Want to see some crazy motorcycle riders - check it out!

This is about one of the purest races left in the world....

His name escapes me now... but some crusty old old irish or scotsman has won overall for like 30 years..

It is an amazing race.. the riders are just amazing

check out the sidecar entrants!!!

just amazing..

I'm watching the TT these guys are NUTS they are going 170 mph..

These guys are effin loopy!

170mph on narrow, damp, public roads...on crotch rockets no less!

There is one on-board segment of a GSXR1100 (or something along those lines) accelerating hard thru some S-curves. Holy crap I'd forgotten how quick those things are. It's been about 15 years since I switched exclusively to the 4-wheeled toys; haven't been around bikes much at all since then.

The name you are looking for is Joey Dunlop. Irishman extraordinare. Worked with Joey in 1997 on a "winter" excursion. Although I did not share his enjoyment of vodka and Coke at 8 AM he was still a gentleman racer off the track. But on he was a hard driving mans man. He and Jeffries (also dead) are some of the last remaining "hard men". Now don't get me wrong, there ia alot of purse throwing, but no hard men. If you have ever seen a race at the Isle, it is a spectacle. But many have paid the ultimate price for the fame of a win. I have ridden there many years ago when a lap over the ton was something, now the small bikes do it.


Erik Madsen

I watched it the other night , I don't know whose nuttier, the driver or the sidecar rider!

Joey will be missed.
Couple yrs back our club organized a street race in Port Orchard WA. No where near as extesive as the Isle of Man but definitly makes you appreciate the danger of street courses and the relitive safety of purpose built tracks.
Those guys have Balls

Back in the late 60's or early 70's, a friend of mine worked at the local David Brown Industries facility. At the time, DBI was the parent company of Aston-Lagonda. the Aston Martin rep would visit a couple of times a year, and was a cafe rider when at home in England. Apparently, he and a couple of friends had toured the Isle of Man and ran the course on two or three year old factory team bikes. They scarred the p*$$ out of themselves, and found out they were running about three minutes behind the pace

Harvey

There's a video available, shot in or near 1985, of Dunlop taking a complete lap of the circuit (38 miles or thereabouts), camera on the tank, during a practice session. Joey's nearly incomprehensible commentary going all the while.

This race was part of the World Championship for quite some time, but was finally dropped in the 70s as simply being too dangerous. Full FIM (FIA for bikes) support was finally dropped sometime in the late 80s, and it doesn't exist as part of any series anymore. For longevity, these races rival the Indy 500, having started and been run continuously (with breaks for the two wars) since before 1910.