The Art of the Ride Report - Planning, Tips, Opinions, Discussion

[O'Ren]

I don;t think a lot of people use their phones to actually read forums. This forum for example is compatible with a popular forum app on the iPhone that allows us to read it outside of safari, with an app made to enhance and facilitate the reading experience.

But usually phone users will just browse or look for quick info, and leave the more consequent browsing and reading for when they are in front of a bigger screen - so no worries there :)

[larryboy]

Originally Posted by dave6253

I've worried about this as well. What if I wake up one day and advrider is no more, or all of the old RRs have been deleted. How would I go on living? More importantly, I could never read my own RRs someday while in my rocking chair in some nursing home.

I backed up a few pages to my own computer in the past, but haven't done so in years. I'm gonna start doing this again, just in case, though I'm sure the advrider/smugmug servers are much safer than my own PC.

To save a page to your own computer using Internet Explorer, click PAGE, SAVE AS, and select the file type and the folder you wish to archive it in. This will save the page (not just a link) so you could see your reports long after the internet is closed down...

I'm not the most computer savvy. Does anyone know what file type works best for this type of function? Web Archive? HTML?

Saw this the other day and forgot to answer...

I'm going to try my first one using Blurb. It's cool because you can connect your photo hosting site straight to it, download their software to your computer, write the thing saving to your hard drive, upload and print when you're ready.

I write my reports using Notepad in HTML, then copy/paste here when I'm ready. It's the easiest way I can think of and embedded videos are in HTML or some variation, I don't really understand that part, but it comes out the way I want.

Blurb is geared towards selling your books, but I'm really just after something for those years when I'm in a state ward shoved in a corner mumbling about Death Valley as I clutch my books.

[Merfman]

Thanks for all the inputs from everyone! I think I've written 2 different RR's here and garnered a whopping 4 views and 1 comment so I definitely needed the education! I'm headed out to my very first biker rally this weekend so I will try to apply the lessons learned here!

PS - I'm riding a Strom to a BMWOA rally, should be interesting....

[Rob.G]

Originally Posted by Merfman

PS - I'm riding a Strom to a BMWOA rally, should be interesting....

Well at least the response will be less violent than riding to Sturgis. :)

Rob

[dave6253]

Hi Larryboy. I used Blurb recently to put together a book of photos just to see what the print quality looked like. I was really impressed. The software was easy to use. I was able to easily import the photos straight from Smugmug. I ordered a single copy as a sample. It arrived about 1 week later and the print quality was really good. The price wasn't too bad for a one-off book. I'll probably put together a book for my son about our ride to the Grand Canyon and order us a couple copies.

[Alcan Rider]

Had to use Google to find this thread again, but enjoyed catching up with all the great comments, suggestions, and advice. While doing so, one thing that came to mind is the use of photo editing software. Being a cheap frugal KLR owner (redundant, I know) my method is to search the internet for freeware. Doing so brought me to Irfanview, a very simple, capable program that does everything many of the better software programs do, and it is constantly updated. Just an FYI for those who, like me, would rather spend their $$ on farkles.

Now for a comment (perhaps already made somewhere in the thread) about titling your RR. With so many good, very interesting RRs, it is impossible to read them all, even spending 24 hour days attempting it. Most evenings (and any other time I can sneak away from responsibilities for a few minutes) it is my pleasure to peruse the first page or two of Ride Reports, looking for an interesting one, or one that I have been following. Over the years, it has been disappointing to discover how many very good ones were passed over using this method, merely because the title didn't pique sufficient interest. A couple of my own RRs have proven this to me, as titles that do not convey some idea of what the report covers are soon back on page 50. Imagine, if you will, how many readers Denis would have collected if, instead of "Father & Son take on the whole TAT" he had entitled it "A Slow Ride Down A Muddy Trail". Okay, a bit far-fetched, but "to illustrate; exaggerate".

Now back to those who have something really worthwhile to add. Great work, folks.

[crashmaster]

Originally Posted by larryboy

.....but I'm really just after something for those years when I'm in a state ward shoved in a corner mumbling about Death Valley as I clutch my books.

[swamp]

lol yea thats pretty damn funny

[dave6253]

Hi swamp.
Your new report had me wanting more so I checked out all of your older stuff as well. Wow! If anyone following this thread wants a lesson in creativity and personal style check out swamp's reports.

[larryboy]

Originally Posted by dave6253

Hi Larryboy. I used Blurb recently to put together a book of photos just to see what the print quality looked like. I was really impressed. The software was easy to use. I was able to easily import the photos straight from Smugmug. I ordered a single copy as a sample. It arrived about 1 week later and the print quality was really good. The price wasn't too bad for a one-off book. I'll probably put together a book for my son about our ride to the Grand Canyon and order us a couple copies.

Oh, that's good to hear!!! I still haven't gotten to it, I always take on too many projects.

Originally Posted by crashmaster

Originally Posted by swamp

lol yea thats pretty damn funny

I've been meaning to catch up with swamps latest report, I'll have to read it in December after this winters trips. I read the first page and it looks great!! I've even had several friends email me a link to it!!

[jetjackson]

Great tips in this thread. I have just bought my bike in London and about to start my Ride report. I have been doing video blogs, edited together, about one per week, so far everything has been by train or plane and so I have not started a ride report yet. Next week will be my first video blog with the bike. I use an Olympus tough camera and just bought a Gopro because I realized without it I was not going to be able to get good footage on the bike.

So my question is, what would make a good video ride report. My ride report will likely consist of a video about 10 minutes in length embedded in the report, plus a couple of photos, a bit of kiss and tell (which I can't do on the video blog) and a bit of a report that is more about the bike and the experience that advriders will appreciate.

So what holds peoples attention in a video blog? What would make a good video blog?

[AlpineGuerrilla]

Originally Posted by jetjackson

So my question is, what would make a good video ride report. My ride report will likely consist of a video about 10 minutes in length embedded in the report, plus a couple of photos, a bit of kiss and tell (which I can't do on the video blog) and a bit of a report that is more about the bike and the experience that advriders will appreciate.

I think it's difficult to have a video only ride report. For me, videos are more like a supplement to the ride report. Most video reports tend to be long and boring, so keep it short and sweet! Less than 10 minutes with a few different camera angles and a story being told is great. But of course it CAN be a litte bit longer, but that requires a lot of work - both filming and cutting.
An example for a long, but never boring video report is "Driven" by ADV member Mundo Bravo:





I have a different approach, as I'm not as experienced with filming and telling a story. So I didn't record any talking and have pretty much only riding scenes. Here's the video I made this summer as a bonus to the ride report:

[jetjackson]

Yeah exactly, I don't think you should go too much over 10 minutes unless you are good at putting in a solid storyline. Enough time for someone to watch it during their coffee break I figure. I try and do the face to cam stuff to explain how I am feeling or what is happening. I am also going to get a voice recorder for the helmet so I can link the audio to the gopro footage.

I think also, if it is just going to be a stand alone clip, that it doesn't become one big long music video clip.

Thanks heaps for the footage clips, they are some good base lines. You have great footage by the way that D5000 does a really good job. I would have trouble recording on one of those all the time just with the sheer gigs of data that you would rack up. That is another consideration if you are trying to do a video report.

[AlpineGuerrilla]

Well, I only shot a few clips with D5000, the rest is captured with the Gopro. The panning and the timelapses are shot with the DSLR, so it's only an addition to the Gopro. Might have to upgrade to a proper video camera sometimes. What camera are you using?

Btw, be sure to post your videos in the Motorcycle videos videos videos thread once they're done.

[calrider]

One of the things I enjoy when writing or commenting on a report is the interaction with other inmates. When I write one, I do my best to respond to all the comments. (see example in one of my ride reports here)
It's great how a "community" can start building around a report this way. Some of the folks who've commented on my reports have gone on to become friends of mine. I've even formed business relationships with some of them.

One of the things I've seen people do and that I've emulated is the practice of introducing a photo with text at the top of the photo, then following the photo with the rest of the story about the photo. This works well in this online format because you are always scrolling from top to bottom. I think it also builds a bit of anticipation about the photo before the full photo is revealed through scrolling.

Another good practice is to vary the photo size depending on its purpose. Smugmug allows you to do this through parameters in the embed link. If the shot is beautiful and needs to be shown large to get the full effect, it's OK to pump it up to a screen width or height, but no more. Link to larger versions if you want. If the shot is just there to set a context or keep the story going, make it smaller.

End your posts with cliff-hangers or teasers for the next post. E.G. "In the next post, we bite the dirt for the first time" to foreshadow an accident.

Take a lesson from reality shows. They are always about the people and what they're going through. So talk about what you're going through. If you're uncomfortable with that, interact with and get to know people along the way and report what they're going through. A glimpse into someone else's life, especially if it is foreign to yours, is often fascinating.

I use MS Word to write my ride reports. I've written a couple Word macros and connected them to keyboard shortcuts to make it easier to paste in the HTML code for photos and other links. Instead of typing out the HTML tags and pasting the URL in, I just copy the URL from smugmug and then hit the shortcut and it surrounds the URL with all the required HTML and pastes it into the document.

The problem with smugmug and most image hosting sites, is that you don't know what the URL of your image will be until you've uploaded it into the site. This means that at some point you need to go online and copy and paste all the links into your report even if you're composing it offline in MSWord or another editor. Smugmug has said they will address this at some point, but I have still not seen a satisfactory solution. If you create your own hosting account on any of the many hosting services out there (I use GoDaddy), you can create folders to your heart's desire and upload photos using FTP. The advantage is that you can know before you upload them exactly what the URLs of your photos will be. With this knowledge, you can completely compose your ride report offline including all the appropriate photo links before even uploading your photos. Then, when you get to your next internet connection, you can batch upload all your photos and then copy and paste your update into your ride report. This is especially useful if you're on the road and would rather compose your report someplace more pleasant than an internet cafe and then only use the internet connection to do the actual upload. Of course, you lose all the advantages of Smugmug such as automatic resizing, photo albums etc. I use both approaches.

The other advantage of composing in MSWord is the grammar and spell checking. IMHO having correct grammar and spelling makes a report more pleasant to read. You can break the rules but it's best to know what they are in order to break them effectively.

Thanks for this thread. It's been a great read!