Motorcycle rental by CycleBC.ca
Before we get into this blog post, intended for readers who are less familiar with VIME events, I would like to publicise a BC company who rent motorcycles, including adventure and dualsport bikes for use on VIME rally events.
www.CycleBC.ca have rental locations in Vancouver and Victoria and have a selection of BMW, Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha adventure bikes in addition to a DR650, a Kove450, a Kove800, Yamaha T7 and a Himalayan 450. Their telephone numbers are Vancouver 604-709-5663 and Victoria 250-380-2453. Mr. CycleBC is Mike Gat and his email address is mike@cyclebc.ca
If you are travelling from outside BC and would like to rent a bike for the backcountry, or if you would like to try one of these models before you buy, give Mike a call.
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Now, to expand on this article aimed at readers less familiar with Vancouver Island Motosports Events and backcountry TSD (regularity) rally…
The joke usually goes “How do you make a small fortune in motorsport? Well first, you need a large fortune!!!”
The idea that a motorsport could be accessible to casual amateur participation runs counter to the usual requirements of competition licences, single-use competition vehicles with the transportation complications associated with off road vehicles, costs of preparing competition vehicles to meet regulations, entry fees, travel to far-off specialist venues. The list goes on.
What if I were to tell you that there is a genre of motorcycle Rallysport that meets the list of qualifications in the title? If you have followed the progress of rally riders in world class events on social media and wondered if you could do that, then there is an opportunity for you to find out, in the Pacific Northwest - specifically the north of Vancouver Island.
Jonathan Binnington has developed an event genre and a brand that has become known as the GoldRiver Rally staged by Vancouver Island Motosports Events. Like all good ideas, it’s not entirely new but is a combination of existing opportunities, venues, technologies and concepts in a new way to offer a motorcycle motorsport to a new audience.
Caption: Sasha Sabinin - last year’s grand slam winner. An excerpt from a typical roadbook -clear enough! A typical terrain, forest service roads heading up mountains.
International rallysport is high-power, speed competition in exotic (and uninhabited) locations for big-budget motorsport teams to compete at the highest level. There are very good reasons why there are only a few of these types of events on the planet each year. They are very successful at giving aspirational encouragement to thousands of enthusiasts by way of their video and social media platforms, yet they remain as remote and unattainable as any elite-level sporting endeavour to those that watch from the grandstand.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Granted the reality of “any ordinary” person performing at an elite level in anything is highly unlikely but within the limits imposed by ability, access to equipment and venue, it is possible to produce and participate in motorcycle rallysport events that include an element of genuine competition while employing the same kind of principles that make up high level events. Additionally, classes of participation can be included that present an “escalator of ambition” - an entry-level Gaia only navigation class, an intermediate roadbook only class and a competition roadbook-plus-GPS timing class. Riders in each class follow the same route with bypasses and short cuts obvious in Gaia.
As per the Real Estate business, there are three important factors in these events:
Location.
Location.
and
Location.
There is one very good reason events like the Dakar are held where they are. There are no “civilians”, locals, casual spectators who might get in the way…. No privately owned land, buildings, livestock blah blah blah. Most of the First World is owned/inhabited/valued. The challenges to getting permissions for conventional motorsports at a venue “just up the road” do not need to be explained.
Caption: Building the route. From Gaia and a working knowledge of the area a proposed route is planned out with a course profile. Then into Rally Navigator to build the roadbook, then ride it to test the route, proof read the roadbook and place the virtual GPS timing gates.
But, in British Columbia at least (I can’t speak for any other jurisdiction except possibly the United Kingdom, but more on that later), there are thousands of miles/kilometers of relatively recently built gravel Forest Service Roads that crisscross the mountainous backcountry. They were built to exploit the forest resources by the European settlers and remain as legally recognised public highways…
As Public Highways, they remain open for travel by licenced and insured operators of road legal vehicles. Provided drivers and motorcycle riders do not break any of the BC motoring laws, travel over these roads is permitted, expected and encouraged.
BC motoring law has a very specific list of not-permitted activities. This is the working list supplied by ICBC covering the activities that their insurance DOES NOT COVER.
So, if the activity that the Insured is involved in
Takes place on a recognised highway
Not on a track or other location temporarily or permanently closed to other traffic
and there doesn’t exist an element of race or speed test (driving at high speed, passing, driving in close proximity or assessing vehicle limitations)
Your ICBC road insurance is in operation! YOUR ICBC is the underwriter of your adventures and misadventures. You carry your own can!
It is also written into BC law that users of backcountry highways assume their own responsibility should the condition of the road catch them out. Another reason to ride within your capabilities.
There are further restrictions placed upon the operation of Off Highway Vehicles on Public highways that exclude their participation in On-highway activities, and other elements of B.C. motoring laws need to be complied with such as observing speed limits, driving while under the influence of, and everything else a licenced driver should be aware of.
This application of the law is very similar to UK law, but given that road building in the UK has been going on since before the Romans arrived, there are very few rough/backcountry/mountain roads left undeveloped in the UK. To tell a UK dualsport rider that it is possible to ride for 200miles in BC on mountain gravel roads and not have to ride one mile on tarmac invites disbelief. Regularity rallies in the UK are mostly tarmac affairs.
We have our venues, our permissions and our Rules of Engagement.
Further required Matériel for participation …
Let’s start with the bike and rider equipment. If you have a road legal dualsport or adventure bike you ae already mostly there…. Remember this is an activity aimed at the casual motorcycle enthusiast, not avid motorsport semi-professionals. You do not need to have a $30,000 litrebike with a further $10,000 worth of equipment and accessories. In fact you will probably be better off without that capital investment of your hard-earned as you are wrestling your way up a loose scree climb or gingerly picking your way down a mountainside.
Caption: exotic machinery not required! Sasha won last year on a Yamaha 250. The tree was an unexpected overnight fall…. Route and scoring adjusted accordingly!
A 250 to 650 single cylinder dualsport bike is perfect for these events. Fresh out of the box or 15 years old, the principle of “the singer not the song” applies.
If you decide this is the sport for you, a change of tyres to something with a big/bold tread pattern, reworked suspension, larger fuel tank and intimate knowledge of your abs and traction control systems will probably be on your to-do list.
Without getting into too much detail, there is a positive advantage to choosing an unsophisticated bike over one more modern. Older bikes are likely to come with conventional suspension (easy to improve with the addition of stiffer springs, damper valves and different damping oil), carburetor fuel systems (century-old technology that everything is known about), basic electronic ignition systems (no O2 sensors, knock detectors, ECUs to reflash), air cooled….
And being this basic, you the rider are more likely to be able to handle the workshop tasks yourself and avoid workshop hourly rates of $150-$200 per hour.
Your personal equipment needs to be only what you need to keep warm and dry. You’ve already got helmet, gloves and boots. An outdoors jacket and trousers and you’re set.
IT technology requirements are also tailored to be affordable, accessible and in some ways disposable…
There are three “modules” of Information Technology needed on your bike.
A mapping GIS (geographic information system) Gaia is the VIME system of preference. All mapping apps take their data from the same place. They manipulate the data in slightly different ways and have their own styles of presentation. For iOS and Android.
A roadbook presentation app. Rally Roadbook Reader is again the preferred system as it is clear to read and comes with a GPS compass and speedometer/odometer. It is a free download also for iOS and Android.
A GPS rally timing app. The system used on VIME events is Richta. It runs best on Apple devices but also has an Android. When using Richta on Android it is important to turn every other app off as (I understand) the Android operating system can only handle one app at a time. If you are running Richta on an Android device and you receive a phone call, email or text, the operating system will turn Richta off AND NOT TURN IT BACK ON AGAIN!
Caption: screenshots of Gaia, Rally Roadbook Reader and Richta
All these apps require the device (smartphone or tablet) to have a functioning GPS chip.
None of these apps require a cell connection or SIM card.
All of these apps require the device to be connected to a usb charger as the phones need to be on and active for the whole day.
So you do not need to buy new smartphones or tablets! You can use old ones without SIM cards and load whatever data needed by wifi. This also means that should you have a disaster, drop your phone in a puddle, have it run over by a herd of rabid motorcycles and eaten by a bear, you will not have blown a thousand dollar phone!
The must-do addition to your bike is to wire in suitable USB chargers. Put them somewhere reasonably protected from rain and have a supply of spare charging cables. A handlebar phone mount and you are ready to rock and roll!
For completeness, the approach I have outlined above is very much the entry level. There are “ruggedised” tablets with water and dust proof connections, Bluetooth controllers, rally IT systems that closely emulate pro-level rally roadbook presentations and dedicated rally IT hardware with anti-tamper/limited functionality to ensure no technological cheating occurs. If you spend a couple of hundred dollars on secondhand smartphones, you can expect to spend a couple of thousand in CAD for a ruggedised tablet plus hardware. Professional level systems are intended for use in professional level events and are not appropriate for grassroots events.
Before moving on, let’s think about the traditional paper scroll. The roadbooks are published to event participants as PDFs about one week before the event. This is about 6 and 23/24 days earlier than higher level events (roadbooks distributed one hour before start time). One week gives ample opportunity for participants to load the PDFs into Rally Roadbook Reader or, if their preference is for dead-sea scrolls, to get busy with printers, paper and sticky tape. A typical roadbook can have three hundred lines to it and at say six lines per page that’s twenty pages or more. Scroll printers are expensive and hard to come by so the expectation is for people to go electronic. If you want paper, you will need to assemble the scroll yourself.
Entry fees, these entry fee prices are easily found on the internet and while the relevance of a Dakar entry is pretty remote, it may be interesting to see the order of magnitude difference in entry fees between a “local” event, a national event and an international event.
Sonora Rally 2025. 3,700USD for motorcycle
Dakar Rally 2025. 20,000€, also for motorcycle. Plus your getting to the start line costs,
Vancouver Island motorcycle track day $400
GoldRiver XXV $350 CDN for THREE DAYS!
So how does a “Regularity Rally” work? Regularity, aka Time/Speed/Distance and TSD rally exchanges the challenge of completing a given course in the shortest time/fastest speed for the challenge of completing the course (and by implication each of the comprising “legs” of the course in a time that is as close as possible to the time specified by the event organiser.
Only time is replaced by average speed…
Each of the timed legs are given an average speed. A speed which is legal, reasonable and (all other things being equal) achievable. The timing arrangements can differ between events but VIME events time all legs in their own right. If you mess a leg up and arrive at the GPS timing gate late you will incur timing penalties. Because each leg is timed in isolation to each other leg, there is not point or reason to try to “recover lost time” by speeding the next leg. What is done is done. Forget about it and concentrate on what is to come.
In this way, the event does not encourage speeding or racing. Remember we are on public roads with other (often oncoming) traffic that will potentially cause you great harm. Do not be a dick! Fate has a reputation of being poetic…
So riding to an average speed sounds easy, especially if the speed limit is 60Kph, eh?
Well, not so.
The roads make for a challenging ride ranging from sea level to over 1000m altitude in places, crossing as many mountain passes as can be found.
The terrain through which many timed legs passes can include a wide range of difficulties, such that in places the set average may be ridiculously easy, elsewhere reasonable and in some places impossible. Remember it is the average speed that is measured, not the instantaneous speed. So the rider has to come up with a strategy for keeping to the pace - difficult constant mental arithmetic, targeting an elapsed time or just go for it! Remember, average speedometers are strictly not allowed although stopwatches are allowed (if you remember to restart them at the start of every leg…).
Navigation is by roadbook - a long list of left-right-straight on instructions. They are written to be as clear as possible using the FIA rally icons. The icons used are the ones that are most self-explanatory and familiar. It is not necessary to commit to memory a long list of esoteric symbols mostly derived from French abbreviations. Nevertheless, you need to follow the roadbook faithfully, line by line because if you miss or skip a line, everything that follows will be scrambled!
Caption: example of “mixed terrain” the first followed by the second…
There are helpful clues given, like compass headings and distances between turns. While you may feel you are hopelessly adrift in the great outdoors, you will have your Gaia in your pocket that can tell you exactly where you are and how to get home, and there are people out on the course keeping track of you. Piece of cake really!
So why isn’t this a race? As stated at the opening, legally we can’t race. There is a working definition given in the list of insurance cover exclusions that doesn’t need expanding upon. We can’t have race or speed events on public roads! We will be prosecuted and should there be an insurance claim, you csn expect to lose your house!
Besides, these are open roads. You have to expect your worst nightmare is coming at you round the next bend and it won’t stop until after it has run you over. This isn’t a Looney Tunes cartoon where you, Wile E Coyote can reinflate yourself after being squished flat by an 80 tonne logging lorry by putting your thumb into your mouth and blowing hard. I say again, don’t be a dick!
If you want to race, go elsewhere!
Historically, in the UK, car club TSD road rally began as a sedate Saturday night activity but as car crews got better and better at keeping to the speeds, event organiser began upping the speeds. An arms race developed with increasing speeds until the long arm of the law put its foot down and drew the curtains on the caper.
In the USA, the TSD arms race took a different path whereby event organisers measured their legal-speed events with ever increasing precision and accuracy, matched by the equipment used by (winning) participants. The precision/accuracy of measurement for tarmac TSD events now is of the order of inches per mile with timing to 1/10sec over 10-20miles.
Backcountry motorcycle TSD rally isn’t anywhere near any of this! Distances are measured either by wheel odometer (errors in excess of 10%) or GPS (closer, when the trees don’t get in the way!).
It is much harder to keep a constant speed over the rough roads of the backcountry and besides, the legs are by design difficult to ride at a constant speed. While the intention of tarmac regularity rallies is to have the best teams score close to zero time penalties (perfect scores) the intention of VIME regularity rallies is to generate large time penalties and have the winners of the events easy to identify. It’s not that riders are set up to fail… not by any measure! Riders are set up to be well tested.
In conclusion, VIME backcountry rallies are competitive events with entry-level classes, aimed at grassroots dualsport and adventure bike riders who would like to try their hand at motorcycle motorsport but don’t want to or are unable to spend large amounts of money entering rallysport at a higher level. VIME events also provide a first rung on the rallysport ladder leading to higher profile national and international events and an affordable taster competition.
The invitation to you is cordially open to come and have a go!
The GoldRiver XXV entry can be found at https://www.gr200.com/product-page/goldriver-xv-the-moto-rallysport-event-for-everyone-27-june-1-july-2025
Jonathan Binnington
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