Rally Roadbook Lexicon. What do all those symbols mean??
One of the most daunting parts of the roadbook when starting out is the hieroglyphics written all over the page. What does all this gibberish mean?? How am I going to ever remember all the symbols? How can ORN possibly mean ruts? Who came up with this? We all had the same feelings of confusion when we first saw a roadbook.
Don’t worry. They will make sense and you will learn to understand them with just a quick look. The symbols and abbreviations are faster for your brain to process than the equivalent words and symbols.
Below you will find the FIA Road Book Lexicon. Click either image or this link to bring up a 2 page pdf document. If it is your first time following a Roadbook, we suggest you print out a copy and take it along with you on your ride.
You will notice that most of the symbols and abbreviations make sense right away. The lexicon evolved over time and it is still changing as the art of writing roadbooks evolves. They started with the Dakar Rally long ago. Up until recent years, the official language of the Dakar Rally was French so much of the terminology developed was in French. And some of the abbreviations you see in the Lexicon Chart came from French terms leading to confusing abbreviations for English speakers. Many of them have changed to English which makes it much easier for English speakers to understand. No more SER G for Keep Left. Now it is KpL. Don’t worry. Your brain will quickly learn what the symbols and abbreviations mean and you will not even have to think about them.
Rally Roadbook Lexicon Page 1
Rally Roadbook Lexicon Page 2
We do our best to conform to the FIM rules in the way our Roadbook Tours are written. We want to provide a consistent style that will prepare the rider to progress to organized rally events if they choose to.
To prepare yourself for your first Roadbook Tour, load it up on your device. Then grab your printed copy of the Roadbook Lexicon. Scroll thru the Roadbook Tour from the start and figure out what every part of the note means. Visualize what you read from each part of the note. Try to anticipate what the roadbook is telling you. Then move on to the next note and do the same thing. Continue thru the whole roadbook until you get to the end. This is a great exercise to complete before jumping on the bike and riding off. After you do this a few times, you will begin to learn what to expect as you physically arrive at each note’s location.
Back in the old times, when we used paper scrolls, we used different colored highlighters and a sharpie to add our own notes to the roadbook. We called this Marking Up the Roadbook. Each rider had their own system of marking. The idea was to try to simplify the roadbook even further and add notes to reduce the brain processing power we would need at that future moment when we would glance down at the note while zooming along. Now your electronic roadbook is pre-marked and you have all the time you budget to go thru it ahead of your ride to try to understand it. Take advantage of this and you will have an easier time following the route.
We copied this excerpt of the rules from our friends at Rally Navigator. Rally Navigator makes the software we use to make our Roadbook Tours. If you want to try to make roadbooks for yourself and your friends, Rally Navigator is the software to use for it. If you want to take a look at the FIA/FIM Rules, search for “FIM Dakar Rules”.
Now that you can read hieroglyphics fluently, head over to the Northwest Roadbooks Roadbook Tour Store and get a Roadbook Tour to ride today!