IOMTT: Colin’s TT Blog - All About The Course & The Crowd

A world traveler on two-wheels, Asphalt & Rubber reader and good friend Colin Evans is attending his first Isle of Man TT this year. We asked him to share his perspective on the trip, as both someone new to the Isle of Man, but also as a veteran of the world and riding motorcycles. Our hope is that it will be an informative, yet different, perspective than your typical coverage of the IOMTT. Please enjoy! -Jensen

The Isle of Man TT is all about the Course and the Crowd, so I spent all of today learning about both.

I rode the course twice more and, with traffic lights, speed limits, fog, and rain, I just about beat the race winning time – from 1911.

The fog on the mountain was so thick the first time this morning before breakfast that the postman overtook me in his little red van. Well, he does have windscreen wipers, which my Shoei does not. That’s my defense, and I’m sticking to it.

My best time was 45 minutes for the 37.7 miles, and this evening Bruce Anstey just did it in less than 18 minutes. The more you get to see the details of the TT course, the more respect you have to afford these riders.

There is nothing special that has been done to these roads that make you think it’s a track. There are no potholes, but there are crazy kerbs, people sitting in their front gardens two feet from your helmet, slippery white lines, intrusive walls, humpbacks, every corner is totally blind between high walls and hedges, and the protection on the lamp posts and walls is laughable.

The road surface is generally good, but I was totally amazed at the bumpiness of the section from Sulby Bridge to Ramsey – apparently the tree roots are constantly shifting the tarmac – I am riding a BMW K1600GT and it was skittering all over the place even at legal-ish speeds, and I cannot imagine what this would be like at race speeds.

Stopping a few times along the way, I met a lot of interesting people; men and their wives (sometimes) from all over the place but generally blue collar British lads just, like the blue collar British riders; working blokes who take their bikes seriously but laugh readily about everything else.

Meet Jimmy from Glasgow (I kid you not), with an accent that needed subtitles, who is ex-RAF, ex-police, now a builder in Fife. He rode his BMW GS Adventure in the GS Trophy in Wales last week, rode home to Glasgow, swapped bikes for his HP4, took off to the ferry to Douglas, and is now having a blast.

I met Alan from the Lancashire police, who are here helping their Manx colleagues stay on top of things, and he graciously let me sample his bike.

Finally I watched qualifying from Creg Ny Baa, then later back at the pit wall at the grandstand. I was not close enough to Guy Martin to hear what he was saying to his crew, but I understand he had a problem with false neutrals and claimed he lost 30 seconds as a result. They’ll be working hard in the BMW workshop tonight.

Crazy course – lovely people.