top of page
Search

How to do a GoldRiver - VIME event. It’s not as difficult as you may think…..


First, Second and Third place finishers, The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally 2025.

Left to right, Jonathan Binnington (organiser), Christian Pelletier (2nd), Owen Partaik (1st), Neil Barbisan (3rd).



The events staged by Vancouver Island Motosports Events are specifically designed to provide accessible, affordable, competitive motorsports to road-legal motorcycle enthusiasts.


The format fuses elements of rallyraid (roadbook navigation), tarmac regularity rally (timed and scored legal average speeds between timing checkpoints), adventure voyaging (long distance backcountry routes and bike-packing camping), multi-day events (harking back to Six Day Reliability Trials) and common-or-garden road motorcycling(all event routes are over highway designated gravel roads).


In keeping with the “Everyman” approach, the VIME/GoldRiver format strips out procedural intricacies that characterise RallyRaid run to FIA/FIM principles and makes use of a few essential, intuitive roadbook icons. The format also makes use of a suite of free-to-use smartphone apps that enables affordable entry level but competitive motorcycle motorsport.





The routes, the bikes, the format, the Rules, the hardware and the software.


The routes and the bikes go together…. All the routes cover roads designated as public highways. The gravel road network on Vancouver island north of the Campbell River to Gold River Highway (hwy 28) is on Crown Land. The gravel roads are ungated (unlike the Mosaic/Dunsmuir legacy forests on the south of Vancouver Island) and require motorists to comply with motoring laws including obeying speed limits, carrying ICBC or equivalent insurance and being in possession of an appropriate driving licence.


For us on bikes, this is a golden opportunity to travel the wilder corners of Vancouver Island using every variety of road - some straightforward, some not so!



But before we talk more about the bikes it is necessary to tell a little more about why this genre of motorsport is legal in BC.



The Routes.

The motoring legislation in operation permits “navigation trials” that do not involve speed tests, stunt riding or pacing/overtaking. The legislation therefore extends an invitation to us to stage trials whose purpose is to try to achieve speed precision over set courses - provided those set speeds do not exceed the local speed limits (usually 60kph). The navigation challenge is provided by describing the route in a rally style roadbook and the riding challenge is provided by the technical nature of parts of each route.


For a deeper discussion about the legalities, please see: https://www.gr200.com/post/vime-events-the-bc-legal-framework


We are constrained (by laws) to only travel over public highways. We are unable to cross private land, ride through forests, moorland, desert or beaches. That said, there are thousands of kilometers of gravel roads, built by the logging industry for us to explore


The competition element is provided by scoring each rider’s success in meeting each set time target leg, as measured/scored/recorded by the smartphone app (Richta).


For riders wishing to experience the journey without the pressure of competition, the same routes are provided as a GPS mapping app route with start times arranged in order to separate the competition riders from the leisure riders (not that the ride can in any way be considered leisurely…).


What we have, therefore is a fusion of RallyRaid (roadbook navigation), Regularity Rally (setting target average speeds over timed route legs) and good ‘ole backcountry dualsport and adventure backcountry travel.


The bikes and riders MUST BE road legal! Registered, insured and licenced. The bikes must also be in a good state of repair. Beyond that, any cross-country capable bike is suitable. Granted, the largest capacity Adventure bikes will prove to be a substantial challenge in all but the most capable hands, and the most modest Grom or CT125 Trial (underbone postie bike) might prove to be a tad underpowered unless ridden by a bantamweight rider, but if it is road legal it is good!


For riders from jurisdictions outside BC, reciprocal recognition of eligibility means is you are legal at home you will be legal here. If you don’t bring your own bike but hire one in BC, the insurance you buy will do nicely.


If you are from outside BC, the only extra you might want to seriously consider is medical and evacuation insurance. BC taxpayers and non-tax paying residents have the costs of receiving healthcare paid for from BC taxation. Ambulance and air-ambulance journeys cost $80 for BC residents but non-eligible patients get dinged with US-sized bills. When telling your prospective insurers about your upcoming trip, explain that you are coming to a guided tour by motorcycle and emphasise it is not a racing/speed activity.


The Bikes.

Aside from the requirement to be road legal, anything (potentially) goes…. OK, so you probably wouldn’t want to do this on a Goldwing or a Ducati 900SS, so your bike of choice has to have some measure of cross country capability.


Which brings the choice mostly down to Adventure bikes, Dualsports and Rally Replicas - plus an assortment of others such as Honda CT110/125 postie bikes, Groms and trials bikes if they are road legal.


Each category comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Adventure bikes are comfortable and have long ranges between fill-ups but can be heavy and unwieldy. Dualsports can be compromised all-rounders (unless modifications have been made). Rally Replicas are possibly the most agile with long ranges but may be least comfortable for 8hrs riding at a time, day after day. And then there are the Enduro derived bikes such as the Yamaha WR250, KTM 250/350, Honda equivalents and so on that have performed well in previous editions of these events.


In keeping with the “Everyman” approach…. If you’ve got it, ride it!


The Format.

VIME events are intended to be accessible for newcomers to motorcycle rallysport as well as being relevant to riders who have some knowledge of higher levels of motorcycle RallyRaid.


Let’s be totally clear at this point.

  • These events ARE NOT RallyRaid events.

  • The roadbooks ARE NOT “pacenotes”.

  • These ARE NOT race/speed events.


These events are entry-level NAVIGATION TRIALS, with or without Regularity average-speed-between-timing checkpoints, with the routes described by Rally-style roadbooks OR GPS mapping app GPX routes.


They are intended for motorcycle enthusiasts who would like to explore the backcountry of Vancouver Island with likeminded company while engaging in some low-key motorsport - like it is so difficult to do elsewhere these days.


The “touring” class of the event gives a GPX/Gaia map route for riders to follow at their own pace, solo or in groups. Riders wishing to bridge the gap between map-based navigation and roadbook navigation can also ask for the routes as roadbooks and follow both at the same time, seeing how one relates to the other.


The “sporting” class has riders navigating the route alone (or in pairs if they do not wish to be considered competitors for overall classification purposes). They also have their progress monitored, scored and recorded by Richta Competitor. The scores of all competitor-participants are shown in Richta Scoreboard.


Touring riders start separately to Sporting riders, who start at two minute intervals in order to ensure a separation on the road. The location of each “virtual timing gate” (GPS position) is indicated on the roadbook as a Richta Control Point (RCP) along with the average speed that is to be achieved along the way to the next RCP.


  • Sometimes the road between two RCPs is straightforward and riding at a steady speed isn’t too much of a challenge.

  • Sometimes the road between two RCPs is very far from straightforward, comprising terrains of very different difficulty. The challenge (apart from coping with difficult riding conditions) is to ride the easier sections faster than the indicated average speed in order to offset slower speeds in more difficult sections.

  • Sometimes a section can be sufficiently tricky that a very slow average speed is set, that may be slower than some riders would ride the difficult (usually downhill) section. The speed management technique here is to ride the difficult section at your preferred speed then wait the clock out at the end of the section before proceeding through the timing gate and recording a score…


It is important to point out that each timed section stands alone. Timing starts as you pass the first RCP “gate” and finishes when you pass the next, which then serves as the starting gate for the next section. This means that if you make a pigs-ear of one section you cannot redeem lost time by speeding in the next. Forget about your mistakes and move on to the next section. This is not a race!


One Time Penalty (TP) point is awarded for each second a rider is early or late in each section. TPs are totalled at the end of each day and the lowest TP total for the event wins! Missed sections are awarded the leg maximum TP score which means riders of the biggest bikes that elect to miss difficult sections (indicated ahead of time in the rider briefings and in the roadbook) do not exclude themselves from the rankings.


Given the routes are confined to roadways, RCP points will be “on the usual way”. There will be no need to go chasing across open fields or through woods and forests to find obscure timing points. After all, we can only go where we are allowed to go.


In keeping with the “Everyman” approach, the timing and scoring system is as straightforward as it can be while still enabling competition.



The software





There are Android versions of all these iOS apps.


VIME roadbooks are written in Rally Navigator, a PC app which conforms to the FIA/FIM conventions and produces PDF roadbooks which have the appearance shown below. They are distributed by email before the event for participants to load into their Rally Roadbook Reader. Previous roadbooks and this one below are available for trial runs loading into your smartphone or tablet of choice.


If you have a close look at the three page roadbook here, you will see every icon and point of note used in VIME events. There are about 36 of the 360 or so in the full FIA/FIM rally lexicon. The lexicon included by Rally Navigator is itself a shortened version of the full list…


In keeping with the “Everyman” approach…. Blah blah blah!





And the hardware…

In keeping with the “Everyman” approach, the VIME event format has been developed to be compatible with minimal-cost technology. GPS chip-equipped smartphones and tablets. The apps indicated above run on smartphones that gave a GPS chip but do not need a SIM card. Usually the component that fails in a phone is battery life and during an event, phones need to be on with a lit display for the duration.


This means you will need to arrange for a usb charging facility, for two phones as you will run Rally Roadbook Reader on one phone and Gaia or Richta on the second phone. If you are using Richta Competitor on an Android tablet, you wil need to ensure that all other functions are turned off as Android is not (apparently) very good at multitasking and if Richta is running and another app is caused to become operational (receiving a text, phone or email message for example), Android OS will turn Richta off and not turn it back on again…


Second hand phones work just as good as new ones with these applications, run your usb chargers from switched-live wires on your bike’s electrical system and do what you can to keep the rain out of them.


There is one further piece of hardware, the importance of which is becoming apparent. A remote GPS receiver. The GPS receiver chips in smartphones are very clever pieces of technology, but they are not infallible. Power consumption and battery life constraints limit the performance of the GPS systems in phones. They sample just one set of satellites at a rate of one “ping” per second and the direction sensitivity of the antennas is very much in the “straight up from the screen” direction. And how do most phones get mounted on bikes? Almost vertically with the GPS antenna operating in its least sensitive direction.


The receiver detailed costs about $200, samples GPS satellites at ten times per second and receives signals from both the USA GPS system and the Russian GLONASS system.





The Rules.

A set of GoldRiver Rules have been developed and refined over the years to provide a framework for the running of these events.


In keeping with the “Everyman” approach, The Rules have been written with the minimum amount of regulation necessary for the orderly conduct of events.


It would be wise to read them at least once…



This just about covers what you need to know in order to participate in a VIME event. Ego-free, recreational motorcycling at you choice of level.


Upcoming Events






If you have any questions, please contact me through the www.gr200.com website.


Thank you and please accept my best wishes for a peaceful future.


JDB. 23/12/25














 
 
 

Recent Posts

See All

Comments

bottom of page