Looking back to Nick's original comments regarding bike developments and remembering my own comments, under "Controversial at least", I just wonder how much technical improvement and progress can be directly attributed to the IOM.

Cetainly I firmly believe that the TT should be a test of Man (sorry, person) and Machine which only the FULL race distance can reveal.

Widely differing road surfaces, constantly changing altitudes, temperatures, humidity, etc.

How many bikes were sold on the basis of being "TT Replicas" and others based on 24 hour ENDURANCE races? Hmmm, but there again, the Thruxton 500 was a good reference!

PS Nick, I think that I owe you some thanks. I few years ago you visited Motorcycle City, Farnborough/Aldershot to view some used bikes and gave my wife some good tips on starting a reluctant SR125!