Editor’s Note: You may remember that contributor Ted Clough made his way over to the Isle of Man recently for the Classic Festival – he was kind enough to share a few photos with us last week. Now’s he got a story for you about his travels – so come along for the ride!
Pilgrimage to the Isle of Man
All of us into motorcycling have some sort of Bucket List. If you are a Harley guy, your goal may be to attend Daytona Bike Week, or Sturgis. If you are a Touring or ADV guy, it may be the Alaska-Canada Highway to Alaska. If you like Vintage, maybe it’s Mid-Ohio, Barber, or the Quail. If you love racing, maybe attend a MotoGP race at COTA or Indy, or even better, in Europe. I’m kind of an equal-opportunity biker – I like it all, but especially appreciate the skills of the riders at the highest levels of racing. In Europe, especially the UK and Ireland, they still do what they call “real roads racing”, where they race on public roads, closed for the duration of the race. In our safety-conscious, politically correct environment, it would never be allowed in the US – OK, except for Pike’s Peak – but it continues regularly in Europe. The granddaddy of these races is the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, or TT, held since 1907 on the public roads of the Isle of Man, an island in the Irish Sea, between the UK and Ireland. There are all levels of racing, the top rung being the Senior TT, currently run with Superbike-spec machines over the Mountain Course, 4 laps of 37+ miles through towns, countryside and over Snaefell Mountain. We’re talking about public roads, with the accompanying paint, street crossings, grease, curbs, manhole covers, NO runoff anywhere, with elevation changes up to 2,000 feet and the accompanying climatic changes. Not a race for sissies, and many MotoGP racers, who regularly exceed 200 mph, have professed incredulity that anyone would race there. Yet they continue to do so, and the current record for the AVERAGE lap speed is in excess of 133mph! Do the math – have you ever gone 133 mph on a public road? Anyway, you get the idea – we’re talking big balls here. Go to YouTube and search for IoM TT on-board videos like this one:
Be prepared to waste several hours…
The IoM runs two motorcycle festivals each year. The TT is usually in June, and is for all the current-spec classes. They have Lightweight, Superstock, Supersport, and Superbike, as well as Zero (Electric) and Sidecar classes. There are also Trials events held at various locations around the island. In all it’s about two weeks of practice and racing. In August they host a Classic Festival, which culminates in races called the Manx TT. It is a similar format to the regular TT, but the classes reflect vintage machines. In addition, there are several other related events on the island, like swap meets and a huge Vintage festival held at an old RAF airfield in Jerby. Both events draw huge crowds from all over the world, but especially from the UK and Europe. The only way to get your bike there is by ferry from the UK, and ferry reservations start selling out up to a year in advance. Hotels and guest house are also booked early, so planning is a must.
I had been wanting to do the trip for some time. Last year, my ever-tolerant wife actually said: “Why don’t you just do it? You’re not getting any younger, and you always talk about it” That was all it took. I had heard that it was a lot less crowded to do the Manx TT in August, and the bikes were almost as fast, plus I do love vintage stuff, so that became my plan. I was late making reservations. I was coming from the US, so bringing a bike was not really an option, so I made plans to come via air from Ireland (part of the deal with my wife was throwing in Dublin and some Irish touring). Working in May or so, I got one of the last few hotel rooms available in Douglas, the main town on the island, and set out researching how to spend my time.
There are numerous websites, blogs and articles on the web that tell you how to get around and where to watch. The IoM TT webite is a great source of information. It can be a little tricky, as when the roads are closed for racing, if you are driving, you can get caught “inside” the course, and trapped for several hours – not a bad thing, if you can find a pub. There are a few pedestrian bridges over the course, at select locations. There is a very good bus and train system that will get you most anywhere on the island, but their schedules also change during race weeks and course closures. It seemed doable without a vehicle, so that was my plan.
I won’t bore you with travel details, but we arrived on schedule from Dublin this year on the Friday in the middle of the Classic Festival, late in August. Surprisingly, weather was great. Outside the airport we were greeted by the iconic three-legged symbol of the Isle of Man:
There is a whole Wikipedia page about it. It goes way back and has been adapted in numerous logos which will surprise you where you see them…
As predicted the bus got us to the seafront in Douglas quickly, and we found our hotel…
Friday was a practice day, and the course was only going to be open from about 6-8 PM, so we walked up to the paddock area, just to see what was going on and get the lay of the land. The coolest thing about this week was that anyone who had ANY sort of vintage car or bike had dragged it out of the barn, fired it up and was out riding around. My head was constantly on a swivel.
My wife must have gotten tired of me going on: “Look at that – it’s a Vincent!”
“Wow – Three Velocettes!”
“Look – A Triumph Hurricane!” Man, I always loved that bike – had a Trident back in the day…
You get the idea – oh, and I could do a whole article on all the specials:
How about a Vinton? Vincent in a Norton frame…
Or a Triton? Almost as common as Manx sheep…
Or a Triton with a Trident Triple engine;
And here is ‘Suzette” If I remember, she is a highly modified Velocette stuffed into a Suguki RGV 250? frame with GSXR front end. Some extraordinary craftsmanship!
The paddock area was just full of historically significant race bikes. There was a tent full of Triumphs with race history:
Same for BMW’s: Helmut Dahne (pictured) rode this 1976 TT-winning R90S the next day during the TT Legends Lap
He still fits those leathers!
A tent full of race-winning Honda RC-30s/ RC45’s. Jim Moodie, Steve Hislop, Simpson, Michael Rutter
Remember the KR (as in Kenny Roberts) 5-cylinder MotoGP bike?
And, since I have Ducati issues….There is probably a 12-step program for this: “Hi, my name is Ted, and I have a Ducati problem…”
A very appropriate Hailwood IOM rep.
A tasty NCR rep/original?
Lots of singles out for a spin…
And I actually saw Two Benelli SEI’s!
So, you can see, my camera was getting a workout! But what about the races? Tell us about the races! I’m working on that part of the story…stay tuned!
Update: Here’s Part 2 of Ted’s story!