When regs were loose (and bikes were junk) all sorts of unlikely tackle turned up on The Island – and raced, and sometimes even finished
Only a loony would line up on a MotoGP or WSB grid with a bike that’s too heavy, doesn’t handle, hasn’t been tweaked for track use, and is frankly terrifying to hustle through most sections of the track. And yet, back in the 1970s/80s, road racing hopefuls made a beeline for the Isle of Man each summer to take on the world’s most demanding circuit aboard production bikes that were all of the above and often much worse.
Said madness is hard to fathom when you watch modern proddie bikes lap the island at almost the same pace as full-blown superbikes. Production bikes have come an awful long way in recent years; back in 1907 when the TT was first run, the event was as much about getting to the finish as it was about achieving a result, and those early races were aimed specifically at bikes anyone could buy and use on the road.
The proddie class was dropped for a few years after the TT lost its world championship status in ’76, although production-based machinery continued to feature in races like the Classic TT, only to return en masse in 1984 when road-going entries were spread across three classes: 100-250cc, 251-750cc and 751-1500cc.
Sportsbikes were only just becoming a thing at that time, so many of the machines in the larger capacity proddie class were, at best, ill-equipped to cope with the demands of such a punishing circuit. At worst they were terrifying to ride at race pace, hard to stop, and downright dangerous around certain parts of the course.
To make matters worse, ’80s proddie rules didn’t allow the fitting of race tyres ,or indeed anything stickier that what came on your average sports tourer– off the shelf road rubber was the norm.Suspension or braking upgrades were minimal too; thicker fork oil, braided lines and different pads were about far as you could deviate from stock. Indeed, the bikes tearing off down Glencrutchery Road were effectively straight off the showroom floor and as a result their riders were thrown right in at the deep end the moment the flag dropped.
1984 had one saving grace – the then new GPz900R. K
