It was common for riders to ride their machines to the grandstand for practice, weigh in and races, always a good way to get the motor warm and the oil circulating.

All manner of machines could be seen and heard going along the prom for early morning and evening practice, noticeably the MVs were always ridden from the Douglas Bay to the start.

I always rode a bike up to the grandstand and someone else bought the Bedford or Thames. It was also a fairly common sight to see bikes being fired up and ridden to the digs from the boat, a lot of riders who had not got or could not afford a van pushed their machines on at Liverpool.