The ever-popular road racer and somewhat reluctant TV celebrity was the entertaining chief guest at Southern 100 Racing’s annual dinner, held at the Best Western Hotel in Douglas on Saturday evening.

He attended the function with his partner Sharon and his Tyco BMW team guru Hector Neill.

Interviewed in front of a packed house by Manx Radio TT anchorman Tim Glover, Martin was relaxed and on excellent form.

The 33-year-old was not hiding anything when he said that the 2,745-mile-long bicycle race from Canada to New Mexico was purely something he wanted to do and was happy to pass on the North West 200 and TT to achieve it.

Last year got himself into a bit of hot water when he branded the North West 200 as boring.

‘I’m bored to the back teeth,’ said Guy in a live interview with BBC Northern Ireland’s Stephen Watson.

‘Riding around chicanes just bores me – I have no interest in it since all the changes. The bike is so fast and handles so well that my granny could ride it down the straights, and then it’s just down to first gear, around a chicane, and back to sixth.’

On Saturday he said that he questioned why he was doing this [road racing], but then added: ‘A week or so later when I arrived at the TT and started practising I thought “Now I know why I do this”.

‘After two weeks at the TT I’d had enough and just wanted to get back to my job as a truck fitter. It loathes me to take two weeks away from my job.’

Only the second man to record a hat-trick of Southern 100 solo championship wins, alongside the late, great Joey Dunlop, Guy reckons the TT is purely a warm-up for the Southern 100 as far as he is concerned.

Returning to the month-long mountain bike ride along the Tour Divide, Tim Glover mentioned the danger of sleeping in the open with possibility of bears in the proximity.

‘The idea is to ride for 20 hours and sleep for four, wherever we are, in the open. I’ve been told what to do depending on whether you are confronted by a brown bear or black bear.

‘If it is black, apparently the thing to do is whistle or shout at it. If it is a brown bear the best thing to do is lie down on the ground and pretend you are dead.

‘The snag is, when a brown bear is wet it looks black!’

He realises the four-week epic is a huge challenge and that it does hold obvious dangers of various kinds, ‘That’s the kind of thing I enjoy,’ he adds nonchalantly.

‘I love the Southern 100 and I would like to ride it, but I’ll only make my decision during or after the cycle event. All being well, it should be over by around June 15th.

‘Who knows, by then I may never want to sit on a bike again.’