(RIP) Bin Ridin
Registered user
Received this re recent event in Dubai - you could not make it up....
Navigational Competence / Familiarity with navigation equipment.
Following the Baja/Desert X event, it was obvious that a large percentage of the riders had no knowledge and/or experience with regard to navigating using GPS. Four riders handed in brand new, still packaged GPS, implying that they had probably never ridden/navigated to GPS.
Competitively, this resulted in missed PCs, slow times etc but as far as safety is concerned, it is not acceptable.
The route is defined by waypoints and all riders should therefore be confined to a reasonably narrow corridor through the terrain, which, for obvious reasons, is much safer than having 100 riders spread indiscriminately over a large area of desert.
There were riders who appeared to not know how to switch the GPS on, how to set it to navigate the stored route or indeed, follow the indication given by the arrow on the display.
To divert the attention of the organisation to locating a rider who is lost or overdue through failure to understand his GPS is unacceptable, particularly if it detracts that attention from dealing with a genuine injury/ incident.
All riders should make use of the coming weekends to acquaint themselves with their equipment and practice riding while navigating with it.
Please ensure that your GPS equipment is marked with your name and fully charged, when handed in at scrutineering.
Navigational Competence / Familiarity with navigation equipment.
Following the Baja/Desert X event, it was obvious that a large percentage of the riders had no knowledge and/or experience with regard to navigating using GPS. Four riders handed in brand new, still packaged GPS, implying that they had probably never ridden/navigated to GPS.
Competitively, this resulted in missed PCs, slow times etc but as far as safety is concerned, it is not acceptable.
The route is defined by waypoints and all riders should therefore be confined to a reasonably narrow corridor through the terrain, which, for obvious reasons, is much safer than having 100 riders spread indiscriminately over a large area of desert.
There were riders who appeared to not know how to switch the GPS on, how to set it to navigate the stored route or indeed, follow the indication given by the arrow on the display.
To divert the attention of the organisation to locating a rider who is lost or overdue through failure to understand his GPS is unacceptable, particularly if it detracts that attention from dealing with a genuine injury/ incident.
All riders should make use of the coming weekends to acquaint themselves with their equipment and practice riding while navigating with it.
Please ensure that your GPS equipment is marked with your name and fully charged, when handed in at scrutineering.
