“It all went grey …” but British racer and lorry mechanic Guy Martin kept going to smash the Wall of Death record last evening on live television. Pulling more than 5 Gs, Martin first broke the record on a modified Indian Scout before going even faster on his home-built BSA Rocket 3. Watch the videos below to see just how risky this stunt really was, and to get an insight into the thinking of a racer who has stood on the Isle of Man podium 15 times.
See more of MD’s great photography:
Search Guy Martin Triumph Land speed record attempt. The lad is attempting to break 370+mph at Bonneville. Proper Bloke as they say ‘up north’
I always pay special attention to the eyes and expressions of motorcycle recers, maybe it’s just me but I notice that certain racers have a special look in their eyes, a look of excitement and a little bit of craziness. Look at Guy Martin, Troy Baylis, Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner, even Marc Marquez has the same look. All great racers. Yes Pedrosa and Lorenzo are great racers too, but don’t have the same “crazy” look in their eyes.
If you haven’t seen it, find yourself a copy of Closer To The Edge. It’s a fantastic documentary on the Isle of Mann TT in 2010 and features Guy Martin fairly prominently. It also has captions so you can easily understand what he is saying. It also features Ian Hutchinson who won all five TT races in 2010, the first time anyone accomplished such a feat. One of the best motorcycle racing documentaries ever filmed.
YouTube video is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXwyhMunrXY
Please Note: YouTube video does not have captions. Only the DVD versions have them. I forgot to note that in my original post. The documentary is still fantastic though on YouTube.
Guy Martin is my Yoda.
I can understand him. I had to try to learn Dutch and now French. Anything close to English and I’m all ears buddy.
Actually I’m just impressed by the fact that he can still walk.
When I was about 18 (and fearless) I took my XL250 onto a nearly completed bicycle velodrome. I could get up to just over 50 mph before my dual sport tires started to squirm. So I just left it at that point and went round and round and round. Kind of a blast as I remember.
Without a pressure suit, 4-6g’s is the range that will cause visual impairment and blackout after a few seconds.
He said that he greyed out on the first 70mph run, when his vision came back he quickly found the red line….. so he did it again and hit 78 on the next run.
Hell I do not understand him and I am English
LOL! 😎🇬🇧🍻🇺🇸😎
Guy’s speaking voice reminds me of Batt. Chief Sullivan, retired SFFD. Decades ago B/Cs had to physically visit each firehouse at least once per day, to pick up fire reports hand typed with something called “carbon paper.” (Have you ever had to fix typing errors made w/carbon paper on a typewriter?)
Some of you have heard Brogue accents, but I can pretty well guarantee you never heard one w/the intensity of our beloved B/C Sullivan. The watch man rings the bell, alerting all hands “Chief in the house.” Everyone not in the “Comm Room” quickly assembles there to hear whatever the Chief has to say.
Dear Chief Sullivan talks, and all you can do is chuckle at the (hopefully) correct times, mumble a few, “Yup,” and that’s about it. He leaves in a cloud of dust, and no one even asks what he said, because unless you got a guy in the crew who came from his County in Ireland, you’ll never know…
If you’re out there, here’s to you, Chief!
78.1mph on a 39m diameter circle is actually 6.67g (v^2/r; v = 78.1mph = 35.7m/s; r = 39m/2 = 19.5m; 1g = 9.8m/s^2).
Of course, that’s the g force on the contact patch. Pretending that his “body” is 1m in from the wall, r = 18.5m, and so his core is pulling 7.03g and his head (r=18m) probably 7.22g.
I assume they did something to the suspension (solid mount/no suspension?), and had extra strong bars as well, because he probably had a good 200 pounds of force on each hand.
Since the head is closer to the center of the circle, it would experience less acceleration, not more.
I think the equation is right, but Tyg forgot to take into account that his head isn’t traveling as fast as the contact patch. If Guy Martin were 18 meters tall (his head near the center of the circle), Guy’s head would be at a near stand still.
It’s too late at night for me to figure out the speed difference between the contact patch and Guy’s head, but it should affect Tyg’s G-force calculation, and possibly wherever they installed the G-force meter.
Yes, he is using the motorcycle’s speed for the head’s speed (I assume) in his formula.
“78.1mph on a 39m diameter circle is actually 6.67g (v^2/r; v = 78.1mph = 35.7m/s; r = 39m/2 = 19.5m; 1g = 9.8m/s^2).
Of course, that’s the g force on the contact patch. Pretending that his “body” is 1m in from the wall, r = 18.5m, and so his core is pulling 7.03g and his head (r=18m) probably 7.22g.”
Tyg = Rocket Scientist (I mean that in a good way).
Thanks for reminding me of the great depths of my ignorance, gentlemen!
Did he think of getting some training with jet-fighter pilots? Presuming he knew that he’d be pulling some really high G’s, I feel that getting some good high-G training along with the “normal” wall training could have benefitted him, especially to combat that whole blacking-out problem!! Maybe he did get that training, but I haven’t seen/heard any mention of it.
There is another article/interview in which he talks about having trained with fighter pilots so he would know what grey-ing out felt like. Its hilarious and worth reading, I cannot wait until this show airs.
I dig his adventurous ballsy style.
It seems like he’s an easy, colorful interview. I wish I could understand more than half of it.
There is a famous quote attributed to George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill or Oscar Wilde depending upon the source you use that says: England and America are two countries separated by a common language.
Open primary ~ Check
No chain guard ~ Check
One wild and crazy Brit for sure.
Love the mechanical sound of that old British Triple
Cool stuff.
Man, what a trip! Years ago I went to one of those fighter pilot schools, where you get to do some serious aerobatic moves in an old-school T-34, enough to grey out (which I did on one occasion), and I’ve also raced on the high banks of Daytona…
But I can’t imagine combining the two! That is freaky, 5 G’s on a bike, damn.
Guy Martin must have some of the biggest balls on the planet. I guess the IOM TT just isn’t extreme enough for him. But he seems so incredibly humble and down to earth, if you met him in a bar you would think he was just an average joe. If you could understand him. LOL!
The cut-outs on the side of the gas tank are NOT for his knees…
Bahaha!!
Bahaha!!! You slay me Dino.
Hands down my favorite rider…. I do wish I could understand more than half of what he says though. Crazy, Committed and clearly enjoying it.
“I do wish I could understand more than half of what he says though” +1+1+1+1 🙂
What you need is a few weeks in the company of Geordies, and then Guys accent is easy. 🙂 His speed series over here was very interesting as he took on each challenge – not always succeeding. But he takes it on the chin; he hasn’t got a death wish.
http://www.geordie.org.uk/
The amazement never stops with this guy.
It doesn’t matter that we only understand half of what he says, you just have to love Guy for the crazy nutter he is.
LOL