top of page
Search

The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally. 1 - 6 July 2026. The programme, the location and continuing instructions.



Update: 23 February 2026


Preparations for the summer 2026 Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally are well underway and proceeding as intended…


800+Km of gravel road riding over four days through the heart of the forests of the north island…


The event will follow the established VIME format of an extended gravel road navigation trial for licenced and insured riders of road legal dualsport, adventure and rally replica motorcycles. The routes will be exclusively set over highway designated gravel forest roads of the north of Vancouver Island with the riding parameters falling within the letter of the motoring laws.


In this way it is possible (in BC) to hold competitive motorcycle motorsport that complies with all the legal requirements of private motoring on open, public roads.


The format follows Time Speed Distance (Regularity) principles, where navigation instructions are given by rally roadbooks using “tulip” diagrams to illustrate road junctions and progress is measured by GPS timing against legal average speeds over the course.


A “participant” class is also included for riders not wishing to compete. The routes in this class follow the same paths as the competition class but are described by a GPS-driven mapping app (Gaia) displayed on a smartphone or dedicated navigation tablet.


The progress of riders is followed around the course by way of the GPS timing system (Richta) and having the riders pass through marked “Census Points” around the course where they are all counted in and counted out again.


The event this year is centred on Sayward Junction and covers the geographic area between the Gold and White rivers and the Newcastle range of mountains.



The Location.

The event bivouac this year is located at the Sayward Valley Resort, 1546 Sayward Road, BC V0P1R0. Our hosts are campground owners Faith and Frank. Campground facilities include an on-site convenience shop and off-licence, flush toilets and hot showers with a pub/restaurant, convenience shop and petrol station on the other side of the perimeter hedge.



Camp fees will be $12 per tent per night, collected on your arrival. If you wish to bring an RV, or if you with like indoor accommodation, please contact Faith directly on 250-282-3204. Their website is https://www.saywardvalleyresort.com/


If you are “navigationally challenged” the map pin for the campground is https://maps.apple/p/TgXodf2rDF3N-e




The Programme.

Wednesday 1 July (Canada day)

The event bivouac opens Wednesday evening 1 July 2026 for early arrivals. If you are bringing a RV or are taking indoor accommodation you will already have contacted campground owner Faith and made these arrangements. If you are camping, the rate is $12 per tent per night. Event organiser Jonathan Binnington will collect this from you on your arrival and pass it all over to Faith at the end of the event.


Thursday 2 July

Late arrivals will continue through Thursday morning with sign-on and scrutineering starting Wednesday evening and continuing through Thursday morning.


Sign-on will comprise signing an Indemnity Release statement and presenting your driving licence, insurance and registration for inspection. Data Protection obligations mean that all that will be recorded is that you presented your documents and that they were found to be in order. Details on your documents WILL NOT be recorded which means the event organisation will not have any sensitive data to protect (another confidentiality obligation sidestepped!).


Scrutineering will be of the “light” variety. Brakes operating on both wheels? Head and taillight operational? Exhaust reasonably quiet (no open pipes)? Tyres servicable? Dear and fuel tank securely fixed to the bike? There will be NO requirement to lock-wire fasteners, have fluids overflow catch bottles - this isn’t a homologation exercise just keeping rattlers in check.


Off-road riding guru Shahnawaz Karim www.wheelsguru.ca will be running a training session for riders wishing to have greater or finer points of their off road riding addressed. His email address is Shahnawaz@wheelsguru.com Please directly him directly to enquire about his activities.




If there is a demand, a short (1-2 hour) “how to read a roadbook” class will be provided free of charge for anyone who is not familiar with rally roadbooks. Clue: it isn’t difficult and once you can read one line you can read then all…


There is also a 110km Gaia route to ride as a “loosener”. The route url is given below. This route is entirely representative of the routes and difficulty you can expect to encounter over the event weekend - and elements of it may, or may not be encountered again during the weekend.

and the course profile looks like this… ride it in an anticlockwise direction!

You will need to open the url to see the route…. Expect to put aside three to four hours to go round this in an unhurried manner.


As dusk gathers, the first challenge for the competition riders will begin. There is a short Prologue Route to be ridden under timed conditions. The start order of the prologue will be decided by riders drawing a lottery and the results of the Prologue will provide a “shakedown opportunity” for riders to satisfy themselves that their systems are working correctly, AND ALSO determine the start order for Day 1 of the competition class (and nothing else).


The winner of the Prologue will choose their start position for Day 1. Once the winner has elected their start position, everyone else will start in REVERSE PROLOGUE RESULTS POSITION. The rider who accrues the MOST time penalties in the Prologue will start first (unless the winner of the Prologue elects to lead out, in which case that rider starts second) - and so on through the field of Prologue scorers. Clear?



Friday 3, Saturday 4, Sunday 5.

The format of the next three days will be very similar. Starting and finishing at Sayward Junction each day, each day’s route will be of the order of 250Km with a required fuel range of 150Km or less.


Refuelling and refreshment stops are included in each route, as are CENSUS POINTS at which riders MUST STOP and will be counted in and out to monitor progress and act as an alert if anyone should fail to appear. Progress will also be monitored by way of the GPS timing system used by the competition riders.


First off will be the competition riders at two minute intervals, followed after a short pause by solo non-competition riders followed by non-competition riders riding in groups. In this way, the field of riders is able to act as its own monitor in addition to the measures provided by the event crew.


The evolution of the competition results will be provided by the scoring function of the GPS timing system and will be updated at the end of each day.


The event winner, second and third place will be announced at the end of the third day.

Bragging Rights will be awarded!


Scoring. Regularity (Time Speed Distance) rally is a genre of motorsport where participants follow navigation instructions from a roadbook composed of sequential “tulip” diagrams of each significant road junction, while endeavouring to keep to a set target average speed between timing gates (in this case, virtual GPS gates). Time penalties are accrued for each second the rider arrives at each timing gate ahead or behind schedule. To complicate matters, the rider has to manage their own navigation and speed management while riding the bike (der…) and the roads over which the event is run can be described as “poor” at best from the perspective of the general motoring public. TSD rallyists in cars, driver + navigator, over tarmac roads regularly achieve “perfect” scores. The motorcycle version rarely sees a perfect score over a leg - never over a whole course.


Previously, the expectation has been that every rider would attempt the entirety of each course and results would be ranked first on the number of scored “legs” and second on the time penalty totals. This gave a huge disadvantage to riders who elected to miss especially difficult sections, or if their technical equipment failed to record their presence at a GPS gate - usually due to overhanging trees obscuring GPS connectivity.


In an effort to even things out, the scoring method for 2026-7 has changed in that the maximum time penalty (TP) for each leg has been set at 900 seconds REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THAT LEG HAS BEEN RIDDEN OR NOT. There is a double-jeapordy in that the closing GPS gate of one leg also acts as the opening gate as the subsequent leg. Thus, if a rider misses out (by accident or intent) one gate, maximums on two legs will be recorded. Each leg owns with a “flying start” designation to avoid the possibility of a “triple-jeapordy” situation.


Gaming this scenario out, if a rider were to try to gain an unfair advantage by taking the highway directly from Census Point to Census Point, their total TP score would far exceed what they would expect to accrue riding the course.


The riding portion of the event will be over by the evening of Sunday 5 July, awards given, results announced, stories told. Early leavers will leave the bivouac on Sunday evening.


Monday 6 July 2026.

The bivouac will close at 1000 hrs on Monday morning. You are welcome to extend your stay but please make your arrangements directly with Faith and Frank.


I look forwards to meeting you!


Jonathan Binnington, event organiser.



Other event entries can be found at: www.gr200.com/shop









 
 
 

Recent Posts

See All

Comments

bottom of page