Isle of Man TT | 2023

this just got me thinking, with all the head shake and tank slappers these guys get in a lap, do they have to constantly drag the front brake to get the pads back to the rotors?

 

136.3mph on a stock 1000 bike! Hicky just set the all time lap record!

 

And it looked so effortless for Hickman, too, which is spooky !!

 

Dunlop's Paton twin just let him down with like a 10+ second lead...

 

Man that sucks.

 

I've been wondering for some time but the point is of having the Senior and even the Superbike classes. I am not sure were on that island the differences in specifications can be exploited.

 

Hickman wins the Super Twins race on his R7... err... umm.. Yamaha 700 twin... LOL

 

lots of attrition on the super twins race 2 ..

 

The gap between the stock 1000 and superbike classes is shrinking with each new model bike being released.

During his podium interview, Hickman was kind of cagey in his response when asked whether he would use the superbike or the stock bike for tomorrow's Senior TT. He did say that the two bikes have their strengths in completely different parts of the track.

 

Transmissions are important and the top guys in the Senior usually have something trick from the factory or a place like Nova.

Tech actually checks for that on the dyno

 

A tip of the hat to the Green Light production crew that is doing the 40 plus hours of Live TT streaming coverage and the very well and quickly produced daily updates on YouTube. Much smoother than last year, American Mark Miller has surprised in a good way as main play by play guy with Dave Moore, replacing my favorite Mark Nichols. Miller should cut back a bit on the sarcasm and snarky comments which often get lost. Horst Saiger can go away however, obviously loves the TT though. The crowd looks less than last year in some spots and I wonder if the fantastic live coverage is making fans to stay home and watch?

 

I don't see those two doing the play by play next year. Moore was always talking over Miller.

 

He was a cool dude Raul ran wide at Alpine. There are a pair of jumps just prior to pitch-in for the corner, and on a twin you won't let off for them at all - my best guess is that he got wobbly over them, and wasn't able to turn quickly enough. The outside wall comes up real fast.

2.5, on average.

More like 98/2, but it's funny how 2% becomes a pretty fuckin terrifyingly large percentage when it's staring you in the face.

 

How did you do today Chris?

I wish they gave you guys that aren’t at the sharp pointy end a bit of airtime.

The slowest backmarker last place finisher has more cajones than I’ll ever dream of having.

 

Trans gearing is the biggest difference according to a few top guys that run both. The bike setup is definitely not short circuit setup so some of the sbk bits can hurt and some can help. I was shocked when I pressed down on Dunlops R6 a couple years back. Hickmans stockers are extremely well built and within the rules but they take every advantage within the rules they can and have the budget to do it. Also the stock electronics and are damn good these days so that has a ton of influence as well. I think the bikes that out of the box are pretty good obviously have a better chance of doing well in that class. Hickmans sstk bikes are probably worth more than a lot of the sbk’s on the grid.

 

More balls than I’ll ever have. Tip of the hat to ya.

 

@tophyr I'm glad to have been there to see your last lap and shake your hand afterwards.
You've accomplished something that very few people have

 

I finished 33rd in Superbike, DNF'ed STK1, and ended up deciding not to start either STK2 or the Sr. Both my teammate and I struggled a ton with the bikes we brought - neither of us could get them to go faster than about 181-182mph, where they should've been going 195+, and I in particular was struggling with a shock that'd overheat by the end of lap 1 and lose all its damping. It was pretty frustrating results-wise, didn't do the speeds I wanted or think I'm capable of, but I still had a ton of fun and it feels good to have finished a six-lap big-bike race around that place.

 

Jesus, how could you ride that place with no damping, just damn.


Thanks for being there and representing the USA!

 

Optimistic dyno numbers or something else? That sounds like a massive gap relative to your expectations.