TT Isle of Man

It has been four very long years, but BTR made it back to the Isle of Man for the Tourist Trophy races. This time we made a short visit to Belfast, Ireland before we headed over for the action.

The best part about traveling is learning new things about history and meeting interesting people. We met up with Gerard, our driver of the infamous Black Taxi cabs of Belfast. He drove us around to some amazing places and informed us of the political disputes and ‘The Troubles’ that started in the ’60s and how things are in Belfast today. Did you know that there are over 99 “peace” walls still separating the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods and that the gates are locked at night and guarded? We visited the longest wall which is over 2 miles long and at least 20 feet high, covered in graffiti. We thought we were looking at the Berlin wall all over again. Another thing that stood out was the photographs and murals on walls everywhere, reminding you of the people who died for the cause or were murdered. Our driver showed us a wall that contained 12 photographs of people just from his neighborhood. As of now, there is peace in the city and hopefully the walls will eventually come down.

It was time to head to the Dublin airport and take our flight to the Isle of Man. It was just a short flight over the Irish Sea, and soon we were touching down on the south end of the island. We were greeted with temps in the low 50s and a slow drizzling rain, not good conditions for racing on the mountain course. Looks like there is going to be some down time today … guess we’ll have to find a local pub and toss back a few pints and share some stories with the Douglas locals. We would also do a little history research for some interesting tidbits for our story.

The first time the race was held on the Isle of Man was back in 1907 and it was 10 laps on a 15-mile course, not the 37.5-mile course used today. It must have been a spectacle seeing pure street motorcycles barely making any horsepower trying to make their way around the course. It grew in popularity, expanding to multiple classes, including sidecars which were added in 1923. Both World Wars got in the way of racing, but it commenced in 1946 with the Manx Grand Prix. The current course is the oldest in the world for motorcycle competition and is still the most dangerous.

One thing to keep in mind if you ever come to the Isle of Man, find yourself a good restaurant and stick with it. It is hard to find good food, especially with the influx of 20,000 bikers hitting the island. We found a great Italian restaurant called Alessandro’s in Douglas and that was all she wrote!

There are no modern hotels on the island, period. What they do have you will find comfortable though. If you stay in Douglas on the Promenade facing the beach, there are multiple turn of the century accommodations. You won’t be disappointed, and they all throw in a free breakfast! Your other options are camp sites, bring your own or pre- erected tents. They even have Glampsites, where the tents come with actual beds and furniture. Then there are the Snoozeboxes … shipping containers stacked on top of each other and turned into small apartment units. They have a great location usually very close to the grandstands. You can also find private homes where you can rent a room or the entire house. Getting around the island is easy when there is no racing going on. The bus lines will take you anywhere you want to go and there are also cabs that run late into the night. For leisurely travel to the north we take the electric train that meanders through small villages and the country side and ends up in Ramsey.

Today we got a full day of racing in, watching and photographing from Parliament Square in Ramsey. We like this area because there are places to have lunch, go to the bathroom and have a cold beer between the races. Plus, you don’t have to wait for the roads to open back up, you just jump back on the train and enjoy the ride.

We have been following the TT for a few years now and have gotten to know the rider’s names, their history and what they are all about. One rider who was sorely missed this year was John McGuiness, who has won 23 races on the mountain course. He had talked about trying to get three more wins this year and retire, but that will have to wait. He had a bad accident on the new Honda Fireblade a few weeks earlier, breaking a few vertebrae, ribs and his leg. He still made his way to the paddock during race week to support his team mate, Guy Martin. Time will tell what John is going to do and we wish him the best of luck.

Later that evening we caught some beach Motocross action in front of our hotel. The weather was turning crappy again, so we made our way down to the ferry terminal to watch the boats land with more bikes coming for the week. There would be no ferries tonight as the seas were too rough. Hundreds of tired bikers were waiting at the terminal to go home mid-week and they were told it would be at least 36 hours before they could get a ferry. I felt bad for everyone as they had nowhere to stay except the ferry terminal. It is one of the chances you take if you want to ride your motorcycle to the Isle of Man. Believe me, you DO want to have a motorcycle over there!
The Sunday during mid-week is called “Mad Sunday,” where all the motorcycles on the Island get to ride the 37.5 course, even the section in the mountains that have no speed limits. They are always the hooligans who take it over the edge when it comes to riding and sometimes it cost them their lives. People forget, these are just two-lane roads that are driven daily by people going and coming from work—to the store and to visit friends. There are no barriers, there are no security fences to keep you from flying off a cliff. This is the Isle of Man, the most dangerous road circuit in the world. The racers all now what can happen and they except it.

This year there was only one rider from the USA, Peter Murray riding in the lightweight class. He was lucky enough to hook up with VRS Racing owned by Robbie Sylvester. They had a bike and Peter was the man for the job. We sat and talked with both and shot some video of the conversation. Hopefully, I will be editing the footage soon for BTR Television.

We had some more down time between race days and made our way to the other side of the island to the town of Peel. We took a walk through a castle originally
built by the Vikings under the rule of King Magnus Barefoot in the 11th century.

From there we went we down to the Peel promenade for the Moddy Dhoo bike show. Moddy Dhoo is Manx for “Black Dog,” which sounds a whole lot better! Legend has it that the Black Dog’s ghost still roams the halls of Peel castle. You won’t see a lot of Harley-Davidsons in this bike show, but you will see a lot of British and European beauties that will make you drool.

Back to Douglas and the last day of racing, today is the sidecars and the Senior TT, which is the build up to racing all week. All the big names are here as we cruise through the paddock and onto the starting line. One rider of note this year is Peter Hickman, who has seen 4 podiums already this week in 3 different classes, will today be his lucky day? The laps go by fast as racing finishes up on the Isle of Man. We find ourselves in the winner’s circle, as Michael Dunlop enters and proceeds to do a burnout for the entertainment of the media. Peter Hickman comes in second and puts on a pretty good smoke show himself! Michael Dunlop has become the dominating rider and has proven it again not to count him out.

Reality has hit us; the TT is over and we have to go home now. Not so fast, let’s talk about this over a pizza and beer at Alessandro’s … we are not ready to go home. Why not head over to Paris for a day or two? It was a plan … Eiffel Tower, here we come! We can’t explain how big the Eiffel Tower is! We spent half a day just hanging out there, after going up to the top of course … with a thousand other people. Paris is a huge city with a huge history and some of the best wine we have ever had. The clock is still ticking and part of our conversation that night at Alessandro’s was about making a visit to the D-Day landing sites in Normandy. There are some places in the world you should visit and this was one of them. We made our way through France stopping in Rouen and Giverny before our final destination. We went to the American cemetery to pay respect to the thousands of soldiers who have been laid to rest there. Looking out at all of the white crosses brings the reality of what happened here back on June 6, 1944. You walk away speechless.We made our way down to Omaha Beach and walked out onto the sand at the ocean’s edge and tried to visualize what it must have been like. We were overwhelmed.

I remembered a famous photograph, called “Taxis to Hell-and Back-Into the Jaws of Death” taken by a navy photographer as the front gate dropped on the landing craft and splashed down onto the blood stains sands of Omaha Beach. If not for all the allied troops, we would not be here today. June 6 has taken on a whole new meaning for us and we pray that the world never comes to this again.

Freedom doesn’t come free, so until then keep the wind in your face, travel whenever you can, meet new people and remember you were Born to Ride.

Photos and text by Scott and Carla Odell