Picto Diary - 02 June 2015 - AM - Another senior moment?
Note: Correction. Name of our van driver/mechanic is Simon Siggs... not Suggs. Hat tip to Lynn for error correction.
Above: Draft horse. Sulby, Isle of Man. 02 June 2015.
Before breakfast I walked near our hotel for about a mile down a rural road.
After walking some distance I stopped to capture an image of a beautiful draft horse grazing in an adjacent field. I was not to know, that while capturing the above image, something would happen that could have ruined my Isle of Man experience.
I completed my refreshing, morning walk at the hotel, where I joined my riding companions at breakfast.
Post breakfast, ride leader, Lynn Brown was to lead us, riding our motorcycles, over the mountain portion of the Isle of Man TT Mountain Course to Douglas where we would visit the finish line and the paddock area for the Isle of Man races.
After breakfast I returned to my hotel room, donned my riding gear and proceeded to the parking lot to join the other MotoQuest Isle of Man Tour riders. At the parking lot I reached into my pocket. No motorcycle key. I must, I thought, have left the key back in the room.
I couldn't find the key in the room. I turned everything inside out and still couldn't find it. I knew I was keeping my riding companions waiting, so I returned to the lot to tell Lynn to go without me. I would make another search of the hotel room... after all, the key must be there someplace, right?
After informing Lynn of the missing key, and before returning to my hotel room, I walked over to my bike. Could I have unwittingly left the key in the bike's ignition? No. The key wasn't there.
While I was standing by my motorcycle, Lynn rushed over to me and said, "hey, Steve (MotoQuest tour participant) said he found a BMW motorcycle key... he's gone up to his room to get it."
Steve returned with "my key." "Where did you find it," I asked him. "Down the road about a mile," he said, pointing to the direction where I had walked earlier in the morning.
Putting two and two together, I concluded that when I reached into my pocket to get my camera to take an image of the above pictured horse, I inadvertently and unwittingly pulled the keys out of my pocket, dropping them to the ground.
What are the chances of my lost keys being found in this manner...one mile or so down the road by a riding companion who just happened, later, to go on the same walk I had accomplished earlier?
There were no duplicate keys for the motorcycles. Had I lost the key I would have had to ride the rest of the trip in the van and to pay an ungodly amount to have the bike shipped back to Bournemouth... not to mention the hassle getting the bike shipped during a very busy race event period on the island. BMW motorcycle keys are not easily duplicated... replaced. Our bike provider in Bournemouth said he was not in possession of duplicate keys for the rented motorcycles.
This is the second time in the last 12 months that I have had a potential vacation ruining "senior moment" experience on a motorcycle tour. The first was a year ago when my losing my copy of my Azerbaijani visa almost prevented me leaving Azerbaijan into Russia, stymieing either myself, or the entire group I was with, at the border. Tour leader Kaz got me out of that one by having a copy of the visa scanned at a previous hotel which had kept a visa copy and having it emailed to his hand held on the Russia/Azerbaijan frontier.
Lessons to be drawn? I don't want to think about it.
Above: Mountain Course at "the Bungalow," near summit... some 2000 feet above sea level. Isle of Man. 02 June 2015. Rider in image is a race spectator, like we are, out riding the course during non race times.
The appeal of attending the Isle of Man TT, is not just watching the race trials, which begin at 6:00 PM daily on week days and continue until 9:00 PM in the late afternoon daylight.
During the day attendees tour the island on their motorcycles. In fact... that seems to be pretty much the whole Isle of Man deal... ride your own bikes in the day, watch the race trials in the evening, and find a pub for a drink with your mates (getting into the ling tooa) before bed.
You could fly here to attend the event... but, you would be missing something if you couldn't ride the island with thousands of other riding visitors. The Isle of Man has many quaint fishing towns, cozy pubs, interesting roads, and spectacular vistas.
A must do for the island visitor is to ride the Mountain Course during the day when it is open to the public.
Having miraculously retrieved my lost motorcycle key, I returned to the hotel room to re-don my gear and ride my Bournemouth rented BMW R1200 GS motorcycle to join my riding companions at the summit of the 37.7 mile long Mountain Course, about eight miles further down the Mountain Course from our hotel at Sulby.
During non race hours, the ascent up to the summit of the Mountain Course is one way. Direction is clock-wise like the race direction itself.
On the ascent I powered up my bike to 75 mph, leaning heavily (or so it seemed to me) into some sweeping curves..
Whoa.... blowing by me on my right were a couple of sport bikes which must have been doing 120 mph.
Flummoxed by the speedy riders going by me, I continued to "drag ass" up the mountain happily joining my companions at the summit.
The guys who passed me at 120 mph were only amateurs, like me, who wanted to test the Mountain Course themselves before watching the TT race trials later in the evening. It boggles my mind that the average speed for leaders of the TT on the mountain course exceeds 130 miles per hour. Top speeds, on straights, attain 206 miles per hour.
The TT is all about speed... and the racing maverick heroes (John McGuinnes, Joey Dunlop... erstwhile Mike Hailwood) who push the speed envelope the furthest. Speed is endorsed by the island generally, it seems, as there are no speed limits for the general public on rural sections of the Mountain Course.
Above: Motorcycles parked at TT paddock and finish line area. Douglas. Isle of Man. 02 June 2015.
I kind of went on a retail binge while at the paddock. I bought a TT cap, a couple of TT shirts, and a TT fleece jacket. I also purchased an Arai 2015 TT commemorative helmet which I'm having shipped home.
Above: Honda mechanic works on a Honda CBR 1000 Fireblade superbike. Paddock. Isle of Man TT. 02 June 2015.
Could this be the bike of one of the reigning heroes of the Isle of Man TT? John Maddox? 20 TT wins. Guy Martin? no TT wins, but survivor of a crash in 2010 where his bike turned into a ball of fire as he slid down the road with it? Guy Martin also recently gained notoriety by setting a world record speed and distance piloting a man powered aircraft developed at the University of Southhampton.
Top riders of the TT like Maddox, Dunlop and Martin are mavericks. The world's top "conventional" motorcycle racers, Moto GP riders, won't race at the TT. They say its too dangerous. Multiple time champion Moto GP rider Valentino Rossi, one of the most recognized sports figures in Europe and Asia, is reputed to have come to the Isle of Man to do a trial ride on the Mountain Course and said, "no, not for me... its too dangerous."
Moto GP races are held at certified race tracks around the world where safety features are built into the track design. On a given curve, say, should a rider go down, there would be room for him to slide without hitting a hard object. Also, there are more sharp turns and chicanes on a conventional track which tend to keep average speeds lower than those average speeds attained at the TT.
Since the beginning of the TT in 1910 over 200 gladiators... err.. riders have been killed... an average of two deaths a year.
Criticisms from some circles in Britain... like the criticism in Spain directed towards bull fighting... are directed towards the TT. Some would like to see it banned for being unsafe.
The Isle of Man, however, though dependent in many ways on the UK eg. defense... is a sovereign entity. The TT is a national institution. The race's contribution to the island economy is significant. There is no indication that the race is in any real jeopardy.
Another boon to the Isle of Man economy is that it is a tax haven, home to many wealthy expatriots. There are two taxation rates... 10% and 20% depending on income. No individual pays a tax in excess of BritishPounds 100,000.00. There is no corporation tax and no inheritance tax. An American could come to the Isle of Man, and without prevention, buy a piece of property, establish residency, and within five years obtain a British passport. He could then renounce American citizenship and America's confiscatory (relative to the Isle of Man) taxation. Just sayin'.
Above: Selfie of the Bishop, wearing signature race cap, at start/finish line. Isle of Man TT. Douglas, Isle of Man. 02 June 2015.
Note "Sulby Bridge" on the cap. Sulby is where the MotoQuest motorcycle tour group is staying for five nights during the Isle of Man TT race trials. The tour calls for the group to stay only during the first week trials, missing the actual race at the end of the second week... when... we are told, the island becomes a "total zoo" with mobility restricted and race viewing difficult.
Addendum
Steve,
These veterans were participating in a program called Honor Flight. Honor Flight is a non profit organization that flies veterans from all of our wars to see the memorials built in their honor. Mostly in Washington D.C. They concentrate on those veterans that are too feeble or don't have the financial ability, making sure they get to see their memorial. Delta Air Lines, among others, helps in this worthy cause. honorflight.org
Regards,
B1B,
Park City, UT
Steve please bring me back a T-shirt size extra large that would be cool- thank you.
Mr. Z3
Ojai, CA
"The logo of the ferry company, Steam Packet, is seen above on the side of the ferry.
The logo is also that the flag of the Isle of Man, showing three legs... always landing on one's feet."
It's a good story, but "it ain't necessarily so" . . .
The flag of the Isle of Man, or flag of Mann (Manx: brattagh Vannin), is a triskelion, composed of three armoured legs with golden spurs, upon a red background. It has been the official flag of Mann since 1 December 1932[2] and is based on the Manx coat of arms, which dates back to the 13th century. The three legs are known in Manx as ny tree cassyn ("the three legs"). The triskelion is an ancient symbol, used by the Mycenaeans and the Lycians. It is not known for certain why the symbol was originally adopted on the Isle of Man.[3] Before its adoption in 1932, the official flag of the Isle of Man was the Union Jack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Isle_of_Man
Travel safely and enjoyably.
FeeNix
Phoenix, AZ
Malc
Enjoy the Kippers - see you in Istanbul.
Malc,
Tokyo, Japan
On the off chance that Lynn Brown remembers me, would you tell him "hello" from me. We were both part of a group of Honda Transalp riders, that used to gather, each year. Ernie was another one of the TA riders group.
Guzzi,
Park City, UT
The ferry for motorbikes is astonishing….
Joan Cusak, Chicago, IL