Hi Mike,

I don't doubt that Sheene was (and still is) a good rider. However, I do believe that his achievements do not stand up to real scrutiny. He won two world championships on the bike of the moment, the RG Suzuki. The problem was that he had the only truly works bike, his team mates, (John williams, John Newbold etc) had bog standard machines. Also, MV were past their sell by date and Yamaha were still in development.
Sheene's greatest achievement was as a self publicist and his anti TT diatribe was all part of this. Hypocritically he rode at Scarborough without any criticism of the dangers.
True Agostini, Read and others were just as vociferous at the time, but their views have mellowed or become more constructive over the years.(Read returned to race and Agostini has been back for the parades) Sheene, unfortunately, is still good for an anti TT quote.