Had quite a few people asking if I/we will be going to the isle of man again, and if we'll be doing it this year or not. It sounds as if a fair few people would liked to have come for the first one last weekend but funds/work/bad timing etc. put a lid on it for them.
Just gauging interest as to whether anyone would be interested in doing it again before the end of the riding season. Obviously there's a fair few people attending GM3 at the end of June and the AR at the start of august amongst other things, but I myself wouldn't mind heading over before the end of the riding season...
More organisation
The first weekend was great and matt did a really good job considering he more or less organised it on his own
and was up for work at
3am almost every morning. With a bit more organisation and a slightly bigger crowd I reckon it could easily become a very popular weekend.
Throw in a BBQ, a properly organised 'big' rideout (like we did round the south of the island) with proper marking (not like those whacky IAM guys) and arrange the weekend to co-inside with other events on the island like the rally cars we saw = could be a good mix.
Riding the island
There's more than just the 37.7 mile TT course to tackle. Although the mountain road is phenomenal and the bit from st. johns to kirkmichael is technically challenging, there's far more to the island than I ever realised. The roads from st. johns down to Port Erin are cracking and from the calf of man upto laxey was a nice bit of riding. Me and mike never got round to seeing the Point of Ayre or around Bride on the north west tip of the island, so there's plenty to do.. For anyone who's unsure, the black and white national speed limit sign means fast as you like, so all the NSL roads are a bit of a playground
Stuff to do
There was a ska band on in Peel called 'butcher skank' and a tribute act called coldplaice, not my cuppa char but it was nice to have some live music while we ate/drank/generally took the pish out of each other/talked bike politics...
Laxey wheel was big and round, peel has a cracking coffee shop called gohpers with a range of around 20 cakes (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), and there's a wildlife park with beavers which I wouldn't mind stopping at.
Also, next time I go I'm taking my DSL-R, wide angle and zoom lenses as there's some stunning scenery looking down from the mountain etc..
Accomodation
The campsite had decent showers/facilities and was a reasonable £7 per night with a pub 200 yards up the road and Peel town centre about 600 yards in the oppsite direction. There are plenty of B&B's (john icanopit seemed happy enough with his) if you're not up for camping, and if people are organised then sharing a larger tent could mean it's easier for people to carry all their camping equipment over if it's spread across 2 or 3 bikes..
Use this thread...
..to discuss possible dates to run the 2nd one, ideas for rideouts or activites, specific bits of road or routes etc.... Anything goes really
Just try and keep the waffle posts to a minimum so that the good ideas don't get lost in and amongst the banter