At the risk of sounding sychophantic (?) I agree with Peter again. I suppose I occasionally break out the rose tinted specs but I do miss the variety of classes. To me a 600 looks just like a 1000 and doesn't sound much different either and as such I'm beginning to lean towards the Manx where, thank God, there is still some variety both in the sound and appearance of the bikes.

I supply photos for another site's database and frankly I got bored wading through this years shots (all 2300 of 'em) because it was the same 60-odd guys every race on identikit machinery. The TT needs at least one more solo race for bikes that are different to the current classes and I guess that's where Paul Philips' next challenge lies.