Video Isle of Man TT: The world’s most dangerous motorcycle race | 60 Minutes
- Thread starter Racer88
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Doing it like Men!!! That's straight up hardcore on the edge crap!!! Better than drugs. Not like pasty little sissies and their video games.
That would be what I would consider to be a "good" program segment vs the other crap they usually spew... 
Closest I've come to that type of adrenaline rush was a Laconia Bike Week trip home to RI. On the way up on Friday, I rode with some Harley buddies of mine. I'm on a bright red Hurricane 1000, BTW. My buddy Ken is jokingly like "You know Bob, if you break down, I don't know if we'll be able to stop and help you out." He is on a non-custom Lowrider. Another rider had a 50's panhead with all manner of chicken claws and racoon tails and the like hanging from it.
Not 5min on the road, one of Ken's muffler bands falls off his bike and bounces over my head! I stopped riding behind him at that point. After 20min, he pulls over with a flat tire. Like magic, 30 seconds later another buddy of ours on his way to work on his cabin in ME pulls behind us in his pickup. We muscle the LR into the bed of his pickup against a culvert pipe he was bringing north. We were lucky to find a shop open to fix his tire as they were about to close early and head to Bike Week as well. Other than stopping a few "extra" times for gas for the Sportster that was with us, the rest of the trip up was uneventful.
The Harley boys were staying in a campground literally on the side of a hill. I recall literally slowly sliding sideways up one "path" (under control) to get to their spots. (ie: slick "performance" tires) I hung out with them that night and MC'd a moistened, short-sleeve undergarment contest open to only females although with the majority of contestants, gravity was not on their side... I had my own cabin elsewhere someone had given me last minute because they couldn't go and is where I spent the night.
On the way into town Saturday morning, while standing in traffic, I noticed I was behind some other riders on sport bikes from RI and pulled up alongside them. Turns out I knew a couple of them and that is who I hung with the rest of the weekend. Bike Week activities ensued (ie: burnouts, chicks lifting their shirts, various oddities, etc.). We never once got close to the race track.
Sunday morn, we headed north to the Kankamangus and did that at about an average 70mph (limit 25-35). It would be similar to the Isle of Man course with curves and rises and what not. Stopped about halfway and swam in an ice-cold stream.
Popped on the Interstate for the trip home. Since all of the cops were in Laconia, we pushed our luck and pushed our bikes to the limit. I recall 150+ on the speedometer several times and sweeping turns at near knee-touching speeds of 100ish. A tire sliding out would no doubt mean injury if not certain death. Once it started getting congested with BW traffic, we were weaving and bobbing through hundreds of cars. I haven't had rushes like that since.
Closest I've come to that type of adrenaline rush was a Laconia Bike Week trip home to RI. On the way up on Friday, I rode with some Harley buddies of mine. I'm on a bright red Hurricane 1000, BTW.
My buddy Ken is jokingly like "You know Bob, if you break down, I don't know if we'll be able to stop and help you out." He is on a non-custom Lowrider. Another rider had a 50's panhead with all manner of chicken claws and racoon tails and the like hanging from it. Not 5min on the road, one of Ken's muffler bands falls off his bike and bounces over my head!
I stopped riding behind him at that point. After 20min, he pulls over with a flat tire. Like magic, 30 seconds later another buddy of ours on his way to work on his cabin in ME pulls behind us in his pickup. We muscle the LR into the bed of his pickup against a culvert pipe he was bringing north. We were lucky to find a shop open to fix his tire as they were about to close early and head to Bike Week as well. Other than stopping a few "extra" times for gas for the Sportster that was with us, the rest of the trip up was uneventful.The Harley boys were staying in a campground literally on the side of a hill. I recall literally slowly sliding sideways up one "path" (under control) to get to their spots.
(ie: slick "performance" tires) I hung out with them that night and MC'd a moistened, short-sleeve undergarment contest open to only females although with the majority of contestants, gravity was not on their side... I had my own cabin elsewhere someone had given me last minute because they couldn't go and is where I spent the night.On the way into town Saturday morning, while standing in traffic, I noticed I was behind some other riders on sport bikes from RI and pulled up alongside them. Turns out I knew a couple of them and that is who I hung with the rest of the weekend. Bike Week activities ensued (ie: burnouts, chicks lifting their shirts, various oddities, etc.). We never once got close to the race track.
Sunday morn, we headed north to the Kankamangus and did that at about an average 70mph (limit 25-35).
It would be similar to the Isle of Man course with curves and rises and what not. Stopped about halfway and swam in an ice-cold stream. Popped on the Interstate for the trip home. Since all of the cops were in Laconia, we pushed our luck and pushed our bikes to the limit. I recall 150+ on the speedometer several times and sweeping turns at near knee-touching speeds of 100ish. A tire sliding out would no doubt mean injury if not certain death. Once it started getting congested with BW traffic, we were weaving and bobbing through hundreds of cars. I haven't had rushes like that since.
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The Dunlop brothers ruled the Isle of Man back in the day.
That race is wild.
That race is wild.
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Much as I enjoyed blasting around Road Atlanta, Daytona, and other southern locales on two wheels.... I think I would pass on the Isle of Man... I'm kinda OK with scuffing up the leathers while sliding along on my fanny. But there is just something about going off the track into a stone wall that bothers me.
That said, if you ride a motorcycle, you should ride on a track at least once or twice in your life. It alters your perception of what going fast is and you will end up a better rider as a result. I got my AMA license back in the 1980's after going to the California Superbike School to meet the requirements for an amateur plate. It was fun, learned a lot, and managed to get through ten years without doing harm to myself. No extra plates, pins, or rods holding bits of my anatomy together.
One thing about a race like the TT... it may look insane to the onlooker, but after enough accumulated laps on a motorcycle, you get used to it. You learn to expend your limited attention time where it needs to be. Everything kinda slows down in your mind. I still wouldn't race on that track, if in the unlikely event that I were invited, but that's just me. Everybody has their own risk-reward calculus.
That said, if you ride a motorcycle, you should ride on a track at least once or twice in your life. It alters your perception of what going fast is and you will end up a better rider as a result. I got my AMA license back in the 1980's after going to the California Superbike School to meet the requirements for an amateur plate. It was fun, learned a lot, and managed to get through ten years without doing harm to myself. No extra plates, pins, or rods holding bits of my anatomy together.
One thing about a race like the TT... it may look insane to the onlooker, but after enough accumulated laps on a motorcycle, you get used to it. You learn to expend your limited attention time where it needs to be. Everything kinda slows down in your mind. I still wouldn't race on that track, if in the unlikely event that I were invited, but that's just me. Everybody has their own risk-reward calculus.
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The same is true with cars.
Agreed. A real track, yes. A course like Isle of Man TT?? No way other than at normal speeds as a sightseer.