Advise please on what is the best way to capture the ride

[ddorwart]

I am planning on setting out on a 4 week round the Country type of ride. I plan on leaving Dallas, Texas and immediately heading to San Francisco, playing around in California and then slowly heading back East, ending up somewhere around Philadelphia.

My question;

What is the best way to really capture the ride. I have a facebook, so I was thinking about using that. I also created a blog using iweb (Mac) and I am playing with that as well. I also have played around using "blogger". Also, I have seen and have read the "treads" that come from this stream on BMWMOA.

The problem. All work, but what is the best, if I only want to use ONE method. I like the facebook, since I have an iphone and can update pictures and daily movements. I like the idea of using iweb for the simple reason that I can always continue to add to the blog and make it my own.

Any ideas from those that have done this before.

[empeg9000]

I am planning on setting out on a 4 week round the Country type of ride. I plan on leaving Dallas, Texas and immediately heading to San Francisco, playing around in California and then slowly heading back East, ending up somewhere around Philadelphia.

My question;

What is the best way to really capture the ride. I have a facebook, so I was thinking about using that. I also created a blog using iweb (Mac) and I am playing with that as well. I also have played around using "blogger". Also, I have seen and have read the "treads" that come from this stream on BMWMOA.

The problem. All work, but what is the best, if I only want to use ONE method. I like the facebook, since I have an iphone and can update pictures and daily movements. I like the idea of using iweb for the simple reason that I can always continue to add to the blog and make it my own.

Any ideas from those that have done this before.
While I am not familair with I-web that sounds like something I would use more. I use google blogger and I can send updates to that on the fly from my blackberry. I don't send pictures I do a wrap up when I return but that's at least something. It's really whatever you like.

BMW

[ddorwart]

Thanks for your information. I visited your website and your adventures. Cool stuff

[Malinois]

I can't wait to hear about the ride. I'm very new here so maybe not qualified to give suggestions, but I'll throw in my .02 cents just in case. On another great forum, advrider.com, they give ride reports with a mix of pictures and storytelling/ explanations. This site probably does it too for all I know. I personally prefer the ones that are done during the ride with periodic updates.

There are two styles I seem to see. The ones like empeg9000 is describing where you do the trip and then come back and write about it (The few ride reports I've done have been this style as well). The second style, which I like better, are the ones that are updated as they unfold. This style really lets the reader feel like they're on the ride with you. As your location, photos and stories change on a daily basis the reader feels like they're traveling with you. It has the added benefit that the readers can ask questions, give route suggestions, and share in the report in a much more interactive way that the summary type reports.

If I can ever get roaming internet access to work on my laptop computer I'm going to try to do these type of reports from now on. Videos on ride reports can be fun to watch but I think many people (myself included) prefer the still photos. Everybody is different, but I'm the kind of person who wouldn't watch a facebook kind of report. A lot of people like facebook I know but I don't usually go to outside links for a ride report. So to make a long story longer, my advice would be to post it right here in this ride reports section and bring us along for the ride. :eat

[empeg9000]

There are two styles I seem to see. The ones like empeg9000 is describing where you do the trip and then come back and write about it (The few ride reports I've done have been this style as well). The second style, which I like better, are the ones that are updated as they unfold. This style really lets the reader feel like they're on the ride with you. As your location, photos and stories change on a daily basis the reader feels like they're traveling with you. It has the added benefit that the readers can ask questions, give route suggestions, and share in the report in a much more interactive way that the summary type reports.

I agree with you on that point. Most of my rides aren't more than 3 or 4 days so that's one reason for the wrap up. Another is that I don't carry a laptop with me so it all has to wait until I return. I am sure there are bits of my trip I forget when I return. I usually rely on my pictures to jar my poor memory.

[Munchy]

I use SmugMug, a photo website, for all my photos and for my ride reports. I just got back from a week + in Southern Utah and SW Colorado. I take a lot of stills with a Nikon D80 and, on this trip, used a GoPro Hero "helmet" camera which was mounted on the bike. For such a trip with both stills and video, I set up several "galleries" with different sections of the trip compartmentalized. Easier to digest. Then I link to the SmugMug site on my Facebook page (which I got mainly to keep track of my kids' adventures). SmugMug makes it easy to link to. I have a "Power" account with SmugMug, which costs $49 per year but eliminates the spam for my viewers, does not require them to sign up to see my pics and, if I want, I can set it up so they can download any picture that suits their fancy... or buy a print through SmugMug. With a 'power' account, I can also upload the videos.
Here is that set of galleries:
http://f-rider.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/825087

Because I take a lot of photos and videos, my ride reports are more visual but SmugMug also lets me set up a gallery in the "journal" gallery style which lends itself to a ride report format with photos and more descriptive text, and a chronological orientation, like this:
http://f-rider.smugmug.com/gallery/1848481_Maqy6

Not sure if this is what you were looking for. Hope it helps. I recommend SmugMug highly, though.

[Beemerchef]

The ride is the feel throughout and within your senses... You want to write it down? You have the perfect tool which is what I use, the I Phone. Thoughts are lost sometimes when one waits, thoughts for yourself mind you as personally I still write for myself. I start an e mail to myself while I am stopped, hope you have downloaded the new I Phone software which makes the keys so easy to write with. So e mail #1 and #2... and so on if needed. Title... When you then have a connection e mail it to yourself, then on to copy and paste on your Blog. It is amazing the stuff you will then read wondering if you really wrote those words or ... . Photos? Yes... Smugmug is the best, period.
Use my e mail as a reference, you will get 50% off... ask for it if you don't! OK... so I get a reference $5 also... couple gallons of fuel while on the road!
Be well... Ara & Spirit

[ddorwart]

Thanks everyone for the recommendations. I will look at smug mug right now. Also, a 50% discount and your $5 referral make it all worth it.

I think I will use the blog and then provide links to the blog on the "ride reports" section. Using iWeb on the mac allows me to create the blog page without being connected to the WWW. Once I connect, I will have the ability to publish all the pages since my last update.

Again, not sure how smug mug will work, but I am quite sure they make it real easy.

Now I am getting rather excited. I leave for Johnson City on Thursday, get back to Philly on Tuesday, catch a plan to Dallas at 6:00 am on Wednesday morning and pack and leave the same day out of Dallas for San Francisco.

My wife asked my yesterday when I would be expected home. I thought about it for a while and then had to tell the truth. "I don't know".

Intuition tells me somewhere around September 1st.

[ddorwart]

Love the pictures and your rides. A true inspiration to take equally nice photos and explore the West.

[ddorwart]

Well, all finished. 10,000+ miles over a 7 week trip. Started in Philly leaving for the Rally in Johnson City, back to Philly. Jumped on a plane, picked up my other bike in Dallas then headed West on that bike.

Ended up in Philly on the GS on the 3rd of August, just in time for a Labor Day weekend in Ocean City, NJ with the family.

See my blog at:
http://web.me.com/david.dorwart/2wheelsround

Hit the "dark room" for the pictures.

Been home for 4 days and dying to get back out there.