Cool Videos

[ozijotati]

Was an 80 Jota, might have been me but I don’t remember the dark helmet. Although there’s a lot I don’t remember at those race meetings . Was cool to see that back then people rode there bevel Ducati’s instead of keeping them in the lounge room as an investment. Dennis Neil eventually was successful in suing Honda for the accident, but it took many years and he was a badly broken man at the end. Cool to hear riders changing gears and not the computers managing it
Tom

 

[motoddrob]

The vid doesn't appear on my screen

 

[hooksey]

Found this on Youtube:

As a documentary, I'm not sure that it's aged gracefully - full of stereotypical attitudes. But certainly it's a historical document. The on-board footage from Dennis Neill's CB1100R is impressive, remember that in 1981 the cameras were not compact.

Hahahaha , Fosters Tins and Goon Bags!

Back in the Day.

 

[motoddrob]

That was a cool vid.

 

[Andy J]

What’s not to like: bikes, birds, booze and a load of Armco to crash into! I still would have loved to race at the circuit and it makes even Cadwell Park and Scarborough look like circuits for softies.

 

[Vince]

More Concrete than Armco even back then. These days, it's a complete Concrete tunnel on both sides, plus a chicane added halfway down Conrod Straight, built for the cars after some recent horrors. Before the chicane was added, the bikes would wheelie off a rise at approaching 300 km/h. Reed and Macphilamy Park,2 linked high-speed sweepers across the top, are 2 lanes wide and is very narrow for 200kph. It's completely nuts, Skyline feels like riding off the end of the world, and that's at 60kph when it's a public road. It's a public road when not a race track, and it's POLICED to hell. People regularly try, but most get caught. We would start spectating at Read Park and end up at Forest Elbo, by then we had run out of Tinnies in Belstaff pockets. It was a long climb back up to the tents, Beers and Dagwood Dogs, which was a battered hot dog on a stick. Fond memories.

 

[piranha-bro2]

They mentioned Rob Moorhouse (name right?) who died the year before. I heard somewhere that he'd removed his front guard, the tyre went through the brake line and he went into Skyline with zero brakes. Glad I wasn't there for that! A mate went over from Perth on his Kwaka Moriwaki'd superbike ... handled like a shaezwagon stock Z - massive tankslapper down Conrod and over the bars - and survived.

Was it Rob Holden saying it's the most dangerous track in thew world? Dangerous for sure, but had he forgotten about IoM and NW200!!

The first year I went ('82) was when Roger Freeth (the flying doctor) won the Arai on the Macintosh Suzuki - fuk that thing looked good on the track, and he was a brilliant rider.

 

[Andy J]

If you're right about Rob Holden then it is quite ironic given he died racing in the IOM not Bathurst. And here's a video of an earlier attempt by Rob to do himself some serious harm at the TT.

 

[piranha-bro2]

My mistake - Ron Boulden!!! Almost a spoonerism!

 

[Vince]

Dr Roger was a physicist, and he was pretty close to unbeatable on the Macintosh Suzuki. I think he won the Arai 3-hour on the Mountain a bunch of times in a row. Sadly, he was killed navigating for Possum Vaughan in his Rally Car. The fastest bloke I ever saw on The Mountain was Greg Hansford; he was accelerating in places where others were braking. Again, sadly killed racing a Mazda Rotary, I think at Philp Island. So many great bike racers survived only to die in car accidents later in life. Hailwood also comes to mind.

 

[piranha-bro2]

How did Hansford die at The Island in a car??? Would have to have hit another vehicle at speed - so much runoff. Possum Bourne - yes I recall reading about Doctor Roger back then. Very bloody sad.

 

[Vince]

I bought my first pair of Bike Boots off Ron's Mum, Moura, who was the Woman with the permed hair, saying she was sick every time Ron raced in the Video. They had a Bike Accessory shop in Willaby near my place before opening a big Yamaha dealership years later. Ron had a spot of bother legally and had an extended Government holiday, something to do with Insurance and Hire Cars. Disappeared after that. One memorable story from those Arai 3-hour races, for some reason, one race was delayed and ran into twilight. The regs required a working headlight, and one of the front runners, Tony Hatton, headlight fail, so they taped a torch to his handlebars and carried on. I have a vivid memory of showers of sparks coming off bikes' undercarriages and slowly dimming headlight carrying on into the fast approaching night.

 

[SRK189W]

Was it Rob Holden saying it's the most dangerous track in the world? Dangerous for sure, but had he forgotten about IoM and NW200!!

Agreed. Never did the NW, but I can speak first-hand about the TT course. Did the Manx a few times in the '90s, then '02 & '04 (submitted an entry for '01, but TT & MGP cancelled due to foot & mouth epidemic).
Had done loads of short-circuit club racing, even won a couple of 350 proddy championships with EMRA at Mallory Park (after all the fast boys moved up to 600s...). But nothing prepared me for the nigh on 38 miles of the Snaefell Mountain Course.
It was daunting enough when driving around it in the van on open roads. Bray Hill is so steep, I don't think the T.V. footage does it justice.
On race days at the start/finish line, they had a speed trap, and would flag up your speed on an LED display as you passed.
My bike for the last 2 events was a'99 ZX6r, race can & jetted, otherwise standard apart from usual race mods.
But it managed to clock 136mph as it went by, and at that point you just keep the throttle pinned, as you head off down the
aforementioned Bray Hill and up over Ago's Leap, then Selbourne Drive. Whatever the top speed of my Kawa was, it was pretty much doing it by the bottom of Bray. Terrifying, but Wonderful.
That said, I do love watching the Aussie road race footage on YT, and just about every track looks pretty hairy to me!!

 

[Tippie]

How did Hansford die at The Island in a car??? Would have to have hit another vehicle at speed - so much runoff. Possum Bourne - yes I recall reading about Doctor Roger back then. Very bloody sad.

Wikipedia: While competing in a Supertouring race in 1995 at Phillip Island, Hansford's Ford Mondeo slid off the track and hit a tyre wall at high speed. The car bounced back onto the track where he was hit by Mark Adderton's Peugeot 405 at over 200 km/h. Hansford died moments after the impact.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Hansford#cite_note-39"><span>[</span>39<span>]</span></a> At the time of his death, his youngest son Harrison, born to model Carolyn Donovan, was only 8 months old.

 

[Andy J]

A not very good quality recording of the Arai 500 race at Bathurst in 1983. A very brief (as the bike only lasted for the first hour) sight of the Eurotred RGS fitted with a TTF1 engine at 2min 3 sec as the rider, Alan Mills avoids a pair of crashed bikes just after the start. He's probably also in a gaggle of bikes coming off the mountain around the 3 minute mark, but that's about it.

I can't find any video of the 1984 race but did find a photo of the Le Mans start with Martin Hone, #27, visible in the middle of the picture.

 

[piranha-bro2]

Hmmm - not a real fun memory of that trip to the Mountain with the RGS ...

 

[Andy J]

I'd not seen this before, and not just for Vince, but this is why everyone should have an OR600 Atlas!

 

[motoddrob]

I've got 100s of kms of roads like that in my back yard. Old logging tracks. That's why I have an old GS1000 BM. I have mates that live down those roads so always fun to visit them. Best bit is you can have a few beers and ride home and not worry about police.

 

[Vince]

If that's the Atlas video of that Viking bloke with the sidecar, yes, I saw it ages ago. He used to post a lot on Michael Moore's Laverda list. I have scoured the web for anything Atlas-related, happy to see anything on them.

 

[Andy J]

I don't think this guy has a sidecar attached Vince, unless it's a side-winder!!