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June 2014

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The final race of the 2014 Isle of Man TT is upon us, the “blue ribbon” event as they call it on the Isle, we are of course talking about the Senior TT.

Six laps of high-octane racing, the smart money pick was of course on Michael Dunlop and his BMW S1000RR superbike — despite BMW having not been at the Isle of Man in decades, and Dunlop never having won a Senior before in his career.

With perfect weather on the Snaefell Mountain Course, TT fans were treated to a fine Senior TT, which was full of close racing.

Friday’s Isle of Man TT racing started off with the Bike Nation Lightweight TT, where the field is comprised of two-cylinder four-stroke machines that cannot have more than 650cc in engine capacity — as such, the field is dominated by Kawasaki Ninja 650 sport bikes.

A race fit for grooming the future talent of the Isle of Man TT, the Lightweight TT sees the big name stars in its ranks as well, though the field is comprised mostly of greener riders. One man noticeably absent from the Lightweight TT grid was Michael Dunlop, who decided to sit out the race and focus on the day’s later race, the blue-ribbon event, the Senior TT.

BMW Motorrad has released a worldwide notification about a potentially dangerous suspension situation, which affects the 2014 BMW R1200RT.

Concerned about the safety regarding the Dynamic ESA electronic suspension package, BMW Motorrad says that there is a potential defect with the system’s rear spring strut.

Since the German motorcycle manufacturer cannot rule that the piston rod could potentially break, BMW Motorrad is advising 2014 R1200RT owners not to ride their motorcycles until further notice.

BMW Motorrad insists that this is a precautionary measure, which the comopany is making in the interests of customer safety, and based on a supplier report.

Yamaha Motor USA has confirmed to Asphalt & Rubber that the Yamaha MT-07, the twin-cylinder cousin to the MT-09, will be coming to the United States after all, and like its three-cylinder counterpart, the budget-conscious naked bike will get a renaming, known henceforth as the Yamaha FZ-07.

Yamaha has a real trend going with its MT/FZ line, with its three similarly styled bikes (don’t forget about the Yamaha MT-125) bringing some serious bang-for-the-buck to new and seasoned riders alike. For the American market, the Yamaha FZ-07 comes with an MSRP of $6,990, and will be available in July of this year.

For the last couple of years I had planned to go to the Glen Helen section, but it has never happened. This year I decided that I would finally get there, and that’s what I did for Wednesday’s racing.

Glen Helen is a technical tree lined section and is home to the first commentary point for Radio TT. On dull days it can be pretty dark due to the trees, so a camera with good performance in low light is important.

For these photos, I shot the Supersport race in the section just before the commentary point. I had planned to stay there for the sidecar race as well, and then move round the corner for the practice laps.

Sadly the Manx weather had other ideas and there was no more action after the Supersport race. The Sidecar race was postponed until Today, so I will need to decide on a new shooting location.

Aside from the motorbikes lapping at 120+ mph around the Snaefell Mountain Course during Race 2 of the Supersport TT, there was a fair bit of drama at the Isle of Man TT pit lane, especially when a race bike caught on fire.

Coming in for his one pit stop, in between the second and third laps, Grant Wagstaff found himself subject to an unsuspected fireball, after a gas spill was ignited by his Yamaha R6’s hot exhaust pipes.

A terrifying sight, thankfully the incident was taken care of quickly by the fire brigade and everyone else involved.

The result was the pit lane being closed for about a minute, leaving the affected riders to have a time credit given to their official times. Last we heard, all involved will live to race another day, though Wagstaff was sent to Noble’s Hospital and treated for burns.

Billed as the toughest single-day enduro in the world, the Erzbergrodeo certainly seems to live up to the hyperbole. Four days of events, the Erzbergrodeo is crowned by the last day’s Red Bull Hare Scramble, where 500 qualifiers (pared down from over 1,000 entries) take to the Austrian quarry, and only a handful find the finish line.

The Erzbergrodeo is mildly ridiculous, and completely laborious…so, obviously we like it. Thankfully for the 2014 competitors, the rain wasn’t too big of a factor this year…because you know, it’s not like the hare scramble wasn’t hard enough to begin with. We won’t spoil the results for you, so a summary video (along with a bunch of hi-res photos) is waiting for you after the jump, while you can watch the 4hr long version right here.

It was quite a wrench to the leave the Island in the middle of the TT to go to the Motogp at Mugello. In fact, I spent most of weekend moaning to anyone within ear shot that I wished I was back home at the Isle of Man.

You can therefore imagine my delight when I discovered that the Superstock race was delayed 24 hours until Tuesday afternoon. I had gambled that this might happen, and had left my car at the airport.

I had hoped to make it to the Glen Helen section, but after landing I realised I wasn’t going to be able to make it before the roads closed. Instead I headed to Ballacraine as it was easier to get to from the airport.

Ballacraine is a quick right hand corner with a large building on the exit. The building was once a pub made famous in the old Geroge Formby movie No Limits.

It’s not one of my favourite places to take pictures, but I was just glad to be there.

When it comes to historic British motorcycle brands, Ariel ranks as one of the top marquees in the business. Currently lending its name to the insane street-legal go-kart that is the Ariel Atom, which Jeremy Clarkson helped make famous with his big mouth..literally, Ariel boss Simon Saunders has tipped, in a press release about the latest Atom iteration, that the company’s next effort will be of the two-wheeled variety.

Caught testing by the lenses of MCN, the British moto-publication says that the new Ariel will be based around the 1,237cc V4 engine found on the Honda VFR1200F, and have a single-sided swingarm, along with a unconventional front-end — possibly of a girder or Hossack design.

Before heading up to the Bungalow for today’s races, the weather looked fairly promising with only cloud cover, and no ominous darker clouds threatening rain.

Once I’d arrived it was a different story, with the low clouds covering the tram stop at the top of Snaefell – the island’s highest peak at over 2,000ft – threatening to roll down towards the circuit.

Thankfully it held off long enough to complete the TT Zero and second Supersport races, but had enveloped the surrounding area before the second sidecar race and some practice sessions could run.

The Bungalow is one of the highest points on the course, as the riders exit the Verandah and continue on their way towards Kate’s Cottage. If you watched last year’s TT highlights you’ll recognise it as the point where Michael Dunlop’s CBR600RR made a damn good attempt to throw him off, leaving rubber on the road and forcing him to take a much wider line through the corner than usual.

Usually the backdrop to any image at the Bungalow is a lush, green hillside, but today it was mainly the low, rolling clouds. This makes the camera try to expose the whiteness of the clouds, leaving the bikes underexposed if you don’t work around it.

With a packed Wednesday schedule, riders had only moments after the TT Zero celebration to mount their Supersport machines for the second race of the Monster Energy Supersport TT, and with mist reported on the mountain, a quick send-off was also necessary in order to ensure a full race distance ensued.

The only man not in a rush though was John McGuinness, as the now 21-time TT race winner had announced in the morning that he and the Padgetts Hona team had decided it best not to race in the second Supersport race of the 2014 Isle of Man TT, as McPint has been suffering from a wrist injury, which was noticeably holding him back this TT fortnight.

In fine form all week though has been the Kiwi Bruce Anstey, and he and Michael Dunlop seemed set for another showdown on the Snaefell Mountain Course.