| Author | Message | ||
     Expatriate00 |
Wasn't there a privateer that campaigned a Buell at the Isle of Man race a few years ago? | ||
| Trojan |
No. We sold our Buell Xb12 race bike to a businessman from the Isle of Man back in 2007, who was intending to enter it in one of the TT races, ridden by 'Irish Ago'. Unfortunately he wasn't accepted for an entry as entries were very much over subscribed that year, so it never happened. As far as I know the bike hasn't turned a wheel since, and is still sitting in his office in Douglas  No other Buell has entered or run in a TT race yet.......    | ||
| Davegess |
I understand that the bike has been let loose on "the mountain" back in 2007; it is pretty common for race bikes to make appearances on the public roads over Snaefell during the weeks leading up to the TT. There is no other place in the IOM to set a bike up for high speeds. Very early morning, the sun is up at like 4 am, over the mountain traffic is light and the locals all know what it means when they hear that race bike sound; most places it means "call the cops" in IOM it means, "move over, stay alert". Not many places where full on race bikes are actually legal on the public roads in traffic, albeit only immediately before and after races and official practice but over Snaeful, early in the morning no one is about and no one seems to care. And Matt is correct Irish Ago could not get an entry. He has not raced in the TT since. Nice fellow. | ||
| Expatriate00 |
Wow, thats not an answer I would have expected. Buell's marketing slogan was "own the corners". It seems natural that a course without a single section you could truly call a "straight" would be a course a Buell would own. Yeah, I know, the riders make the racing line straight-er, straight enough to have an avg lap speed of just over 125 mph over a course 37 miles long. That's seriously hauling a$$!Going fast on this course takes nerves of steel and ball that clank and can go wrong SO fast. It's a shame no one has ever ridden one in the TT and kind of surprising. | ||
| Trojan |
You have to remember that large parts of the TT course are full throttle flat out sections taken at 160mph+ on modern superbikes and supersport machines. There ar eplenty of corners on the TT course that are treated is straight lines and held flat out too, so even a tuned XB engined Buell would struggle over the course to keep up I think. Add the fact that some races are 5 laps long and running a Buell air cooled bike would hard work and not really competitive unfortunately. If they could get the Buell air cooled motors included in the new TT twins class (mostly ER6/Ninja 650 bikes) then it could be a different matter  Maybe somebody will take an 1190 to the TT one day | ||
| Davegess |
truly call a "straight" Actually the TT course is known more for its straights than anything. It is an insanely fast place with long stretches flat out at red line in top. Even though the straights are not really straight the bikes do not lift. Top speed is actually the most important thing. The air cooled engine is not able to spin fast enough to push the bike to these speeds. The Buell is better at a tight, technical course not a high speed blast like the TT. | ||
| Firstbuell |
ooh ooh !! Velocity TV will run 2-1/2 blocks of 4 hrs worth of 2012 IoM TT racing one nite only, Thur 9/27 4-5pm, 5-6pm, 6-7pm & 7-8pm for 4 different classes repeats 8-9pm, 9-10pm, 10-11pm & 11pm-12am then, 12-1am & 1-2am - dunno which 2 of the 4 noice! | ||
| Hughlysses |
I just finished a good book about racing at the Isle of Man called Riding Man. Short version- middle aged Canadian ad man decides it'd be cool to race there, quits his job, sells everything, moves to the island ~6 months before the race to learn the course, and finally competes. Read more here: http://www.ridingman.com/ More info here; there's apparently a documentary DVD about it too: http://www.onemansisland.com/home.htm | ||
| Firstbuell |
bump for the Ballaugh Bridge jump! | ||
| Firstbuell |
Velocity TV will soon run a 4-hr block of 2012 IoM TT racing shows, their full inventory of 1-hr episodes for 4 different classes this is a once-only showing, early morning tomorrow, Sun 10/28 - 3am-7am Pacific of course, that's a ridiculous time slot - unless you're already gonna be up for F1 live on SpeedTV, 2am-4:30am...... |
