Ivan Lintin grabbed his debut TT victory on Friday when he took a record-breaking Bennetts Lightweight race from James Hillier by just under four seconds with Michael Rutter in third. The front two both smashed the old lap record, Hillier lapping at 120.848 compared to Lintin's 120.845 but it was the second win in a row in the class for the RC Express Racing team after Dean Harrison's win 12 months ago.

Hillier was again the quickest to Glen Helen, as he has been for most of the week, with Lintin 1.5s behind. Ryan Farquhar was only two tenths of a second adrift in third and his team-mate Johnston was almost exactly level with him. Dan Cooper and Michael Rutter were back in fifth and sixth respectively. One of the pre-race favourites, Jamie Hamilton, was outside the top ten though having been slow to leave the line.

By Ramsey, it was all change as Lintin went into the lead by 1.7s with Farquhar relegating Hillier to third. The Lincolnshire rider maintained his lead to the Grandstand and with an opening lap speed of 119.078mph that gave him a 2.1s advantage over Farquhar with Johnston and Hillier 1.4s further back in third and fourth. Rutter and Cowton rounded out the top six but Farquhar's hopes of victory were dashed when he was given a 30s penalty for speeding in pit lane. Gary Johnson was out of luck too having retired at the pits.

It was all change at Glen Helen though as Hamilton took the lead, the Northern Ireland rider not having pitted but the margin over Lintin was only three seconds. Hillier was only five seconds back with Johnston still well in touch in fourth. Michael Russell was up to fifth, another rider yet to pit, with Rutter still in sixth. Farquhar's penalty dropped him to ninth but he was soon out altogether at Cronk y Voddy.

By Ramsey, Lintin was in the lead outright again, by four seconds from Hamilton, with Hillier only half a second behind. Johnston, Russell and Rutter were still occupying fourth to sixth.

The RC Express Racing rider held the lead still as they started the final lap but Hillier had closed to within 3.9s as Johnston took over third. Hamilton dropped to fourth and made his pit stop as did sixth placed Russell, with Rutter's Paton still sandwiched between the pair.

The race was really on at the head of the field and at Glen Helen the gap was down again, Lintin's lead now only 3.2s. Johnston was out though at Ballacraine so that promoted Rutter up to third, Cowton fourth, Cooper fifth and Hamilton sixth. Russell was now holding onto seventh

Hillier was nibbling away at Lintin's lead and got it down to three seconds at Ballaugh but Lintin responded on the run to Ramsey and his advantage was almost five seconds as they started the final climb up the Mountain. It was down again at the Bungalow, this time to 3.8s so it all came down to the final few miles.

As they flashed across the line, Hillier claimed the lap record at 120.848mph but Lintin's speed was almost identical at 120.845mph and he took his first TT victory by 3.8s. Rutter took a brilliant third on the Paton with Cowton a good fourth whilst the battle for fifth went all the way to the end, eventually going the way of Hamilton over Cooper.

Russell took a good seventh with American Mark Miller having a great ride into eighth just ahead of Connor Behan and Danny Webb. Newcomer Derek McGee had an excellent finish in 11th.

Hudson Kennaugh was reported off at Braddan Oaks but was not injured.

The Institute of Advanced Motorists' (IAM) response to the news that there were 127 deaths on London's roads in 2014, 27 of which were motorcyclists, last year is as follows:

IAM's director of policy and research Neil Greig said: "Motorcycling is gaining in popularity in the capital where it offers an excellent solution to London's congestion problems, but it is worrying that deaths are on the increase. Drivers are clearly learning to look out for pedestrians and cyclists but the vulnerability of motorcyclists is often forgotten. As well as biker awareness campaigns for all road users the IAM would like to see easy access to extra training for those taking up urban commuting for the first time."

www.iam.org.uk

Kawasaki rider James Hillier is looking to claim the fastest speed ever recorded for a motorcycle on closed roads at the Isle of Man TT after registering over 206 mph on his Strava GPS app on the famous Sulby straight riding a Ninja H2R in a parade lap.

The Quattro Plant Kawasaki rider declared himself nervous but excited at the prospect of guiding the closed-course-only Ninja H2R around the 37 ¾ mile circuit complete with its integrated supercharger and 300+ horsepower.

With the TT organisers wisely allowing him his own time slot as part of an afternoon of parade laps, the 30-year-old Ringwood, Hants rider adjusted the on-board-camera-equipped bike to his needs using the unique adjustable side sections of the seat to locate him during intense acceleration. His crew for the TT event also adjusted the suspension to cope with the array of different road surfaces he would encounter across a lap of the World's most famous pure roads course.

Ushered to the TT start line, Hillier's crew removed the tyre warmers and the TT winner accelerated down Bray Hill in an unsilenced cacophony that impressed even the hardiest TT fan. And with instructions to enjoy himself aboard the exclusive machine, Hillier spent little time waving and the majority of his unique lap hard on the gas in what he termed as a once in a lifetime experience.

"That was insane, simply insane", a clearly shocked Hillier declared to Manx Radio as the tyre burnout smoke cleared in the TT winners enclosure at the conclusion of the lap. "The first four gears are just over in a flash and the acceleration is mental.

It was fast everywhere and over the mountain, well, it was simply incredible. I had my cycling app Strava switched on for the whole lap and down Sulby straight I gave it full gas in top gear and it topped out at over 206mph.Wow!"

The Ninja H2R along with invited Ninja and Ninja H2R owners makes an appearance next at the World of Kawasaki event at Rockingham Speedway on 28 June.

Lisa and Jason from Two Wheeled Nomad, inspired by their years of living on the road, have put together a list on what they believe makes you a proper ‘adventure-rider’! WARNING -  contains funny stuff...

You’re a real moto-traveller if:

• When you’ve ran out of toilet roll, it’s goodbye socks.
• The 80 mile tow back.
• Your reaction to cold showers is “Oooh, the water pressure’s good!”
• You’re always on the scrounge for plastic bags and get excited about those ones with strong handles. And Zip-lock bags are the future; they rock your world. (A wild criterion, we know)
• Sourcing a truck for your broken bike when marooned on the roadside just becomes a routine formality.
• Getting blown off the road in gusting winds, missing a wild animal racing across your path by a hair’s breadth at 50mph and negotiating 75 gravel hairpin bends in the space of eight hours, is just a normal day.
• You’ve experienced enough coffee, milk and boxed wine explosions inside your pannier so you’ll ride no distance without brown parcel tape or an equivalent.
• You’ve been towed bike-to-bike at least once.
• There’s no length to which you won’t go in order to smuggle your ‘five a day’ fruity lovelies across a country’s border.
• You’ve mastered the ‘Survival’ level in a foreign language; precisely enough to ask for what you need but not enough to understand the response.
• Keeping schtum, playing dumb or even ‘not quite there’ in front of a fake cop has become the norm to prevent these time-stealers hindering your riding day.
• Like in the film Avatar, you fuse naturally with your motorcycle like a mythical Greek creature; half man, half moto.
• You love your wheels like a person, sometimes more than your peachy partner.
• When your ‘marvellous other’ informs you that your moto-trousers reek of ‘crotch’, you casually dismiss it but wonder why that just doesn’t bother you.
• Rocking up to a civilised establishment like a cafe, with a face smeared in dirt doesn’t compel you to seek soap and water first. You place your food order with the ‘afternoon shadow’ and then locate the toilets.
• You are convinced that you’re the cat with 99 lives having been saved from yourself by your moto-angel more times that you’ve had hot dinners.
• When your instinctive reaction to crashing is, ‘Bloody hell, I hope my bike’s okay and still rideable’ before checking for personal injuries.
• Outrageous flirting has become a highly entertaining pastime, even if it means you’re only saving a resultant $3 USD off your room.
• You’re (as a woman) prepared to display all levels of feminine charms—like wildly waving your hair around and over-the-top giggling—knowing they’ll often work wonders as distraction techniques with male traffic police insistent on seeing your full complement of papers.
• You can summon real tears in erupting a mini thunder storm on your face so as to rapidly retrieve your parcel of moto-parts from the clerk in foreign customs.
• You’d rather sleep rough next to your motorcycle than take a comfy bed and leave your wheels unsupervised on the street.   
• Better still, you’d rather park your wheels in your room for the night.
• Flashing your blindingly white backside while crouched near a busy motorway is something you’ve become increasingly comfortable with when nature calls.
• You’ve dined on pasta with jam or rice coated in mustard at least twice.
• You consider home as anywhere you kick the side-stand down.

The 80 mile tow back!

 See the full article on their website, with lots of great photographs and sign up for regular newsletters.

Ben and Tom Birchall took their second win of the 2015 Isle of Man TT Races, fuelled by Monster Energy, when they took a record breaking victory in Wednesday afternoon's Sure Sidecar race 2. Winning in a new race record time, they defeated Dave Molyneux/Ben Binns by seven seconds with John Holden/Dan Sayle coming home in third. Molyneux and Binns had the consolation of claiming a new lap record with a final lap speed of 116.785.

The Birchalls grabbed the lead from the outset, leading Holden/Sayle by two seconds at Glen Helen with Molyneux/Binns a further two seconds back. Tim Reeves/Patrick Farrance were only 1.5s behind in fourth as Conrad Harrison/Mike Aylott and Ian and Carl Bell completed the top six.

With glorious conditions all round the Mountain Course, the Birchalls lead was up to 2.5s at Ramsey with the top three still the same but Reeves/Farrance were reported as having retired at Glen Auldyn on the approach to the northern town.

An opening lap of 115.549mph gave the Birchalls a 3.4s lead of Molyneux/Binns with Holden/Sayle still in third. Reeves' retirement promoted Harrison/Aylott up to fourth with the Bells now fifth and Gary Bryan/Jamie Winn. However, the latter pulled in to the pits to retire with Winn having lost his visor over the Mountain.

It was clear the race was going to be a record-breaking one with all three leading crews setting 116mph laps second time around, the Birchalls only two seconds outside Crowe's 2007 lap record. Their lead now stood at 7.6s with Holden only 3.7s adrift in third. Harrison and Bell remained in fourth and fifth as Matt Dix/Shaun parker moved up to sixth.

The Birchalls and Molyneux practically matched each other the whole way round the lap, the gap between the two hovering around the seven second mark and as they came along Glencrutchery Road for the final time, it was the Birchalls who got it, their third TT win in total, by seven seconds also breaking their two day old race record.

They broke Crowe's lap record with a speed of 116.783 but Molyneux was a fraction quicker at 116.785 and reclaimed the record he'd last held in 2006. Holden/Sayle came home in third for their second podium of the week.

Harrison/Aylott and the Bells had relatively lonely drives into fourth and fifth respectively as Dix/Parker secured their best ever TT position in sixth also posting their best ever 110mph lap.

Wayne Lockey/Mark Sayers, Steve Ramsden/Matty Ramsden, Rob Handcock/Aki Alto and Tony Baker/Fiona Baker-Milligan completed the top ten.