Honda rider Dean Harrison says the competitive landscape at the Isle of Man TT now “makes li꧙fe very difficult” as he gears up for his second year with Honda.

Last year’s Isle of Man TT saw three different solo riders - Michael Dunlop, Pღeter Hickman and Davey Todd - take to the top step of the podium, while the likes of Harrison and Josh Brookℱes breached the rostrum in the big bike classes.

Harrison is a three-time winner at the even🐭t and has been a regular frontrunner for years, positioning himself as one of the TT’s ‘big four’ names.

Looking ahead to TT 2025, he notes that competition is better than it has ever been and is onl🌃yꦿ growing.

“You look at the current crop of rid🌃ers and the competition is probably as fast as it’s ever been, and there’s more people in a smaller space of time, which makes life veꦛry difficult,” he said during the TT Live podcast recording.

Dean Harrison ‘brought a knife to a gunfight’ at TT 2024

Last year saw Harr♌ison swap Kawasaki machinery for Honda bikes when he joined the works team for the brand alongside John McGuinness.

The Honda team had a trouble-filled preparat♛ion for the TT, as delays in parts meant it didn’t have its full compliment of bikes for the North West 200 just weeks before the Isle of Man event.

Harrison battled problems on his Honda Superbike during practice week at the TT, which meant he had to race it with a Superstock engine - likening this to bringi༺ng “a knife to a gun fight”.

Despite his woes, he came aw✨ay from TT 2024 wit🐎h four podiums.

“I didn’t feel like I got the best out of the Superbike last year, with getting moved between classes and stuff like that, because we started the season quite fast on the Superbike at BSB level,” 𓂃he said.

“And th🍃en it sort of got switched becaus♓e of parts and stuff.

“The North West 200 unfortunately we only had one Superstock bike, there was a delay in parts𒀰 getting the Sup✅rsport and Superbike built.

“W😼e got to the TT  𝄹and we had issues with the Superbike.

“So we ran a Superstock engine in a Superbike chassis, which when you’re trying to compete against Pete [Hickman], Michael [Dunlop], Davey [Todd], if you’ve not got the same speed and pace out of your bike as they do, if you have your bike and they have their bike, you feel sometimes you’re💦 bringing a knife to a gun fight.”