I have a question for everyone,

If you could turn back the clock and go to what ever period of bike racing, what would it be? The days of the gillera and Dukes? Or the RC's .... and who would you have liked to have been like from that period?

For me it has to be the years of the RC30's and I would have loved to have been someone like Hizzy, or right back to the early days of the TT when the track really was a track ..... and probably have been someone like Mr Ennett back in the 50's

No competition for me, the Hizzy years .....

Stella Wrote:No competition for me, the Hizzy years .....

For me the 60'S and the variety of super sounds you know what i mean? and those days riders did the roads and tracks.

pykey Wrote:

Stella Wrote:No competition for me, the Hizzy years .....

For me the 60'S and the variety of super sounds you know what i mean? and those days riders did the roads and tracks.

Yep, MV v Honda with Yamahas, MZs etc in the smaller classes. Lovely!

50s, 60s and early 70s for me.

Loads more variety of machines taking part from the many manuacturers in the 50cc, 125cc, 250cc, 350cc, 500cc, Sidecar and Production Races. Singles, twins and multis, competing against each other on the on the mountain circuit. They all had their unique sound from the screaming 2-stokes, to the thumping singles and the howling multis, and could be usually identified before they came into view.

What we have today is basically the big four manufacturers, entering basically the same machines, and all basically looking and sounding the same.

I did enjoy it in 1989/90 when the John Player Rotary Nortons made their mark on the island by breaking up the monopoly of the big four ridden by Trevor Nation, Robert Dunlop and Steve Cull. To me it was like a breath of fresh air, and of course the epic battle that followed later on between Hizzy on the Norton and Foggy on the Yamaha.

It has to be 1959 when a group of Japanese brought over a team of bikes that at first sight looked like NSUs, everybody laughed and said "No chance".

They won the manufacturers award that year. and returned in 1960 with four cylinder across-the-frame 250s and that was the start of Japanese domination for many years subsequently.

And the SOUNDS !!