Vancouver Island, North Island, Sayward Valley. Newcastle eye-opener or sundowner. 40Km/25mi. Difficulty: D3/A3+ 1-2hrs Route closes with the first autumn snow around November. Opens March to May depending on snow conditions. Start and finish at Sayward Junction Gaia: https://www.gaiagps.com/public/ubQeGoIchkE3ZYtXLPMQPScT This short route takes the rider from Sayward Junction westwards along Adam River Main (D1/A1) to the start of a climb to the Haihte lake/Newcastle cat

Summer forest fires put the best laid plans for a VIME Labor Day event beyond possibility, but I took the opportunity to do some north island exploring with my friend Stuart, who had a new DRZ400 to get to know. While the whole of the north island isn’t ablaze, the fires that began burning at the start of August after a day of dry lightning, continue to burn in close proximity to the two routes that had been carefully planned and plotted with the collaboration of Gary Neal, H

You may be aware that over the past 48hrs a number of forest fires have sprung up in the Sayward Junction, Gold River, Woss area. While the North Island remains open for backcountry travel (for the time being at least), the locations of the fires are close enough to the planned routes to require a go/no-go decision sooner rather than later. I am therefore calling the event off as of today Friday 14 Aug 2026. The Labor Day Weekend event will not go ahead. I will be making a re

You might have read that parts of the backcountry in BC is being closed to motorised vehicles. Mid and North Vancouver Island along with the Sunshine Coast IS NOT INCLUDED in the prohibition announcement on Monday 10 August. The Labour Day weekend event will go ahead under yesterday’s government announcement. “Off-road vehicle prohibition for parts of Coastal Fire Centre August 10, 2026 PARKSVILLE – Effective immediately, Monday, August 10, 2026, off-road vehicles (ORV) will

Photo credit to M O’G… While I’m in the process of putting the September Labour Day event together, I’m also thinking about next year’s VI Day Trial… VI Day Trial 2027. I’ve already taken onboard the suggestion of running it as a 3+3 day event for those who are not blessed with unlimited days holiday from work (there are benefits to being self-employed/semi-retired). Days 1-3 will be the usual VIME format of day-routes by Gaia or Roadbook with GPS timing. Days 4-6 will be the

I am asked many, very sensible questions about the format of VIME moto-TSD event weekends and I would like to discuss what is uppermost in my mind as I go about preparing for the Labor Day event (first weekend in September). The principal question is “why are the speeds set so low?” “I can ride many of those roads much faster!” There are many compelling reasons why we cannot have organised race or speed events on the open-to-all-road-users public highways of British Colu

Yes, we had a result, but more of that in a little while…. After four wet days, of varying moistness, Sunday dawned bright, blue and breezy. A further two hundred and ten kilometres lay in wait for our intrepid riders from Washington state, the lower mainland, Sunshine Coast and the Island. The route returned the riders to Woss by yet another route comprising a mixture of FSR mains, double-track equivalents and leafy/stony/steep trails (classified as public highways…). At

Day 2 of the moto-TSD rally was (intentionally) a test of Roadbook navigation in contrast to Day 1 which had a little more emphasis on DS/adv technical riding skills. The route set out from the very comfortable Sayward Valley Resort campground, heading towards Campbell River (town) by way of the Johnstone Straits / Discovery Passage coasts and Pye and McCreight lakes for the lunchtime fuel stop before returning to Sayward Junction across the old logging roads that crisscross

Left to Right, JP Tondreau, Marshall Jankovsky, Howard Adam - all in pub repose. Day 1 report. The rain stopped - at least for a while for some of us. The field set out in good order on a 230km jaunt to Woss via the seaside and back to Sayward Junction by way of the mountains and a sinkhole! The sinkhole was safety-marked with jungle curb stones. No one was lost in the abyss. All returned safely, some wetter than others and the days scores were as follows Marshall Jankovs

After a very wet start to Thursday and some critical thinking by the riders, the idea of a night Prologue in the rain was abandoned. The monsoon did relent sufficiently for afternoon sighting rides by most of the riders in one way or another. After a further riders meeting, five riders got to ride the prologue route with two heroes emerging, for entirely different reasons. Winner of the Prologue was Marshall Jankovsky who arrived on the event from Seattle less than half an

After a very wet night and morning the event is beginning to get underway. Riders are beginning to assemble from The Island, the lower mainland and Washington State. Four riders are currently out on the practice route (1pm Thursday) now that the monsoon has moderated into fine drizzle. Endurance test of many dimensions this will be. After a riders meeting and consulting the many, varied weather forecasts (none of which promised a dry evening and night), the assembled wisdo

Just a few days to go before The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally gets underway. The Sign-On waiver is here: https://www.gr200.com/post/vancouver-island-motosports-events-participant-liability-release-and-waiver-2026-and-2027 And this is the generic rider briefing: The Great Canadian motorcycle Rally. Greetings and welcome to the 2026 edition of the Great Canadian motorcycle roadbook rally. This is the 5th year I have been running these events and the eighth or

Yesterday, the longest day of the year, Stuart and I finished setting the courses for the 2026 edition of the VIME moto-TSD summer rally. The event will be co-hosted by Full On Lighting of Victoria BC, manufacturers of high intensity helmet lighting systems for off road and backcountry travelling. Their website can be found at www.fullonlighting.com Premium Vision For Those Who Ride There are four competition routes plus one “training” route. The Thursday Loosener, th

The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally 2026. Moto-TSD. Final Instructions Venue, The Sayward Valley Resort, Sayward Junction, Highway 19, Vancouver Island BC. Canada. Thank you for entering The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally - bringing road legal, competitive, enthusiast and backcountry travel to Vancouver Island under the ægis of motorcycle Time Speed Distance (regularity) rally. You are here because you can’t do this anywhere else in BC, The Pacific N

The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally, co-hosted by Full On Lighting www.fullonlighting.com is just one check-ride away from being ready to go! Moto-TSD rally for dualsport, adventure and rally replica bike riders. This year’s moto-TSD rally brings a number of new developments to the VIME format that has been developed over the past five years. The event has a new bivouac location at The Sayward Valley Resort, www.saywardvalleyresort.com 1546 Sayward Rd BC, V0P

I have been a little quiet on here over the past couple of months - but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing much. Far from it. The winter and early spring were spent writing routes and roadbooks - and then with the change of bivouac venue for the Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook rally from Gold River to The Sayward Valley Resort (https://www.saywardvalleyresort.com/ ) Sayward Junction, in order to secure new routes and better camping facilities, further route rewritin

The case for motorcycle Time Speed Distance (TSD) Regularity Rallysport to be recognised as a legitimate, competitive road legal motorcycle motorsport genre in British Columbia. “Road-legal” is the crux of motorcycle TSD rally. Both the bikes and the riders MUST be legal road users for this motorsport format to work - leveraging the privilege of private motoring over public roads with commercial motoring insurance, while exploiting the power of GPS and smartphone information

It has taken me a while to get around to pulling together the relevant points i have previously written about to support the legality of FSR Time Speed Distance motorcycle rallies on Vancouver Island (and BC in general), but here it is… The collected works - well, some of them at least! —————————————— The case for Time Speed Distance (TSD) Regularity Rallysport to be recognised as a competitive road legal motorcycle motorsport genre in British Columbia. LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally - the Thursday loosener. Now with the roadbook to go with the Gaia route… The event opens Wednesday evening 1 July with sign-on opening around tea time. The schedule for Thursday is the Prologue for the timed riders (to set the Friday start order) in the evening. While we wait for the full field to arrive on Thursday, early arrivals might like to try their hand at this 110Km “loosener”. https://www.gaiagps.com/public/UQvpMF8Yb

Vancouver Island Motosports Events - VIME PARTICIPANT RELEASE OF LIABILITY. WAIVER OF CLAIMS. ASSUMPTION OF RISKS. INDEMNITY AGREEMENT. SIGNING-ON DOCUMENT. (hereinafter referred to as the “Release Agreement”) Event: The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally - GoldRiver ‘26. Prologue, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3. 1-6 July 2026 Les 24 Heures du Gold River. Prologue and Day-Night-Day. 3-7 September 2026 The Great Canadian VI Day Trial. 30 June - 7 July 2027 (Delete not appli