The Great Canadian (motorcycle) Roadbook Rally is ready to Go!

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, then the Thursday night-Prologue, then day routes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The total distance of all five routes is slightly less than 800Km, 90% of which is on North Island gravel. Hard, sharp, dry. Bring the right tyres - gummies may not last!!!

If you are not familiar with the VIME event format, it goes like this…

• Canadian and British Columbia road traffic legislation permits “navigation trials” motorsport over public highways provided no aspect of the relevant legislations are contravened.

• All bikes and riders MUST BE fully road legal - registered, licenced and insured.

• Riders from other jurisdictions (USA for example) are legal to ride on BC highways provided they are legal in their home country/state.

• USA and Canadian motor insurance is mutually operational. ICBC insurance works in the USA, USA motor insurance works in Canada.

• Forest Service Roads that cross Crown Land are classified as Public Highways and require the application of all Highway Motoring legislation.

• With the exception of the Mosaic managed forests on the lower third of Vancouver Island (search for Dunsmuir Legacy Forests on the internet if you are curious), the forestlands on Vancouver Island are (almost all) Crown Lands.

• Leveraging “navigation trials” permission, public highways status, GPS-smartphone mapping, timing and PDF-display apps in combination, the venerable discipline of Regularity Rally has been repackaged for the TwentyFirst century for motorcyclists riding dualsport and adventure bikes over the dusty, gravel backcountry roads of the north of Vancouver Island.

The event will be centred on Sayward Junction with routes exploring the interesting but doable-on-adventure-bikes routes between Campbell River and Woss. The emphasis is on rally style roadbook navigation and the intention, aside from a memorable bike expedition, is to introduce rally-curious motorcycle enthusiasts to rallysport in an unintimidating environment. To this end, the progress of riders around the course is followed by the event crew equipped to recover and immobilised bikes and in the event of the unexpected happening, the BC Ambulance service and Campbell River Search and Rescue are aware of our activities and ready to do their stuff.

On this point, while BC residents are entitled (if that is the right word) to ambulance and air evacuation, participants who do not pay into the BC taxation system will be presented with a rather large bill of Negev an is needed and they are advised to bring appropriate travel insurance with them. Make it clear to your insurer that this IS NOT a race or speed event…

The event opens in the afternoon of Canada Day, Wednesday 1 July for early arrivals. Sign-on and scrutineering starts on Thursday morning. The FullOnLighting Prologue is Thursday evening beginning as the sun goes down. Friday is followed by Saturday and then Sunday.

Expect to be tired at the end of it all. You will have developed a whole new relationship with your bike by Sunday afternoon…. Ask me how I know.

Now! To gather the tents and trophies and all the other things. Routes will be sent out this coming weekend by email/PDF.

Any questions???

JDB 22/6/26