What Makes Best Roadbooks?

Best roadbooks are precise, well thought-out, tested, verified at speed, synced with FIM / FIA and safety devices—and also challenging and fun. But what does all that mean?

Precision That Works in Real-World Conditions

When we say our roadbooks are precise, we don’t mean they were created in perfect lab conditions. We mean they’re accurate for the real world, where:

• Your wheel circumference changes during a stage as your tires wear out (by 0.5 cm or more).

• You might do a wheelie, or take a wrong turn and stay off course for a while.

• Your magnetic tripmaster might miscalculate your position if you leave the track.

• GPS has its own quirks—especially under dense forest canopies or steep mountain slopes.

That’s why our roadbooks are measured using both GPS and mechanical systems, then tested with the same devices riders actually use: from simple Android tablets and magnetic odometers to tripmasters and Garmin units. Garmin, in particular, has earned our trust over the last six years by delivering unmatched precision.

Carefully Thought-Out (Not Just Accurate)

A perfectly accurate roadbook that’s poorly designed is just a boring pile of “irrelevant” data. To be excellent, a roadbook must be strategically thought through. For a roadbook to be great for navigation (but also fun, challenging, tricky, rewarding for experienced riders and better navigators, and tough on the less experienced), it is extremely important to think far beyond just geographical features, distances, and track dangers. Ours are built with a deep understanding of the context in which they’ll be used.

We factor in:

• The physical and mental state of the rider during a stage (first or last of the day, short or long, high heat or fatigue).

• What happens if you miss a turn—various scenarios that might happen if the rider takes a wrong turn.

• The time of day, week, or season.

• Micro-locations: is it dense forest, wide open space, rocky hilltop, or lakeside?

• Terrain and typical riding speed at that moment.

• Local weather forecasts and the changing ground conditions of the Dinaric Alps.

• How the terrain will appear to:

  • Riders opening the stage with no tracks to follow,

  • Riders coming later with 100+ tracks ahead of them and the route dug up.

We could list dozens more details—and still not cover everything. A good roadbook balances countless variables. And yes, sometimes they even contradict one another. Still, our goal is to make each roadbook as close to perfect as possible.

A sloppy, untested roadbook sends a clear message: the organizer doesn’t care about your experience, your results—or your safety. We do.

Tested and Synced with Real Rally Equipment

You can only spot the unpredictable once you start testing. So we test a lot—and not just once.

Our testing includes:

• Riding slow and fast.

• Riding with and without CAP headings.

• Riding using Terra Pirata and paper roadbooks.

• Sync checks with all safety systems.

• Speed checks: verifying penalty triggers in speed zones and neutralizations.

• Compatibility testing with all popular navigation devices.

Plus, all Dinaric Rally roadbooks are compliant with the latest FIM/FIA regulations for Rally Raid. Unfortunately, many rallies don’t follow those rules. Riders get used to poor formatting and ambiguous symbols just because they don’t have a choice. Some organizers even invent their own styles, which forces riders to re-learn the “language” of navigation at every event.

That’s not only unfair—especially to new riders—it’s dangerous. Riders who’ve done the same rally before gain an unfair advantage just because they’ve learned that organizer’s quirks. Roadbooks should be standardized, not cryptic puzzles.

Challenging and Fun—By Design

Perfect accuracy without any challenge would be dull. At Dinaric, we believe in injecting a bit of uncertainty, trickiness, and the need for real focus.

This doesn’t mean misleading the rider or omitting crucial turns. It means crafting navigation that:

• Punishes rushed decisions.

• Rewards experience and terrain reading.

• Allows room for mistakes—but only from poor attention, not poor design.

In dunes or open desert, this comes naturally. But in the Balkans, we have fewer wide, trackless areas. So we work even harder to include tricky sections, navigation challenges, and route options where the rider’s intuition and skill matter.

We believe the best rallies test more than speed. They test thinking, interpreting, and adapting. That’s what makes Dinaric Rally roadbooks so loved—and so talked about.

Final Thought

The roadbook is (or should be) the soul of any rally. It’s your navigation tool, your safety net, your best friend and your biggest challenge.

A great roadbook takes months or even years to develop. Taking shortcuts isn’t just lazy—it’s disrespectful to the riders who risk their bodies, bikes, time and money to be there. Riders should hold organizers accountable. If a roadbook is sloppy, confusing, or badly written, that’s not just annoying—it’s unacceptable.

At Dinaric, we treat roadbook creation as a craft. A responsibility. And a privilege.

Perica