Enduro Rules & Helpful Tips
Enduro Rules & Helpful Tips
- Arrive at the venue early. It takes time to get through the sign-on and Machine Examination.
- Park your vehicle where indicated.
- Locate the SIGN-ON area and go and sign-on as soon as you arrive.
- Take Club Membership Card; competition licence; Bike rego papers and drivers licence.
- Sign on and collect your riders card, number and Transponder.
- Fill in your rider’s card from the Schedules displayed.
- Return to your bike and fit the number and transponder.
- Take your bike & Helmet to the Machine Examination area. (You will pass through a Transponder Check area which will show if your transponder is working properly and it is reading the correct Name & Class)
- You will be issued an enviromat which must be used throughout the day under your machine for all refuelling and whenever there is risk of fluid loss from your machine.
- Place your Bike in the Closed Pit (Parc Fermé) area where directed.
- Your bike must be ready to go – all fuelled up etc. No work is allowed in the Parc Fermé.
- Go back to your vehicle set up your fuel, tools and whatever at the side of pit lane and put on all your riding gear.
- There will be a riders briefing – it is compulsory to attend this as often important information is passed on.
- Go to the RIDERS BRIEFING.
STARTING PROCEDURE
- You will be called into the Parc Fermé to collect your bike five (5) minutes before your START TIME – NO WORK IS ALLOWED IN THE PARC FERMÉ.
- Push your bike to the start line where directed.
- You will notice that riders push their bike to the start line 1 min before their start time and only start their bikes once their minute has clicked over. It is against the rules to start your bike before your minute. If you do there is a points penalty. When your minute ticks over start your bike and ride off on the marked course. Note that there are 3 riders per minute, so ride at your own pace, don’t race, just ride at a comfortable pace.
ON THE COURSE
The course has Time Check points which you pass through and return to during the day. Distances between these are usually from 20 – 50 km so make sure you have enough fuel to cover this distance with ease. You should have sufficient time to complete each section without racing and still have a few minutes to re-fuel, make any minor adjustments and re-fuel your body with drink and food before you check into the Time Check.
- Two WHITE FLAGS on the course indicate that you are approaching a TIME CHECK.
- Re-fuelling and mechanical work and receiving tools and / or parts must be done between the WHITE FLAGS and the YELLOW FLAGS.
- The actual TIME CHECK is indicated by YELLOW FLAGS about 20 metres from the table / tent.
- Move slowly up to the YELLOW FLAGS.
- DO NOT PASS THE YELLOW FLAGS UNTIL YOUR NOMINATED MINUTE COMES UP ON THE CLOCK.
- Once you have passed the YELLOW FLAGS the officials will mark your time card with the time you arrived. CHECK IT BEFORE PUTTING IT AWAY.
- Start on the next section.
SPECIAL TESTS:
- Somewhere on the course there will be short Special Tests between 2 and 5 km long.
- These are used to determine the winners as most riders will complete the “Trail” sections on time with no penalties
- They are timed to the thousandth of a second using the transponder you were issued at Sign-On.
- Ride within your abilities, don’t go ballistic!!! A crash in the test will hurt and loses heaps of time.
SPECIAL TEST PROCEDURE:
- Start of Test: Stop at the WAIT line.
- When the rider in front leaves move to the START line.
- If you get to the START line while the clock is in the WHITE or YELLOW you must start when the sweep hand gets to the NEXT GREEN.
- If you arrive at the START line and it’s already GREEN you wait until the next available GREEN.
- As soon as the sweep hand gets to the GREEN; start and ride straight under the antenna loop and go like the clappers. Your timing starts as you pass under the antenna loop.
- Any rider who follows another rider in on the same GREEN may be penalized.
- Finish of Test: Ride straight under the antenna loop.
- DO NOT STOP until well past the NO STOPPING ZONE
- Once out of the test you will be back on the course and need to get out of race mode and back into trail mode.
A FEW MORE IMPORTANT HINTS
Remember – Re-fuelling MUST be done in the work area between the WHITE FLAGS and YELLOW FLAGS.
Under no circumstances are you allowed to ride backwards up the pit lane at the Time Checks or Final Work area at the end of the day. If you go past your support crew and pit area you must get off your bike and push it back to your spot. Riding backwards on the course is dangerous and can lead to a penalty.
WHO CAN WORK ON THE BIKE?
A general rule is that only the RIDER CAN WORK ON THE BIKE.
However your helpers can put fuel in the bike and do a couple of other things. For a full list of what helpers can do please refer to the Manual of Motorcycle Sport available at http://www.ma.org.au/fileadmin/user_upload/Documents/MOMS/2016_MoMS/2016_MoMS_0803_website.pdf. Particularly Pages 169 & 172, 173.
If you’re not sure DON’T LET YOUR HELPERS TOUCH THE BIKE.
CAN I GO IN TO A TIME CHECK EARLY?
Yes & No
Yes – At the end of the day it is OK to put your bike through the Final Time check early.
No – At all other Time Checks you must check in at your allocated time or face a penalty.
If you get tired during the day or you suffer a minor injury or your bike is playing up, DON’T continue on as this is when people get hurt and lost. Better to be healthy and at safe at a Time Check or Event Headquarters than stuck in the bush or worse still on your way to hospital.
Whenever you finish you must hand in your timecard to the people at the Control as this is the only way we know that you are back safely.
MULTI DAY EVENTS:
RIDING INTO PARC FERMÉ
After the Final Time Check of the day you must push your bike into the Parc Fermé (You are not allowed to ride it to the Parc Fermé)
BIKE PREPARATION:
Please ensure that your handlebars are plugged, that your handlebar levers all have the knobs still on their ends, wheel bearings are in good order and the bike is sound. (We cannot let poorly maintained or dangerous machines compete!). Once passed Bikes and Helmets will be stickered so we know which ones have passed.
AT THE FINISH
At the end of the ride you must ride into the Final Time Check and hand in your card.
If it is a single day event the officials will take the Transponder off your bike.
If you DO NOT FINISH (DNF) you must hand in your transponder before you leave the venue. They are expensive and it will cost you if not returned.
So how do you do well in your class?
The object of an enduro is to complete the sections or loops by being on time at the Time Checks (also called controls), not late and not early ( although its OK to be early on the last one of the day when you have finished and you hand in your card).
For each minute you are late or early you are given 60 second penalty. If you are on time all day you don’t lose any points. There are other time penalties for things like starting your bike before your departure time comes up at the start of the day etc.
In the Special Tests you will be timed to 1/1000th of a second.
The person with the lowest score wins (adding your trail penalties to your special test times) So you can see how important it is to be on time at the various Time Checks and start of day and how important it is to ride the Special Tests without crashing.
You must finish ALL the loops and ALL the tests to feature in the results. Those who decide wisely to finish early without covering all the loops because they or their machine are tired or injured will have their times listed however they cannot feature in the placings as they didn’t complete the event.
STAYING ON TIME
What do you do if you are late or early?
- Each section of an enduro has a set time allowed to travel the distance.
- If you clock in late or early you cannot get “back on time” during the next loop.
- If you clock in early (as if you’d be silly enough to do that!) you need to check in at the next Time Check exactly the same amount of time earlier than your original time would have been.
- If you clock in late then you need to clock in exactly the same amount of time later than your original time would have been.
- You don’t need to be a maths expert, just subtract or add those few minutes to what would have been your clock in time. Easy!
- To enable you to do this you need to have your expected times written on your card (in the section for rider use) or on a piece of tape attached to your bike.
- If you are more than 30 minutes later than your original due time at any TIME CHECK the Officials will ask you to retire from the event so we don’t have riders out in the bush late in the day.
These are only a few of the basic rules.
More information is available at http://trailandenduro.com.au/faq/
To fully understand Enduro you should read the Manual of Motorcycle Sport available at http://www.ma.org.au/fileadmin/user_upload/Documents/MOMS/2016_MoMS/2016_MoMS_0803_website.pdf
If you are unsure of any aspect, please ask one of our officials, if they cannot answer your question they will find someone who can.