(orchestral music) (engine roaring) - It's a sensual experience, that scenery rushing by and leaning and feeling the G forces and all that.

(engine roaring) Why does the dog chase the car?

There's no, there's no reason for it but it's just programmed that way.

And I seem to be programmed that way.

I like to chase things, you know?

(calm music) It's generally quite a popular track.

It's considered quite challenging.

There's a couple of blind corners where you sort of have to aim to where you want to go before you can see where you want to go, you know, and which is always fun.

Now there's a fair amount of elevation change and which most people consider a plus.

(calm music) Yeah, it's good.

(calm music) You know, this is a type of bike I first rode at the Isle of Man in June of '82.

Some people think that that must be really trick bike but it's really just a stone ax.

It's simple and pretty easy to work on.

I try and keep it fairly original.

It's got more modern shocks on it, some of the engine internals are more modern.

With the original ignition and carburetor on it, but nice balance of light and handles well.

You know, it has been raced fairly consistently since 1970.

- [Interviewer] You've been here how many times now?

- I guess a dozen or so.

I have to look at the records to really know, but- - David Roper has more miles on classic motorcycles than the people who raced them at the time ever had.

- Since 1972 I've raced every year.

I haven't missed a year since then, so, so I guess we're in our 44th year.

- He's been in countless TTs.

He's been in countless vintage races all around the world.

- He knew how to process information and he was very methodical.

- He wanted to go racing.

He wanted to have a battle with someone.

- To me it's a nice combination of the physical and the cerebral because it, you know, it takes a lot of thought, both preparing the bike and riding it.

And I like situations that are in flux, that a lot of parameters are changing at the same time and you've gotta make a lot of sort of instantaneous decisions.

- He is a treasure of knowledge about these motorcycles and what it is to ride them.

- One of the major passions of my life has been Team Obsolete and we have been the major player in the sport of historic racing motorcycles.

- Got hooked up with Rob Ianucci and Team Obsolete in 1978.

He asked me to ride one of his bikes and the vintage racing had grown at that point where you could stay busy just doing the vintage racing.

- Dave Roper, this has gotta be the most famous person here, American or Canadian and all of us that come to this event, we've known him forever.

And we walk up to him and we thank him for being here.

He brings all this exotic equipment and you know, he helps makes this event.

You know, people talk about, oh Dave's gonna be here this weekend.

Mr. Roper, you got my vote.

(people chattering) - [Inspector] Okay, you're set to go.

- [Man] Thank you.

- [Woman] And you got your numbers and you got your medical.

- I work for Team Obsolete, largely mechanic which sometimes is a matter of building bikes off of parts on a shelf or sometimes bikes are bought and sold and you know, preparing, fixing things on them.

I do some fabrication, they do welding and turning on the lathe or machine tool work.

I have a background in welding.

I worked eight years at the electric boat division of General Dynamics building nuclear submarines.

Four years as a structural welder.

Four years as a pipe welder.

You have this image in your mind of the perfect weld and making it a reality is the challenge.

You have to adjust as you go along and you have to plan your welding and think about it as you're doing it and getting your hands to do what you envision in your mind is satisfying when you get it right.

- These are very high maintenance motorcycles.

There are motorcycles in this room that would take 50 or 100 hours of maintenance for every hour of operation.

We have a fabulous facility here.

(calm music) We're just rebuilding these bikes two or three at a time.

And when we get a bike to the point where it's really perfect and we take it out, celebrate it, taking them out to significant events like the Isle of Man and then we park it and go onto the next one.

It's a lot of work rebuilding one of these bikes.

I mean, one mechanic can literally spend months on the bike.

It's not an easy job.

There are issues with parts.

Sometimes you have to make the parts, sometimes you have to have the parts made by specialists.

It's a challenge.

Good mechanical design requires somebody who's a bit of an artist but there's also art involved in riding them.

(calm music) (engines revving) (engine starting) (engine revving) (jazzy swing music) - Grew up in Darien, Connecticut.

A couple years in the Army.

Trip to Vietnam and moved to Hicksville, Long Island in 1978.

Been here ever since.

(gentle music) As a kid I was very much into sports cars and I always thought that's what I wanted to do, race sports cars.

But then sometime in high school I was introduced to motorcycles and I totally flipped, lost all interest in cars and became obsessed with motorcycles.

In 1972, I saw a flyer for a road race in Bridgehampton, Long Island.

That was the first time I raced, Memorial Day '72.

Through '72 I got hooked in it and did the club racing.

But over the winter, '72, '73, I started AMA novice professional racing.

From sort of 83 on, I just did vintage or classic racing.

I roughly go to a dozen events a year.

Typically four races and an event.

So a good 50 races a year, times 44.

That gives you a rough idea, anyway.

I've raced in Canada and Baja, Mexico, England and Scotland and Northern Ireland, Holland, France, Portugal, Norway, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Czechoslovakia, when it was still Czechoslovakia.

I'm up to 115 racetracks.

I'm really fortunate to have had these opportunities.

There're not that many who can say they've done that.

So there's still, still room there.

Try a lot more.

- It was a type of racing that was undertaken for its own rewards, not because it led somewhere.

- You have to be prepared to live at a fairly basic level.

You know, there's never enough money.

You know, you're jamming people into a hotel room where some of them are sleeping in the van and they take turns with a shower.

You do everything you can to economize.

I mean, it's one thing if you race two or three times a year and the rest of the time you're living, you know, a comfortable life, but if you're doing it a lot, there's not a lot of comfort in your life.

- [Kevin] One of the major appeals of this life was that it was not the humdrum expected life of so many people around me who seemed to be the snake with its tail in its mouth, rolling around in a circle forever and never getting anywhere.

So the life of going to the motorcycle races on the weekends was a transformation.

We got into the van as working stiffs (engine roaring) but driving through the night, we'd become racers.

None of us was any use at it, but it was an intense, demanding undertaking that made everything urgent.

And I think that David Roper had his own idea about life.

He wasn't a together-together monkey who wanted to go with the crowd.

The crowd aren't all that happy because we are individuals and we ought to recognize it.

David Roper recognized it in spades.

- It took a while to figure out what I wanted.

I was trying to clutch it in the corner.

Never married, so I live alone.

But, you know, make an effort to spend time with close friends.

- Thank you Dave.

- Sure thing.

I am social and love people.

I do love being alone too.

And the solitude and the calmness.

The goal was to get the balance right.

- So you're holding up okay?

- Yeah, well, you know, I'm circling the drain like all of us but had a little arrhythmia with my heart.

They did this procedure, this ablation, it's pretty minor but then there were a complication with a urinary tract infection, anyway, so, I spent a little time dealing with medical issues this summer.

But now basically, I'm doing fine.

- It's all about- - Yeah.

- So much of that, right?

- Yep, yep, yep.

- [Interviewer] What is it that he's known for?

- Isle of Man.

I mean, he's done very well.

I believe he won Isle of Man back in the day, in the eighties or whatever it was, you know, I mean, that's everyone's dream that comes into road racing.

I mean if you can do Isle of Man, you're a somebody.

(calm music) - The Isle of Man is a very special place.

It's got this incredible history.

People are really keen, beautiful place, very special.

- The races go back to the early part of the 20th century and it's very dangerous.

It's a 37 mile circuit on public roads.

- [Dave] This whole island shuts down while these motorcycle speed freaks go mad around the roads.

- [Rob] It's probably the most challenging race circuit to learn because it's more than 150 turns and you've gotta know every one of them cold because you can't come up to a turn and then figure out what you're gonna do.

- Crashing a motorcycle, it's not necessarily the speed, it's the sudden stop which is what hurts you.

And the Isle of Man, there's a lot of things that'll stop you suddenly, the stonewalls, the light poles and so forth, because it is public road.

Well over 200 riders have died there.

There's no arguing that it's an extremely dangerous place to race.

I'd been racing a couple years by that point.

You know, I was sort of asking myself, would I ever a race here?

You know, and my first thought was way too dangerous, you know?

But then I thought, you know, here I am riding an unfamiliar bike on the wrong side of the road, a bike that shifts in the wrong direction on the wrong side and, you know, I'm riding in the rain and is it any less dangerous?

And, you know, so giving it a more curious consideration, I decided I would.

I first raced there in 1982.

So we came back again in 1984 and I was racing the G50 Matchless in the historic.

(calm music) It was a race of very mixed weather conditions.

It started dry.

But the first lap over the mountain, you could see the clouds rolling in and it started raining on the second lap.

A couple of the top runners got caught out by the conditions and fell on the wet.

I didn't want pit signals.

I didn't want to know if I was five seconds behind and then therefore try a little too hard or that I was 30 seconds ahead and then slacking off and not paying attention.

I just wanted to ride my own race and at my own pace.

(music swelling) (engines roaring) On the last lap, I thought I must be doing pretty well because, because all around the circuit people were sort of waving.

(chuckling) And when I went through the gooseneck, someone held up a number one.

Well, anyway, I was lucky enough to win the historic race.

- [Announcer] Dave Rober, crosses the line, the 500 CC, 10 minutes, 39.6, an average speed of 96.11 miles per hour.

- So when I finish, I finally figured out, yes, I was the first American ever to win a TT.

(American anthem playing) (crowd laughing) That was sort of the high point of my career.

It set the hook.

Came back many times.

I think I raced there in 19 different races.

- [Interviewer] Do you get nervous before races?

- Nah, not really.

After a few thousand times.

You know, I'd get somewhat nervous before racing at the Isle of Man, and have this little chat with myself.

Yeah, this could be the last time.

You really wanna do this?

You know.

And always really did wanna do it 'til I didn't wanna do it anymore, so.

- Racing is a sport of passion, you know, and it's very unforgiving.

- And that's why a motorcyclist has to be as alert as a squirrel.

It's as though they're on point in Vietnam every moment of their lives in order to stay safe.

- It's certainly dangerous to a degree.

You know, living is dangerous too.

In 1973, the second year I was racing, went to a race, Dallas, Texas.

I crashed, ran off the track hit the hay bales in front of the guardrail, punctured my chest and collapsed a lung.

I broke a bunch of ribs and a collarbone.

I sort of wrestled with, you know, should I quit racing?

You know, but I didn't.

I went back and, you know, had some success and sort of got over it.

If you're gonna approach the edge, every now and again you're gonna step over the edge.

To some extent, that's the only way you find out where the edge is, by exceeding it.

You know, I've broken a lot of bones, metacarpals metatarsals, fibula, three, four collar bones, ribs.

I've had some concussions.

I have some joints that don't work as well and I have some aches and pains.

I pay for it a bit but no regrets.

Bones heal.

There's a risk there, but to me, it's a reasonable risk.

- [Announcer] Attention in the paddock, here we go.

The first race of the weekend.

- I suppose the danger does add something to it, puts an edge on it.

You never feel as alive is when you're risking your life.

You gotta die of something and I'm at ease with it.

(indistinct) Thanks very much.

(engine revving) I'm sort of very competitive.

Like I say.

I like to chase things.

But on the other hand, it's a challenge trying to set my own personal lap record each lap so I can enjoy being way out in the lead and then having the privilege of a clear track where you have no excuse not to get it right or dicing with somebody in 17th place.

They're both fun and challenging and I'd like to think I can enjoy both.

I read an essay by M.C.

Esher and he was talking about how the more he mastered the technique, the more ideas came to his mind.

And there was less between the idea and the physical reality of it.

It's a more direct connection between what's in your mind and the reality.

- The motorcycle is an extension of yourself.

There's the line between where you as a rider end and the motorcycle begins.

It's not a bright line.

- You know, in a car, you turn a wheel, which turns a shaft, which turns a gear, which moves the tie rod.

In a motorcycle, you move your body because it's much more direct.

There's less between this image in your mind of the line you want to take and doing it.

(uplifting music) - [Kevin] There cannot be, in top level motorcycle racing, any such thing as just going for it.

This has a romantic appeal but just going for it is a way to lose big time.

Yanking the motorcycle this way and that.

Super dramatic moves is the antithesis of smoothness.

- [Rob] Roper is one of the masters at finding a nice, smooth way around the track.

He understands these bikes are not modern bikes.

They don't have a lot of brakes.

Fastest way around the track may be a nice graceful curve as opposed to a modern bike where you go in square off the corner, lock up the brakes and zip out of the corner.

Now that's an artist's, almost like ballet.

- [Kevin] Roper is like the fencing master who has learned the economy of motion, who has many combinations with which to surprise the unwary.

- As you grow older, diminishing physical skills, but on the other hand, keep gaining experience.

Two curves cross at some point.

It's not just downhill.

(uplifting music) Reasonable start, you know, tracked some guys down.

Bike worked well.

I missed one gear, maybe one shift, but no, the bike worked quite well.

In the end, I passed a P1 open bike and I think I sort of caught him napping and I snapped him out of his stupor and so he picked it up and passed me back and finished just ahead of me.

But we were in different classes anyway, so.

But doesn't matter when you're chasing something, does it?

(calm music) (engines revving) To be at the top of any game, it takes a certain amount of obsession.

So I guess in that sense, maybe it's a sacrifice that you sacrifice doing other things with your life to pursue something obsessive.

Many years ago, a relationship with a woman ended and I was a little maybe depressed over that and I wondered if racing had gotten in the way, but after a while, the whole thing evaporated, realizing I have a lot of great old friends, you know and how depressed can you be, you know?

And the whole thing just sort of disappeared and I'd never been depressed again, you know.

- We're just having fun doing what we're doing.

David still races.

You know I think he'll continue racing as long as he enjoys it.

- On all three.

- All right.

- I might be able to auction them off.

- A week from Tuesday, I go to the Isle of Man and then the next weekend I'm doing a Motor Jiro race in Bradbury, Vermont and then a weekend off and then down to Alabama for the Barber Vintage Festival.

And that ends the season.

And then the long, cold, dark, lonely winter.

- There's no necessity to give up motorcycling at some stage of life.

And David Roper is the living proof.

- I feel like I'm lucky in that I figured out what I like to do early on and I still like to do it.

Why not keep doing it?

(calm music) Good ride.

(folksy music) - [Announcer] To order this program, visit motorcyclemanfilm.com