Riding at 196 mph (315 km/h) inches away from stone walls and houses on public roads during the Isle of Man TT. The course features over 200 turns with zero runoff areas, claiming over 260 lives since 1907
Amazingly, I have spent more time than I would like dealing with H&S law, vicarious liability, duty of care etc. The IoM is not governed by the UK...so I won't weigh in on the legalities because they are also unimportant to my question. I am highly aware that, for better or worse, justified or not, people can sign bits of paper saying all manner of things. Some of it is even enforceable.
What I actually asked - because a lot of people seem to struggle with this idea of empathy for things that don't directly hurt them - was whether they would still say it was awesome if it had killed somebody important to them...and not just 'other people'.
Yes, but bear in mind the TT event spans multiple races across multiple categories; the riders accumulate 50,000 - 100,000 miles during the whole TT event.
It seems like people have a misunderstanding. This is a sanctioned annual race on closed public roads. Riders don't just walk into the race tent and say they want to try it. These riders have been racing for years and are highly skilled. But yes they still die because one mistake in the wrong place and that's it. Try and find the video of people sitting at the cafe with the racers passing by. It is mind blowing.
I got quite a few there, but honestly when you’re so close if you hangover the wall you’ll have your head taken off it’s kinda simpler but kinda terrifying
Nearly haha! It was at 1/8000, iso 1000 and f2.8, there was plenty where they weren’t in focus. Hi speed+ on shoot made, manual focus and hope for the best
The sections called Gorse Lea, and we were at Harold’s corner, as the wall you can watch from is the garden wall of a fella called Harold Leece who opens up his garden for spectators to watch
Ah thanks. Because I saw it this year Hillberry and I’m going back next year with friends so wanted a faster section but still close to the road. I guess I just turn up with some food etc as a thanks?
Yeah man, get there in the morning, as you know they close the roads and space is limited, we got there for just before 9 and were one of the first. Another good section that’s more central to Douglas if you wanted to stay around things is Bray Hill, riders hit similar speeds but you can’t get as close as you can at Harold’s.
You are locked in at Harold’s when you’re there, so if you’re gonna go try and scout out a sunny day, there’s a co-op nearby you can walk to but it’s a good 40 minute each way, so yeah I’d recommend taking food and drinks with you for the day. Great place to watch it though. When they come past the air smacks you
Thank you very much indeed. Well… at Hillberry…. My hat was blown off by a bike… and they’re doing about 140 by the wall I believe. Just before the corner
It used to be part of the Motor-cycle Grand Prix World Championship (the precursor to modern MotoGP). Riders didn’t have a choice then. It took riders like Barry Sheene boycotting it to get to took off for safer purposes built tracks. I live on the Isle of Man and love the TT but some years have been hard here.
Not the same type of prestigious. There isn't any yachts at the TT, that's for sure. But the people who race it are held in the highest of esteem along with the best in the world championships.
Yeah it’s insane looking. It’s just a short platform with a faring on the front that they can hide behind on straightaways, and they spend the whole race leaning in various directions, including all the way across the back of the bike with their upper body out in open air, just to shift the center of gravity to allow for faster corners. Mental.
A tour de force in human bravery, hyperfocus, and absolute mastery over a machine. If my bike starts to wobble at that high speed, I'd completely panic and crash.
If you haven’t seen it find the video where Guy Martin crashed his bike at at the IOMTT doing 175mph and the bike turned into a huge fireball. He slid down the road and came to a stop outside someone’s house, the medics found him sitting on a chair in an old lady’s front garden having a cup of tea. Mental!
What? 😅. No one does this to be hard… they do it because they love it.
If you’re referring to me, I’m just a fan of the sport and having the choice to compete and not be bound by red tape so commonly found in today’s world.
I had post op cancer pain and I drove myself to an urgent care. Not even sure how I did it. Car sideways in the parking lot. They immediately called an ambulance and I spent 18 days in the icu.
So yeah, when you are in insane pain. You’re just looking for help.
I just started riding again after a pretty bad wreck like 10 years ago. It wasn't that bad but I broke my collarbone and was like yeah I'm not riding anymore.. but anyways just going around corners at like around double the posted speed limit which is not that fast. You know 40 mph and a 20 mph curve. My bike is small and it only goes like top speed 80 mph. Still my heart rate is like 120 on an intense ride. I have no idea how these guys do it.
I had a motorbike for a short time, going at 70-80mph was terrifying.
I was happy when I eventually crashed (not my fault other driver took full blame) as it put me off riding one. I do find them cool a heck still though.
It's a mindset difference. No offense intended, but someone who gives up riding for a decade after a common and minor injury is not someone who is going to be able to understand the mindset of these riders.
They should invent a version of those airbag suits that instead blow up into a whole body sized ball- like those you can walk in but just to give them a chance to live
They do have them, and they are a great innovation in motorcycle safety. But at the TT they honestly are just a drop in the ocean. If you hit a wall at 160mph no airbag will save you.
The island holds the Guinness World Record for greenest energy generation, with 300% of its energy coming from harnessing the butt puckering of the participants and spectators alike.
You could argue that a rider in the Isle of Man TT is fighting his motorcycle, the G-forces, and the road at 200 mph just to keep his brain from turning into mush on someone’s front porch.
The best illustration I seen of this is when you drive the actual course and the white line in the road goes, “whoop…………whoop…….…..whoop…………whoop, and then you see the onboards and the same white line is going, “whoopwhoopwhoopwhoopwhoopwhoop”
Lived here for 2 years in early 2000s, these riders have balls of fucking steel covered in carbon. It's dangerous as fuck, respect those who take part.
I’m too chickenshit to ever ride a motorcycle, let alone ever in a million years think of doing anything like this. But I’m glad there’s a place where people who want to push their limits this far and put everything on the line are able to.
Insane as this is, there is a sidecar event at the same time. The co-driver in the sidecar is basically ballast: they’re unsecured, and the way they shift their weight radically alters the handling of the bike (trike?) around corners.
That is terrifying. Any minor mistake at that speed, especially in that environment and it's pretty much guaranteed death or becoming a vegetable.
I guess you just have to be wired a different way to do stuff like this, because I get nervous going at similar speeds in Forza games and it always leads to me messing up/crashing.
Because people keep signing up. Motorcycle racers are a entirely different breed of racer. They are like the free solo climbers of the rock climbing world and the BASE wingsuit jumpers of the parachuting world.
Tthr Isle of Man is self governing. If they want to keep holding it, no one can force them not to. They clearly believe that if the riders know the danger and still want to partake that it’s ok for them to race. Frankly, I’m ok with it too for the same reason. No one is unaware of the danger here.
Everybody dies. Some like to live first. Different strokes for different folks, power to ‘em.
I wouldn’t do it because I think it’s stupid but as long as the only people getting hurt know what they’re signing up for, I’d never consider banning it.
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u/indifferentunicorn 2h ago
On average 2 participants die each year?