhill gives you a bit of a buzz, but road racing is possibly the ultimate, I think it even gives base jumping a run for it's money.

They are all junkies. Watching Milky Quayle get so excited driving a car round the TT track just shows how passionate they are.

Ah, the TT - Proper off the scale stuff.....Love it! Makes F1 look as dull as.

My dad was a bike nut and loved the TT. I never really got it until I watched some onboard footage, and then....holy s**t

Did anyone see Bruce Anstys tank slapper earlier this week? Or Hutcys (I think) high speed detour onto the pavement yesterday? Absolutely nuts....here heeee

You really want to see them race the local roads in some of the less famous events to see how nuts they really are. The TT is a billiard table smooth, 4 lane motorway in comparison and of course it's a time trial - not a proper race 😆

First road race I went to was Skerries, the circuit is sort of rectangular-ish - only 1 side of the rectangle is wide enough to have a white line down the middle 8O. The IOM is nowhere near as good from a spectating point of view as most of the Irish races, and you don't have to book your ferry a year in advance!

Stan Dibben our world champion - still around too.

watch this

read this ‘Hold On’ by Stan Dibben is published by Panther Publishing, ISBN 0955659515 its an ebook too - really great stories and definitely worth a look

Lifelong biker, grew up around them, always owned and ridden em and currently got an R1. Never been to TT and never will, as I can't enjoy something where people regularly die, regardless of them being aware of the dangers and making the choice. Went to school with David Jefferies 🙁

Wet blanket but offering a counterpoint.

Euro - Member
You really want to see them race the local roads in some of the less famous events to see how nuts they really are. The TT is a billiard table smooth, 4 lane motorway in comparison and of course it's a time trial - not a proper race
POSTED 2 HOURS AGO #

Tell me this isnt a serious comment

Seems perfectly serious to me. Some of the minor Irish road races use some very very iffy roads.

Crashtestmonkey +1 That's why I've never been.

I remember watching Irish real road racing years ago and thinking these guys are mental! Forward a few years and started short circuit racing won a championship,then thought I'd go and give the roads a try, Went to the cookstown 100 was shiting it at the start but absolutely loved it! The atmosphere and craic were brilliant only thing was it ruined my short circuit racing as never got the same buzz, So just spent a couple of years doing The Irish rounds I could afford. Was never going to set the scene on fire but did do okay with small budget. Sometimes things look mental but it dos'nt feel like that when riding as you are just concentrating so hard, Eventually decided to pack it in as started thinking about the kids if anything happened to me, Hence the reason I never done the manx, You have to be a bit selfish to do it if you have family I'm afraid! Saying that I will be back there in August to pit for a mate again. If any of you guys have not been to some of the Irish rounds they are well worth a visit to spectate, Cookstown, Tandragee, Armoy etc are all better than the northwest 200 in my opinion

As several have said the Irish road racing is proper mental and the Skerries have riders winging past inches from your feet on roads that tractors were using half an hour before the first race. Well worth a trip over to any of these races.

Never been to IoM but the racing is unbelievable and they have my fear and respect in equal measure. Not sure about the increase of onbike footage as it really brings home the dangers and how lucky crashers are, which will only mean the likelihood of a ban increases.

Michael Dunlop is good, but I think he's running a 45amp fuse when the others are on a 13 amp (I'd be a 3 amp!). He seems to over-ride more than the others and happy he had an off that he was ok from, but it's been coming. (Yes, I know there was interference from a back marker)

Had a shot as a passenger on a 1100 side car for three laps on a short track and came off exhausted and arms aching. No idea how they have the stamina for that far!

[b]Swelper - Member [/b]

'Euro - Member
You really want to see them race the local roads in some of the less famous events to see how nuts they really are. The TT is a billiard table smooth, 4 lane motorway in comparison and of course it's a time trial - not a proper race'

[b]Tell me this isnt a serious comment[/b]

Of course it's serious. The TT is awesome but it's a time trial. Proper road racing involves a mass start, with maybe several groups of 20 or so riders racing to the first corner and jostling the whole way round the circuit. It's proper mental and you can get as close to the action as you dare. The North West is the biggest sporting event over here, but it's the Grand National of road racing calendar. The likes of the UGP (Dundrod - the fastest race in the world), Armoy (bloody great roads round that part of the country), Cookstown, Tandragee, Skerries etc are a fantastic spectacle for diehard road race fans.

I'm guessing you haven't been to any of these?

Edit: Nice one Robbie, you've probably flew inches past my face at some point 😀

Back in almost another lifetime I planned on racing the TT, obviously you have to race the ManxGP first, but before going to the Manx you need a National Licence.

The problem with this is to get a Clubman licence and lose you Nov bib you have to complete 10 race meetings.... then to get to National you need 10 completed meetings but at a certain finishing position, which used to be top 50% of finishers...

When trying to get to my national licence, not only did I find it was exceptionally hard to get that... but even if I did, I simply wasn't good enough to get to the Manx and do myself or indeed the course any justice at all.

I had an amazing day over at the Island once upon a time watching Dave Jefferies passing on Bray Hill and sharing a beer and burger with Robert Dunlop. It was amazing..

Still saddens me to this day I wasn't good enough a racer.