Our man in Douglas brings you this report...just hot off the press!

"Hi everyone - as the title says this will be a brief rundown of the trip nine friends and I took to this year's TT races.

First of all, apologies to eveyone here, but most of the bikes in the group were japanese, and although both mine and one other are european twin cylinder shaft drive models, both are BMW Boxercup Replicas, so if you are expecting lots of tales of how well the Guzzis went on the Island sorry but you'll have to use your imagination- although there were some Guzzis on the Island and I've got the pictures to prove it!!! (Will be posted soon- Joe)

OK, so there were 10 of us, with three different crossings, and staying in three different places - 6 of us near Signpost Corner at the end of the Mountain Road, 2 out at Laxey and the other two near Quarterbridge, the other side of Douglas.
Lesson 1 - if there is a large group of you travelling, if possible try and have everyone staying together, unless of course there is someone there you don't like...
Lesson 2 - should really be lesson 1, but I'm not very organised - if you can, pay the extra for the 1st class upgrade on the ferry. You have guaranteed seats, free coffee and soft drinks, and waitress service for the meals - saves a lot of queueing and general messing about.

We travelled out on the Saturday, knowing that this meant we would miss the first race of the week, and returned on the Thursday, knowing that this meant we would miss the last race - but on the whole we did very well to get any crossings at all given how popular this year's event was.
On arrival at Heysham ferry port we were advised that we were in luck, in that Saturday's racing had been postponed due to bad weather, so we would get to see the superbike race after all.

We arrived in Douglas in the early evening, and once we'd all found our way to our various accomodations, some of us decided to have our first go of the week at the Mountain Road, largely because we knew the weather forecast for Mad Sunday was pretty piss poor!!
This year, for the first time, they made the Mountain one-way for the whole fortnight, partly to take the pressure off Mad Sunday. For those of you who have not ridden it, the Mountain is a cracking piece of road, even when it's two-way traffic, as most of the bends are open enough to see what is coming and you can use most of the road anyway, with the added advantage that on the Isle of Man when the speed limit is derestricted it is just that - No Limit!! Why can't we have that here????

So, we hit the Mountain in the dry, with good visibility, but with a LOT of traffic, and it was b****y windy, oh and we were all pretty knackered having ridden over 300 miles and been on the road or ferry for about 12hrs, but it was great, and set us up for a nice evening's drinking, followed by a curry - which was just about the only place that could seat 10 of us. We had a bit of a problem most of the week finding anywhere to eat, given the number of extra visitors on the Island this year, and if you hadn't booked a taxi in advance to get you home you faced a pretty long walk!!

Mad Sunday dawned as predicted - wet, miserable and foggy. Being a bunch of fair-weather riding wimps, we just about decided not to bother going out at all that day, until it started to clear up a bit and it was pointed out that we couldn't NOT do Mad Sunday. A few calls on the mobile and we arranged to meet up by the main grandstand - which was nearest to us. Unfortunately the other 4 all thought the grandstand was on the prom by the seafront, where all the evening's entertainment takes place - the fact that the prom is not even on the race course meant they were mistaken!!

We eventually all got together, but by then the weather had worsened a little but we persevered nonetheless and decided to ride the whole course... until we turned off for Peel (off the circuit) as someone remembere that we had originally decided to go to the Honda Day there (don't ask me why!!) Owing to our earlier disorganisation, by the time we got there everything was nearly over, but we still stayed for a while, not leaving until the rain started again We finished the course rather damp, with me wishing I had worn my waterproof gloves rather than the ventilated ones I had on instead!!

No trip to the Isle of Man would be complete without going to see The Purple Helmets - for those who don't know them they are a motorcycle stunt team, with a difference. They all ride (sometimes highly) modified Honda C90s, and are basically a clown show on bikes. The show does involve not a small amount of skill though, with human pyramids on bikes, bin racing - picture the chariot race from Ben Hur, with the horses replaced by C90s and the chariots replaced by upended wheely bins, and you might get the idea - and LOTS more. They do have a couple of DVDs out and I would highly recommend them. Anyway, four of us went to see the show that evening, while the other 6 decided to waste their time eating and drinking - shameful!!!

Monday dawned nice and dry, so a few of us decided to go for an early(ish) ride on the mountain - which was great until we hit the fog - I found myself doing about 50mph, which was to be frank probably too quick!! This didn't deter young Matt who shot off at about 90, and led everyone to wonder if he had x-ray vision. The fog was bad enough to delay the racing by an hour or so, leaving us plenty of time to get back to the house for breakfast before walking 100 yards to watch the bikes screaming past at stupid speeds on a public road!! After the racing was over we set off for yet another ride, looking to finish with a hopefully better trip on the Mountain, only to find the road was closed - we never did find out why but presumed it to be due to a crash. Never mind, we decided to go off for another night's eating and drinking!!

The postponement of Saturday's race turned out to be a mixed blessing - yes we got to see the race on Monday instead, not that you get to see moren than about a hundred yards or so of the course, but it meant that Tuesday was another race day, instead of being a rest day, so it cut down considerably on the riding opportunities.

We did try for another early morning ride on the mountain, but it was again adversely affected by the fog & mist - not quite so thick this time and I got up to 60 or 70 mph (WAY too fast!!) but covering more miles of the course!! The fog led to another delay in the start, allowing us to get a few more miles in, and also to go for TT Teas - at the church hall in one of the villages a load of volunteers do cream teas, cakes & sandwiches etc, with all the money raised going to charity, and jolly nice it was too.

We watched the rest of that day's racing, and the following Parade of Champions (or something, I can't remember what it was actually called but there were a lot of classic bikes going round - some of them were amazing!!) from Ramsey, just before the start of the Mountain Rd. You get one guess which way we went back - that's right, around the Mountain. I already said - it is a cracking piece of road!!

Wednesday morning our number was reduced by one, as young Matt's return crossing was a day before the rest of us - I'm not sure who arranged that, but it meant we had no-one to lead us through the fog! The rest of us decided to do things slightly differently that day, and rode out to Ramsey and caught the train up to the Mountain, from where we had an excellent view of the bikes doing probably about 150mph. The train is over 100 years old, and is the only electric mountain railway in the British Isles, and it actually runs right up to the top of Mt Snaefell. There is a cafe at the top - take my advice, the trip is worth it, but don't bother eating at the cafe, it's crap!!

Wednesday evening was pretty much like the rest of them - meal and drinks, but not quite so much on the drinking side as we all had early starts on Thursday to get back home. I won't mention the embarassment of my bike failing to start at the port in the queue to get on the boat, or the ironic cheers I got as I tried, and eventually succeeded, to bump start it down the ramp onto the boat!! It turned out to be the battery dying, but I still got home in one piece after what was generally a very enjoyable few days at the Isle Of Man Centenary TT Festival."



Are you the owner of any of these nice examples pictured? Get in touch and give us your views on the TT! Thanks Dave, for the report...we are all envious!

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