Report by Ed Smith from Falcon Cycles…
The Lincolnshire based rider who currently holds the record for the fastest lap of the TT course from a standing start, regularly turns out for night rides around his local woods.
“The Soul is a proper bike for the type of riding which our trails offer. Lincolnshire probably isn’t the first place you’d think of for mountain biking, but we’ve got a good group of regulars and we can string a good variety of tracks together for a 1 1/2 to 2 hour ride a couple of times a week. The combination of riding at night with some twisty and undulating singletrack thrown in, makes ideal preparation for racing and keeps me sharp in the off season”
He added,”I’d borrowed a Soul from another lad (Ed) who rides with us, coz I’d been riding a 6″ full susser, which I was pretty quick on, but the difference now I’m on the Soul is like night and day. It’s just mega!”
Guy also rides and races downhill at weekends to keep fit and focussed, and has had additional help from another great British company, Hope Technology. Hope had spotted him on last years TT coverage being interviewed off the bike in a pair of Hope downhill shorts, whilst many of the other teams were in full corporate gear for TV appearances!
Guy Martin is a true one off and it is his honest and laid back attitude to his sport and preparation make him one of the real characters of the sport as well as a real talent. If it was ever in doubt, check out his self comentated lap of the island in the YouTube vid below:
Guy and his Hydrex Honda team will be gunning for TT victory later in the year, after a string of unfortunate mechanicals left him dissapointed last year. You can follow his progress on guymartinracing.co.uk
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let’s hope this year he beats McGuinness and wins the Senior 🙂
That video is mental!!!
Guy’s an absolute star, lets hope his bike stays together this year! comes across as one of the most down to earth racers out there. His page in Performance Bikes is the best bit of the mag. Good luck to him!
Bring your mtb to the TT this year Guy. We’ll take you round some of the awsome tracks around the IOM 🙂
‘telemtry said…..about 207mph …..and thats fast enough’ – no joking there then, that is one amazing vid and I’m not a biker……
When I first started watching it i thought it had had a touch of fast forward applied – then I saw the lap timer
I defy anybody to watch that all the way through without rocking their head from side to side as if you’re on board, cannot be done , not ever. I reckon if I watch it another 6 times though, I’ll have that lap nailed.
Hmm, having been round the TT course on reasonably quick bike that was fookin’ great! Shame it didn’t go to the fastest bit on the Mountain. It looks smooth on film but it isn’t!!
The linked vid is part 1 of 2, between them they cover the whole lap. There’s nowhere like the TT, and Guy is definitely one of it’s most endearing characters. He talks like that all the time, he did a charity night in town a couple of years ago and once he starts…. 🙂
Woo, he’s good on a bike, not very good on names….:-)