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Isle of Man TT - Time Magazine

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In the 80th I have build an Engine for "Hans Otto Buttenut" he raced there every year.

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14 minutes ago, Mr.JAJA said:

In the 80th I have build an Engine for "Hans Otto Buttenut" he raced there every year.

Hopefully Butternut didn’t Squash!

 

any pics of the bike?

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Honda cb900F bol dor. Don't have pics. This was the time of 36mm 36 pics filmrolles.

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I have ridden the TT track on a borrowed VFR 750- not in the race, of course.

And yes, it was a hoot.

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Paul, were you there during the races ?

I've always wanted to go. I know they let people ride the course either before or after the races.

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It would be epic to be there for the race!

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14 hours ago, KTMrad said:

Paul, were you there during the races ?

I was not, and yes they have allowed others on the track prior to the races.

And hell no, I wouldn't go then.

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On 5/13/2023 at 7:39 AM, paulmbowers said:

I have ridden the TT track on a borrowed VFR 750- not in the race, of course.

And yes, it was a hoot.

Surely you must have some high quality PMB photos to share??

A man with an eye as exquisite as yours must have encapsulated such a great experience!

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14 hours ago, tntmo said:

It would be epic to be there for the race!

Add it to the list for Aaron and you!

 

@kato or @robertaccio have you ever been?

 

 

@Mr.JAJA how would you describe the experience of the race compared to other racing events you’ve been to? It seems pretty unique!

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That’s a bucket list event for me. 

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Normal street racing at this time was more entertaining. Shorter lapps, more to see.TT is today's fast and crazy. 

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20 minutes ago, Zubb said:

That’s a bucket list event for me. 

Don’t kick the bucket til you’re foot is healed!!

 

Literally and figuratively.. default_heh.gif

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I’m back on the road again at least. 👍😎😁

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15 hours ago, Zubb said:

I’m back on the road again at least. 👍😎😁

@Zubb
THIS Doesn't count
image.png.614a1291779c769719e2f32f865be294.png

Edited by DSM8

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Sir John Surtees still remains the only man to ever win the F1 World Championship and the 2 wheeled "MotoGP" World Championship. A local guy at the Coronado cars on main street event. has an MV Agusta 750 America with Sir John's signature on the tank. very cool

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On 5/14/2023 at 11:08 AM, Goofy Footer said:

Surely you must have some high quality PMB photos to share??

A man with an eye as exquisite as yours must have encapsulated such a great experience!

I was riding, not shooting. On an unfamiliar bike, on the wrong side of the road, in gear that did not fit well.
AA8F2E4D-41B2-4C6D-8FF2-048130E887DF_1_105_c.thumb.jpeg.54c3f1ff6313488e7cf1531df42ee92e.jpeg
But it was damn cool.

8C3149E4-EE0C-4841-82CB-61132BB3CDA7_1_105_c.jpeg

8E06417F-10DC-4E67-AF2C-35B83875CEC8_1_105_c.jpeg

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3 hours ago, robertaccio said:

Sir John Surtees still remains the only man to ever win the F1 World Championship and the 2 wheeled "MotoGP" World Championship. A local guy at the Coronado cars on main street event. has an MV Agusta 750 America with Sir John's signature on the tank. very cool

 


Way cool. A racer at his core!

Edited by Goofy Footer

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2 hours ago, paulmbowers said:

I was riding, not shooting. On an unfamiliar bike, on the wrong side of the road, in gear that did not fit well.
AA8F2E4D-41B2-4C6D-8FF2-048130E887DF_1_105_c.thumb.jpeg.54c3f1ff6313488e7cf1531df42ee92e.jpeg
But it was damn cool.

8C3149E4-EE0C-4841-82CB-61132BB3CDA7_1_105_c.jpeg

8E06417F-10DC-4E67-AF2C-35B83875CEC8_1_105_c.jpeg

Awesome thanks for sharing! I assume you ferried over? Is there a big bike rental business there for TT enthusiasts to ride the course?

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1 hour ago, Goofy Footer said:

Awesome thanks for sharing! I assume you ferried over? Is there a big bike rental business there for TT enthusiasts to ride the course?

We flew- I have a great friend who lives on island- it's his bike, and he insisted I take a lap around the course. I don't like to ride borrowed bikes (I crash bikes!) but I's SO glad he insisted and it was the chance of a lifetime.

Until I go back, anyway....

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Mrs Tb and I are hoping to go next year.

But one cannot talk about the TT without mentioning Joey Dunlop.

Not only was he one of the greatest road racers of his time (26 time winner of the TT), he was also awarded an OBE for his humanitarian work.

I've picked out 2 articles which I think best describe who he was.

Racer

Humanitarian

 

 

 

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@tubebender I have included your Humanitarian link here. Good to learn about his accomplishment’s off the bike as well. 
 

There has been some great history shared on this site the past couple weeks.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/joey-dunlop-samaritan-of-speed/28228770.html

 

Joey Dunlop: Samaritan of speed

Joey Dunlop was a superstar sportsman, but few fans knew that he was also a star to thousands of people in need. In the first of two stories from a new book on local heroes, Joey's widow Linda reveals the big heart behind her husband's nerves of steel - and the remarkable charity trek made in his memory

 
Sun 9 Jan 2005 at 16:00
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The late, great Joey Dunlop is a legend. There can be no other way to describe him. It was probably no surprise to his legion of fans across the world when at the end of December 1985 his name appeared on the New Year's Honours List: he was to be awarded an MBE for his services to motorcycling. This announcement came at the end of a year in which he had narrowly escaped tragedy in a boating accident, but went on weeks later to become the second rider in history to win three Isle of Man TT races in one week. Not to mention a fourth consecutive world championship!

The late, great Joey Dunlop is a legend. There can be no other way to describe him. It was probably no surprise to his legion of fans across the world when at the end of December 1985 his name appeared on the New Year's Honours List: he was to be awarded an MBE for his services to motorcycling. This announcement came at the end of a year in which he had narrowly escaped tragedy in a boating accident, but went on weeks later to become the second rider in history to win three Isle of Man TT races in one week. Not to mention a fourth consecutive world championship!

But ten years later Joey became the first motorcyclist ever to receive a second decoration from Buckingham Palace. He was to receive an OBE not just for his services to sport, but also for his 'humanitarian deeds'.

 

And, until then, most of his fans probably had no idea that the 'King of the Roads' was something of a hero off the race track as well as on.

Joey may have had nerves of steel when he was racing, but he also had a big heart.

All in all, Joey made four relief aid trips to Eastern Europe, driving his old Mercedes van with a trailer behind - both packed full with food, medicine and nappies.

 

It all started when the daughter of one of his neighbours, a young nurse called Siobhan Lagan, who was working in a Romanian orphanage, sent word home that the children were having to live on a ghastly ration of gruel, which was barely life-sustaining. She requested food be sent out from Northern Ireland.

 

Whenever word went out in the tightly-knit community of Ballymoney, Co Antrim, that Joey was planning a relief trip (after his initial visit to Romania, he also made trips to Hungary, Bosnia and Albania) donations would come pouring in. "People brought everything to our house and the church hall and we packed it all for the journey," remembers his widow Linda. "It was very exciting to see if you could fill the van and the trailer; and it was good because you knew people were going to benefit from it."

 

Once everything was packed Joey would take off, on his own, returning home between three and six weeks later, depending on how long the trip took. "When he went the first time and he saw what it was like out there it prompted him to make more trips," says Linda. "Many's the time I thought he was a bit mad making the trips on his own, but I was more worried for him than anything else. You'd be scared that people would try to steal the food and so Joey always slept on a plank of wood in the van. Often he'd be stopped in the middle of nowhere and it would have been cold; on the first trip the diesel froze, it was that cold, but he still slept in the van! Joey was a very, very quiet man, but because he was on his own he had to speak up for himself whenever he came to a border crossing; the longest he ever got stuck somewhere was 10 hours. He always brought motorbike stickers with him and gave them to border guards."

 

Joey never spoke to the media about what he was doing, so it is little wonder that his fans were surprised to hear the OBE announcement. "It wasn't a publicity stunt," says Linda. "He didn't want people to think he was doing it for the glory and so he kept it very quiet. He would have told me wee bits and pieces because he would have been upset about what he'd seen and he'd have been really, really strict with our kids about finishing their dinner, after seeing children who had so little to eat. But he would never have spoken much to people about what it was like out there and he never took photos for the papers because he felt it would have been unfair on the children in the orphanages."

The Rev John Kirkpatrick, who was Joey's minister at the time, has been involved in the Presbyterian Church's work in Eastern Europe since the 1970s and because he had visited those countries and had contacts there, he was in a good position to help Joey plan his routes. Although they had a 'good understanding' of each other, Joey did not tell the Rev John much about his trips. "He just did it, came home and then got straight back into the mainstream of life again," says the Rev John. "I do remember him telling me, after his first trip, that the children in the orphanages were fed the heads and feet of chickens; that would have been normal in that environment. I've no doubt the trips did impact on Joey. He wasn't a hard person; he was very sensitive. He came from a background where there was no prosperity or affluence and I think people who have grown up in that have more of a sense of identification with those people and they tend to be able to understand them more.

 

"He was able to relate to people and, seeing those children, I've no doubt it had a profound effect on him.

 

"Romanians will say to you, 'A lot of people come here once, but not many come twice.' The person who really cares will say, 'I'm prepared to walk a little of the journey with you' and the fact that Joey went more than once adds integrity to what he was doing. "

 

The Rev John, who has himself been riding motorbikes from the age of 11 or 12, recalls that Joey was a somewhat irregular churchgoer when he first became the minister of Garryduff Presbyterian Church in 1987. "He did become quite regular, though, as regular as his career permitted," he says. "He invited me down to his pub on a few occasions to speak to the lads and answer their questions. I remember on one occasion I did that and they all came to church the next Sunday! Joey was not traditional, he had his own way of doing things, which was refreshingly different in many ways. He was a very private individual, who was also deep thinking, and we had a mutual respect for each other. He didn't want to be this hero-figure; that didn't sit well with him at all. He was quiet, unassuming and self-effacing and a wee bit bemused with all the commotion about him."

Linda lent photos plus Joey's maps to the members of The Lost Riders Motorcycle Club when they decided to follow in the footsteps of their hero, arriving at Tallinn in Estonia - where Joey's life was so cruelly cut short on July 3, 2000 - in time for the third anniversary of Joey's death.

 

They decided that they couldn't make a trip like that without bringing some relief aid. "We couldn't follow in Joey's footsteps to Estonia and bring nothing with us," says Joe Carey, club chairman. "In the end we had enough to fill a forty-foot container and four vans. It was absolutely amazing."

 

Twenty-one people took part in the trip, travelling on five motorbikes as well as in the four vans. They had reckoned it would take a week to get to Tallinn, but in the end it took a full 10 days.

 

When The Lost Riders finally arrived in Estonia they stayed at the campsite where Joey used to stay, 'for authenticity's sake', and during their four days there they visited five orphanages.

 

"It was very, very hard for us. Some of the people on the trip - I've known them 20 or 30 years and they're not emotional at all - but they took it very, very bad. We brought out about 70 wheelchairs and they've never seen a motorised wheelchair before. There was this boy, Michael, who was in a converted pram, he couldn't push himself, he had to be pushed everywhere, and when we arrived he was a very, very sad child. But when we gave him a motorised wheelchair it was the best thing in the world; he was so delighted with it.

 

The day after they arrived in Tallinn, The Lost Riders went to visit the spot where Joey skidded off the race track on that fateful day in July 2000. "It was very, very intimidating to see where he died," says Joe. "I just couldn't get over the amount of trees and I was shocked that other people hadn't been killed there because the road basically cuts right through a forest. There was a freak shower just before the race began and Joey lost control at the final bend. To finally see where Joey lay dead that day was horrific. Absolutely horrific."

 

Joe was a fan of Joey Dunlop's from the first race he went to at Skerries, around the age of 10. "I used to stand there, watching Joey fix his bikes," says Joe. "Whereas all the other teams would have top mechanics he'd be on the grass with his bits laid out everywhere. He got to know my face, but it wasn't until his last few years that I actually spoke to him. Joey kept himself to himself; if he chose to speak he spoke, if he didn't, he didn't."

 

Joe was not particularly surprised when he first learned of Joey's aid trips to eastern Europe. "That would be something he would do and I admired him even more for it - the unselfishness of the whole thing, that's what I liked about it. Joey never took from the world, he always seemed to give back.

 

"When I first heard that Joey went to a race in Estonia I was amazed, but I came to understand why he went: although he was known out there, he was never hassled. I suppose most big stars would revel in the attention they'd get after winning a big race, like the TT, but Joey didn't like that at all. He'd always load up the van and go away if he won something big - that's how he chose to get away from the Press because he didn't like being the centre of attention. He never kept the winnings from the races he won in Eastern Europe. He would either take the money and give it to an orphanage or he would hand it back to the organisers and tell them to put it in the prize fund for the next year's race."

 

As his fans have been aware since Joey received the OBE in 1996, there was far more to their hero than racing. The Rev John says: "I'm sure there are some people who say, 'What I really admire about Joey is that he got to the top and he didn't think of himself; he used his position to think of others.' But he didn't do it because he wanted to look well and get some reward; he did it because he cared about people."

 

Everyday Heroes: A Celebration of Volunteering in Ireland by Fiona Murdoch (Veritas, £8.40). Available at all good bookshops, via the website, www.veritas.ie, and at Veritas bookshops.

Edited by Goofy Footer

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