Motorcycle rally is a high-speed and exciting cross-country racing sport, including galloping on all kinds of terrain with two wheels. When riding, it is very important for the driver to know what will happen next – turning, direct, river crossing, etc. Typically, this is handled through a Guidebook – a paper scroll with a chart of each turn or route checkpoint, as well as the distance between them and any other relevant information. Of course, this needs to be paired with a reading to tell you how far you have come from the last waypoint, so you’re not just guessing. This reading is usually in the form of a rally computer, a device that can display speed, distance and heading (some preferred devices even have more data available).
Road book with commercial rally computer
In 2017, Matias Godoy was frustrated by the low interface and high cost of most rally computers in the market. He designed his own back and soon realized that he had a potential product. After several iterations, he brought his idea to the market and conducted a small-scale initial operation, which sold out in a few hours!
Then he spent some time reflecting on the successful election. Instead of continuing to mass produce units, he decided to open source the design so that everyone can use it and see what the community can think of. He published all design documents to GitHub and wrote a wonderful blog post, recording the whole design process, from inspiration and early prototypes to his decision to open source.
[Matias] project, the open rally computer (formerly known as Baja Pro) is neatly packaged in a CNC processing chassis, with a beautiful high visibility LCD display, a built-in GPS receiver and an ergonomic handle remote control. The data is processed by the esp32 microcontroller, which also supports OTA update for wireless internet access. The end result is a beautiful and useful device, which is clearly well-designed. Like the idea but not the rally? If street bikes are better for you, don’t worry, because there is an open source digital dashboard for you.