I've only been to the Island once - for the 1984 TT. It's a unique event, unlike any other and I can understand the enthusiasm for it. I wanted to go back but a risk averse wife and family conspired to keep me away from bikes and the island.

I took my camera along. It was all new for me and I shot a lot of pictures, mainly of the racing, sometimes the spectators and their road bikes. And they've been gathering dust until recently. Hello lockdown, what do I do now? Time to go through all my old negatives, scanning them to digitise them and then cataloging them. It's a time consuming process but brings back a lot of memories.

I was a bit shocked how many negatives I had for the TT trip. But I wanted to catalogue them all so with help from some of the members here I've managed to identify most of them.

Rather than leave them sitting on a hard drive I thought it might be of interest to present them as a retrospective thread. You might recognise the bikes and riders, you might even recognise yourself or your bike if you were around then. Or maybe just enjoy looking back at the past. Either way, enjoy!

I'll post them in roughly chronological order, together with some of my ramblings in between. The pics may not always (ever?) be of the best quality, but what they lack in quality they make up for in quantity. There's quite a few of them!

A mate at work who was heavily into bikes went to the TT every year and suggested I come along. It was a great opportunity, however first problem was I didn't own a bike. I'd sold them all a few years previously. So I hired one, a VT500. Hardly my first choice as for a TT visit, or even a second or third, but it did the job. Seen here in Essex with mates bike - his Moto Guzzi was a more dignified ride than mine. We met up with a few others and set off up north to Liverpool.

It's funny how my memory works, some things have faded and others are crystal clear. I have a very clear memory of the journey up north. Driving rain, bad visibility, untrustworthy brakes and the need to keep up with the rest of the group. One of the longest and most harrowing rides I ever made - clearly I'm a soft fair weather biker.

To my great surprise I/we made it intact. The journey to the docks through Liverpool was not a glorious one. A grey soggy journey through the back streets ended when we joined the queue of bikers in some run down sheds. I'm assuming that the queue for the ferry is a bit more upmarket now? At the time it seemed pretty grotty.

As an indication how much it had been raining, the camera lens was still soggy for the first shot:



The others are a bit clearer:

Great photo's again, and yes it's more upmarket nowadays, they knocked down that old shed, you just sit in the rain now 😀

These are great photos and a great story about your trip many years ago to the isle of man, I hope you get chance to visit the beautiful island some time in the future, and get to see the TT again.

Best wishes

Many thanks for the replies guys.

So, knocking down the shed was part of the Liverpool regeneration I guess? Pity they couldn't fund a replacement. Mind you I seem to remember the old shed even then only offered partial cover - I'm sure half the roof was missing!

And on to the ferry:



Had no problems with the steam packet journey. Ferries were a bit smaller than the Calais-Dover ones I'm used and I'd heard the Irish sea could get a bit choppy but in the end my stomach remained undisturbed. Weather looked a bit ominous on the way towards Douglas.



But all was well. Douglas had a nice old fashioned seaside town feel to it, but not decayed or run down like so many other resorts were (and still are) around the UK. Packed with bikers everywhere it was a sight to warm the cockles of an IoM virgin's heart:

I'm not sure if Douglas has changed much over the years or if it still has a delightful Victorian seaside town feel?

Fantastic! I thought I knew some people there, then again we all looked like that then!!
It was OK 'til I saw the Lady of Mann!!!! 

And, as Moderator2 points out about Liverpool, there's no shelter at Heysham anymore, that was knocked down too!

Cheers for the feedback. I've got a few more shots of road bikes from Douglas and then next we'll get on to the racing....

Great photos.
In the 60s, when bikes lined the whole of the Prom, it was a real highlight just to walk past all the various bikes.
Doesn't seem the same anymore, but there again what is?
Was it the late 80s when the bike and sidecar with the water cannon used to go up and down giving everyone a good soaking?

Loving These great photos, don't times change so much please keep posting these great photos great to see.

Thanks for the comments John and Splashdown.  Loads more pictures to come!

Sadly I wasn't on the island for the full week, but nevertheless I managed to watch (and enjoy and photograph) a lot of racing. Our first day of spectating was the Saturday, so we road around to Gooseneck and parked up:





then walked back to the road



I managed to get a few pictures at the exit of Gooseneck and then more at the approach to the bend.

So for the first race of the day, the Formula 1, I've got a mixture of shots from both directions:

With a lot of help from the members of this forum, I think I've managed to identify all the riders and bikes. But none of them are labelled. Some are obvious, some are not (eg Joey Dunlop should be easy to spot!). All guesses, answers, comments etc gratefully received.

By the way - plenty more shots to come for the Formula 1 race, this is just the first tranche.

#8 Asa Moyce, #9 Bernard Murray, I know a couple more but I'll let others have a go first.

Nice spotting mod2, here's a few more from the same race:

#15 Frank Rutter, #24 Alastair Frame

19 is Rob McElnea    .

#36 is an interesting one, I know who it is but let's see if anyone else gets it 😀

36 is Roger Burnett or Hairnet as my F1/F2 mates called him.

(24-05-2020, 04:22 PM)Alfie Noakes Wrote: 36 is Roger Burnett or Hairnet as my F1/F2 mates called him.

Yep!! In those days he wore a Roger Marshall replica helmet just to confuse things, the link being that prior to starting racing himself he had been Roger's mechanic.