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Dunlop finally announces some plans!

Theo said:
I hope you don't mind me adding this https://www.newsletter.co.uk/sport/motorcycling/john-mcguinness-norton-tt-deal-has-given-me-new-lease-of-life-1-8368888
TBH I was hoping he'd retire especially after the comments in the article, they make me very jumpy and I like John a lot he's amazing.
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No problem, I kind of agree too. 2015 would have been the perfect time for him to retire, he'd been well off the pace all week at the TT and then he turned it on for the Senior and walloped them, if he'd called it a day then he'd have gone out as the fastest rider ever around there.

It's funny how quite a lot of people just associate John with the TT yet after reading his book you realize just how much experience that man has, not only was he a regular frontrunner in the British championships he was a champion in 1999, he twice finished in the points as a wildcard in 500cc Grand Prix beating guys like Alex Barros and Garry McCoy, he won AMA races at Daytona as well as big wins at the NW200, Ulster GP, Scarborough and Macau. He fast on everything whether it was a 500 two stroke, a v-twin Ducati or a straight 4 Fireblade, incredible rider and much like his old friend David Jefferies it's a shame we never saw him get a proper factory bike in the British championships.

I think he still has the ability to win at the TT but when you've got Dunlop and Hutchinson blasting 133mph laps from a standing start as well as rising stars like Brookes, Kneen, Hillier, Hickman and Harrison it's probably as hard to win there now as it was when John was on the up at the TT back in the late 90's when along with the roads boys like Joey and Phillip McCallen you had proper British championship quality riders like Simpson, Moodie, DJ and Rutter who was even scoring points in 500 GP's back then.

As long as he's on the Norton I just can't see it happening, a BMW perhaps but as fast as the Norton is, it's some way off the BMW's and if Michael stops teasing us and reveals he's using the GSXR again then I expect that to be even more developed and even quicker because that was an absolute weapon in last years Senior. John will do well to beat Brookes I think.

Wow long post
 
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I like Brookes, not seen him IRL yet, but hope to this year. Agree about David Jefferies and the thing was they were so down to earth.
I got John's book last week and have yet to read it, but will on my next holiday.
 
Theo said:
I like Brookes, not seen him IRL yet, but hope to this year. Agree about David Jefferies and the thing was they were so down to earth.
I got John's book last week and have yet to read it, but will on my next holiday.
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It's a great book. DJ was one of my biggest heroes growing up, he was a proper biker as well where most racers never ride road bikes. I remember reading about him when he did a few rounds of the 500cc championship in 1993 riding an unsponsored Yamaha, a couple of the American and Australian lads would have problems with their motorhomes and he'd be straight underneath them with spanners, he'd do anything for anyone, in 2002 after he won a hat trick of TT's riding a Suzuki he was given one as a gift, he gave it to a good friend of his who was just coming out of the club racing scene and into the British championships and that friend was Ian Hutchinson.
 
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AntG said:
It's a great book. DJ was one of my biggest heroes growing up, he was a proper biker as well where most racers never ride road bikes. I remember reading about him when he did a few rounds of the 500cc championship in 1993 riding an unsponsored Yamaha, a couple of the American and Australian lads would have problems with their motorhomes and he'd be straight underneath them with spanners, he'd do anything for anyone, in 2002 after he won a hat trick of TT's riding a Suzuki he was given one as a gift, he gave it to a good friend of his who was just coming out of the club racing scene and into the British championships and that friend was Ian Hutchinson.
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Have you read Road Racers by Stephen Davison? That's a very good book and there's some great pictures in it. BTW if you do buy it get the hardback edition.
 
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Theo said:
Have you read Road Racers by Stephen Davison? That's a very good book and there's some great pictures in it. BTW if you do buy it get the hardback edition.
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No not read it, I got the Guy Martin one for Christmas, which is a compilation of Davisons photos of Guy from 2002.
 
Theo said:
I am guessing thats the biography, or am I wrong?
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It's basically a photo book with Davisons pictures from Guys first road race until his most recent, very little words in it, still some fantastic photos though.
 
AntG said:
It's basically a photo book with Davisons pictures from Guys first road race until his most recent, very little words in it, still some fantastic photos though.
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Sounds very nice will have to have a look. :thumbs:
 
So that's two plans of Michaels revealed, last night he posted a picture on twitter of his CBR600 alongside a BMW superstock bike, just the superbike to reveal now, the consensus seems to be he'll be on a Tyco BMW.

If this fella goes through women like he goes through manufacturers he needs testing:D
 
Just seen this on Facebook

28280042_1617577184945990_5594020714113598786_n.jpg


Suzuki superbike, BMW superstock and Honda supersport, interesting mix of machinery, he'll probably run a Kawasaki supertwin again too.
 
Was a bit of a kick off on social media on Friday after Hutchy posted a tweet(now deleted) which wound up a load of Dunlop fans, basically something to do with Michael doing most of his winning while Hutchy was injured. The fans responded quite strongly basically calling Hutchy a ...., a cheat and mocking his ability to stay on a bike.

I've followed the TT for 25 years and I've never seen such a nasty rivalry between a pair of riders in that time, it's becoming a little bit silly now. Michael doesn't always help things as he still brings up the illegal pistons issue from 2016 when he can.
 
AntG said:
Was a bit of a kick off on social media on Friday after Hutchy posted a tweet(now deleted) which wound up a load of Dunlop fans, basically something to do with Michael doing most of his winning while Hutchy was injured. The fans responded quite strongly basically calling Hutchy a ...., a cheat and mocking his ability to stay on a bike.

I've followed the TT for 25 years and I've never seen such a nasty rivalry between a pair of riders in that time, it's becoming a little bit silly now. Michael doesn't always help things as he still brings up the illegal pistons issue from 2016 when he can.
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Hutchinson can be very mouthy when the feeling takes him, some of his comments after breaking his leg and feeling sorry for himself, but he is an accomplished rider.
I don't really know anything about Michael though, but his uncle Joey, now there was a racer.
 
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Theo said:
Hutchinson can be very mouthy when the feeling takes him, some of his comments after breaking his leg and feeling sorry for himself, but he is an accomplished rider.
I don't really know anything about Michael though, but his uncle Joey, now there was a racer.
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It all kind of started in 2016 when Hutchy was fastest in practice on the factory Tyco BMW ahead of Michael on the Buildbase version, then when Michael won both the Superbike/Senior races Hutchy started whinging that Michael was getting help from BMW which he wasn't, then in the first supersport after Michael was disqualified for illegal cams, Michael held his hands up and accepted his machine was against the rules, the fella who supplied and built the engine for him did likewise. Then after the second supersport race a scrutineer pointed out that the pistons in Hutchy's Yamaha were oversized, there was a bit of too-ing and fro-ing and in the end Hutchy's first place remained which pissed Michael off because he'd just lost a second place finish for an illegal component.
 
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AntG said:
It all kind of started in 2016 when Hutchy was fastest in practice on the factory Tyco BMW ahead of Michael on the Buildbase version, then when Michael won both the Superbike/Senior races Hutchy started whinging that Michael was getting help from BMW which he wasn't, then in the first supersport after Michael was disqualified for illegal cams, Michael held his hands up and accepted his machine was against the rules, the fella who supplied and built the engine for him did likewise. Then after the second supersport race a scrutineer pointed out that the pistons in Hutchy's Yamaha were oversized, there was a bit of too-ing and fro-ing and in the end Hutchy's first place remained which pissed Michael off because he'd just lost a second place finish for an illegal component.
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Hmm well .... happens and neither of them build engines so how were they to know.
 
Theo said:
Hmm well .... happens and neither of them build engines so how were they to know.
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MD works on his own engines, he blew two engines in practice and bought one from another team and just stuck it in not knowing about the offending component, in fact in his book he admitted if he'd given the engine a good going over before fitting it he'd have spotted the issue straight away but just holds his hand up over it.

He also wrote in his book regarding Hutchy's bike and this is a direct quote -

"I was accused of reporting Ian's bike to the scrutineers because it had overlong pistons, a clear infringement and, unlike mine, likely to give a performance boost. Here's the thing: I saw his bike and it was true. I don't care what anybody says - you can bring any lawyer to our house. I've been building Yamaha R6 engines since I was seventeen. I'm not saying I'm the best engine builder in the world or the best engine tuner, but I know what an engine looks like- they were supposed to be standard pistons and these weren't standard pistons."
 
Lol does he never knew that either and I've not read his books, got far to many really, my wife goes spare with me and my bike books, got 4 book cases full of bike related books, my 1st one was a bike my dad owned in 1948, its the BSA M20 Maintenance Manual, from 1937 lol.
 
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Theo said:
Lol does he never knew that either and I've not read his books, got far to many really, my wife goes spare with me and my bike books, got 4 book cases full of bike related books, my 1st one was a bike my dad owned in 1948, its the BSA M20 Maintenance Manual, from 1937 lol.
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Michaels is a good read if you can put up with the macho "and I thought 'right you prick' as I smashed him with 10 punches" bollocks

McGuinness's is a must read though.
 
AntG said:
Michaels is a good read if you can put up with the macho "and I thought 'right you prick' as I smashed him with 10 punches" bollocks



McGuinness's is a must read though.
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Jim Whitham’s book is a good read too, very funny as you’d imagine with his sense of humour.
Wayne Rainey’s is brilliant and incredibly sad how his career ended so abruptly.
Casey Stoner’s is great, it covers the slog and hardship he went through coming over to the uk to progress his career.
Guy Martin’s was enjoyable too, I’ve got his second one “worms to catch” ready on the shelf.
Away from bikes, Ozzy Osbourne’s books are hilarious as is Motley Crue’s.
I’ll go and get MD and J McG’s books to take on holiday
Cheers Ant.
 

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