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When it comes to real road racing, the boys on Hondas are always the short-list of whom to beat. Gearing up for the North West 200 this weekend and the rapidly approaching Isle of Man TT, the road racing season is firmly upon us.

Never mind circuits and race tracks, these guys let it all hang out on public roads, with speeds approaching and surpassing 200 mph on some courses. Make no mistake, this is risky business.

Mental preparedness and track knowledge are key, but that doesn’t mean that machine shakedowns are unnecessary. Although the Honda CBR1000RR racing package hasn’t changed much over its eight years of use, HRC has been able to refine the Fireblade to be a keen, and more importantly, a reliable weapon on the roads.

This year, John McGuinness and Conor Cummins will wear the factory HRC livery, as they take on the other top riders. Honda has put together a quick video of the two racers, with their thoughts on the 2015 season. Check it out after the jump.

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.

The late evening practice sessions have finally given way to the mid-day races at the Isle of Man, and that means that the 2014 Isle of Man TT has started in earnest. As always, the Dainese Superbike TT was the opening event, which is just the perfect way to start the TT…with the big toys on the Mountain Course, right?

This year’s event brings all sorts of questions. Will Michael Dunlop continue the domination he began back in 2013? Or will John McGuinness reclaim his crown, and make further progress into besting Joey Dunlop’s outright TT race win record? How about fan favorite Guy Martin, and his hunt for his first Isle of Man TT race win? Thankfully, some of those answers can begin to come forthwith.

With the news that Michael Dunlop failed to reach an agreement with Honda Europe, and likely would be sitting out the 2014 road racing season, Honda TT Legends has announced its signing of Conor Cummins in Dunlop’s stead. Accordingly, the well-regarded Manx rider will form a two-man team with Mr. Snaefell himself, John McGuinness.

Cummins and McGuinness will race for the Honda TT Legends team at the 2014 Isle of Man TT and North West 200 road racing events. Both McGuinness and Cummins will cover the Superbike and Senior races at the TT, while Cummins will race for the team in the Superstock class as well.

The second installment of Dainese’s little Isle of Man TT video series, we get to hear from Milwaukee Yamaha rider Conor Cummins. “You should be fully focused on the road ahead, because it bites hard,” says Cummins in the video. No rider should know the truth of those words better than Conor, as in the 2010 TTT the Manx man had a horrific crash that he was lucky to survive.

Back to full-health now, Cummins clocked a third in the Lightweight TT, a fifth in the Superbike TT, and a fifteenth in the second Supersport TT. The fastest Manx rider ever around the Isle of Man’s Mountain Course, Cummins is the pride of the Isle, and a serious contender in any race he enters.

However, Milwaukee Yamaha didn’t get the results they wanted this year, but you can’t rule Cummins out for 2014. As he says himself,  “we’re not going racing to finish second. We’re going to win.”

A stark contrast to the Senior TT that it precedes, the Isle of Man TT’s Lightweight TT race is comprised of 650cc twins, and the field is dominated by a sea of Kawasaki race bikes. A few competitors try different machinery, Suzuki’s mainly, though a couple Chinese models can be spotted in the paddock.

To be truly competitive in the Lightweight TT though, you need to be on one of Ryan Farquhar’s race-prepped bikes, which draws a small circle on the number of true contender’s for the class’s podium spots.

This prospect left Michael Dunlop to withdraw from the Lightweight TT, prefering to concentrate his energy in securing a clean sweep of the five main solo races in the 2013 Isle of Man TT.

Should he win the Senior TT, he would accomplish a feat only ever achieved by Ian Hutchinson — so we can’t fault him for his absence. This still left a strong grid in the Lightweight TT class. Race spoilers after the jump.

Manxies will rejoice to the news that local-man Conor Cummins has been declared fit enough to race in Friday’s Senior TT at the 2012 Isle of Man TT. Caught in a crash during the North West 200 with Gary Johnson, Cummins has been on the sidelines of the Isle of Man TT fortnight with an injury to his right hand. The Tyco Suzuki rider’s appearance at the blue ribbon race will be a boon to the BSB team, as so far Cummins’ teammate Guy Martin has been unable to put the Suzukis on the podium.

Though Cummins had circulated during some of the practice sessions, Cummins has sat out all of the solo races thus far at the TT, much to the disappoint of his home crowd. Spending some time in a hyperbaric chamber and doing some physiotherapy, Cummins has been able to heal enough over the past week in order to salvage his Isle of Man TT outing, and put down a 125 mph lap during the Senior TT qualifying.

Do you like the Isle of Man TT? Do you like the third dimension? Do you like watching bikes hurl down city streets at imprudent velocities? If you answered “yes!” to these questions, then we have the cinematic experience you’ve been waiting for your whole life. TT3D: Closer to the Edge (Facebook & Twitter) is a new movie coming out that documents the 2010 Isle of Man TT, and is the first feature-length 3D sport documentary to boot.

Packed with not only footage from the TT itself, the documentary also tells the story behind the race with segments on Guy Martin, John McGuinness, Conor Cummins, and Ian Hutchinson. The movie is narrated by Jared Leto, and should be hitting the big screen in April. We can’t wait for the premiere, but more importantly we can’t wait for the upcoming 100th running of the Mountain Course at the Isle of Man TT in June.

Ian Hutchinson set an unprecedented record today by winning the Dainese Senior TT at the Isle of Man. The win is Hutchinson’s fifth victory at the IOMTT this year, a feat that no other rider has accomplished: sweeping the conventional motorcycle portion of the TT. Hutchinson had close competition in the form of John McGuinness and Conor Cummins, but those riders crashed and retired, respectively. This all but assured Hutchinson of taking the Senior TT, and setting an Isle of Man TT record for victories in one week.