Guy Martin's TT Lap

DesVegas

I like Guy, he seems a top bloke but this is nuts!!

Sassafras

Well - that was a bit exciting!
Those adverse camber bits look really scary.
I notice there aren't any dopey spectators getting in the way like they do on the Tour de France.

octatonic

Sassafras said:

Well - that was a bit exciting!
Those adverse camber bits look really scary.
I notice there aren't any dopey spectators getting in the way like they do on the Tour de France.

No, because they'd be killed instantly.

rsvmark

Arguably one of the best riders never to win the Senior which is the blue riband event. Great rider and nice chap. Speeds on a flying lap are now insane - average speeds are now 130mph+ over 36 miles. 

When it goes wrong, it’s serious
https://youtu.be/QffTMlzfRog

ICBM

Sassafras said:

Well - that was a bit exciting!
Those adverse camber bits look really scary.
I notice there aren't any dopey spectators getting in the way like they do on the Tour de France.

Presumably even stupid spectators realise that being hit by a motorbike at nearly 200mph would be fatal.

The film is pretty terrifying really - the absolute faith required in the adhesion of two little patches of rubber on tarmac to stop you impacting a tree or a wall at that sort of speed involves the kind of bravery that most of us simply don't possess, let alone the skill to ride right on the limit of it nearly continuously.

The bit where he's overtaking the other rider and the other guy pops back in front of him literally made me tense up involuntarily.

DesVegas

In his book (which is great) he talks about going round there so fast the bike is literally sucking rabbits out of the hedges

DesVegas

Ooo err

AK99

I like Guy - think he's great to listen to, and great for the sport.

Another short promo film here for road-racing (in its natural home.. this tme )

(As you can see, the on-board cameras haven't improved a lot between 2010 and now)

Dominic

I used to do a bit of Club racing ( I was pretty useless ) and I've ridden the Mountain a couple of times on Mad Sunday in the old days . To ride at the speeds they average is quite incredible . I have often done circuit training days with Jamie Whittaker and the Cadburys Boost Team on the same track and just stood trackside in awae of the speed and skill.
You have no idea how quick and how ballsy these guys are when you see them close up and the Road racing boys are insanely good . But,they pay a heavy price .............just look at the Dunlop family.

Emp_Fab

Jesus.....   he talks as fast as he rides !

Nitefly

Mad men.

It's a lovely place, though.

Snags

octatonic said:

Sassafras said:

Well - that was a bit exciting!
Those adverse camber bits look really scary.
I notice there aren't any dopey spectators getting in the way like they do on the Tour de France.

No, because they'd be killed instantly.

Although most years the marshalls have aggro moving people on from being too close to walls at certain corners, or setting up shop in areas marked off as "Don't be here, because it if goes wrong you'll be hit by a body and hot machinery flying through the air at 100+mph ..."

HerbieTheRadDorklift

rsvmark said:

Arguably one of the best riders never to win the Senior which is the blue riband event. Great rider and nice chap. Speeds on a flying lap are now insane - average speeds are now 130mph+ over 36 miles. 

When it goes wrong, it’s serious
https://youtu.be/QffTMlzfRog

I was there that year and have no memory of this. Shows how much interest I took

skullfunkerry

DesVegas said:

In his book (which is great) he talks about going round there so fast the bike is literally sucking rabbits out of the hedges

+1 for his book, it's excellent. I found it impossible to read without hearing it all in his voice in my head, and the bit about the "threesome" that ended up being him eating a Mars Bar and watching his mate nobbing a girl in his van made me do a proper lol

Offset

Dominic said:

But,they pay a heavy price .............just look at the Dunlop family.

Yep.  I remember I was in Dublin when the news of Joey's death broke.  Top bloke and a dreadful loss.

Dominic

^ 3 of the men from the same family all died on the circuit at different times

sev112

I’ve done the mountain course ….

in a hire car, at less than the speed limit and it freaked me out !  

pigface

My wife is, happily, a bit of a sports fan, as am I, so we have been to several big events in the last 15 years or so, like 3 Ryder Cups plus 2 Dunhills, a F1 Grand Prix and a couple of Superbike races (including sidecars in Assen!), several Scotland games in the 6 Nations and a fair number of Bundesliga matches. Also ice hockey World Cup, and much more. I tried to get her to go to the TT. She was initially keen, even more so as an old school friend of mine lives there (I have old school friends everywhere). When she found out about the fatalities which almost inevitably attend the events, she declined. I'd love to be there for once, but really the riders take enormous risks and there is often little to save them if they come off. A hard man's game.

gubble

I used to work for the company that (previously) did the PA systems around the course for the spectator commentary and had the incredible fortune to get paid to take my bike over for the whole two weeks of the TT.

The colleague I was with made me stand on Bray Hill to experience the bikes going past for the first time. Being a metre or so away from a bike doing those sorts of speeds was incredible - I'll never forget the air being forced out of the way as the bike was approaching - they really do punch a hole in the air.

I've a wonderful picture of my Kawasaki in front of the grandstand very early in the morning after I'd done my first ever lap of the course. 

I loved every minute I spent on that Island during the TT and Manx GP weeks. 

Dominic

yeah it's quite magical.........when you stand close to a bike chatting along at 130 it's like being in the wake of a fighter jet especially the air push but strangely when its you on the bike you don't feel it.....I got well over 170mph not long ago and it still doesn't feel like being beside the bike trackside.......feels fucking fast tho'

MtB

What gets me is that they have these big "offs" but still go back there and race again. 
Another frightening one is Conor Cummins "off" at the Verrandah, again at the IoM.