Rusty
Well-Known Member
Well I returned on Friday after a week long trip to the Isle Of Man to watch the TT races and I managed to get a few pictures along the way!
The trip started out with a 210 mile motorway trek to Liverpool to catch the ferry across to the island. I stopped once on the way to meet up with a couple of friends who were heading over there for the week too!
We arrived on the Island at about 22:00 and paid a trip to the Fairy Bridge to say hello to the fairies! It's a superstition with lot of riders, racers included, that you should always stop by the bridge and ask the fairies to look after you when you're there! Before you leave the Island, you're supposed to go by and thank them for looking after you if you had a safe stay! If it's good enough for John McGuinness, it's good enough for me!
From the Bridge, it was off to my friends place where we were staying for the week for a catch up, a couple of beers and an early night :icon_beer:
The following morning, I was up at around 05:30 and straight out onto the bike for a lap of the Mountain Course. I've visited the TT a few times and seen numerous laps on videos but this was the first time I'd visited with the bike so the first lap was somewhat of an eye-opener!
It's difficult to describe the course but basically it consists of 37.73 miles of public roads snaking through various towns and villages, theres not a section of the course which is track-type smooth tarmac! Some sections, especially from Ginger Hall to Ramsey, are so bumpy that you feel like it's gonna shake the fillings out of your teeth. The roads have speed limits through the towns and villages but once you're out into the open, the speeds are unrestricted. To ensure safety, the mountain section of the course is also made one-way for the duration of the TT so there's no oncoming traffic to deal with. This along with the lack of a speed limit is mind-blowing :wow:
So, off i went on the first lap, filled with a little trepidation. Thankfully the early start paid off as there wasn't much traffic on the road of the car or bike variety so it gave me a chance to get used to the course. From watching videos in the past, I had a basic idea of which direction the track went in but that was all! I managed my first lap without incident and felt totally exhilarated by the time I returned to the grandstand so I decided to go round again
Later that day, the roads were closed for the final practice session so we headed down to Braddan Church to watch, but i forgot my camera
Saturday was the first race day, so yet again, I was up for an early start at 05:00 to get a couple of laps in before breakfast, three laps later and I'd made it back with 5 minutes to spare before the roads were closed for racing and I got somewhat stuck for the next few hours!
Saturday saw the Superbike race and the first Sidecar race.
The racing was incredible, our viewing spot at Gorse Lea was out of this world, we were sat on a two foot high wall with the bikes passing us at speeds of 120-130mph about 3 feet away from us....absolutely out of this world! I don't have a video camera so had to use and iPhone instead, but this clip of the Sidecar race gives you some idea!
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH9CFyQStS4"]YouTube- TT 2010 Sidecar Race 1[/ame]
The following morning was Mad Sunday where basically, most the bikers go and lap the course. It's usually absolute mayhem with more than it's fair share of accidents, some serious, some not so. I was up early again for an early couple of laps but this was cut short when the mountain road was closed on my second lap as someone had fired their bike into the scenery. This was to become an all too common theme for the week.
Basically I managed to follow the same routine pretty much every day I was on the Island, up early, a couple of laps then either watch the racing or go and do some exploring of the Island.
In total I rode about 14 laps of the Mountain Course uninterrupted with about 4 or 5 laps getting aborted due to road closures. My total for the week was just over 1200 miles which was getting somewhat uncomfortable near the end due to the lack of wind protection.
I managed to get a little more footage of the racing during the second Supersport race. These guys were absolutely flat stick, stretching the throttle cables as they passed us here.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_96PSaCmiOI"]YouTube- TT 2010 Supersport Race[/ame]
Bike packed up and ready to go.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Mine and the Guys bikes at the house.
Keith Amor in the Superbike Race
Connor Cummins in the Superbike Race
Guy Martin in the Superbike Race
Ian Hutchinson in the Supersport Race 1 going through Quarterbridge. He went on to win 5 out of 5 races during the week!
Jostling for positon through Quarterbridge!
The TT is and exceptionally dangerous race and the riders deserve the upmost respect for what they do, sadly it doesn't always go to plan. This year, there was two competitors killed during the Supersport 2 Race, Paul Dobbs from New Zealand and Martin Loicht from Austria, Three other competitors, Guy Martin, Connor Cummins and Karsten Schmidt were all quite seriously injured in separate accidents as well.
Sadly, what should have been an awesome biking holiday ended on somewhat of a low note when returning from the ferry terminal in Liverpool. After joining the motorway for the trip back to london, a guy ahead of me on a Blackbird lost control of his bike and hit the central reservation barrier. I stopped and assisted along with an A+E department nurse and later on an A+E Consultant Doctor who were both passing by, despite our best efforts, the blackbird rider passed away, it would appear that it was pretty much instant for the guy.
Needless to say, it was a very sombre ride home after that.
The trip started out with a 210 mile motorway trek to Liverpool to catch the ferry across to the island. I stopped once on the way to meet up with a couple of friends who were heading over there for the week too!
We arrived on the Island at about 22:00 and paid a trip to the Fairy Bridge to say hello to the fairies! It's a superstition with lot of riders, racers included, that you should always stop by the bridge and ask the fairies to look after you when you're there! Before you leave the Island, you're supposed to go by and thank them for looking after you if you had a safe stay! If it's good enough for John McGuinness, it's good enough for me!
From the Bridge, it was off to my friends place where we were staying for the week for a catch up, a couple of beers and an early night :icon_beer:
The following morning, I was up at around 05:30 and straight out onto the bike for a lap of the Mountain Course. I've visited the TT a few times and seen numerous laps on videos but this was the first time I'd visited with the bike so the first lap was somewhat of an eye-opener!
It's difficult to describe the course but basically it consists of 37.73 miles of public roads snaking through various towns and villages, theres not a section of the course which is track-type smooth tarmac! Some sections, especially from Ginger Hall to Ramsey, are so bumpy that you feel like it's gonna shake the fillings out of your teeth. The roads have speed limits through the towns and villages but once you're out into the open, the speeds are unrestricted. To ensure safety, the mountain section of the course is also made one-way for the duration of the TT so there's no oncoming traffic to deal with. This along with the lack of a speed limit is mind-blowing :wow:
So, off i went on the first lap, filled with a little trepidation. Thankfully the early start paid off as there wasn't much traffic on the road of the car or bike variety so it gave me a chance to get used to the course. From watching videos in the past, I had a basic idea of which direction the track went in but that was all! I managed my first lap without incident and felt totally exhilarated by the time I returned to the grandstand so I decided to go round again
Later that day, the roads were closed for the final practice session so we headed down to Braddan Church to watch, but i forgot my camera
Saturday was the first race day, so yet again, I was up for an early start at 05:00 to get a couple of laps in before breakfast, three laps later and I'd made it back with 5 minutes to spare before the roads were closed for racing and I got somewhat stuck for the next few hours!
Saturday saw the Superbike race and the first Sidecar race.
The racing was incredible, our viewing spot at Gorse Lea was out of this world, we were sat on a two foot high wall with the bikes passing us at speeds of 120-130mph about 3 feet away from us....absolutely out of this world! I don't have a video camera so had to use and iPhone instead, but this clip of the Sidecar race gives you some idea!
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH9CFyQStS4"]YouTube- TT 2010 Sidecar Race 1[/ame]
The following morning was Mad Sunday where basically, most the bikers go and lap the course. It's usually absolute mayhem with more than it's fair share of accidents, some serious, some not so. I was up early again for an early couple of laps but this was cut short when the mountain road was closed on my second lap as someone had fired their bike into the scenery. This was to become an all too common theme for the week.
Basically I managed to follow the same routine pretty much every day I was on the Island, up early, a couple of laps then either watch the racing or go and do some exploring of the Island.
In total I rode about 14 laps of the Mountain Course uninterrupted with about 4 or 5 laps getting aborted due to road closures. My total for the week was just over 1200 miles which was getting somewhat uncomfortable near the end due to the lack of wind protection.
I managed to get a little more footage of the racing during the second Supersport race. These guys were absolutely flat stick, stretching the throttle cables as they passed us here.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_96PSaCmiOI"]YouTube- TT 2010 Supersport Race[/ame]
Bike packed up and ready to go.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Mine and the Guys bikes at the house.
Keith Amor in the Superbike Race
Connor Cummins in the Superbike Race
Guy Martin in the Superbike Race
Ian Hutchinson in the Supersport Race 1 going through Quarterbridge. He went on to win 5 out of 5 races during the week!
Jostling for positon through Quarterbridge!
The TT is and exceptionally dangerous race and the riders deserve the upmost respect for what they do, sadly it doesn't always go to plan. This year, there was two competitors killed during the Supersport 2 Race, Paul Dobbs from New Zealand and Martin Loicht from Austria, Three other competitors, Guy Martin, Connor Cummins and Karsten Schmidt were all quite seriously injured in separate accidents as well.
Sadly, what should have been an awesome biking holiday ended on somewhat of a low note when returning from the ferry terminal in Liverpool. After joining the motorway for the trip back to london, a guy ahead of me on a Blackbird lost control of his bike and hit the central reservation barrier. I stopped and assisted along with an A+E department nurse and later on an A+E Consultant Doctor who were both passing by, despite our best efforts, the blackbird rider passed away, it would appear that it was pretty much instant for the guy.
Needless to say, it was a very sombre ride home after that.
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