Dr. Blair on Dyno Hill- Place your bets!

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I was reading about Dave Croxford. He was used to crashing, but when he went to the IOM he was pertified. And I don't blame him. You would need to be prepared to die.
 
That was tongue and cheek as it seems info about a Paton at the IOM is as relevant to tuning a Commando for road use as discussion of how a GSXR runs at Daytona?
 
They are all motorcycles and the IOM circuit is just another piece of road. High top speed of a road bike on open public roads means nothing except bragging rights. But some people like to fantasise. I don't blame anyone for not road racing, but they miss out on a lot of fun. When you look at still photos on the IOM race circuit, it looks OK, but I usually cannot bear to watch those on-board videos of it. Raving there would be like being shot at in a war..
 
worntorn said:
That was tongue and cheek as it seems info about a Paton at the IOM is as relevant to tuning a Commando for road use as discussion of how a GSXR runs at Daytona?
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There will always be one who
Dr. Blair on Dyno Hill- Place your bets!
 
acotrel said:
They are all motorcycles and the IOM circuit is just another piece of road. High top speed of a road bike on open public roads means nothing except bragging rights. But some people like to fantasise.
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The test is for midrange power at legal highway speeds.
Our highest legal speed allowed in BC is 120kmh.
Haven't hit that yet on the hill, but it is a good tuning goal!

Glen
 
EstuaryBoy said:
Often wondered if a replica of Gresley's 1930's A4 steam engine was built with today's knowledge, materials and technology if there would be a significant increase in output.... and a new world record maybe?
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Probably not, as the A4 was set coming down Stroke Bank, hardly a level playing field!
 
FastFred said:
I did the Classic TT last year for the first time on a Honda k4 350. My fastest speed down Sulby straight was just under 114mph - that's good apparently. The speed there is all about how much balls you have thro quarry bends. Hefyn Owen a younger racer and friend clocked 125mph the year before on his k4, the fastest in the 350 class. So 500 manxes will be doing 130mph for sure.
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Hardly will set the world alight, a 350 Velocette KTT was timed down under, at 125 mph, so not a improvment over the years but going backwards!
 
Bernhard said:
Hardly will set the world alight, a 350 Velocette KTT was timed down under, at 125 mph, so not a improvment over the years but going backwards!
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As has already been concluded Bernhard, speed through the Sulby Straight speed trap is not indicative of maximum speed.
 
Bernhard said:
Probably not, as the A4 was set coming down Stroke Bank, hardly a level playing field!
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Getting 400 tons up STOKE Bank by boiling water ain't too shabby, and check out Silver Link's debut running record too, no teething troubles and straight in at the deep end!
(Apologies to OP for drifting off topic somewhat)
 
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Bernhard said:
Hardly will set the world alight, a 350 Velocette KTT was timed down under, at 125 mph, so not a improvment over the years but going backwards!
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It's an interesting point that the TT course is much smoother and many bends are very different to all those years ago.Windy corner now totally different from Hislop and Foggy days. The tyres are way better also yet the speeds arent much higher. MacIntyre 100mph on a 500 yet Michael Dunlop only just sneaked in at that speed a couple of years ago.
Bit pointless all this top speed business though. Re the IOM, anybody who gets an entry, preps a bike and finishes there is a hero in my book, it's very challenging the whole process.
 
Scares me just watching an IOM race-lap video! o_O

I've ridden the IOM "track" quite a few times at normal road speeds and absolutely cannot imagine doing it at 3x the velocity. And there are no "soft" places to run off. You either hit a tree, hit a building, hit a wall, or go off a cliff! :eek:
 
When you speak of McIntyre and Duke, you speak of specialists who were perfect on one type of motorcycle. Any rider adapts to the bike, but if you only race one type of bike, you can get to be much faster than anyone who rides the same sort of bike on a casual basis.. The IOM is once per year, in the 50s and 60s, the GP was all over Europe. Duke and McIntyre would have raced every circuit in one season.
If MotoGP still included the IOM, the lap times there would be even higher than they are now, but we would lose many top riders.
 
MexicoMike said:
Scares me just watching an IOM race-lap video! o_O

I've ridden the IOM "track" quite a few times at normal road speeds and absolutely cannot imagine doing it at 3x the velocity. And there are no "soft" places to run off. You either hit a tree, hit a building, hit a wall, or go off a cliff! :eek:
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I have watched a few on-board videos of it. The depth perception in videos is always haywire. But as the bikes approach the corners, I get very apprehensive.. What happens if you find a fallen rider and bike, if you go around at those speeds ? In none of the magazines, there was an article on sidecar racing on the IOM. They mentioned not backing off as you go over the rises in the circuit. If you can't see what is in the dip before you get there, you certainly cannot avoid hitting something which happens to be there. So it becomes not if, but when ?.
 
acotrel said:
I have watched a few on-board videos of it. The depth perception in videos is always haywire. But as the bikes approach the corners, I get very apprehensive.. What happens if you find a fallen rider and bike, if you go around at those speeds ? In none of the magazines, there was an article on sidecar racing on the IOM. They mentioned not backing off as you go over the rises in the circuit. If you can't see what is in the dip before you get there, you certainly cannot avoid hitting something which happens to be there. So it becomes not if, but when ?.
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That's why they set them off at 10 sec intervals, it then becomes a race against the watch not the other riders. The riders are spaced out at the start with no first corner melee. There is passing but you have to already have gained 10/20/30 seconds so have a speed advantage. Very few incidents of secondary accidents in the IOM, 500 plus marshals are another factor, very quick to get the yellow flags out.
 
kommando said:
That's why they set them off at 10 sec intervals, it then becomes a race against the watch not the other riders. The riders are spaced out at the start with no first corner melee. There is passing but you have to already have gained 10/20/30 seconds so have a speed advantage. Very few incidents of secondary accidents in the IOM, 500 plus marshals are another factor, very quick to get the yellow flags out.
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Exactly, I saw two bikes last year in just over an hour at the Classic TT. A surreal experience.
 
FastFred said:
Exactly, I saw two bikes last year in just over an hour at the Classic TT. A surreal experience.
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Only the front runners are likely to see more than couple of other bikes as the start positions are sorted by likely finishing, the front runners see more towards the end of the race as they lap the last away. That can be an issue as the last away are likely to be newcomers but the high speed advantage combined with greater course experience outweighs this.

The IOM is a dangerous race, but there is a lot of thought put into reducing those risks. I saw someone come off badly at Ballaugh bridge one evening practice, jumped the bridge badly and ran into the kerb which cartwheeled the bike, within seconds the marshalls were present and minutes later he was being helicoptered to Noble's Hospital.
 
kommando said:
That's why they set them off at 10 sec intervals, it then becomes a race against the watch not the other riders. The riders are spaced out at the start with no first corner melee. There is passing but you have to already have gained 10/20/30 seconds so have a speed advantage. Very few incidents of secondary accidents in the IOM, 500 plus marshals are another factor, very quick to get the yellow flags out.
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The marshals are not always as quick as you think, or even as well equipped as they should be. Anyone who saw that marshal puttind out the fire on Sreve Spray's Norton Rotary with a coke cola can would have been wondering of the powers of that drink!
Worse one I ever saw was when I went to the TT in 1988 and found that the police had shut the open road before Crosby Hotel. One rider had gone through a wall and disappeared into a field of tall weeds. It took two travelling marshals to find him after the end of the race.
Don't believe everything you see. . . . . . . . .
 
When I was young and inexperienced, I would have raced on the IOM. It looks different as you get older ? Even Irish road racing looks better. At least the corners repeat quicker, so yiou can get your eye in. After seven laps of the IOM, - the first time you went there - you would still be flying blind
 
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