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How do Isle of Man TT riders practice?

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Cookiemonster...
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PostPosted: 12:13 - 25 Jan 2019    Post subject: How do Isle of Man TT riders practice? Reply with quote

So if the actual event is only two weeks, how do they actually practice these roads if for the rest of the 50 weeks of the year they are not allowed since it's back to national speed limits and standard road traffic rules with normal traffic and normal people commuting?
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Stinka
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PostPosted: 12:47 - 25 Jan 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

PlayStation games and watch lots of video, like hundreds of times

And newcomer practice laps
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Monkeypony
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PostPosted: 12:59 - 25 Jan 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

Plus Manx GP, and early morning runs over the mountain.
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Howling Terror
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PostPosted: 14:18 - 25 Jan 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can learn the course for 50 weeks but to practice properly you need the roads closed.
They don't 'practice' until the next race.
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chickenstrip
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PostPosted: 13:21 - 26 Jan 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

Like a lot of bikers, many of them probably learn a bit just from road riding - hacking around their favourite local twisty lanes as youngsters. Joey Dunlop certainly did a lot of that. Some also race on track. It all helps to keep the edge honed.
Most I think are 'naturals' anyway though. I've known a few people who could just leave anyone else for dead on the road without having any more specific experience than those around them.
The rest comes from just simply entering road races and giving it your best shot. The actual Island course is then tackled, probably with some apprehension from all the history, and then you start to learn the intricacies of the circuit year on year. Even just driving around it in a car, you can learn something of use.
But I think natural ability plays a big part, and then just building on that each year. Being able to focus without letting fear into your mind will be a big help too. Just a case of loving to ride bikes fast.
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stinkwheel
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PostPosted: 15:13 - 26 Jan 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

Remember that an unrestricted highway on the IOM is exactly that. There is no legally defined national speed limit. The posted speed limits apply in town.

You can be done for furious driving though.
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Suntan Sid
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PostPosted: 22:40 - 23 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

Currently in the IOM for the Classic TT and Manx GP.

The IOM TT course is the ultimate road racing course you build up experience elsewhere before you attempt it.

IOM TT newcomers are not newcomers to road racing, they will have competed at the smaller events in Ireland and N.Ireland and the mainland, so they are not wet behind the ears road racing virgins. Guy Martin moved to Ireland for a few years, entering the road racing championships, (and winning them), before he attempted the TT course.

They have been talking about this subject, on the radio.
The newcomers are coached by a few people, ex riders, they're taken around in cars and told where they should be on the road, they drive or ride the course as many times as they can. In any spare time they have they watch on board laps over and over again.

To race at the TT, first you must race in the Manx GP, on the TT course. The newcomers to the Manx GP do their first couple of practice laps under controlled conditions, they are lead around at a slower pace, by either a travelling marshal or a more experienced rider.
They are then let loose on the course, however they are told to keep a steady pace and not to expect to get any faster until they've completed fifty odd laps, this could take a few years!

At the Manx GP the maximum capacity of bike is 750cc, so they're not on superbikes. Basically in the Senior race the vast majority of riders are on 600's!

I'm not totally sure about this but, I believe competing in the Manx GP does not automatically mean you can compete at the TT, I think you have to complete laps at a certain speed before you can progress to the TT.

I know for a fact that once you've competed at the TT you cannot go back and compete at the the Manx GP!

If you listen to any of the fast TT guys they all say the same thing "track time, even at a slow pace, is the key to everything!

Having watched the practice earlier, the more experienced MGP competitors are not holding back, but compared to MCPint, Dunlop, Harrison, Hillier, Rutter etc, (who are all riding in the Classic TT Superbike race), they're not in the same league.
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Howling Terror
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PostPosted: 22:54 - 23 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

They had cameras at 4 locations showing the qualifying today and it was easy to see who knew the correct lines.

There are some 'anomalies'

https://www.iomtt.com/tt-database/tt-records/newcomer-records



https://mgptv.live/

Check there about 1pm tomorrow.

BTW Hi Sid...looks like the weather gods have finally lifted their curse.
Say heyup to Tracey. Thumbs Up
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Suntan Sid
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PostPosted: 23:03 - 23 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

The weather has been shoite until today!

We watched at the end of Cronk-y-voddy, again, absolutely mental, the fast guys are beyond words, their commitment is unthinkable!

Lots of luverly two smokes racing as well, loads of 250's and a handful of ex GP 500's, warms your cockles right up!

Race day tomorrow and the weather looks good! Cool
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Howling Terror
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PostPosted: 23:10 - 23 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

That 750 Norton sounded wicked.

I'm very jelly.

Why on earth MickyD isn't resting up is beyond me.

Cronk is crazy... Wub

A 'bloke' who obviously knows where he's going.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECr31rQXoAETT8h?format=jpg&name=small

Check the width of those tyres. Laughing

and another who should know better.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECr4DJnXYAA9SIK?format=jpg&name=small

Those two were playing hit the kill switch at the start. Laughing
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Tracey Suntan-King
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PostPosted: 12:14 - 25 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yesterday encapsulated every high and every low.

It’s certainly been emotional.

Bruce Anstey winning was an absolutely euphoric moment. After all he’s been through in the last two years, he won the Classic Lightweight as his comeback, superb. Everyone joyous.

Then, later, the news broke that the red flag on the first lap of the earlier Classic Senior TT, an incident at Ballaugh, had resulted in the death of Chris Swallow a 37 year old Kiwi. Devastating.

You can both love and hate this place.
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Tracey Suntan-King
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PostPosted: 12:18 - 25 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

Forgot to mention that apart from the sublime and the tragic, there has also been the ridiculous........

Cupcakegate Laughing

Apparently Hutchy threw a chocolate cupcake at McGuinness as he rode into the paddock after winning the Senior.

Loads of po-faced commentators disapproving of Hutchy’s gesture, setting a bad example etc etc.

Just waiting for McPint to exact his revenge........
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Howling Terror
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PostPosted: 13:25 - 26 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

That awesome sound I thought was the 750 Norton...well it turns out I was incorrect.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EC5ToAwXsAEgD7f?format=jpg&name=small
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Howling Terror
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PostPosted: 23:53 - 26 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

On a more serious note I've just read that interfering with race bikes is a thing at the manx.

A competitor just posted that their preload had been wound off.

Quote:
Disappointing practice lap at the Manx tonight. Head gone in first few miles with the ZX6R making shapes every where. Big thanks to the person who wound all my pre load off the shock. Obviously knows more than the K-Tech technician or wants to see me fired into the scenery


Quote:
Happened to me once too... everything wound off. Lucky Roger checked the bike over before I set off, as he always did. That year, police had to put CCTV in parc ferme, as it was rife!


Bang out of order.
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1198
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PostPosted: 09:57 - 27 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

That’s worrying - an attempt to slow competitors down, maliciously intending to hurt or a badly thought out prank I wonder?
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Suntan Sid
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PostPosted: 23:28 - 28 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well the original question on this thread was, how do riders learn the course.
The definitive answer was revealed today by a certain James Hind.
You enter the the MGP newcomers race in 2018.
In 2019 you enter the MGP Lightweight race, on Lap 1, from a standing start, you break the existing lap record.
On Lap 2, with a compulsory pit stop, you then go even faster and break the lap record you set on lap 1, which includes having to slow down for the pit stop.
So the lap record is now 116mph on a TZ250, to put that into perspective that's less than than 5mph off Bruce Ansty's outright lap record for a 250 two stroke.
That's some learning curve right there!
For good measure the same James Hind broke the Lap record on lap one of his previous race, only for the bike to blow up on lap two.

Definitely a name to watch in the future!
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Howling Terror
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PostPosted: 15:55 - 29 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've got socks older than him.

Brilliant Senior race.
So close for so long.

Watched it too albeit just from just the 4 camera locations.

Really enjoyed that.
Nathan Harrison the double winner. Cool
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Suntan Sid
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PostPosted: 22:07 - 29 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

Howling Terror wrote:
I've got socks older than him.


So have I, and T-shirts!
He managed to blow up yet another bike while leading the senior.
But he did win again on the the TZ250, in the MGP Supporters race.

We watched from the grandstand today, haven't done that since 1987 or 8. It was interesting watching from there but not easy to follow what was going on out on the course, too many things to distract you.
There were 72 starters in the senior, the leaders were well past Ramsey before the last rider got away from the start.
One rider in the senior, not sure who it was, came into the pits at the end of lap 1 only to find no pit crew, he sat there for a about 10 seconds, gesticulated, then rode off shaking his head. Don't know whether he pulled into the wrong pit or his crew were in the wrong pit. He didn't come around again so presumably he retired.
In the ultra lightweight the guy who won finished and had no idea he'd won, he won by 44 seconds, on a moto3 bike. He was genuinely shocked, he said he doesn't have any boards out on the course and just rides as fast as he feels comfortable with!

Anyway that's the racing finished for another year.
It's a shame that more people don't go to the MGP, the riders here are tomorrows' TT superstars. The MGP is run on a shoestring and only survives on donations from the MGP supporters club, it's a great event and if you can't get over for the TT you should try this instead.

One thing that does bug me, is that the Classic TT people bugger off once that's finished which thins out the spectators, around the course, for the MGP. I don't know why they don't combine the 2 events by having a classic race and a MGP race each race day.

Roll on next year! Thumbs Up
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Howling Terror
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PostPosted: 23:59 - 29 Aug 2019    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, a pity the ManxGP isn't supported like the Classic and the TT.
Also read about the thinning of the crowds and stall holders packing up. I guess a few of them have other racing commitments.

Good idea about the combined racing.

The grandstand....yeah we managed to sneak over the wall and watched from there...then wished it was on a turntable so we could see them approach the top of Brae hill too.

I get tingly just thinking back.

When questioned why TV coverage is only for the Classic. Greenlight responded.

Quote:
We'd love to to do the Manx like all the other road racing events, but budgets just don't allow.



The manx government who also run the TT are not helping matters

Quote:
I know they are two separate events, but I'm always appalled at how the TT official twitter page dumps everything after the Classic TT as though nothing else exists after it...


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