Max Power

I really have no idea, perhaps he developed complications which finished him off after 2 months in ICU? His family know what it was so that's where my info came from.

It was me, and it's not a false story. I don't have a pitchfork, I don't know where that came from?

The demise I mean is the slow fall in status. This began after the 1970 event when GP riders started to give the TT a miss. The crowds, around 70-80k kept coming through the 90s and early 2000s but in slowly decreasing numbers, to the 40k or so that we can accommodate today. The riders we attract are now TT specialists, with a few exceptions, rather than those at the top of the sport. The event has lost its FIM International status, they don't want to be involved in road racing, we have limited ferry and accommodation capacity and we are in an increasingly risk averse environment. To be

Good points @joebean, as time goes on we realise that changes should be made. The TT didn't just appear as the first world championship grand prix in 1949, it was a result of it evolving over the previous four decades. New courses were introduced to suit and develop the racing machines of that particular era, even into the fifties. I think the TT and British motorcycling were at their zenith at this time. Ever since the fifties, we have been desperately hanging on to the formats and memories of this era, without any considered thought for the future. Geoff Duke warned the IoM Government

Yes, but that's almost twice as much as they cost about ten years ago, whilst disposable income is generally less. You see very few younger riders on new Fireblades, R1's, GSXR1000Rs, even 600s are prohibitive. If you really want the top of the line stuff, you can be spending near £50k. I think sportsbikes will eventually be sold as mainly trackday and racing models, with a few sold for road use and homologation purposes. I know a few people who never use their bikes on the road, just in the back of a van to trackdays, all over Europe too! I think we are missing a big trick here, not hav

I was on a chartered business flight from Rome with a boozy group of car dealers, I won't say which brand, when turbulence interrupted the duty free trolley. It never made its way to about three quarters of the delegates. I thought there was going to be a riot! I never understood the benefit of duty free, it seemed strange. You save a fiver or so on a bottle of whisky and 200 fags, then you lug it around the airport for two or three hours. I'd pay someone a fiver to carry it!

Where you had a tax free allowance.

There's a lot of factors, the four big Japanese factories commissioned a report into why sales to 16-24 year olds in Japan had dropped by 60% around ten years ago. They found that kids get their kicks from computer games, rather than spending on expensive bikes and riding gear, jumping through the learner hoops and risking their neck. Sales of sports bikes are dramatically down as prices obviously rise to justify the development of models selling in lower numbers. The prices are an obvious deterrent to younger riders too, as many other things are more important at that stage of life now.

At one time there was a ban on the importation of uncooked meat, except for the odd exception like New Zealand lamb. All fresh meat was supplied by the abattoir, and we had a busy tourism industry supplied by a myriad of local butchers. The importation of meat by supermarkets did for them both. There probably isn't enough business to support a large meat plant any more? We should be probably trying to expand our export market but meat in the UK is so much cheaper than local stuff.

I know this is an oldish video, but do we have any more attractions which would entice people to want to come here since it was made? To me it looks a miserable place, commemorating a miserable time in human history, apart from the vintage transport.

I think you were right, the cabling and pipework is still being done in bite size chunks anyway.

Now you're being silly, nobody has to rob anyone. Despite what people want to believe, the TT wipes its nose for IoMG and brings in an economic boost on top of that.

Our one ITU case has passed away unfortunately, quite a young chap too.

The demand for it to return is tremendous, better think of what sauce you'd like with it finlo

Spot on, but I'm still hopeful that being out of the EU will encourage us eventually to become more self reliant, particularly with regard to industry. I feel that we have allowed European industries to become strong in the belief that we can't compete, with detrimental consequences for British society. I really don't mind others settling here, but I would like them to have some loyalty to the place. I'm not a believer in multi culturism, but rather integration.