isle of Man TT

HDNet carried the race, and I have to say that those boys are nuts. They are pulling 300k with no safety barriers to stop them if they crash! I also noticed that they all rode Hondas and Suzukis, not one Apprilla, Ducati, or Yamaha.

Yep, those guys are totally insane. I got to know one of the TT legends John McGuiness (who Greg would call John McBeer) a few year's back. He is a really nice soft-spoken family guy, and really not at all what you would expect when you see him race around the TT. It's probably something that you either love or you hate, and it is something that really part of British motorcycle tradition. You should also check out some videos from the Macau motorcycle GP. There are corners where they rub their shoulders against the walls...

I think the main reason you don't find some of the big brands there is because no factory team really gets involved. HRC is there but that is really through their UK operation which is really big in the BSB (HM Plant Honda). Suzuki is the same, with the roadracing being handled by the same team that runs in BSB. Other than in superstock, there are no Aprilia, Ducati or BMW in the BSB either. As for Yamaha, I honestly don't know, but I would have though their BSB team would field some bikes at the TT.

Personally I don't like the races there. I find it unnecessarily dangerous. In the past, most tracks were about on the same level of security so it made sense to race at the TT, but now that some much has been done to improve track safety I just don't see the point. But hey, to each his own.

I kind of figured that it was an abandoned event due to the safety reasons. That said it was interesting to see something like a road rally on a bike.

Like Monaco only WAAAAY better.

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