Cubby
You got me thinking about the times I did the Manx. I went looking for my competitors badge, I found it, but the dangly bits with the years are missing - Bloody Kids! I think it was around 79 through 83
First time was with Jeff Meehan in the chair, I was still married to number one wife, I was on a 350 Bulto, in between crashing and fixing Jeff's injuries we spent a lot of time p***ing ourselves laughing, we got completely p****d on Saturday night and rode a lot better on Sunday, we looped the outfit on the steps and nearly caused a major accident, I had to bandage Jeffs hands on Sunday morning and threaten him with nasties to get in the chair, we got tottally p****d again on Sunday night and ended up having naked tricycle races up and down Douglas prom outside the hotel!
I did one year with my brother Neil in the chair. We had a great time and turned in some pretty good rides. As on previous trips we got p****d again on the Sat night with Neil getting to know the landlords daughter in the biblical sense later on! He rode a lot better on Sunday also!!. One memorable section was in a quarry on the mountain where a vertical drop off near the end of a section was catching a lot of crews out. So we reasoned that we needed to drive off the edge to clear the section, well I don't know whether it was the beer or Neils sudden surge of hormones as we got through the first part of the section and climbed onto the small plateau before 'the drop' Neil suggested that we take our theory a bit further and try to jump through the end cards, sounded good to me so I clicked the trusty Bulto up a gear and launched. Well, in the development time of this theory we had forgotten the tendency of the chair to want to rotate around the bike and we consequently went through the ends cards upside down and landing like a ton of bricks! The first understandable words from either of us was 'CLEAN??'!!!!
I wish I could afford to get back there for the 50th next year - I will have to keep buying lottery tickets and hope!
BobM
