# The North-West 200 Motorbike Road Races - heard of them? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 13, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-north-west-200-motorbike-road-races-heard-of-them/539360 "2010-05-13T23:29:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-north-west-200-motorbike-road-races-heard-of-them/539360/1 "2010-05-13T23:29:44Z")
They’re being run at the moment, for a couple of days every year the roads around here are closed so a large group of nutters can race bikes at very _very_ high speed around them. [http://www.northwest200.org/](http://www.northwest200.org/) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/bibjoepk8DQ/hqdefault.jpg "NW200 Road Race OnBoard Suzuki GSXR1000 with Telemetry 200MPH Street Race HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bibjoepk8DQ) [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLgtK_a8afs) Those clips are onboard laps of the 9 mile circuit, as someone who uses those roads every day I can appreciate just how fast the riders are going, a rider was clocked at 205 mph through the speed-trap on the main straight a couple of years ago. As this is a mostly America-based message board I was wondering if the people here had heard of it, its kind of a throwback to an earlier era of motorsport and I’m kind of glad that in the super safety-concious 21st century such an activity is still even allowed. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-north-west-200-motorbike-road-races-heard-of-them/539360/2 "2010-05-15T01:06:04Z")
I’ve never heard of that race but have heard of the motorcycle races from the Isle of Man. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-north-west-200-motorbike-road-races-heard-of-them/539360/3 "2010-05-15T20:33:11Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > I’ve never heard of that race but have heard of the motorcycle races from the Isle of Man. Well I suppose the main difference is that on the Isle of Man the riders are sent out singly while at the NW200 they race in packs. Spectator fell down a cliff at todays event but no problems on-track. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-north-west-200-motorbike-road-races-heard-of-them/539360/4 "2010-05-16T22:09:26Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > Spectator fell down a cliff at todays event but no problems on-track. Dad went up for the day, as a biker himself he thought it ironic that the only person hurting themselves badly on the day being so far off track. I went with him a few years back. We were in the town IIRC, beside a bridge of some sort. From what I remember we were at a corner and had a great view of the bikes braking hard and then accelerating back off again. I seem to remember too from when I was younger, Dad driving us through the area on the way to relatives in Ballycastle and seeing bales of hay strapped to road signs and the like in the days leading up to the event. Am I remembering correctly?