MCN rides with Doohan and Hayden at TT!

GP gods Mick Doohan, Nicky Hayden and Cal Crutchlow have just completed their parade lap of the TT circuit – and MCN Senior Road Tester Michael Neeves was right with them riding alongside. This is what he’s had to say:

“I’ve just finished riding Guy Martin’s Relentless by Tas Suzuki GSX-R1000 superstock bike around the closed TT course, with Cal Crutchlow, Mick Doohan, Nicky Hayden, Josh Brookes and Ian Hutchinson. Now there’s a paragraph!

“The pace was pretty rapid, given the patchy conditions. We all stayed behind the travelling marshal for a while, before Brookes, Hutchy and Crutchlow got bored and buggered off. I wanted to savour the experience of riding with Doohan and Hayden, so stayed with them.

“It was surreal, I looked down and I was on Guy’s bike, looked up and there was Doohan, and around and I was on the TT course.  For a while I was following Hutchy’s lines and got the best ever TT tour guide in the world.

“It’s weird, with the roads closed you forget it’s a road course, ignore the white centre line and ride it like a track – it’s like a Playstation game. Guy’s bike is fast, smooth, beautiful steering and plush. It still had the flies on it from Monday’s podium.

“I could go on, but I’m going to save it for next week’s MCN feature. All I can say is the racers are a special breed and having ridden on their bikes on their track, I have even more respect than I did before.”

See Neevesy’s full report in next week’s Motorcycle News