I previously raced motorcycles and have thought about getting one again. The problem is, I would either buy a collector bike or build a cafe racer.. both of which I would not probably ride on the street that much. The reality is, the racing itch is coming back... and the wife isn't overly happy about it. I have a bucket list and Isle of Man is on it. At one time, I wanted to go "race" it.. knowing I wouldn't be competitive but just to do it. Now I just want to see it live. I was watching some video's last night before going to bed.. and found this one which is so true if you've raced for any period of time.. and lost someone. Every time you put on the helmet, for me the 10 minutes before (especially motorcycle racing) was focus time. Then when the green flag fell, nothing else matters. I thought this was a good video of the pro's and con's. Especially this race. It's actually a PR video. That said, it does a good job of capturing the life of racing or following a dangerous passion. For those who don't know Isle of Man... or those who know what it's like to have a knee on the ground at 140 MPH... here is a Guy Martin lap of Isle of Man... enjoy. Per Ernest Hemingway “There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.” He also had the quote, which I also agree with: “Gradually and then suddenly.” Curious if anyone knows that one...
That is quite the place & one must have huge skill & passion to do that. I'm in awe of those guys. How they do it I'll never know. Very large attachments on those racers.
Great video. It's an amazing race. U.S. would never hold a race like that as someone dies bout every year and then after the race they let the general public run the course and again someone dies every year, but for that little country it is like 70% of their income for the year, is generated from the race... They even run side cars out there and that is cool to watch...
100% Agree - US would never allow that or even the Targa Newfoundland I don't think.. here is a video of a MINI running that: Isle - is also a grey area "tax" haven for the UK or EU (can't remember if it's both)... that they are now taking a position on. From what I understand at least in the UK, they are going back and charging folks back taxes even if they spent the "required" amount of time there. Either way, they have this and car races there... it's just crazy.
I think the reason an open road race like that would never happen in the US is the roads. No one would put up with their roads being closed. In a past life I helped organize a Pro Rally here in Ohio. Every year it got harder to get road use permits even though we used mostly state forest roads. Eventually it just became impossible. Sad day when that happened.
When I was in highschool, I worked at a gas station, my boss, who was also the mechanic, traded a tape recorder for a BSA Goldstar 500, that had been prepared by the factory to compete in the Isle of Man TT. It had all the documentation and logs that proved it genuine. My boss started it and went for a quick ride About an hour later he came back pushing it! I asked him if it broke down, he said, " Hell no, it's too fast, it scared the crap out of me!" It sat around the garage for a month or so and he traded it for something else.
Yea, when I was racing bikes were very fast.. literally the first day on the track at full speed... it was a blur. You realized no matter how fast you were, the other people out there were way faster. I cannot imagine racing a 750 or 1000 now.. would just be crazy fast.