Project LW Entry for TT Isle of Man

Hello everyone,
My name is Savvas Kosmidis and I am a CCS Racer from the Northeast Region.
I competed last year as an Amateur with CCS and ASRA on East Coast events. I was able to Win the Loudon Road Race Series Overall Amateur, with 4 AM Class Championships (LWSS, LWSB, LWGP, Thunderbike) as well as the CCS National LWSS at Race of Champions in Daytona.
This will be my first year competing as an Expert with CCS and ASRA.

I set a personal goal for myself to attend and race the TT Isle of Man.
I understand how tough of a goal it is and I am planning on working really hard towards achieving it.

I know WERA is a good place to get information and I assume several people from here have done either the Manx or the TT. Any advice is welcomed. Try to keep negativity away from this please. Any concerns by all means share.

I recently bought a 2008 Kawasaki EX650, which is the platform I am using to build my TT bike. I will keep this thread updated with progress and details on the build.

Still trying to work out details of accommodation, vehicle transportation, details of shipping. I have some general numbers to work of and some suggestions on what companies to use but all advice is welcomed.

As of right now the plan is to finish the EX650 build within the next 30 days, race all year on the east coast while getting the bike dialled in and set up to my liking and then attend the Manx GP in 2016 and the TT in 2017 (odds of being directly accepted in the TT are very slim).

Thank you all for reading, I will update soon with build information.

 

Paging iomTT to this thread, iomTT there is a thread waiting for you in General, thank you.

 

am talking with him via face book. Re Rental vehicles, make sure you let the England company know you are intending to take it off shore to the Isle of Man. www.iomtt.com is the best and first place to start looking for accomodation I think.

 

Awesome, now I know he's in good hands.

 

haha I know where all the bars are over there

 

beyond AWESOME person to talk with ^

 

My understanding is that a lot of the competitors stay at motorhomes at the paddock.
However this will not be an option for me. Is it better to rent a house and van?
do I have any other alternatives?

 

Have you been over yet, or will racing be your first visit? I say that, only because I think you'd be better served by going over first and familiarising yourself with the layout of everything and how the Isle and specifically the TT and paddock works.

That's how I would do it, if I wasn't old as sand.

-jim

 

I have not yet been there. This year i will not be able to go due to my racing commitments in the states.

My goal is to go to newcomers weekend next year and see if I can go as a spectator/pit crew for the TT and then return the same year for the Manx GP.

just a bit too hard to predict how things will turn out yet.

 

You've got a good plan; that's basically what I did. Brandon Cretu (gpstar748) will be racing the TT this year on a Bimota. I crewed for him in 2010 and 2011, came back in 2011 and ran the MGP, and in 2012 raced in the TT. Haven't been able to get things in order to go again since but am still working on it.

Best advice I can give you is don't go over for either race (MGP or TT) without someone you trust mechanically to act as crew chief for you. There're already enough things about the course to keep your head busy; your bike's maintenance shouldn't be one of them.

If you're shipping your own bike, you'll probably need to rent a van, yeah. Taxi service on the island is pretty darn good but the most they can realistically haul for you is groceries. The IOM police are somewhat lenient about racebikes on public roads, and for racers specifically there is an insurance rider you can buy for reasonably cheap that will allow you to legally ride the bike on open roads but it's not realistic as a regular transportation option.

For accommodations, tents and camping equipment is common even during the TT, let alone the MGP. There are showers in the paddock, and the nearest grocery store is only about a 5-10min walk. Things are reasonably safe from vandalism and theft but it's not a secure paddock by any means.

 

I know he's been mentioned over at NESR already, but it bears repeating. Hook up with Bill Blythe. Maybe crew for him?

 

I talked to Brandon Cretu a while back about going and he really urged me to go spectate once before deciding to go. Seeing it in person, I hear, is a lot different than watching it on a screen. I am still very interested in going over to race the TT one day. I might save up and try to go watch next year.

Buy the old Isle of Man video game, I believe it's called TT Superbikes. The graphics are not the greatest but the track lay out and detail is great. I played for a couple months and had the track almost completely memorized. It also has the Manx track and pretty much a lot of other stuff to help you out. Really important to not get lost on a track that long, fast and dangerous.

 

My only input is that if you want a good place to stay away from the craziness of Douglas, we stayed in Ramsey at the "Heathers." A B&B you can rent the room downstairs and have the bottom floor to yourselves, the garage is also available. Great cook and great hosts, they seamed to know of our needs before we did. The public transportation is very good, buses on time and convinent. Talk to the locals, especially the little old ladies at the bus stops. Funny and very helpful.

 

Great advice!!!
Thank you for that. if you have anything to add please feel free to share.

I have a great crew chief. that is actually why I am looking to possibly rent a whole house because it will be a total of 6 of us possibly going (including wives) and I want to at least give them a decent place to stay since they are spending so much money to support and help me.

I think the van will become a must and it is about $250/week for one if the websites I am looking at are reliable.

advice on places to stay, who to link up with, what to work on, are more than welcomed.

if anyone is bored of typing i will happily share my contact info and we can talk over the phone or somehting. people who have gone and done the Manx/TT please feel free to contact me directly.

 

My advice for you initially is to attend the TT as a spectator. Talk to as many people as you can and get as many contacts as you can. Go and hang out, rent a bike or a car and ride around the circuit countless times in between practice, qualifying, races... DO IT!
I went last year. It was an awesome experience.

 

Let me know if you need help with parts.

 

Good! It's important that the crew understands the race as well as you do. The TT Course is extremely punishing on equipment - to the point that really weird things break. In 2010, Brandon's steering damper sheared its locator pin straight off and nearly killed him. (And when I say "nearly killed him", I mean it a fair bit more literally than when you hear it at a nice, safe, gravel-trap-and-airfence-having US racetrack.) It turned out that his particular model of damper (R6 GPRv4) mounted to the bike in such a way that it acted as a reinforcement for the steering head bearings (side effect, not designed). We actually had checked the bearings every day - but we never thought to do it without the damper on. The bearings had been progressively loosening throughout the event, but each time we checked it felt stiff due to the extra reinforcement of the damper. Finally the bearings were loose enough that the damper was receiving the brunt of the load, and it failed on the course.

Now, I'm only saying that a little bit to scare you - I'm not trying to make it seem like you need to tear the bike down to the frame each night just to inspect everything. But your crew does need to understand that simply giving it a look-see isn't enough, and that little failures can have huge consequences. Most of the people that have volunteered to help me throughout the years didn't really grasp the weight of the responsibilities they were offering to take on.

Ok, debbie downer mode off now lol. For housing, as long as you've got your own transportation, anywhere near Douglas will be fine. It's a pretty small place and what's "far" to islanders is only ten minutes or so by car. I wouldn't recommend staying in Ramsey for race purposes - that actually is far, about a 45min drive. However, the schedule isn't like ours - practices are always in the evening, and races are at 10am at the *earliest*, so it's not a mad rush in the mornings - so if you did stay in Ramsey you wouldn't be screwed. I'll +1 the fact that Ramsey is a fantastic place; if I went to just visit that's where I'd be for sure.

For a 3-4bd house, I'd expect to pay about $1800-2400 US for two weeks. You might luck out in that the MGP will probably have much lower demand than the TT, so prices might be better - those are what I've paid for TT houses, when I did the Manx I stayed in a hauler in the paddock.

Find me on Facebook and I'll introduce you to a guy who calls himself Irish Ago - he's run the Manx for something like 37 years in a row. Nobody better to know over there.

 

any chance you have a ram-air and/or bigger radiator customized to allow proper use of the ram-air?

 

did you scare me? yes absolutely. but these are things I need to know and things I need to transfer to those who choose to come along for the trip.

You are giving me information that I havent even thought off and that is exactly what I need. Strong dose of reality and accurate information.

It really is a team effort and i believe a solid team is just as important a solid rider. like you said the Isle is very demanding in many aspects. I really appreciate everything you are sharing. Keep it coming whenever you have time.

I am trying to absorb all the information I can.

I can live with $2400 total cost for a 4bd house for two weeks. and like you said probably cheaper during the Manx.

I just added you on facebook (Sav Olympus)