Showing posts with label Isle of Man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Isle of Man. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 01, 2025
Monday, June 17, 2024
Sunday, August 06, 2023
On-board at the 2023 Isle of Man TT Races from a point of view you've never seen before!
What a great view, a beautiful place, and a terrific camera. I reccomend at least 1440p resolution
Monday, April 10, 2023
Once Charles Rolls discovered flying, he ditched his love for cars saying that up in the air there is no police to curb your joy.
Even before the famous meeting in 1904, the name Charles Stewart Rolls would have been known to Henry Royce thanks to his exploits at the wheel and reputation as a skilled motor racer. He held the unofficial land speed record in 1903 piloting his 80hp Mors to nearly 83 mph along the course in the Duke of Portland's Clipstone Park.
In his first race in France in 1899 – the Paris to Boulogne – Rolls had finished fourth in the tourist class, driving an 8hp Panhard and Levassor. In 1903 he competed in the fateful Paris to Madrid town-to-town, an event in which thirty-four drivers and spectators were to perish.
Rolls was a pioneer aviator and initially, balloonist, making over 170 balloon ascents. In 1903 he won the Gordon Bennett Gold Medal for the longest single flight time.
In his first race in France in 1899 – the Paris to Boulogne – Rolls had finished fourth in the tourist class, driving an 8hp Panhard and Levassor. In 1903 he competed in the fateful Paris to Madrid town-to-town, an event in which thirty-four drivers and spectators were to perish.
Rolls was a pioneer aviator and initially, balloonist, making over 170 balloon ascents. In 1903 he won the Gordon Bennett Gold Medal for the longest single flight time.
Following the formation of Rolls-Royce, Rolls turned his attention to the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy. After frustration in 1905, Rolls returned in 1906 winning in a Rolls-Royce Light Twenty.
By 1907 Rolls' interest turned increasingly to flying and he tried to persuade Royce to design an aero engine. He became the second Briton to go up in an airplane, and it was piloted by Wilbur Wright!
Their flight on lasted four minutes and twenty seconds.
He bought one of six Wright Flyer aircraft built by Short Brothers under license from the Wright Brothers and from early October 1909 made more than 200 flights.
by 1909 Rolls' interest in the car business he made with Royce in 1904 was waning, and at the end of the year he resigned as Technical managing director and became a non-executive director.
He co-founded the ballooning club that became the Royal Aero Club in 1901, and in March 1910 he was the second person they licensed to fly an aeroplane.
He became the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane in June 1910. In July, he died in a plane crash, age 32
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Tuesday, October 06, 2020
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Friday, November 16, 2018
motorcycles, zinging in the rain
http://darkdraggon.tumblr.com/
Tony found it this is the the Armoy (The Dunlop family's home village) road races in Northern Ireland
https://amrrc.com Thanks Tony!
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
The Isle of Man TT has officially become the world's fastest road race following Peter Hickman's outright lap record of 135.452mph in the Senior TT.
The Smiths BMW rider attributed his record lap to "perfect" weather and track conditions across practice and race week, as well as a last-minute new tyre delivery from Dunlop for the Senior event.
"They pulled something out the bag, got the factory working overtime overnight, and managed to pull in a new tyre for this race here, and I think that's also what's made a little bit of a difference in the Senior [race]."
All of race week's solo lap records bar Harrison's SBK were set using Dunlop tyres, with Harrison running Metzeler rubber on his machinery. The Birchalls dominated the Sidecar class on Avon tyres.
https://www.motorsport.com/roadracing/news/isle-of-man-tt-becomes-fastest-road-race-1045304
Saturday, November 25, 2017
No Limits, George Formby, 1935 (Thanks Tony!)
And relevant to the Joey Dunlop statue I posted a couple days ago, there is a statue of George Formby leaning on a lamppost on Ridgeway Street, close to the intersection with Lord Street, in Douglas, Isle of Man.
He was a movie star, TT racer, and ukelele player
And he was so famous, as was his motorcycle, the Shuttleworth Snap, that a gentleman from England acts like him at Goodwood
now I finally understand what that checkered motorcycle is about
Graeme had a couple of model T Fords,was involved in filming and had previously traveled the world with a Laurel & Hardy tribute.The idea for resurrecting the Shuttleworth Snap came up in conversation with Lord March at Goodwood back in 2006.
http://mike-thistledown.blogspot.dk/2013/03/lamppost.html
http://www.johnsmotorcyclenews.co.uk/news-interest/shuttleworth-snap/
https://rideapart.com/articles/limit-1935-moto-movie-review
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Friday, October 20, 2017
Friday, August 18, 2017
Honda manned up, and quietly mentioned that it was the bikes fault why McGuiness crashed at the 2017 TT
Honda did eventually confirm that John himself had quickly fed back to the team that the throttle had either stuck or opened unexpectedly.
After the rather loud explosion of rebutted ‘Guy Martin retirement’ news released by MCN, it might raise the odd skeptical eyebrow that it was also MCN that announced – just hours later – the official confirmation from Honda that it was an error with their bike which caused John to crash.
Honda Team Manager, Jonny Twelvetrees released today in a statement that after having extracted and reviewed the data from the ECU on McGuinness bike, they can now confirm that it was a setting on the ECU race kit software that resulted in the throttle, unexpectedly, blipping.
Speaking about the incident, Twelvetrees had this to say,
“Although at the time there was a long delay in getting the data from John’s bike due to the ECU being damaged – the ECU had to be sent all the way to the supplier in China to extract the data from it – we put in a countermeasure of a new spec of ECU for the TT to ensure the problem wouldn’t happen again.
http://www.motofire.com/2017/07/sport/honda-quietly-release-details-of-fireblade-failure-in-mcguinness-crash/
McGuinness has been diagnosed with a compound fracture to the bottom of this right leg Tibia and Fibula, and four broken vertebrae and three broken ribs in the accident at the NW200
http://www.motofire.com/2017/05/sport/honda-make-official-statement-john-mcguinness-guy-martin-nw200-tt/
After the rather loud explosion of rebutted ‘Guy Martin retirement’ news released by MCN, it might raise the odd skeptical eyebrow that it was also MCN that announced – just hours later – the official confirmation from Honda that it was an error with their bike which caused John to crash.
Honda Team Manager, Jonny Twelvetrees released today in a statement that after having extracted and reviewed the data from the ECU on McGuinness bike, they can now confirm that it was a setting on the ECU race kit software that resulted in the throttle, unexpectedly, blipping.
Speaking about the incident, Twelvetrees had this to say,
“Although at the time there was a long delay in getting the data from John’s bike due to the ECU being damaged – the ECU had to be sent all the way to the supplier in China to extract the data from it – we put in a countermeasure of a new spec of ECU for the TT to ensure the problem wouldn’t happen again.
http://www.motofire.com/2017/07/sport/honda-quietly-release-details-of-fireblade-failure-in-mcguinness-crash/
McGuinness has been diagnosed with a compound fracture to the bottom of this right leg Tibia and Fibula, and four broken vertebrae and three broken ribs in the accident at the NW200
http://www.motofire.com/2017/05/sport/honda-make-official-statement-john-mcguinness-guy-martin-nw200-tt/
Thursday, June 08, 2017
Friday, June 02, 2017
Sunday, April 23, 2017
As part of the Isle of Man festival of steam (2017), three traction engines - Atlas, The Duke of York and The Great North - hauling the twin bogie trailer carrying Isle of Man Railways loco no.8 Fenella, fully 110 tons of mass getting moved by steam
A slow-moving convoy of locomotives is making its way around the Isle of Man as part of a steam festival. The road train, consisting of three Fowler road locomotives, will haul a trailer carrying the Isle of Man steam engine Fenella.
The Isle of Man Festival of Steam 2017 incorporates and builds on the success of the Rush Hour event, with visiting steam cars and road locomotives participating in a number of tours and events around the Island.
The most dramatic visual experience of steam powered heavy haulage to be seen on public roads for many years is this road train consisting of three iconic Fowler road locomotives hauling an Isle of Man Steam Railway locomotives on the Great Dorset Twin Bogie Trailer around some of the steepest and most challenging roads on the Island.
http://www.isleofmanmotormuseum.com/steam2017/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-39668800
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Saturday, February 18, 2017
it has a wheel and its an engine and its the largest of it's kind in the world.... the Laxey Wheel
The triskelion on the front of the wheel is backwards. This happened by accident when transferring the image onto the wall; they forgot to reverse it, so, it's actually a mirror image of the symbol of Mann.
The heraldic device of the triskele has been associated with the Isle of Man for centuries. In 1405, Henry IV, King of England gave the Isle of Man to John Stanley. The latter gave Henry two peregrine falcons, and was to provide the same to every future English king on his coronation.
The symbol is closely associated with Sicily, and is attested there as early as the 7th century BC. In 1250, the Holy Roman Emperor died after having ruled Sicily for 52 years. Four years later, the papal legate invested the Sicilian kingship in the young son of King Henry III, of England and for about ten years afterwards Edmund was styled "King of Sicily".
The island was ruled by King Alexander Of Scotland, whose wife was King Henry III daughter, and this familial connection between the English and Scottish royal families could account for the introduction of the triskeles as a symbol of the Isle of Man.
Or, the appearance of the 'triskele' on coins of the tenth century Norse King, Anlaf Cuaran, whose dominion included Dublin and the Isle of Man; and it is probable that the later Manx Kings were a branch of the same dynasty. All the early examples of the Manx 'Legs' show them as if running sunwise (i.e. clockwise) and to that extent the heraldic symbol of the Island still retained an essential feature of the ancient pagan sun-symbol.
Why did I tell you all of that instead of posting about cars? I've always wanted to know about that 3 legged thing, and so, as I was learning about the Isle of Man TT, this kept coming up.
It was built in 1854 to pump water from the Great Laxey Mines, which also has a pair of steam locomotives, very small ones, named Ant and Bee
A water-powered wheel was used because the Isle of Man does not have a supply of coal for a steam-powered pump.
250 imperial gallons of water a minute from the Laxey mines some 200 yards away and 1,500 feet below ground
The mine employed over 600 miners at its peak, producing lead, copper, silver and zinc, until it closed in 1929. In 1965 the Manx Government bought the wheel and site. The wheel was restored; in 1989,
The head of the government is the Queen of England, but the island is like Bermuda, it's an internally self-governing dependent territory of the Crown which is not part of the United Kingdom, even though it's located off the coast of England.
The island takes a holiday for the TT Senior Race Day... and that... THAT is cool. Tell me of any other country taking a holiday for a vehicle race!
https://www.gov.im/categories/business-and-industries/iom-key-facts-guide/island-facts/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_the_Isle_of_Man
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laxey_Wheel
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Laxey_Mine_Railway#
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