TT 2019 practice week and trails
Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2019 9:22 pm
Sorry, can’t get the videos to embed.
I’ve been over a few times for trail riding but never for the racing. We always stay at the same bunk house over near Peel. Perfect for us as wet and muddy doesn’t matter at the end of the day. I cant imagine going to a B&B in the state we’re usually in.
The weather was mixed, typical Isle of Man! We had grey days, bright sunshine, mist and rain.
First day trail riding on Sunday and plenty of offs on the slippy slate. As practice was going to be run we made our way up to the end of the Cronk y voddy straight to watch. Absolutely awesome. Full respect to all the riders but the top boys were visibly quicker. We then headed to Kirk Michael and watched there. At the end of the session John McGuinness broke down at our corner. Down to earth chap who as happy to speak to the few of us there.
https://youtu.be/yDnNX-ZmUZE
Mondays weather started out grey with a bit of rain when we got up in the hills. My brother shredded a tyre (it also went through both sides of the tube) on the slate. We put a new tube in but tyre needed replacing. Thankfully we weren’t too far from Sulby and Juan Knight. Sent him and one other down the mountain and Juan sorted them. I then had my brother radioing me asking what tyre to buy whilst I was binning it down a steep slate trail.... We had another puncture in the group so also headed down to Sulby to get it sorted.
Tuesday was glorious. We hit the trails early and had a great time until one of the lads on an Xchallenge went down halfway along the southern section of the millennium way. It twisted the rad and pulled off the end tank, emptying all of the coolant out of the bike. We wheeled it down the last mile and a half back to a road. All thinking that was the end for that bike. I then towed it on my 690 back up to Sulby to see if we could graft on a donor rad. Interesting experience towing back up across the mountain and we did get some looks, especially at Ballaugh Bridge!
We stripped the bike, squared up the rad and with the help of Juan, got it back together. Amazingly it sealed when we filled it up and was okay to carry on.
]
From there we did some more trails, eventually getting to Conker Trees down a lane and walking through a wood. We watched the Superbikes for an hour there and then headed up to Mountain Box on the trails. Leaving the bikes there we went under the course through a storm gully and watched the remainder of the Superbikes and then sidecars from there. Absolutely the best viewing spot and we were the only people there apart from a lone marshal.
https://youtu.be/mxwJPf9tv3Q
https://youtu.be/KrV2FkqBozQ
Wednesday was wet and misty. We hit some more amazing trails and had a few more offs before heading to Douglas and the pits. Thoroughly soaked we wandered around until we recognised the garages for the 2 sidecar outfits that had impressed us up at Mountain Box. Showed them the video and were all invited in for a chat, hot tea and a nose at the outfits. Amazing dedication to the sport on what must be really tight budgets.
Another cracking trip. Have always loved the trails over there but adding in the TT was great. A few broken bits on bikes, a few sore heads, a few aches and pains but well worth it.
I’ve been over a few times for trail riding but never for the racing. We always stay at the same bunk house over near Peel. Perfect for us as wet and muddy doesn’t matter at the end of the day. I cant imagine going to a B&B in the state we’re usually in.
The weather was mixed, typical Isle of Man! We had grey days, bright sunshine, mist and rain.
First day trail riding on Sunday and plenty of offs on the slippy slate. As practice was going to be run we made our way up to the end of the Cronk y voddy straight to watch. Absolutely awesome. Full respect to all the riders but the top boys were visibly quicker. We then headed to Kirk Michael and watched there. At the end of the session John McGuinness broke down at our corner. Down to earth chap who as happy to speak to the few of us there.
https://youtu.be/yDnNX-ZmUZE
Mondays weather started out grey with a bit of rain when we got up in the hills. My brother shredded a tyre (it also went through both sides of the tube) on the slate. We put a new tube in but tyre needed replacing. Thankfully we weren’t too far from Sulby and Juan Knight. Sent him and one other down the mountain and Juan sorted them. I then had my brother radioing me asking what tyre to buy whilst I was binning it down a steep slate trail.... We had another puncture in the group so also headed down to Sulby to get it sorted.
Tuesday was glorious. We hit the trails early and had a great time until one of the lads on an Xchallenge went down halfway along the southern section of the millennium way. It twisted the rad and pulled off the end tank, emptying all of the coolant out of the bike. We wheeled it down the last mile and a half back to a road. All thinking that was the end for that bike. I then towed it on my 690 back up to Sulby to see if we could graft on a donor rad. Interesting experience towing back up across the mountain and we did get some looks, especially at Ballaugh Bridge!
We stripped the bike, squared up the rad and with the help of Juan, got it back together. Amazingly it sealed when we filled it up and was okay to carry on.
]
From there we did some more trails, eventually getting to Conker Trees down a lane and walking through a wood. We watched the Superbikes for an hour there and then headed up to Mountain Box on the trails. Leaving the bikes there we went under the course through a storm gully and watched the remainder of the Superbikes and then sidecars from there. Absolutely the best viewing spot and we were the only people there apart from a lone marshal.
https://youtu.be/mxwJPf9tv3Q
https://youtu.be/KrV2FkqBozQ
Wednesday was wet and misty. We hit some more amazing trails and had a few more offs before heading to Douglas and the pits. Thoroughly soaked we wandered around until we recognised the garages for the 2 sidecar outfits that had impressed us up at Mountain Box. Showed them the video and were all invited in for a chat, hot tea and a nose at the outfits. Amazing dedication to the sport on what must be really tight budgets.
Another cracking trip. Have always loved the trails over there but adding in the TT was great. A few broken bits on bikes, a few sore heads, a few aches and pains but well worth it.
The plastic end tank was just held on with alloy tabs, so they were opened up, the end tank put back into place and tabs squeezed tight. Still can’t quite believe it held though. Me having had a 650 Dakar for nearly fifteen years also helped. The lads were insisting the system was full until I undid the bleed screw on the head. Steam came out and a load more coolant went back into the system. 