The Bear does the 2016 IOM TT

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This isn't going in the Ride Report section, as I didn't ride my bike to the IOM.


Whilst watching the 2015 TT on the TV I decided I wanted to attend the 2016 race, so my mate and myself booked foot passenger ferry tickets for the 2016 TT. I then set about looking for accommodation.

I have a contact in the IOM who works in the islands judicial system, so I decide to send him a cheeky email letting him know I'm coming over incase he wants meet up. I strike lucky, he replies with an invite for us both to stay with him for the duration of our trip. Result :thumb2. I risk another cheeky email to him, asking if he knows of any good places to watch the races. He replies ‘leave it with me’.




Monday 6th June

Fast forward to 6th June 2016 and off we set by train from Sheffield to Liverpool to catch the ferry. Liverpool is named after the now extinct Liver birds that once roamed the land. These were flightless scavenger birds (rather like the Dodo) who loved nothing more than to steal other birds eggs, and often the eggs of their own species. This lead to their own demise when in 1604 the last two breeding pairs of Liver birds stole each others eggs, resulting in their extinction. How ironic then that the favourite pastime of todays typical Liverpoodlian is to break into other peoples homes and steal their TV’s :)


Our passing through Liverpool goes without incident, but a small group of shirtless chavs did get uncomfortable close to us as we headed from the train station to the ferry port.

Liverpoodlians are extremely fond of their links to the Liver birds and have even named a building after them..


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As we board the ferry we discover lots of other people are also desperate to leave Liverpool, some want to leave this shit hole so quickly that many of them are doing so by motorbike…

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Our ferry departure is delayed by 40 mins (probably because a local scouse has stolen the rudder?) but we eventually set sail. 3 hrs later we reach Douglas IOM. We head straight to our hosts house.





Tuesday 7th June

Today sees a morning of rain, we decide to head for Ramsey to watch the Ramsey Sprint event. Ramsey being the birth town of famous celebrity TV twat Gordon Ramsey…

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We walk down to Douglas front and purchase a 5 day travel pass that covers busses, electric railway and horse drawn trams. We jump on one of the horse trams which will take us to the electric tram at the other end of the bay.


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Within minutes of setting off, our horse ‘Steven’ decides to crash the tram into a parked up coach, ripping its wing mirror off and scratching the body work. Steven doesn't give a flying fuck and instead of stopping to exchange details he simply carries on as if nothing has happened. Steven stops for nothing, except to allow passengers to embark and disembark, but even then only at specific designated and official ‘request stops’.

Here's me stood next to Steven, who doesn't give a fuck about anything, and why should he?....

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Sadly this was the last time I saw Steven, perhaps the authorities finally caught up with him, and he is now at the islands glue factory?


We jump on the electric railway and head for Ramsey

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Ramsey is quite a nice place, with a nice harbour..

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We head over to the Ramsey Sprint area which thankfully has been delayed pending The Bears arrival (or the stoppage of the rain). The rain soon stops and the Sprint commences. Its a mixture of serious and none serious riders who for some strange reason choose to ride very quickly over an extremely short distance before turning around and doing it again, and again and again. They aren't even any good at it as they all demonstrate extremely poor clutch control by spinning their rear wheels at the start of each attempt.


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Giles was there on his KTM..

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And so was Rick on his XR..

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The keen eyed amongst you might be able to spot Keith Flint, the twat from the shit pop group Prodigy….

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After the Sprint we headed back to Douglas to watch the Red Arrows display. On arrival we look for a possible datum point that the Red Arrows might use during their display, as this is where you’ll normally find Red 10 giving the commentary. We notice a break in the building line on the sea front with grassland and trees behind and with a raised terrace platform which we head up, and find Red 10, otherwise known as Squadron Leader Mike Ling. We had a quick chat with him (which was possibly the highlight of his day) and he asks if I will pose for a photo with him, I reluctantly agree. Red 10 is the exact same size as a Palitoy Action Man


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Despite the fog the Red Arrows put on a great display…

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Then it was off to Bushys beer tent next to Douglas ferry port for a few beers…

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…..





Wednesday 8th June

Race day…

Our host tells us that he has made contact with another figure head on the island and that maybe we ought to head up to the Grandstand and expect a phone call from him. We do just that, wondering what lies in store for us. We wonder around the stalls and race team tents behind the Grandstand where its very busy.


John McGuinnessesses bike..

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Ansteys bike…

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The bikes from a recent death on the track…

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This rider must be crazy to ride without helmet, leathers, gloves or boots, what must she be thinking?

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We watch some of the riders heading up to their bikes on the start line…


Martin Jessopp

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John McGuinness

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Some other riders who I don't know..


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For some reason my finger keeps clicking on the camera button..

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Podium girls..

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I get the phone call I've been waiting for and we are told to head straight to the bottom of the control tower. I can see that Red 10 is up there. Im beginning to get a good feeling about this…

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The control tower door opens and our new contact greets us, and we are lead inside, Im now beginning to get a really good feeling about this. 30 seconds later and we are stood at the very top of the tower giving us perhaps the best views possible…


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We cant believe our luck, apart from the TV film crew and a few VIP’s we virtually have the tower to ourselves. We have an amazing 360 degree view of the start line, grandstand, pits and of Douglas itself.


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The race starts…

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Watching the bikes heading off towards Bray Hill..

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I learn that the people living in the IOM aren't allowed to be buried in this graveyard...

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The bikes start to come into the pits..

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Hutchy takes victory..

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Its custom for cub scout boys to be forced against their will into the podium for the top three riders of the race to spray sticky liquid all over them.

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Then its time for the the side car and Zero race

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We have an amazing day up on the tower, but decide to go down towards Bray Hill to watch the last race of the day. We settle for a spot a bit further up from the hill and watch from behind a wall..

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Thursady 9th June

We decide to visit Peel as we've heard theres a bike show happening over there. Peel being the birth place of the famous bland radio DJ John Peel…

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We catch the bus from Douglas. Peel is another nice place to visit despite the fact that theres fuck all there….

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Its just a quiet little place, apart from hundreds of bikers that have decided to follow me there…

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Turns out the bike show isn't my thing, I have little interest in looking at other peoples bikes and I don't even take any photos. We catch the bus back to Douglas to relax for the rest of the day. Later that afternoon I receive a phone call from an ex cop that runs a Trike Tour business from Douglas, taking tourists around the TT track. I’d been put in touch with him earlier in the week but he was booked up solid. He told me he’d had a cancellation and did we want a tour of the track? Yes please.

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We took in the sights of the track…

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One of many ‘incidents’ up on the mountain..

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Where Conar Cummins had his ‘off’ on a previous year. They have coned off the area to stop tourists stopping and causing more accidents..

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This location speaks for itself..

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Friday 10th June

Side Car & Senior Race Day


Through our contact we had been invited to a BBQ at a lady’s house who lives on Quarter Bridge Rd and who's house overlooks the track. We had previously decided to watch the Senior race from up at the Bungalow on the Mountain, and after much deliberation we kindly refuse the BBQ invitation and instead catch the first Electric Train to Laxey, where we change onto the Snaefell railway up to the Bungalow..

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The Bear goes over the Mountain
The Bear goes over the Mountain
The Bear goes over the Mountain
To see what he can see....

We arrive at the Bungalow and choose our place to watch the race. Its a great place to watch the race, but as I had been warned by UturnTony the weather can change at any moment so I’d packed my coat, jumper, waterproof trousers, chair, picnic mat, sandwiches, drinks etc. Up on the mountain it can quickly change from being glorious sunshine...


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To cloudy and foggy...

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Thankfully theres a reasonably priced snap waggon to keep me topped up during the day..

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My Helinox Sunset chair that I purchased purposely for the TT is put to good use and was a worthwhile purchase, allowing me to have a snooze when the race was delayed due to fog..…


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The side car race starts first…

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Followed by the Senior Race. I’ll not post many photos as most are just a bit of a blur to be honest, and I videoed most of it instead…


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It was great to see the race from up there, and when it was over we decided to let the queues for the train back down the mountain disperse whilst we caught the railway up to the summit instead…

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The Isle of Man is the suicide capital of the world, with folk constantly jumping off the edge and plummeting to their deaths. A few years ago the authorities decided to build a platform for them to jump from…

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This years total suicides to date is 2036. The cafe on the summit displays a running tally…

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We head inside the cafe for a beer, where I discover I'm suffering from a type of sunburn called Bungalow Knee..

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We decide to stay up on the summit to get a distant view of the Subaru car race the circuit but we learn that this has been cancelled due to an ‘incident’ on the circuit. No doubt a rider has crashed somewhere during the last moments of the race?



We descend back down the mountain to Laxey, famous for the Laxey Wheel which was built by the Victorians as a form of punishment. Back then, anyone caught trying to escape from the island would be sentenced to years of treading the wheel as a form of punishment. I think the wheel is connected to a cloud making machine which produces the clouds and fog that cover the Mountain, spoiling tourists views over the island.


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Saturday 11th June

We spend Saturday in Douglas and have another wonder around the Grandstand area. The island feel quieter already as people have started to go home. The Grandstand stalls are being packed away, we even see John McGuinness helping to pack away one of the Honda stalls. He sees me and I can tell he's wondering whether to come over for a chat, but he hesitates too long and I turn and walk away.

I go over to his motorhome and grab a quick photo…

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We then go off to walk a bit of the circuit around Douglas and take a few more photos…

Lots of folk erect scaffold seating in their gardens…

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Bray Hill…

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Sunday 12th June

Our host gives us a drive around the southern part of the island, which i have to say is the nicest part. We visit Castletown, Port St Mary, Port Erin and Calf of Man, where we find yet more bikers at the cafe…


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We then return to Douglas where we board our ferry home. Like my late father would always say after any family holiday, our IOM TT trip is now just an 'expensive memory' :mad:. I realise that I could have saved a lot of money by staying at home and imagining it all :rob.


Many thanks to UturnTony for the advice you gave me prior to travelling to the TT, it came in very very useful and we would have missed many sights had it not been for your help :thumb2 :bow
 
Enjoyed that, and wonder about the black art of being able to put together such a well presented compendium of words n pics in a thread on here.

thanks for taking the trouble.
 
Nice one Steve; like the piccys. and the humour :D

I watched the 1988 Senior from the top of the tower along with the Governor of the island, his wife and the chief of police, they were honoured of course :D
Senior day that year was also the first attempt Tony Pond made at a 100mph. lap in a car (a standard Rover Vitesse) the in car video of which is a cracker.
He failed that time but, succeeded in 1990.

Glad you had a great TT experience Steve. Next time, take your motorcycle :thumb2
 
Good write-up, that's filled my first 30 minutes at work this morning. :D

Harbour shot in Ramsey is where we parked/docked/moored? the boat, I know nothing of these water floaty thingy's... But it brought back some good memories. :)
 
Superb ....loved reading that and Loooking at the pics ....
 
Nice report Mr Bear :thumby: but why no name check for Andres on his awesome Tomos :cool: he won't be pleased :comfort
 

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Great read Bear, that seat is overpriced, crap. Bring it to Dent next year and I relieve you of it for a tenner.
 


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