I am thinking of haveing a go at the Hellas rally, the main problems are shortage of money, never done any road book riding. I read that the Hellas is about the cheapest rally to do, Thinking of me and 2 other riders drive from the UK 2100 miles each way in my van and share the costs, maybe hire or buy the roadbook etc sleep in the back of the van (might stink after a day or 2) apart from the costs of diesel, ferry entry fee, could any one tell me what other expences I might have. possibly be able to transport another bike or 2 in my van to help out with the cost of diesel. Not looking to make a profit just share the costs. I would be on my ktm 690R is that easy to fit very basic nav equipment to? Any suggestions/advide would be welcome. Thanks Lee.
No idea if it's possible to hire RB equipment, anyway there is also the GPS Adventure alternative ;-)
2 ICO's, a roadbook holder, and bracket to mount everything will set you back a little more than $1000. If you don't need extended range then the 690 will probably work well with just the nav setup.
Thanks for the replys, I could make a very basic road book and a mount off the bar clamps, do I need 2 ICO's ?Not that I have a clue what an ico is:huh I believe the clocks on the 690 have some of the stuff needed for navigation? I could make an extra fuel tank if needed, anyone know if I need an extra tank? if so how much extra fuel would I need? Thanks Lee.
An ICO is a rally dedicated odometer which can be adjusted plus / minus when you miss turns and have to readjust the mileage. If this is your first rally you will be doing that quite a lot, no offense Plus, as all rallys in greece (and Albania and Sardegna) have quite "dense" navigation instructions, you will be needing the second decimal in your ICO (the one that counts in tens of meters as opposed just the one decimal that counts every 100 meters). Not sure if the stock odo does that. No need for two, one ICO + your stock odo for checking your speed on speed limit zones should be enough. You'll have to factor in the sensor bracket (pick up) to your costs, a spare sensor cable. These can sometimes go boom on rocky trails, hence people using two ICOs side by side. If one fails, they keep going with the second. Without a working ICO, you are lost and up shit creek. (Of course you could always whip out your GPS, but asking for the tracks from the organizer will most probably disqualify you from points in the Roadbook class) I would suggest an electronic roadbook, twisting knobs on a manual while dealing with rocky trails and lots of sinuous mountain roads with drop-offs is no fun & could be dangerous. Look around for used ones, the organizer of Hellas Rally is also the Touratech importer, hint hint. Drop him an email, he should have a bunch lying around, plus controls. Plus: a larger tank. MInimum range for HR is 150kms. This being your first rally, factor in getting lost, you will need a range of up to 200kms I would also fit some sort of steering damper. As I said the route will probably include a bunch of rocky terrain. It might be a luxury and a damper helps save energy instead of wrestling with the bars all day. PLus the prologue will most probably be on sand, and it always helps to get a good seeding position for the second day which will be the first of the long ones. A damper will help a lot in the sand. Hellas Rally is a good one to choose for your first rally, it's pretty laid back, lots of people go just to have fun and you'll only see 20-30 riders really competing for times. The only problem with taking a too laid back approach is when the quads and cars catch up / pass you. Dusty as hell and a pain in the neck to pass. Try and keep a good rhythm going and set a target for each day (ie. top 50% of bikes or something like that) See you there!
Good suggestions here, but when on budget, skip the steering damper en buy a cheap tripmeter. I did my first rally on a modified bicycle computer. I am also using my 690 and rally raid is present so spare parts are no problem . You do not need extra fuel, when no full on the gas you can make more than 180km on on tank. If I were you I would buy a F2R roadbook and a trailtech vector tripmeter and make a mount like this:
Yes the F2R roadbook is good, you don,t need to by MD. Use a electric roadbook becasue if you use manual RB is bigger problem that you forgot to look forward if something is on the road. Look here what I took with me to Tuareg Rally 2012 and I had a 690R -11 and some picture about my cockpit and more. About the tank you got 12 litres so don,t put the bike in the mud the 12 litres tank will jsut do fine! http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=821493&page=5
Thanks! So what will an ICO do that a Trailtech Vector will not do, big differance in price, does the trailtech vector replace the 690 clocks?
Nothing, but the ICO has larger numbers and is therefore easier to see. I used (and still do use) a Vector and F2R roadbook as above in my first rally, they worked perfectly fine.
I always use 100 meter precision on the ICO (one decimal). Is the 10 meter (two decimals) a personal preference or is it really necessary?
It is for southern european ones IMHO: Albania, Sardegna and Greece have myriad dirt trails in the mountains, plenty are 30-40-50 meters apart. Testament to these "Rally Lite" events with plentiful and merciless roadbook instructions were the Italians I raced with in Serres last year, all Sardegna veterans. They exhibited Enduro Special test speeds without batting an eyelid on which direction to take... awe inspiring stuff For all other, more open space events like the Dakar, Australasian and North African rallies I have heard of people using the one decimal, not so many roads to choose from in those parts of the world
Okay... but I'm also using one decimal on roadbook navigation in the Netherlands, where distance between two points is usually a couple of hundred meters and sometimes even less than hundred meters. But maybe two decimals would be a good alternative for Hellas, although in most of the situations two decimals is not necessary and only confusing. I'll be sure to take the ICO manual with me, to be able to switch decimals
The ICO will auto-adjust as you ride. Basically every time you get to a known mileage point you increment or decrement the ICO to match the mileage...this teaches the ODO a correction factor of sorts which is very handy. The cheaper ODO's will just spin at the same rate all the time. Why is this important? because the reality is that your front wheel slips and slides and brakes and sometimes is not on the ground and these all lead to distance errors. On longer events where you might have a couple of km between instructions the error can get quite significant.
its not so bad once you play with them for a bit. I like looks of the Watchdog a lot better but have not used one yet. RMS has some other ICO style computers that look a bit nicer too.
Personally I use IMOs from Touratech, love the menu and the large display size but no auto calibration feature. Their sensor cables suck balls big time though, I've gone through 5 in a year FFS. At 50 euros a pop, it slowly adds up Tony's RNS thingies will probably be next on the shopping list for me, I slowly beginning to despise all things Touratech
+1 here.. .. They eat cables for breakfast ... The quality of their cables is way too cheap IMO. Last time I fixed both IMO's and bought new pick up cables... . And the connectors are another matter. They are so big for no reason. ICO and RNS (and MRB ) are using much smaller connectors and you can keep things tidy. My next setup will be ICO and RNS. I like the ICO's only because of their auto calibrate function, otherwise RNS is higher quality and the digits are so big that you either have Retinal dysplasia ( I googled it ) or Feline herpesvirus keratitis (I googled that too ) if you do not see these things from a distance. D.
The ICO's work but the displays are small, seem to attract dust, and I think there are more options out there now:
Speak to John at Rally-Raid products, he was talking about a nav equipment hire package with the option to purchase after the rally. They are also going to the Hellas rally.
