Welcome May, season of the Road Race Extraodinaire.

Now the countdown REALLY has started !

Hey, go to the site below and hear some REAL bikes. Found this recently..

<A HREF="http://www.vf750fd.com/Joep_Kortekaas/honda_race_history.html">www.vf750fd.com/Joep_Kortekaas/honda_race_history.html</A>

Where do you find these sites Ian? We were lucky to be around watching and racing during those years to see some remarkable machinery.

I believe most of these works machines were crushed by the factory when they were no longer needed.

Wish I had still got my CR93. Sold it to the Pladdys Bros for 450 quid in mint condition nuts or what?

Hi Tom.....I am looking at all of the '''4s associated with the TT (1914,1924,1934 etc) and found that YAHOO was very useful especially their image section..

I was trying to find a particular Honda and this mans website pictures came up, including a HONDA 220cc from 1954 !! It is in race spec and I have added it to my website as "Honda in 1954".

(http://www.bbhmg.com
then "tt2004" and see right hand column)

Thank God we have TT history--Will it continue ?

Thanks for a reminder about this site Ian. I found it using good old Google and enquiring about bike sounds....

There were so many great Hondas and varying sounds. The 4s, 5s and sixes were amazing, but I just loved the sounds of the smaller twins going around Brands! I would LOVE a CR93 Tom!

Yes, whatever happens from this year on, we DO have those wonderful, wonderful memories!
Bikes, riders, tracks, TTs and friends!

Now, lets enjoy this year.

After a whole load of years enjoying the remoter parts of the Island to stay in (any more remote than the Pint of Ayre lighthouse last year?) we are doing a kind of "2 centre" holiday this year. Practice week in my favourite Sulby area with a cottage up the side road at Sulby Bridge (another round please Rosie!) Then, the second week in digs ON Bray HIll! So, for the first time for many years, I can sepend evenings IN Douglas again. SO looking forward to it. Tell me, where (I am talking hostelry!) might I bumpt into some of you lot? ( I used to frequent the Rendezvous Cafe for breakfast and drink in the "Bowler")
By the way, I found a pack of old cards recently, depicting Manx pubs, many gone (remember the Lancy?)
Mike
Mike

I remember a whole load of those works Hondas going walkies, Honda had so many they lost track of them, one four 350 ended up in Bracebridge Street for a closer inspection, remember everyone shaking their heads in disbelief when they stripped the motor.

Another load of fours and twins appeared in Scotland for sale. I went up to see about buying one of the works 125s, but got cold feet, one of the fours ended up in Ireland and the buyer was daft enough to phone Chiswick to ask about spares, the guy who ran the racing spares dept told me he was told to dump it in the Atlantic cos if he got caight with it or it appeared anywhere he was going to the big house for his holidays.

Can't name names of the people involved here but it was like Brinks Mat or Shergar.

Larry there was nothing wrong with TR500s as long as you only wanted to go in a straight line.

Sad that the fans and lesser riders will never see the likes of all that exotica and can no longer sit on the grass in the paddock and chat with and watch Nobby Clarke, Arturo Magni, Mike, Garry Hocking, the "Bulawayo Bandit" I wonder how he got that name? and all of the other great riders of those days working on their own bikes.

All the fans get to see now are production bikes and heavily modified open class versions from a distance. I don't think the manufacturers will ever make proper racing bikes again that the ordinary Joe can buy and race and if they did you would have to be very rich to afford one.

Bulawayo bandit, eh? Why did I sudenly think of Banbury Dan Shorey?
Too many memories to recount. But I am so grateful to have been up close with these people.
I used to love wondering around the paddock and the pit lane during TT practice, when you still could...
I was on the spot when Enders returned form a fast lap including a "bit of a shunt" which left that gorgeous outfit slightly second hand. I mean, IN the pit lane! Then there was the time when Kel Carruthers climbed on the Benelli unexpectedly! Or numerous moments where riders uttered their first words to mechanics and helpers after morning practice laps. Like the time when a certain TT rider and father of a current british superbike star pulled in pit lane on a silent bike and announced to his mechanic "F**** seized!!"

The story about the wayward bikes reminded me of the time when blankets were thrown over certainsidecar engines in the paddock with the men in blue about"

As for the wonderful Hondas of the 60s, can there be many (any)factories who have built and raced engines of 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 cylinder configurations?!

Mike