GoldRiver ‘26 - The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally. Thursday Hillclimb and WheelsGuru Skills Challenge.
- Jonathan Binnington
- Nov 19
- 5 min read
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will remember I have previously written about the programme developments lined up for next year, developing the event programme running from Wednesday 1 July to Monday 6th July 2026…
On the Thursday before rally Friday, Saturday and Sunday there will be two new additions to the programme. Shahnawaz Karim, Wheels Guru ( www.wheelsguru.ca ) will be presenting his off-road riding Skills Challenge and the VIME team will be running a “Bracket Hillclimb” as a test event.
The Skills Challenge.
Shahnawaz Karim, Wheels Guru www.wheelsguru.ca will be providing an off-road riding skills masterclass in close proximity to the hillclimb. The format is still under development and will be publicised through his website as well as the usual VIME channels.
Shahnawaz is a BMW partner and a IIA-certified Enduro Motorcycle riding trainer (guru…!). He specialises in mentoring riders of large capacity Adventure bikes - the routes for the Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally have been selected this year to compliment Adventure bikes and their riders.
The invitation to riders of Adventure bikes is clear…. Masterclass with Shahnawaz on Thursday, ride the event on Friday, Saturday and Sunday! If you don’t feel ready for roadbook navigation, you can ride the Gaia navigation class, singly or in a group.
The Bracket Hillclimb.
No surprises will be spoiled if I tell you the Hillclimb will comprise the two roads marked in black on the west edge of the Gaia map screenshot above.
But how will it work?
You have probably seen social media videos of desperate young people astride fearsome-looking home built frankenbikes lining up their studded-tyre creations to take a punt at an impossible cliff, getting three-quarters up and then looping their bike out as engine power and studded tyre grip finally overcomes the hill/bike geometry and gravity as the rear wheel undertakes the front and bike and rider cartwheel back down the hill….?
Well, this will be NOTHING like that!
I am acutely aware that such an event format would take the risk of serious injury from slight, through possible and probable to an absolute bloody certainty. And I can’t be doing with that!
So, in order to come up with a format that reduces risk and firmly puts control into the hands of each individual rider, I have looked around at other Motosports genres for inspiration…. And taken notice of Bracket drag racing.
Bracket Drag is a variety of dragstrip racing where riders (and drivers) specify an “index time” or elapsed time more properly and the competition is to get as close to that index time without going faster. In Bracket Drag, an elimination process is followed where the more successful of pairs of riders progress through a series of eliminators to a Final - but that won’t be appropriate to us.
Instead, following car hillclimb practice, all riders will ride the hill and the winner will be the rider who gets closest to their “index time”.
But how is the index time set?
Each rider will get to ride the hill three times, or four if time permits.
The first ride will be a sighting ride to see the hill.
This will be accomplished in small groups following a lead marshall.
Riders will assemble at the top of the hill waiting for all participants to go up the hill, then everyone comes down together.
The second ride will be to set their INDIVIDUAL index speed.
This run will be timed and each rider can go as fast and more importantly, as slow as they choose. In this way each rider is in control of the risk they expose themselves to.
Again, all riders assemble at the holding area at the top of the hill waiting for all to complete their climbs. Not until all up-traffic has arrived will riders then proceed back down the hill.
The third (and possibly the fourth) run will be timed, with riders attempting to replicate their index speed.
The winner will be the rider who most closely replicates their index time without going faster than their index time.
Clear?
The Hills…
The last weekend in October saw VIME Tim and VIME Gary accompanied me to Gold River for a day of trying a few hills out.
I would like to put on record my profound gratitude for their contributions in turning this idea into a workable event.
The design brief was for a hill of suitable tricksiness, a level four on the DSBC 1-6 difficulty scale… somewhere between 500m and 1500m in length, without any exposed or unprotected drop-offs and with mobile phone signal at the top, bottom and midway to make communication easy.
We found two suitable roads, shown in black in the image at start of this article.
The shorter of the two is 660m in total, the longer one is 1100m.
Both are mostly hard-packed blast rock gravel, steep in parts with some short, loose, friable, sandy lengths. Both have a number of deep (1-2m) cross ditches with flowing water at their bottoms, also a number (quite a number) of willowy saplings between knee and chest height to distract the eye but supple enough to bend out of the way when ridden at…
The character of both of these “roads” is such that even the maddest rider attempting to set the “fastest time of the day” will come seriously unstuck. This will be the contest where the tortoise will definitely get the better of the hare. But how difficult? Tim on a DRZ4, Gary on a Kove 450 and Yours Truly on a Mighty DR650 managed both hills multiple times. I bogged down once on a sandy uphill corkscrew but with a downshift and some inelegant footwork I got going again.
This contest will provide the counterbalance to the big bike-friendly roadbook rally routes.
The contest format suggested by Tim and Gary was to run the short course in the morning and the long course in the afternoon which sounds an excellent idea.
DSBC 1-6 difficulty rating scale, and who knows or cares about Pritchett Canyon in Moab! I would like to talk about The Dalrymple Main descent…
1/Tim not taking a leak. 2/There’s snow on them thar hills! 3/ 400 & 450 in the sunshine. 4/ Yes, sunshine! 5/ And then the clouds parted. 6/ Taking a photo of you taking a photo of me taking a photo of you…
The tops of the mountains surrounding Gold River and on the run from Campbell River along Hwy28 were dusted white with the first snows of winter yet to come. Falling temperatures and shortening days have now brought this year’s greater activities to an end. Next spring I’ll venture out again to see what the winter storms have done to my carefully crafted routes and begin the work of laying courses out and proofreading the roadbooks.
Until then, we hibernate and prepare for next year!
Entries can be found at:
The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally - GoldRiver ‘26
GoldRiver Hillclimb ‘26
WheelsGuru Skills Challenge
See www.wheelsguru.ca Shahnawaz can be contacted directly through his website.
Here’s looking forwards to warmer, longer drier days!
JDB
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