DIY Audax Events for Idiots Made Easy

[Heltor Chasca]

The idiot being me.

I have a few decent gaps in my calendar where there aren’t any suitable rides that I can enter. So I thought the time has come for me to put together some of my own DIYs. (NB Routes and rides would be of the GPS variety) The only trouble is I can’t get my head around some of the definitions on the AUK website and the new DIY section on the website makes littles sense in my tiny brain.

I really can’t distinguish between Mandatory; Advisory and Permanent DIY. And why there are different forms to fill in.

As I see it:

1/ I can either build my own route (I have already planned 3 different routes of 200+km.) I love maps so this is the fun part.

OR

2/ I can ask an organiser if I can use their established route/ride and use or adapt this so I can start from my doorstep or start/finish from the original départ and arrivée.

Sorry @Ian H I am doing my best to understand this fully before sending my entry to you! I can hear you groan with dread already. Pretty sure once I have done one DIY, I will be away.

Thanks in advance to any patient soul out there.

 

[Ian H]

I allow riders to start my permanent events from anywhere on the route. So, if you are able to start and finish at a point on the route nearest your home, you can ride the event without modification except for extra start/finish controls.

If you want to use any of my routes for your own purposes (to construct a DIY for example), that's fine also.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Perms, routes designed by others that you can enter. May or may not allow validation by GPS.

DIY - you design the route

Advisory - The distance is calculated from min distance walking between your nominated controls. You only submit a list of your controls and distances in advance.
Mandatory - You submit a GPX track in advance that contains your DIY route. You must follow the exact route. Min distance calculated from track.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Perms, routes designed by others that you can enter. May or may not allow validation by GPS.

DIY - you design the route

Advisory - The distance is calculated from min distance walking between your nominated controls. You only submit a list of your controls and distances in advance.
Mandatory - You submit a GPX track in advance that contains your DIY route. You must follow the exact route. Min distance calculated from track.

Hah! That I think, explains it perfectly. I am grateful. I just couldn’t pull apart the AUK website’s explanation.

I can sleep now.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

I allow riders to start my permanent events from anywhere on the route. So, if you are able to start and finish at a point on the route nearest your home, you can ride the event without modification except for extra start/finish controls.

If you want to use any of my routes for your own purposes (to construct a DIY for example), that's fine also.

Thank you. I think from @YukonBoy ’s explanation I understand now. The likelihood is that I will do a MANDATORY DIY and follow a GPS route that I have constructed. With experience (and permission) I’ll try out some of the perms that come near to my house with amended start/finish controls.

@Ian H What sort of lead time do you need for a MANDATORY DIY with GPS to be submitted? Also the AUK website section pertaining to mandatory DIYs with GPS states that TCX files are fine. Is that correct?

I hope you don’t mind my questions being public so it can be useful to others.

Many thanks.

 

[Ian H]

Your questions are best directed to Tony Hull, the SW DIY organiser. In brief:-

• Virtual brevet cards 'exist' as soon as you purchase them, so no waiting. Physical cards have to be posted to you.
• The organiser will check your route in advance if you ask him to. Allow a couple of weeks at least for this.
• If you're confident of your route and don't need it pre-checked, you can just enter online and ride. But the organiser does have the final say about validation.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Your questions are best directed to Tony Hull, the SW DIY organiser. In brief:-

• Virtual brevet cards 'exist' as soon as you purchase them, so no waiting. Physical cards have to be posted to you.
• The organiser will check your route in advance if you ask him to. Allow a couple of weeks at least for this.
• If you're confident of your route and don't need it pre-checked, you can just enter online and ride. But the organiser does have the final say about validation.

Thank you. I’m sorry about the identity mix up. Confucius reigns. This is very helpful.

 

[PpPete]

Much of the confusion seems to arise from the historical classification that DIYs are a kind of Permanent.
For students of audax history that may make sense, but in plain English DIYs are about as impermanent as they come.

The new DIY page seeks to remove some of the confusion by deliberately not mentioning the term "DIY Perm"

Granted, there are still three 'flavours' of DIYs... each with their own entry form, but that page does provide a link to something of an explanation

And Perms are elsewhere ( I wish DIYs were not mentioned on that page, but it's not going to change now - will have to wait for the long-promised new website)

Previous iterations of the DIYs web page divided things into Traditional DIY and DIY x GPS and then subdivided the latter into advisory and mandatory routing... and went into exhaustive detail about each kind - which apparently was even more confusing.

It was recently suggested to me that a more logical subdivision would be, first into Advisory & Mandatory, and only then dividing up Advisory routing into traditional (receipts at controls) and validating by means of a GPS. That didn't seem much better.

Not saying the new description is perfect ....

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Thanks for the useful replies above...This is something that I've looked at and failed to understand too....but it's nice to understand.

Absolutely. Funnily enough I was exactly the same about childbirth, but it was easiest left to the children’s Mum.

That aside I’m really looking forward to cobbling together some DIYs. I have the makings of some really good routes already.

 

[Banjo]

If you cant stick rigidly to the route on a mandatory route due to unforseen road closure or something take some photos and email Tony Hull the details .He is very reasonable.So long as you make every effort to stick to the route and your final track is at least the nominal distance all will be ok.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Just bought 3 virtual brevet cards and submitted my first DIY 200 for over the Easter weekend. I’m excited.

Poor Tony Hull has no idea what he’s let himself in for!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Enjoy. It becomes second nature after a while. Do not worry if a ride does not appear on your results list straight away. I usually leave it about 10 days before chasing up a ride. Sometimes backlogs happen but as long as validated within 14 days it is all good I believe.

 

[Aravis]

Your questions are best directed to Tony Hull, the SW DIY organiser. In brief:-

• Virtual brevet cards 'exist' as soon as you purchase them, so no waiting. Physical cards have to be posted to you.
• The organiser will check your route in advance if you ask him to. Allow a couple of weeks at least for this.
• If you're confident of your route and don't need it pre-checked, you can just enter online and ride. But the organiser does have the final say about validation.

For some strange reason I've found myself looking at mandatory DIY by GPS. Thanks to @Heltor Chasca for starting this useful thread.

After reading a lot of stuff the main question I still have is about the route itself. In particular, if you do submit your route far enough in advance, what would the organiser be checking for?

One possible issue I can think is leaving accidental "spurs" lying around, which if not removed might compromise the total distance.

As I understand it, a big attraction of the "mandatory by GPS" approach is that you can include as many meanderings as you like without the need to establish the shortest available distance between points. But are there any restrictions at all on what the route can do or where it can go?

I can well see that for a first attempt anyway, you'd be pretty foolish to pass up the offer of a pre-check, but it would still be good to know what to avoid.

 

[Banjo]

On some mapping sites you can accidently double back on yourself and it wont be immediately obvious .I check that the distance between kilometer markings doesnt suddenly get closer together on any part of the ride.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Your DIY Organiser will not be doing anything with your mandatory route in advance. After you do your ride you load the tracklog up and it gets automatically compared. Provided it matches close enough to the original it will pass. Else you may get wuestioned on deviations. If you do find a motorway or bridleway or closed road then just take the most sensible diversion you can rejoining route soon as and you will be fine.