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Where in the UK or even Europe offers the best biking event???

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Hmm... top level racing is brilliant, but even at the natural ampitheatre of Brands WSB, and even with the incredible atmosphere of the event, I can see infinitely more on the telly than I ever did sitting in the crowd. And the only way you could ever guarantee to be in a position to see anything at all was to rock up at about 6am on Sunday morning and be waiting when they opened the bike parking. Or to camp. And then you were stuck in a two foot square patch of grass at Clearways in a sea of people all day. Donington was always a shitehole, and has never got any better for spectators, only worse.

So anything that is better on the telly than in the flesh, really can't be 'the best biking event in Europe', I reckon.

I'll not dignify the NEC show by discussing it, but really, nothing that happens in a carpetted exhibition hall anywhere in Europe can be considered.

The TT has a claim, but the actual racing content is rubbish as a spectator, much better on video, and you can listen to the event live on the internet - you have 37 miles of course and you can see a hundred yards of it if you are lucky. You can ride the course, of course, but that's actually better done when the TT isn't happening, and the mountain course isn't covered in talentless suicidal fuckwits. Although if they carry on making the mountain one way for the whole of race week, maybe it will be worth reconsidering that brashly dismissive assessment...

I'll slip in a brief mention for the Northwest 200 here... never been but will try to get there before I die to check it out...

I never went to the 'old' Bol, but I gather that that was something very special. On the other hand, I'm 40 now not 20, and the joys of 48 hours without sleep, fuelled by biblical quantities of miscellaneous alchoholic liquids, and then sleeping where I fall in a puddle of my own vomit, followed by riding 600 miles with a lethal hangover have faded slightly these days :-). And again, racing is better on the telly. Endurance racing in particular is not a spectator sport. Which is presumably why the camp-sites are the way they are. But in any case, that was the 'old' Bol D'or, and the new one isn't as good, so they say.

The Nurburgring is a place, not an event as such.

Wildcard: Faro Rally?

On the face of it, it has nothing to offer that you can't find in a muddy field in Yorkshire most weekends. Lots of rotund leather clad gentlemen with beards and chopped mat-black XS1100 hardtails sitting round in the pissing rain drinking vast quantities of beer with lumps in, and only the occasional lady on a chopped pink XS650 hardtail just to add variety.

However, firstly that's dreadful stereotyping of your average UK rally goer , and secondly there are numerous important differences.

1. Scale. The Faro Rally has close to a hundred thousand people turn up from all across Europe. Scale means they can afford to hire proper bands for the entertainment - this year the headline was Joe Cocker, last year it was Deep Purple, on a giant stage with big screens around it.

2. Location, location, location. Faro, on the Algarve. It's a rally in paradise. Miles of beautiful golden beach and warm clear blue sea 2 minutes away on Faro Island, an airport next to the rally site so your nearest and dearest can fly in to join you without having to ride pillion on an R6 for 2,000 miles across Europe. Stunning weather. Ultra-cheap food, beer and everything else.

3. Plenty of nocturnal two-wheeled madness on Faro island, featuring all kinds of riders on all kinds of bikes. Supermoto stunting, quad bike stunting, minimoto stunting, you name it, it happens. Loud, mad, dangerous, insane.

4. Thousands of miles of empty roads, including some of the best twisties in Europe.

5. Getting there is fun and an adventure if you plan your route right.

6. Mellow atmosphere.

So that's my nomination. http://www.motoclubefaro.pt

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Ken Haylock
http://www.cix.co.uk/~kwh

"Ride what you like, how you like, as often as you like; but always take responsibilty for your actions." - Anonymous Zen Guru

"Obviously all I'll care about is if it's good for wheelies (i.e. fluffs up my meagre skills), and what free gift they give on the launch." - Anonymous Moto-Journalism Guru

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The TT has a claim, but the actual racing content is rubbish as a spectator, much better on video, and you can listen to the event live on the internet - you have 37 miles of course and you can see a hundred yards of it if you are lucky.[/url]

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The TT has a claim, but the actual racing content is rubbish as a spectator, much better on video, and you can listen to the event live on the internet - you have 37 miles of course and you can see a hundred yards of it if you are lucky.[/url]

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Fuck off Ken! If that 100 yards is the bottom of Bray Hill, or one of the other proper fast bits, it'll take you a day to pick your jaw off the floor after watching the superbikes go through it!

Especially when you trundle through it the next morning on your XS1100 chop(!) This year, more than ever, I couldn't believe they were racing bikes on those roads - they were too bumpy to ride at the speed limit on a CBF600 never mind at 190mph on an HRC Fireblade.

If you've never been to the TT, I reckon it's well worth a visit. Very special place, with loads of heritage and 'ting too. See it before they ban it!

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I have been. Everything you say is true. I've watched in awe at Barregarow several times... see here a couple of wee films I made last time I was there...

http://www.livevideo.com/video/D07609DA66EA42D8875EA2023AD8D253/tt-ambience-1999.aspx

http://www.livevideo.com/video/7124C5F3B3D14284B72E953F0F82D222/tt-clip-1999.aspx

But the fact remains that the course is better to ride when the TT isn't actually happening. During TT week it's full of psycopathic Germans with no sense of self preservation and on the wrong side of the road!

And yes, you are right, watching Joey Dunlop leading through Ramsey in the rain on his last ever 250 win the year he lost his finger was special, watching the bikes hammering down from Kate's and then trying to get stopped for the Creg is awesome, etc etc. But in the flesh you can only be in one place at a time, you only get the rest on the radio. On telly (or video) you get to see the whole course, and a load of on-bike stuff. Which is why I reckon that watching the racing is better on telly than in the flesh. And riding the TT course is best done before or after the TT, not during. So the TT can't be 'Europe's best biking event', on that basis.

I'm not dissing it, I think everybody should go at least once, if only for the unique atmosphere. But once you've endured the Steam Racket a couple of times, paid through the arse for mediocre accomodation and soaked up as much of the 'ambience' as you possibly can, you pretty soon realise that for everything except the ambience, and possibly the Purple Helmets, you are better off staying home, listening on the internet and buying the Duke long review a month or so later.

Also, if you must have the real thing, a couple of friends of mine gave up on the TT and switched instead to going over for the Manx GP. The racing is almost as awesome, but the roads aren't full of Germans playing Deathrace 2000 and both the Steam Racket, & the decent hotels, have space...

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Ken Haylock
http://www.cix.co.uk/~kwh

"Ride what you like, how you like, as often as you like; but always take responsibilty for your actions." - Anonymous Zen Guru

"Obviously all I'll care about is if it's good for wheelies (i.e. fluffs up my meagre skills), and what free gift they give on the launch." - Anonymous Moto-Journalism Guru

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