Hooli,

But that’s the thrill and the joy of the road circuits. Both for riders, TV and spectators.

Don’t know much about motorbikes. Where do these top TT riders race/earn a living for the rest of the year?

Loved Bruce’s lap – cocking it up & getting pegged back by slower riders & still gets lap record 🙂 – 132mph in a straight line is quite enough for me thanks

Normal jobs, most of them. Dan Stewart works in a motorcycle dealership. Guy Martin spanners trucks though probably doesn’t have to these days with the telly work. John McGuiness races short circuits.
Chapeau to the guys like Wade Boyd who’s been going for years from the US and has never finished in the top half! It’s a way of life for some.

A friend of a friend died last month at the North West 200.

When googling to read the story I stumbled across footage from the race. There are very very few things that I truly wish I could remove completely from my memory, but that is one 🙁 Really wish I hadn’t seen it.

I get a real buzz out of watching road based events, I can only imagine what it feels like to race them. But the risk involved, for me anyway, would mean I’d probably stick to the track!

i remember back in the 80s, when the bbc strapped a camera onto the tank of joey dunlops honda vfr, they asked him how he handled the speed and he explained ‘you say its fast, but it it doesnt seem that fast to me, because im used to it’
or words to that effect, it was a long time ago.
i reckon its partly just a matter of getting used to it.
when i was younger, if on a motorway i would drive at about 80mph, rarely going any faster, just like my dad.
nowadays, conditioned by a 62mph speed limiter on the bus, i rarely touch 70mph in the car, it feels quick to me now.

I think a lot of people see these vids and don’t realise the progression involved to get to that level.

I remember selling a 2003 Aprilia RSV Mille which I was pretty handy on and bought a 2004 Kawasaki zx10r. It took a couple of weeks for my brain to get used to the higher acceleration. Blurred peripheral vision and a giddyness were common.

Road racing is about the only thing in life that blows my skirt up.

Guy Martin is averaging a higher speed there than I would get to if I jumped out of an aeroplane.

When it doesn’t go quite so well!!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DS4S5gyWEqM

Or this one

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sL8YXQDLzVc

Martymac, I think that’s from V four Victory. Another film worth watching to appreciate what goes on in these guys’ heads is The Road Racers, from the 80s.

I used to do a bit of pure roads racing but never went to the island. Fast as my old 250 was, I cannot get my head round lapping at those speeds.

I remember an interview with Bradley Smith when he moved from Moto2 to MotoGP, the first thing he had to learn was to think faster, only then could he learn how to get the most from the bike.

They really do have different brains to most of us, but they obviously have to train those synapses as well as the body.

Watched the onboard clip of Anstey’s too, and it just blows my mind. Followed bike racing for years but never the TT in much detail, but I just can’t get over how on the limit they are. It’s nuts – you wouldn’t have a hope of proposing something like that now, but for as long as people want to do it, I reckon they should.

It’s not for me, though – I know I ain’t got the minerals for that.

weeksy – Member
Hooli,

But that’s the thrill and the joy of the road circuits. Both for riders, TV and spectators.

Agreed, I always enjoy watching moto GP but when TT comes around, going back to moto GP is just not the same…

@peterfile – Simon Andrews? I’ve heard it was bad and I’ve seen the stills but I don’t want to watch it, he was one of the one’s I felt like I knew from the TT Legends series he did last year. I was gutted when I saw he’s passed away.

I love the TT, just been listening to the build up on the radio, mild panic when a truck spilled a load of cow shoot at Ramsey Hairpin, you don’t get that on the Moto GP 😆

prawny – yup.

He slides past the camera at some speed, hits a kerb, which sends him flying. Horrible. The sound is not something I’ll forget in a hurry.

Enough to put me off wanting a bike.

Nothing would put me off having a bike.

But

Nothing would make me go racing, especially on the roads. Thank god there are plenty that do want to, I’d miss it if it wasn’t on.

I’d have loved to have been part of the memorial lap for Simon at the weekend, that must have been awesome.

Nothing would make me go racing

I’d race again tomorrow if money/circumstances allowed

I’m a wuss.

Edit – I bloody love motorbike racing though. And car racing for that matter. And mountain and road bikes.

A spectator saw a nut come off Guy Martins bike, contacted a marshall who black flagged him. Sure enough a front wheel nut was missing from Guys bike – what incredible eyesight. 😯