2019 Isle of Man TT

[Merlin_83]

Anyone else watching the coverage of the 2019 Isle of Man TT?

If you've never watched or seen this amazing race your in for a thrill.

Few televised motor sports productions are able to capture the visceral feel of 'being there' But this race does ! -

The speeds at which the motorbikes race around the island is just incredible - often times they are traveling at speeds between 160-200 MPH....On a frikkin' motorbike !!!

That's just insane - and the riders are often some of the most chill humble guys when the sportscasters interview them. Some are hard to understand because of strong, strong UK accents...

Anyhoo - it's televised live on the Motor Trend network I record it and watch when I get home from work ....Go check it out!

Cheers,
Merlin

[SAMM3Y]

RIP Daley Mathison

[New2Roundel]

I'm more of a Targa Newfoundland guy, personally.

[Fliplegend]

How's BMW doing? I recall they came back recently and wiped the floor.

[mk1-fan]

Originally Posted by Fliplegend

How's BMW doing? I recall they came back recently and wiped the floor.

Lots of crashes, huh?

[Fliplegend]

Originally Posted by mk1-fan

Lots of crashes, huh?

[OkieSnuffBox]

I used to watch it a lot when I still rode. Tough to watch typically 1-3 guys get killed every event.

[gjm120]

I love it except for the too many fatalities. The skill and daring is beyond anything I can imagine. The speeds are insane especially considering there is no run-off room on so much of the course. I've driven a car fast (relatively) thru villages like the ones there and that is scary enough.

A real eye opener is the sidecar races. Tell someone who hasn't watched that there is a sidecar race and they imagine someone sitting in a seat in the sidecar kind of shifting their weight. How much dancing around the sidecar rider does to keep the speed and balance going correctly is incredible.

[///M Power-Belgium]

[The English Guy]

Even in a car it's shit scary. Don't know how they do it on a bike.
Lap starts at 2:15

[OkieSnuffBox]

The thing that amazes me about the TT, Nurburgring, Pikes Peak Hill Climb..............is the absolute COMPLETE memorization of the course.

[racerbruce]

It's just SO frightful....it's not just the terminal velocity of a litre works bike @ 200 mph....it's that ANY mistake or....Mrs Brown's dog wandering the street....and you're on your face @ over 300 ft per second....

I had the fortune of attending the United States Grand Prix @ Laguna Seca in Monterey CA in 1991 and 1993....to see the FIM 500 CC Grand Prix works bikes....there are no words to describe what is was like to be present and see these other-worldly machines and riders....the names....Wayne Rainey on the Marlboro Roberts Yamaha....Mick Doohan on the Rothmans Honda....Kevin Schwantz on the Lucky Strike Suzuki....these were 205+mph 2-stroke 500 cc BEASTS....by 1991 there was so much power that they began changing the spark timing so that when they went WOT (wide open throttle) the engine would fire in increments to prevent the rear tire from losing all traction and there were these micro-bursts of power delivered....so the most surreal moment was standing appx 300 ft before the turn-in to the Corkscrew turn and standing in an area where we couldn't see the GP bikes exiting turn 6 at over 100 mph and beginning the climb up the back straight hill towards us....our vision of the track at track surface level was limited and we could hear them approaching....literally pushing air before we saw them in our vision....there was a very minor rise on the uphill back straight and they would, under WOT....carry the front end 1-1 1/2 feet off the track....at over 175 mph....often hanging off the side of the bike a bit because the torque was so extreme that they were compensating the control of the bike on a straight line to keep it under control....oh....and the sound of a massively screaming 500 cc GP works bike will always be a sound I will never forget.

[Merlin_83]

Originally Posted by racerbruce

It's just SO frightful....it's not just the terminal velocity of a litre works bike @ 200 mph....it's that ANY mistake or....Mrs Brown's dog wandering the street....and you're on your face @ over 300 ft per second....

I had the fortune of attending the United States Grand Prix @ Laguna Seca in Monterey CA in 1991 and 1993....to see the FIM 500 CC Grand Prix works bikes....there are no words to describe what is was like to be present and see these other-worldly machines and riders....the names....Wayne Rainey on the Marlboro Roberts Yamaha....Mick Doohan on the Rothmans Honda....Kevin Schwantz on the Lucky Strike Suzuki....these were 205+mph 2-stroke 500 cc BEASTS....by 1991 there was so much power that they began changing the spark timing so that when they went WOT (wide open throttle) the engine would fire in increments to prevent the rear tire from losing all traction and there were these micro-bursts of power delivered....so the most surreal moment was standing appx 300 ft before the turn-in to the Corkscrew turn and standing in an area where we couldn't see the GP bikes exiting turn 6 at over 100 mph and beginning the climb up the back straight hill towards us....our vision of the track at track surface level was limited and we could hear them approaching....literally pushing air before we saw them in our vision....there was a very minor rise on the uphill back straight and they would, under WOT....carry the front end 1-1 1/2 feet off the track....at over 175 mph....often hanging off the side of the bike a bit because the torque was so extreme that they were compensating the control of the bike on a straight line to keep it under control....oh....and the sound of a massively screaming 500 cc GP works bike will always be a sound I will never forget.

Do have any high-quality pictures from the said event? I know it would be film-based, but that could be great with an ultra-fast shutter, exposure, and film speed - got any from that event you could share with us?

Cheers,
Merlin