Last week I gave you a heads up that Dougie Lampkin was going to try to wheelie the 37 miles course of the Isle of Man. Well, he did it!
Here’s a little trailer recapping how it went:
For me, the most fascinating thing about this ride might just be the work done to prep the bike to withstand such a long wheelie. Starting with a Vertigo Combat Ice Hell 300cc trials bike, the builders added an electric motor in the front wheel to help with gyroscopic effects (seems a bit like cheating, no?), an extra fuel tank where a seat might go if trials bike had such things, foot plates on the rear wheel, and two rear brakes to mitigate overheating on certain downhill sections of the track. For more on the bike, check out this quick article on Red Bull’s site.
As you probably remember, the Isle of Man races for the Classic TT ended a couple of weeks ago, which means Dougie had to do this with oncoming traffic! A fleet of police vehicles took care of traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, but traffic coming the other way often comes to a halt as everyone wants to get a peek at Dougie rolling by on one wheel. If you want to watch the entire run, head on over to the Red Bull site.
All said and done, it took Dougie approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes – that’s a long time to be standing up and concentrating!
Cover photo from Jake Miller/G2F Media.