There are special bikes, and then there are special bikes. That's extra true in racing, and it's even more true if you have a family connection to the bike you're about to race. Friends, that's exactly why it's so cool to see the living legend known as Peter Hickman take the Wiz Norton Team's Rotary Norton out to race on track at the TT Classic Superbike Race at Assen.
Not every person who finds themselves in the paddock of any given form of motorsport is doing it because they're part of a racing family, but there are a lot of family connections in most (if not all) types of racing. In Hicky's case, his dad worked on the rotary Norton back when it was first being developed, so it's an extra special treat for him to finally get to ride the thing in anger. He'll be taking it out at the Isle of Man's Classic TT later this year, but getting acquainted with it at Assen ahead of time seemed like a great idea.
Lucky us, he decided to take this opportunity to make a vlog series about it. Is this the closest that most of us will ever get to riding this bike for ourselves, especially in the next episode after this (where it's onboard footage from the race)? I mean, probably.
In the first episode, we find out that Hicky never puts his motorcycle helmets in checked bags when he's going on planes (me neither; always a carry-on), and we also get a bit of insight into the way this engine is cooled. It's internally air-cooled with an intricate ducting system, and it's externally liquid-cooled. So the key, as we learn in this video, is to keep going fast to keep the temperature down! That kind of makes me wonder if it partly inspired White Motorcycle Concepts' WMC250EV streamliner design from a few years back, but I digress.
You get a twofer here, though, because the actual race comes in the second video, and it's against Kevin Schwantz's Suzuki RGV 500. If you've got heart eyes here, I don't blame you. Get your best headphones out now!
Two legendary bikes with fantastically talented racers, taking to the track at the one and only Cathedral of Speed. Seriously, what could be better? I'll wait.
