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

[JayElDee]

Come-annnnnnnn; you know what I mean.

But, your ease with teasing proves my point sort of. That you can tease effectively, shows you choose to write it wrong, for effect, and it is funny, but it also suggests that writing it correctly is important to you, as evidenced by the quality in your reports.


John

[tricepilot]

Xanax, people

You will feel a lot better

[timk519]

Originally Posted by Lone Rider

On-the-road levels the field quickly.
The pretentious rider is always a pretender.

+1

[dave6253]

It's obvious, there are many preferences regarding what sort of report and what content is important to some viewers. I wouldn't disregard a cool report because of bad spelling. I certainly wouldn't want to discourage someone from posting a cool report because they feel their spelling or grammar is not the best. Not everyone here speaks English as a primary language. ..And some of us dat doo R pro ducks of public eduKation. As long as u speeek motorcicles youR Kool w/me.

[SprintST]

Originally Posted by JayElDee

yes, that and pictures of half eaten pizza or any other food.

and endless pictures of the bike fallen over with some "humor" attached

and inside jokes among the riders on the ride

and the pretension of some cosmic karmic "journey"

and maudlin ramblings

and any use of "lol,"

and emoticons, esp those that repeat

Good thread...should be required reading

John

Tempted as I am to comment on this quote I'd best pass for the time being out of respect for thread peace. The rest I've thoroughly enjoyed and have provided much insight into what I'll consider incorporating into RRs once I get the nerve to start chronicling my travels.

On a personal note, pizza is one of my favorite food groups and I can't imagine anyone leaving one half eaten lol. I'd need photo proof of that one.

[fullmetalscooter]

Some peope Don't got or no how to spell etc. doesn't mean much in a report unless there is nothing to the story. pictures matter. Don't care about your food or that you drank you liver out on you trip. Tell me about the places , the people .

[RandyM]

If you have a Spot tracker, you can also use spot adventures to make maps. Although, I don't like the way Spot maps draw strait lines between the data points instead of tracking roads. A sample pasted below. The map is interactive and the code to paste in to a post is generated by Spot Adventures.

Anza Borrego Day Trip

Share your Adventures with SpotAdventures

[TwoShots]

Originally Posted by JayElDee

and endless pictures of the bike fallen over with some "humor" attached

Otherwise known as self depracting humor. Most adults find it an admirable trait. That is unless their shorts are too tight.

[243Win]

Spelling and grammar. I make an effort, but if I'm tapping at my iPhone to post an update, I'm less then likely to correct an error.

After the effort to make my one ride report while underway, I was intending to leave the laptop at home from now on, but I'm feeling sort of inspired to try again in the future and post during the trip after reading this thread.

A small, in the pocket notebook was priceless for jotting down names and places while underway so I didn't forget as I'm want to do.

[mmg781]

Originally Posted by JayElDee

y
and the pretension of some cosmic karmic "journey"John

Personally, I most enjoy a ride report when people look beyond their physical situation and contemplate the abstract. Anyone can take pictures and write about the obvious, but it takes a connected individual to shelve the ego and level themselves with the geology, flora, and fauna (humans included) that define a ride.


Just sayin'.

[JayElDee]

Damn, I sure am alone in this one, but I think that complete thoughts and readability add to a ride report. Incomplete thoughts and unreadability don't.

I respect all attempts to post. Everyone who makes the effort contributes to the enjoyment of all. But I am greedy and I want them all to be good. They are not, otherwise this thread would not exist.

I don't care about colloquial language, or slang, or written dialog based on the way it sounds to the ear--all that's fine and often adds color to the report. Not talking about that at all.

And I find some of the most interesting ride reports are written by those members for whom English is NOT their first language. That's quite an effort to post and construct. Everyone in this discussion knows that. A poster from the Czech Republic tries harder to write English correctly than some native US posters, it appears. That's admirable.

This thread was titled The Art of the Ride Report. There is an art to it and it is not only "this road that road this slice of pizza" (and pizza is FINE food, please don't call the pizza police).
Pictures of half eaten pizza look a lot like garbage. Self-deprecating humor is fine, but say it often enough and it begins to get a bit old, kind of a one trick pony.

Let's face it. Some reports are sloppy and could be much better with just a little more effort. I'll bet everyone chiding me for suggesting that some reports are boring or sloppy, proof reads what they wrote, right? And all of your entries are readable. You probably even edit. Maybe more than once.

Lines like this, "It's all well and good if you saw God once each and every day, but I want to know what mood Satan was in when he made a visit" don't just drip off the pen never to be read by the author. And "hot damn that IS great prose."

and

Things to NOT do:

• So you went on a big ride with all your buddies and took lots of shots of them riding their bikes? They may find these pics absolutely enthralling - the rest of us'll find it boring as all get-out, and your readership will suffer as a result. (Fact: I went through a RR posted in this format, and the guy stopped part way through the trip because of the lack of response.... HELLO!)

• Ditto the repeated shots where the bike takes up most of the pic. I got it the first time, after the second time I'm outta here.

• If your RR is "went here, did this, went there, did that" - yawwwwn.

Well said.

And Tricepilot and others, your advice on photos is spot on

I wouldn't disregard a cool report because of bad spelling. I certainly wouldn't want to discourage someone from posting a cool report because they feel their spelling or grammar is not the best

Neither would I, but the operative word here is "cool." Poor readability raises the bar for cool status.

Personally, I most enjoy a ride report when people look beyond their physical situation and contemplate the abstract. Anyone can take pictures and write about the obvious, but it takes a connected individual to shelve the ego and level themselves with the geology, flora, and fauna (humans included) that define a ride.

ok, fine, but the word "journey" has gone beyond cliche.


All of the suggestions in this thread are very worthwhile. And I enjoy the discourse. This thread should achieve sticky status.


and ok, I'll bite...other than the obvious what does this mean?

"Most riders uncurl their pinkies before pulling on their gloves..."

[Witness]

I really appreciate this thread lots of good tips and knowledge, I just posted a couple of reports (for the first time) in the day tripping section, from old memories and photos. I'm looking forward to sharing some of my future trips.

[Ladybug0048]

Please remember that just because you don't care about the half eaten pizza, dirt naps, buddies riding, pics of bikes, etc. that doesn't mean someone else doesn't enjoy them.

I like all those things because those thing are part of that riders experience and what they are sharing with us. When I read a ride report I don't expect to read a professionally written story I expect to read about a ride from a real person, someone like me, flaws and all.

My ride reports are full of too many pictures that should have been left out but at the time it was shots of what I was doing, what I was seeing and what was making an impact on me. Could my ride reports use some polishing? - They certainly can and I plan to work on doing a better job in the future but please don't post what others don't want to see when in fact it is what you are not interested in.

I have read ride reports full of crappy pictures, misspelled words and half eaten pizza and enjoyed the heck out of them because they were real. A good writer can write a good story while a bad writer probably will just tell you what they are thinking (that would be me) sometimes reading what someone is thinking or what they thought can be better than the most skilled writer writing a story. Story vs real? Like I said flaws and all - the writing in this post is full of flaws and so are my reports.

Ride reports are like anything else, everyone has their own taste in what they find interesting.

Keep the positive tips coming. I'm enjoying this thread.

[Lone Rider]

[quote=JayElDee]....

This thread was titled The Art of the Ride Report. There is an art to it and it is not only "this road that road this slice of pizza" (and pizza is FINE food, please don't call the pizza police).
....quote]

Jeez, man you had to bring up pizza...
Deep path, for sure.

Good post. You have some good ideas, for sure.

Anchovies are a good thing, even if only on half of the whole. Grab a bit of the outer ring.
Make things jump.

As far as spaling goes, let's just receive and appreciate the reports as they come. Works of art or not.

I would never disparage the rough neck from the reporting that comes from his bared soul while on a trip.

[Guy Jinbaiquerre]

Roger Ebert said something about movies that applies equally well to ride reports: "A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about what it's about."

That means two different ride reports could have the same kinds of photos, yet one would be interesting and one wouldn't. Or you could have a good RR that includes a lot of half-eaten pizza shots, and a bad one that is all action shots.

In my opinion, it's about how you present the photos. Are you telling a story, or are you just throwing a lot of pictures up there? Stories draw people in; random pictures bore them and make them lose interest quickly.

I'm not saying I'm a master of the art of RR's , but I always try to create a narrative thread that makes it easy for people to keep reading to find out what happens next. To do this, I recommend using screenshots of your route, to show people where you are headed, followed by photos that illustrate important or otherwise memorable things along the way. Then, link everything together with a narrative that explains why the heck these photos are so important or memorable for you.

For example, if you posted a photo of the Grand Canyon, people might say, "Well, that's a pretty shot, but it really doesn't tell me anything about this ride or what it was like to go there." On the other hand, if you photographed a ditch in the ground that you had to ride across on the way to the Grand Canyon, and explained in the text why that was a challenge for you, your simple ditch photo would probably be more interesting to most people than a majestic shot of the canyon itself.

Just my 2 cents...