Yorkshire then the Isle of Man

twowheeler

two wheels are best
Met up with Casey the next day for a couple of full TT laps, him on his very nice old Honda Blackbird he'd bought a few months earlier.

At The Bungalow -







The big man Casey eyeing off a rat MT-01, complete with nitrous -




Joey Dunlop's statue. Better than your average statue IMHO -




Old meets new. Bikes doing mega speed must give way to this ancient tramcar, which has right-of-way and is protected by its ding-ding bell and a certain up-yours attitude. Its driver must have nerves of steel :clap: -




Note the IOM Constabulary's Mustang in the background. They were loaned a few of these this year -




Got a bit quicker over the mountain today, but my top speed was still a few miles per hour slower than the top guys' AVERAGE :eek: speed, which demonstrates the gulf of ability between a punter like me and someone like Michael Dunlop. He holds the lap record at a tad under 134 mph average.


That evening I marshalled 150m down the road from Burnside, at The Stockade. The Stockade has a couple of hundred meters line of sight to the end-of-Cronk hump, and is directly in front of the tip-in point for a double right-hander. It's a spectacular viewing spot and one I'd definitely marshal (or view) at again. You get plenty of time to watch the riders wrestle the bikes over yumps at huge speed before blipping down 1 or 2 gears and tipping-in. And I caught all the numbers :lol: .

Unfortunately, after an hour practice was cancelled again as cloud rolled in from the Irish Sea, so we all went to the pub instead :scull: .
 
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twowheeler

two wheels are best
Thursday. Leaving Day :( .The plan was to catch the 8am ferry back to the mainland, then head north to Troon, Scotland, to meet up with Brenda and prepare for the next's day's flight to Italy (yeah, hard but someone's got to do it :wink: ).

Got into Douglas early, parked the VFR in the empty carpark and went for a coffee with Casey, who was staying on for part of race-week. I return to the bike in what I thought was plenty of time, to get a thorough rollocking :doh: from the local constable who'd been directing traffic around my now-marooned VFR, much to Casey's amusement -




Joined the queue then waited and waited for hours for the non-existent ferry. Got talking with the people around me including Sandy, a Manx guy suffering from lead -poisoning, apparently from years of drinking water from Douglas's lead-lined pipes. I thought he was nearly 70 but it turned out he was near my age :(. Anyway he was pretty chirpy and owns this Sommer. It's a 460cc diesel, which he'd picked up in Germany a few months earlier. It gets 186mpg (not a typo :eek: ) when ridden "enthusiastically" -










Heel and toe gear-lever -




Have a listen to its clatter upon startup :lol: -
(video)




The ferry eventually arrived near lunchtime and as it was an old boat, it vibrated its way slowly back to the mainland to arrive bloody miles behind schedule. So plans for a scenic tour to Scotland got chucked and instead I just headed up the M6 before swinging off onto the A75 to cut across to Troon.

But not before an embarrassing fail on my part :oops:.

After enjoying a great high speed run up the motorway, all perfect lane discipline and courteous attentive drivers, I was getting hungry and pretty tired so pulled into Carlisle Services and its BP service station.
Go straight to the Ultimate pump, fill up, grab some fast food, then leave. Bike cuts out 10 metres past the pump, with oil light on. To cut an hour-long story of unsuccessful remedies short, I eventually enlisted the help of AA-Service guys John and Kev (who thankfully were across the service road and were watching wondering how long it'd be before I came over). They tried a few things then suggested perhaps I'd filled it with diesel. I'm not that stupid I said but my receipt proved that I was :doh::doh: :mad: :mad:

They said it happens more often than you'd think, but only at BP for some reason. Well, not excusing my stupidity, here's why ! -

BP Ultimate pump in Australia. It's petrol. Note dark blue /yellow colours and lettering font -




BP Ultimate pump in Britain. It's diesel -




FFS. Anyway, after a full fuel flush by John and 160 pounds later (he called it in as fuel-contamination instead of wrong-fuel which saved me 100 quid, top bloke), I'm on my way. The VFR just shrugged it off - it never blinked after that. What a bike :endu.


Scotland ! -




Eventually arrived in Troon at 10:30pm after a couple of hours in heavy rain which I didn't need by then; Brenda was pleased to see me (I think) :cdle .

Will do separate RRs on Italy then the lap of Scotland.
 
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Williamson

Part of the furniture
Nice pics and words Peter.

.... then suggested perhaps I'd filled it with diesel. I'm not that stupid I said but my receipt proved that I was :doh::doh: :mad: :mad: .....

You ain't the first, and won't be the last. I heard it's better and cheaper than putting petrol in instead of diesel.
 

nev

Super Térrarist
What a great trip. Marshalling at the IOM !! I know from watching Dakar racing that they also cancel stages when the weather won't allow the helicopters in the air.
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
BP Ultimate pump in Britain. It's diesel -

....and you won't be the last :bs
I put 4l of diesel into the 1100RT rental-barge in Italy before realizing it.
Then topped it up with 98 to hopefully dilute it enough to keep the thing ticking over.
She smelled a bit funny, but never missed a beat. :whistle::doh:

Then did it again with one of the XT660s on one of those NZ-rides...3-and-a-bit liters into a 15l tank.
Smooth as... :)
 

Moyston

Getting the hang of this.
just reading the TT. went over as well and was in ramsay for the 10 days...what a gas it is and the atmosphere is fantastic...we stayed with some friends from carrum..you might know it, he has the motorcycle shop in carrum Motocafe...so they had the race team entered and were staying with us..the young boy riding , came off at 120 miles, missed sign posts, stone walls and slid backwards into the gutter, spent 3 weeks in liverpool hospital with broken cocix and vertebrae...lucky...but the time we were there, it was so much fun . great spot and those side cars fly!
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
just reading the TT. went over as well and was in ramsay for the 10 days...what a gas it is and the atmosphere is fantastic...we stayed with some friends from carrum..you might know it, he has the motorcycle shop in carrum Motocafe...so they had the race team entered and were staying with us..the young boy riding , came off at 120 miles, missed sign posts, stone walls and slid backwards into the gutter, spent 3 weeks in liverpool hospital with broken cocix and vertebrae...lucky...but the time we were there, it was so much fun . great spot and those side cars fly!

Hey....Great to see you back again, been missing you :gday:
 
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