MAnx GP 2012 Isle of Man

[Bixxer Bob]

Just had a great few days at the Manx.  It was sort of a short-notice thing so getting ferries was a bit of a faff, but in the end we planned to see jus one day's racing on the Wednesday, however, thanks to the weather we got an extra.

I travelled up to Heysham on the English West coast on Monday morning and met up with a mate from Durham at the port.  It was a very wet run up but we caught the 14.15pm ferry without incident.  The crossing was nearly four hours, and rough. Even some of the crew were looking green by the time we docked.

Once ashore, the sun came out and we quickly did the 18 mile run up to Ballaugh (pronounced "ballaf") Bridge where we'd booked a campsite called Ballomor.  I can recommend this site which is run by a very nice bloke called Steve.  Nothing was too much trouble (he made us a brew on arrival but drew the line at actually serving it in our tents, and he has a log cabin where they have free tea and coffee, a kettle and microwave. Depite it being pretty basic, the toilets were clean and showers were hot.  The swamp at the entrance was not the owners fault given the very bad summer we've had and all the other sites were the same, but we found a reasonably well drained area to pitch.  The pub was only two minutes walk away, the local beer good and the food not bad.

Tuesday we awoke to sunshine and a good forecast for the day.  We stayed at the bridge to spectate and saw the classic 500 singles (BSA, Triumph, Norton mainly) and a few late 60s early 70s Honda 4-strokes, and a smattering of BSA Rocket Three / (Meriden)Triumph Trident triples which sounded truely awsome.  You could here them half a mile away and a good five seconds before they even appeared on the straight leading up to the bridge.   We decided to have a run from Ballaugh to The Bungalow using the back roads (the main road is closed as it's used for the race).  This was a challenge because it's ten miles of single track road, with lots of 1 in 4 hills, rivers on the road, landslips, gravel amd mud.  On the Tiger I'd have been bricking myself, but on the Blackbird - despite the power and linked brakes - I was happy enough because I CAN TOUCH THE GROUND WITH BOTH FEET!

Wedneday was also fine despite the rain overnight so more good racing including some 500cc 2-strokes this time.  We managed a lap in the evening which was fun as (as most of you will know) the 12 miles of moutain road has no speed limit.  I'm getting slow(er) in my old age!  Thursday was a 5.30am start for an 8am ferry then the 250 miles home arriving tired but happy.  Right now I'm taking a break from washing and drying tents,  then the bike is next.  I'll post some pics or maybe a vid later.

Happy days.....

[Chris Canning]

Camping at your age  ,it's interesting you took the BB instead of the Tiger,went and saw a mate last saturday who should have gone for the week and decided not to go when he saw the weather forcast,he was telling us the hotel he had booked on the prom(Palace) was 800 quid for a week for two and that was B+B.

[Bixxer Bob]

The ferry was £117 each return, camping £8 per person per night.  whole trip was less than £250 including fuel.  The decision to take the 'Bird was easy, the Tiger is making some really strange noises and I haven't had time to investigate.  I suspect failed timing chain tensioner.

[Chris Canning]

The ferry was £117 each return, camping £8 per person per night.  whole trip was less than £250 including fuel.  The decision to take the 'Bird was easy, the Tiger is making some really strange noises and I haven't had time to investigate.  I suspect failed timing chain tensioner.

Blimey!! thats blimey on the chain tensioner not the 8 quid on the camping .

[Sin_Tiger]

Nice, the spontaneous ones are often the best. Wife got offered a 99 quid deal for a day racing spectator package from Heysham a while back, all inclusive of transport and grand stand seats but not with a bike 

Good luck with ye olde Honda chain tensioner issue and do you mind if I pass you some of my ironing ?

[Bixxer Bob]

Na, it's the Tiger.  Bird has had two CCTs making three in all in 62k but she's ok at the mo (except the 7 yr old battery is on its way out).  Tiggs is making a CCT sort of noise when riding but not had time yet to investigate.  Could be something simpler like the drive chain sawing into the swinging arm....