Moving the GoldRiver format onwards and upwards.

3d plot of a gps antenna/receiver sensitivity

This blog post is devoted to format, technical and technological developments to the GoldRiver motorcycle roadbook rally format, brought about mostly by reflections and revelations on the GoldRiver XXV event.

Each of the specific points will be taken in turn before drawing everything together into a list that will be written into the GoldRiver Rules for 2026.

The points contained in this article are initially intended to be for discussion before the GoldRiver Rules are revised for 2026. Therefore comments, suggestions and challenges are invited to be submitted to jonathan@gr200.com

The points for discussion will be

• Event classes and field size

• Route publication and timing of publication. Paper scroll vs PDF

• Richta and gps odometer accuracy/precision/reliability and remote gps antennas and smartphone orientation

• Event location

• Scoring

• Possible new event features

• Hidden vs overt RCPs. This is not a car rally, we have difficult terrain

• Continue to be an entry-level event

• Richta vs other rally technology systems

1. Event location.

The support given to the GoldRiver event by the community of Gold River grows to the point where unexpected developments that could/would be “show stoppers” have been solved by the community.

• With this degree of support, the event will continue to be based in the village of Gold River.

2. Event classes, field size and event “level”. Statement of intent.

The GoldRiver Rally, now known as The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally was conceived as an event that would serve as an on-ramp to motorcycle rallysport and a grassroots roadbook rally that conformed to the requirements of the relevant BC and Canada legislation.

Part and parcel of this ambition was, is and will be to keep the costs of participation as low as possible.

• To this end, the event will continue to use low cost apps running on low cost smartphones, using them to their best possible effect.

  
  

• The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally, aka the GoldRiver Rally will continue to use Richta as the event timing and scoring system. The preferred pdf roadbook reader will continue to be Rally Roadbook Reader - although other pdf roadbook readers will be acceptable provided they do not have an average speed speedometer function.

3. Entry-level and grassroots.

The logic behind “Keeping thIs SimpleS” this is that it is in everyone’s interest to encourage new people to try this motorsport.

It is a self-evident fact that if a rider needs to buy a “competition-ready” bike plus navigation equipment plus entry and transport to events in third countries simply to see if they like this form of motorsport, and they are at a stage in their life where they have other family and life obligations, it is unlikely that they would ever take the first step.

There is currently no other event (in Canada at least) where aspiring Rallyistas can participate in their first competitive event.

• The stated aim of Vancouver Island Motosports Events as a business entity is to continue to produce events that fit this design brief of “entry-level” and “grassroots”.

• There will continue to be two classes of participation:

  A non-competition, untimed Gaia-plus-roadbook class that introduces riders to backcountry travel and backcountry travellers to rally roadbook navigation.

  and

  A competition, timed roadbook-only class that uses Richta as the timing system. This style of event has been called “Regularity Raid” elsewhere.

Conversations are currently ongoing with a potential supplier of paper scroll roadbooks. Now that the event format is reasonably well understood, it might be time to move closer to the usual rally format of providing the routes with a minimum of notice.

If a third party supplier of scrolls can be established, it might be that roadbooks are published with 24hrs or less notice.

• It might be that the competition class is required to use PDF roadbooks distributed by email and that riders who insist on paper scrolls will be unable to participate in the competition class.

• It is important to note that Vancouver Island Motosports Events WILL NOT be providing roadbook paper scrolls.

4. Entry list cap - 50.

The 2025 edition of this event attracted thirty or so riders - the largest entry to date. That entry gave an opportunity to gauge what the upper limit of future field size might be, in order not to overwhelm the local community and the event organisation.

• The upper limit to the field size of participants will be set at fifty (50) riders for 2026. This value will be reconsidered in the light of future experience.

5. Similarities and differences between car TSD roadrally and the Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally.

While there are some obvious similarities and differences between car road rallies and this motorcycle motorsport, there are also some less obvious differences that need to be pointed out - especially to riders who are transitioning from the precision world of car events to the rock and roll world of motorcycle TSD events.

• There aren’t any “calibration” legs at the start of every course for riders to calculate their “odometer offset values”. The reason for this is there isn’t yet a precision odometer suitable for motorcycle use - either to set the course or measure participants progress round it. Everyone has to use GPS odometers with their inherent inaccuracies - more on this later.

• Each leg of these motorcycle rally routes can be expected to pass through wildly varying terrains. It will be impossible to ride at a steady speed over a leg. This introduces an added degree of difficulty for each rider in that they have to find some way of achieving the target average speed for each leg while never being able to ride that leg at that steady speed.

• Therefore, there will be no “hidden time checkpoints” in a leg (used in car rallies to check drivers keep a steady speed). Each bike leg will begin with a “clock start” gps gate and end with a “clock stop” gate. Usually the gps gate that ends one leg is also used to start the clock for the subsequent leg.

• The expectation is that riders will ride difficult elements of a leg at a speed which is comfortable for them - sometimes tricky sections are more easily ridden with a little speed, sometimes ridden more slowly. The test always remains to meet the target time for each leg.

• The paradigm for bikes is 1. Stay on the bike. 2. Stay on the road. 3. Stay on the course. 4. Stay on time. In contrast the car paradigm is 1. Stay on time. 2. Stay at the set steady speed. 3. Stay on the course. 4. Stay on the road (usually not difficult if the roads are paved).

• Car crews endeavour to achieve perfect (ie zero) scores. The winning rider in 2025 ran up more than 5300 time penalty seconds over 750km of course. Zero leg scores are possible, consistent zero scores are not - intentionally.

• The requirement of riders is if they come across another rider in “a situation”, they stop to help. This could be fixing a flat, removing a fallen tree, assisting up an unexpectedly difficult climb. Lost time can be claimed back as a time allowance in the post-finish examination of the scores. In extremis, the scores from an entire leg can be dropped in the interests of fair competition.

6. Richta gate detection issues and GPS odometer accuracy.

If you have followed this blog or participated in one of these events you will be aware that the accuracy of GPS odometers is not always as good as is expected and sometimes Richta fails to detect a GPS gate…. And the collective we have been unable to come up with a satisfactory explanation.

We had the pleasure of the company of a modern day MI6 “Q” equivalent (if you know your James Bond films).

Arthur Hazleden you are a Star!

Arthur has been able to advance my understanding of how GPS works at the smartphone level and has answered the tricky questions that were without solutions for me.

GPS works by receiving “signals” from satellites in orbit - Der! That was the limit of my understanding.

Arthur has provided these further insights:

The GPS antenna/receiver in a mobile phone has maximum sensitivity to the satellite signals when it is held flat and pointed directly up at the sky.

Also it updates at a rate of typically once per second.

Remote, auxiliary antenna/receivers update their position data at a rate of ten times per second and “listen” to more satellites than smartphone receivers.

This is a graphical representation of the sensitivity of a smartphone GPS antenna/receiver to satellite “signals”. It is much more sensitive in the “straight up” direction than out the sides or upside down directions.

Arthur has also read the Richta technical notes about using remote, auxiliary GPS antenna/receiver devices that can Bluetooth to as many as five devices, can sample up to ten times per second, can be configured with iPhones and with a little bit of wrangling, androids and cost less than $300.

Much experimentation will be forthcoming to investigate this. In the meantime and in the spirit of minimising costs there is a simple way to maximise the GPS sensitivity of your phones for GPS odometers and Richta rally timing.

• Mount your phones horizontally, facing straight up! I note that typically we mount them near vertically and keep them vertical in out jacket inside pockets…

If you want to start experimenting with this, do an internet search for smartphone compatible remote GPS antenna/receiver devices. Go for the ones that have Bluetooth connectivity to more than one device and can be simultaneously charged and used.

This from the Richta website, https://richtarally.com/assets/documentation/Advanced%20GPS%20Checkpoints.pdf

7. Possible new event features….

At this point, I would like to invite any and every suggestion you have. Don’t worry if your idea appears impractical or not legal at first sight. We can’t do anything illegal but it might be possible to make something legal if it appears illegal….

I would like to see a Motosports festival with the support of the Gold River community………

Any ideas?

Regards

Jonathan