I found the title a trifle sensationalist - Those riders are the cream of the worlds best road racers and if, as the title suggested, they took insane risks most of them would have been long dead.
The Isle of Man TT races are, perhaps, the greatest of all road race challenges although the Manx GP and some of the Irish road circuits come pretty close. To actually be there and watch the skill of the riders, a few feet away, as they lift a shoulder a couple of inches so that it is just brushing a stone wall, or lean their heads at a slight angle to miss a wall or post, is to see the best in the world at work. There is nothing to compare to it. It makes MotoGP, WSB, BSB and AMA look like kindergarten stuff although, in truth, they are just other forms of 'bike racing.
I have a friend who has raced at the TT and he said that compared with his usual short circuit racing it was another world. After one lap of the course, just over 37 miles, every fixing on his bike that wasn't lockwired was loose. Luckily he found a new friend and mentor, who had raced there a good few times, and knew the tricks to ensure that things didn't work loose and fall out or off. (On the fairings he used Dzus fasteners, then the heads were sealed in with Silicone and finally covered with a Duct Tape patch.) He said that after his first practice session he told the friend that he felt that he and the bike were being shaken to pieces only to be told 'That's because you aren't going anywhere near fast enough, you aren't riding the bumps.' Once he got used to the roads, and his speed started to increase, he found the guy was right, things seemed to smooth out a lot - or so he said! His best lap was around 99 mph, the top runner, John McGuiness, averaged over 130 mph.
Ken.