We were asked to book in 3 hours before sailing so that would have been 5.45AM, we were up at 5 , broke camp and made it into Douglas for just after 6, we were told to come back at 7.30 as they were in a bit of chaos loading an earlier boat! The usual ridiculous boarding melee and then they use an old rope to tie 3 bikes together , the inner one tied to a railing! The boat was so busy that I reckon 25% of people on board had no seat for the 4 hour journey, disembarking was a nightmare, especially when a serious dickhead on a GS BMW decided to drive off while still attached to my Norton, at this point I couldn't get near it as all the bikes were packed like sardines, I saw it go sideways then on its side and get dragged along the deck!! I'm not sure what happened next but I managed to get over the barrier and grab the guy who I thought was responsible, I stopped short of assaulting him as my bike was still on the deck and none of the fellow motorcyclists were looking like picking it up, I ran back to pick the bike up while Fiona took over my role of trying to stop the guy from leaving, the crew at this point seemed to melt away, nobody either crew or fellow "motorcylists" tried to help (except our group of course)
Bottom line the middle aged guy on the BMW said it wasnt his fault despite Fi pointing to the rope still attached to his bike, in the melee he rode off. The Steam Racket company then filled in a form and took photos and told me I'd have to pursue a claim via my insurer, as the cause of this Norton assault had dissapeared they said they weren't resposible, tempers were frayed (understandably) but at the end of the day the damage seems to be limited to a indicator, headlight bracket, mirror, a bent footrest and then just a while later the centre stand snapped I suspect because of the violent knock it took, so I guess I'll fix it myself at my cost.
I do hope Mr GS man gets home to find his wife being rodgered by a Somali refugee with AIDS, then in the morning he loses his job.
How anybody who purports to be a motorcyclist could just dissapear after having being responsible for this I really don't know, it proves my theory that motorcyclists are a dissapearing breed, complete Dickheads with bikes though seem to be on the increase, hopefully at some point in the future I'll meet him again, then we can discuss the finer points of having basic decency and taking responsibility for your actions.
The "Works Norton" being worked on
The Norton at Ballaugh
John McGuiness's electric bike (made by a subsidiary of Honda)
I managed to get a shot of this Hairdrier with its clothes off!
Apologies for the rant, hope you enjoy the photos, more to come when I get some time!
Oh man! Picturing one of your beautiful Nortons being dragged along a boat deck. And then to have the culprit make it 'hit and run'! I suppose the damages could have been worse, but will still be costly enough. Great pics of the TT. Someday I'd like to get over to see the TT live.
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