Isle of man TT - Off Road Ride Report

[redbikejohn]

Well another great trip is over. It had a rocky start from the beginning what with Scottrider having to pull out and Twowheelsdad (TWD) carrying an injury from the last enduro the club took part in. In the end TWD decided to take his bike with him but to give the riding a miss until the weekend, three days away.
Day One: Wednesday, Solo Ride
After a few beers the night before I saddled up on the Wednesday morning and headed off on my own to get reacquainted with the island.
This time I was fully kitted up with all the modern technology, I had all the Byways marked as â??tracksâ?? in memory map and loaded into the Garmin GPS. I also had the OS map showing each track and had each one numbered, so all I had to do was tell the GPS which track I wanted to go to and just follow the directions, simple. As I couldnâ??t get a Touratech mounting for the GPS I decided to re-use the Ram mount system but this time mount it on the right hand side of the bars to stop it getting tangled in the brake lines. I also used duck tape wrapped around the bars to dampen the vibes. The final precaution was to use the lanyard supplied by Garmin to loop around the bars just in case this one made a break for freedom like the old one.

First section of MW

Looking back the way I'd come
First lane of the day was a section of the â??Millennium Wayâ? which starts just to the West of the West Baldwin Reservoir and climbs from about 180 up to over 450 meters ending at the B10. The going is very rutted to start with, then turns into ruts with rocks and ends in just lots of plain old rocks. This was a bit of a wake up after the lanes of Berkshire and I was breathing hard at the top.
As the roads were already closed I headed West turning right at the Sartfell Plantation. This byway starts off with loads of whoops â?? great for getting â??airâ?? off of â?? or for getting hit in the arse by the back end if you get it all wrong. I took the left hand fork and made my way down the dirt tracks towards the town of Ballaugh. Turning round once I hit the tar road, I made my way back up the mountain where I bumped into a group of fellow dirt bikers.

View down towards Kirk Micheal

I'm sorry but the full report will not fit into this forum as it is restricted to 2000 characters only. THe above is only a small setion - to see the full report go to my homepage on https://www.redbikejohn.com/TT%202007.htm

 

[Runner]

More pictures please ;D

 

[redbikejohn]

You mean like these?

TWD on the drop off

and on the last rock slab

then me standing on the saddle on the rock slab

Port Erin in the background

View out to see at Niarbyl Bay

Looking back up near the end of the track

Best check out the ride report on my homepage then for the rest of them!

 

[Runner]

Now that is the sh!t >

 

[Runner]

Homepage adress?

 

[redbikejohn]

: Did you not notice the https://www.redbikejohn.com/TT%202007.htm link at the end of the first post ???  >

does anyone now why i'm not reciveing email notices of post on this thread?

 

[Plothond]

Now thats just very nice

I would not want to live in the UK, but you chaps have some of the most beautiful countryside on earth

I just love driving through the countryside there

Nice pic's - please post more

 

[redbikejohn]

Post more? Well maybe i should post the report in sections! I would ahve posted the whle thing but it's over the forum limit for size. anyway here is another section of the report.
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Day Six: Monday. Centre part of the island again.
As TWD needed to get his dressing changed again I was going to go out on my own in the morning. Waking up early I couldnâ??t take his snoring any more so I head off at about six thirty in the morning! I did a bit a exploring on the eastern half of the island but found a couple of byways had been remarked as footpaths. I did however find a byway ending in an old mine that appeared to be used by bikers as a play area. Heading over towards Ramsey I found a great track that was worth coming back for a second look. By now it was breakfast time so I popped into Ramsey for something to eat but everything was closed but after riding around for ages a found an great café called the Court Café, all day breakfast for a fiver. Two pieces of toast, three eggs, two sausages, bacon and hash browns oh yes and a coffee! After a bit more exploring I headed back into Douglas to pick up TWD.

The old mine I discovered, I love looking around these old places

Some more views of the mine buildings

and a self portrait

Some more shots from one of my exploring sessions
So it was about lunchtime when we once again headed up the Millennium Way and again made our way over to the byway near the Sartfell Plantation. Like I said either this byway starts off with loads of whoops so we stopped to try and get some action shots. There was no sea breeze here at all and the heat was intense, sweat was pouring out of us and it was hard work having fun!

BRJ just before the MW

and then again getting some air

followed by TWD

TWD getting some air

me melting in the heat

and TWD flying once more
After a while we couldnâ??t take the heat any more so set off looking for a bend to get some cornering shots. On the way we bumped into a girl out riding on her own, her boyfriend having decided to go back to their meeting point via the road. We continued and TWD picked out a suitable bend for the shots. Unfortunately to get the effect he wanted the sun was in the wrong position. After a few attempt at some â??coolâ?? photos our crap riding and twd blaming my camera we set off again and headed down to Sulby for an ice cream.

RBJ and some cornering shots

TWD and some cornering shots
After a few snacks we made our way over the byways and roads until we got to Ramsey and the new byway that I had found on my earlier solo ride. When Iâ??d come down it before the going looked as if it would be a fair challenge going up and I advised TWD to keep up a good pace to try and bounce up and over the rocks and steps. It turned out to be easier than Iâ??d thought and TWD took some photos of me going up and down a few times.

Some pics of me going up and down the new lane.
Turning around we retraced our steps using the same route across the centre of the island. As TWD does not like ruts much (at all) and heâ??d been very vocal earlier about his crfâ??s ability to cope with them, I offered him a go on my ktm450exc.
Iâ??ve always found that the ktm copes in ruts very well, as long as you steer with your body i.e. weighing the pegs and not by trying to turn the bars.
He was a bit reticent at first but jumped on once Iâ??d removed the gps. I told him he needs to stand more and speed up but he claimed the cfr would â??have me off within a mileâ?? if I tried that. Well he certainly gelled with the ktm, within 200 yards he was riding faster though the ruts (standing up) than Iâ??d ever seen before. You know he always flies on my ktm, but bulks at the idea of buying one every time I suggest it, go figure? I certainly didnâ??t find the crf too bad but the bars were defiantly too low, something I find with every single bike Iâ??ve ridden, and the ground clearance of the pegs also seems less.
Once we hit the B10 we decided to use the B22 instead of using the Millennium Way. Now this road drops down all the way into Douglas, so the second round of the â??killed engineâ?? derby was on! I had a commanding lead very early on and kept it until I slowed for a cattle grid that was on a corner. Iâ??d been using the â??stream linedâ?? method while twd had opted for a standing stance and could see over the hedge so I lost the lead. It wasnâ??t long before the 450 used its superior speed (yes engine was off) to overtake again, but twd started cheating by grabbing my the brush guard to block and slow me down! We coasted to a stop together at the reservoir but Iâ??m calling a win due to the underhanded tactics employed by twd.

 

[redbikejohn]

sorry some of the last photos are a bit blured, it was very dark under the trees so the flash was going off. exposure time was too high so it blured the moving parts. then again it was tony taking the pictures of me and he can't take pics for sh*t!