My biggest complaint about roll chart /road book navigation is when my odo doesn't agree with the roll chart. There have been sections like this every time I have used a roll chart. If i ride a long wheelie, which I occasionally do, then I am off a couple of tenths. I am gonna shut up now, because I don't want my opinion to be interpreted as a criticism in any way. It is not. I am gonna keep up with this thread though.
Sounds interesting. Many many years ago i was the sweep rider at the Zink ranch for several 3 and 4 day AMA qualifiers. 150 miles per day of very tough single track. I couldn't do that today. .........A lot of the entrants couldn't do it back then.
Damn, I never thought of that one. In the next roadbook, I'll put in there that you have to wheelie for one mile then put your wheel down for the remainder of the distance to the next waypoint. And I'll adjust the roadbook mileage so it's only correct if you do it right. Great idea rufus! Oh wait, is that going to work? :huh rufus, I appreciate your comments. I know there are plenty of people that see it like you. You gave me and the others the chance to point out a few things about these roadbook rides that I don't think many are aware of. It's all good discussion.
Hey Scott, Please spare a thought for us fortunate enough to have purchased a US made 'Christini' AWD, a spinning front wheel really screws with the ICO!:huh Overcome that one in your roadbook if you can! No, don't, just stick to what you do best and keep doing what you do! Road book navigation rocks!
That's easy. Just add a sidecar, and hook the odometer to the un-driven side wheel ! All Nomads are VERY welcome to join in the fun, when it's ready.
Hey Scott, Awesome idea! What would you tell an "A" level racer who wanted to do the route on a 990S? Retarded? Stupid? Death March? Doable? Fun? Thanks.
Good Luck! If you love to suffer, you'll have a great time. Every one of us who have been pre-running crash/fall a half dozen times everyday, and push or walk our 450's and 525's in various places. Other than the waterfall and dunes, the photos posted so far don't show the hard spots. I guess that's because we're busy at those times dealing with the obstacles. I would never say it's impossible, but it would definitely be a serious challenge. Do you really want to ride that beast through this? . . .
Now this looks like a riding vacation to me. Love road book rides. Got to come down and do some or all of this one day. Thanks for all the hard work on putting this together
This looks like a bunch of fun, I probably do not have the skills for it, but sure will keep it in mind if one day I can ride better
Hmmm....well I certainly love a good challenge, there's difference between a challenge and a death march though. God knows, I've crashed the 990 more times than I can count, so that part doesn't bother me too much...the pushing/lifting part, that's another story. Thanks for the reply.
Though this thread has been quiet, I've been busy planning the next prerun. The logistics for prerunning are often a mess because we usually can only ride about half a stage each day due to unexpected problems with the planned route. Sometimes doing half a stage leaves us in the middle of nowhere, far from our supplies and beds. When we do end up in a nice location, it's often a hundred miles from our trucks and supplies. It's really tough finding someone who wants to skip all the riding and drive a truck down the highway to meet us. This led me to add some "return" stages, and more loop stages so we can get back to our starting point without using pavement. The cool part of this is we get more fun miles, more stages, and more roadbooks for The Grand Rally. The overall length is now at 3379 miles (5440km). With a lot more prerun planning still ahead, its pretty clear well be up around 4000 miles (6400km) when its all done. Wooohooooo!
So many people want in on the prerunning that I've had to tightly ration out the invites. I really appreciate those who are helping because the project could not be completed without them. But I need to keep the prerun groups as small as possible for now. On the other hand, if you want to drive a chase truck, and sit around in a motel while we're out riding, youll move right to the front of the helper list. And the beer will be on me! Not at all. Weve prerun maybe a third of it so far, and not in the order that the stages are laid out. Actually, to ride the whole thing would take an effort not unlike whats needed for Dakar. You need a traveling support crew, lots of supplies and spare parts, and a couple of weeks of free time. Remember, this thing is already over 3000 miles, and still growing. That's about the length of dirt Special miles in Dakar (not counting liaisons). And a lot of TGR miles are very technical. I dont really think ANYONE will ride the whole thing, start to finish, in one trip. Its just too hard and too much. Thats why Im sort of breaking it up into regional sections, so people can take on 3 or 4 stages in one trip, from one bivouac location. Then you can take on another group of regional stages on another trip from another bivouac location.
