2 Tips For Writing Ride Reports
1. Don’t write it. No one cares!
2. Don’t have just one tip.
I am as guilty as the next person when it comes to thinking someone may be remotely interested in my trip. Believe me they aren’t! All of us have seen trees, rocks, bushy tailed squirrels, and twisty roads. We know what freshly cut grass smells like. We have felt the wind in our hair, and the occasional bumble bee in our pants (OK, maybe not all of us). I am glad you had the most sensational ride of your life, I really am, I just don’t want to read about it and I am not alone.
No, I am not trying to mean, and I don’t hate my life. I am simply a friend trying to save you a little time. Go ride!
I guess I am totally out of it. I love ride reports and especially pics of those rides… I guess I need to stop living vicariously through others!
Yeah, I read the ride reports, make mental notes of what the road offers, is it something I want to see for myself…ect. The pictures add to the love affair of the road. Many of the people who write these road reports have an added way of words that just floor me…cause me to HAVE to ride these roads!
I ride quite a bit, I hate riding the same roads over and over, I explore the roads even when I’m heading out to visit in MO. from TN. Or some other long distance destination. Unless it’s a funeral or something that demands I be there in less time than I have to spend, I’m gonna explore the small roads to and from the place.
So, don’t believe all people dislike your ride reports…there are a few of us who are not only guilty of reading your reports…but of compiling a few of them ourselves. I’m a guilty reader, writer, and rider…
I agree and disagree. When ride reports is all you ever post. It can get old, long and time consuming to read. I don’t agree though that they have no value and no-one wants to read them. I think if you are going to write a ride report it should be of a ride worthy of telling someone about because it is a ride worth telling the story and worth someone else going out to seek that very same path because the ride was so spectacular you just had to share it and someone would just have to ride it to believe it. Just my humble opinion. Note, I have done very few ride reports. I also think that some ride reports are over done, such as Tail of the Dragon. Same road, different rider, same story.
On the other hand…. A blog to many is like there own little stamp in time and more like their own personal diary. Some people don’t care how many people read it, or if no one ever reads it but themselves. (Although readers and feedback is always nice to hear).
Thanks for reading my 2cents.
I enjoy ride reports and pictures of places I’ve not been - yet. Gives me reason to go find those places or find obscure places of my own to write about. At least those of us who do trip reports are out riding! And isn’t that what it’s all about anyway? We’re never going to please everyone with our blogs so why not write for ourselves first?
I seem to be swimming upstream with my stance here. Comments from you and those on twitter and facebook seem to indicate people like reading ride reports. Honestly I find that hard to believe.
I am with Chessie, with one exception. I do enjoy riding the same roads, especially in the desert. The little two lane roads out here have all sorts of surprises along the way. A road that I like to ride regularly to Nipton, CA surprised me with a little piece of 1800’s ruins that I missed. More than a dozen times I have ridden past them and never saw them before.
I enjoy reading ride reports but rarely have much time to read. You see, the riding season in Vegas is nearly year-round. It’s ok… Be jealous.
LOL
Dear Rick:
I read ride reports all the time.
The personal mail I have received from individuals who read my ride reports — such as they are — is very gratifying in both content and quantity. I have carefully measured the response generated by op-ed type pieces, gear reviews, book reviews, and other types of presentations, and ride reports fare the best. I drew one of the best responses to a ride report that was 15,000 words long.
Sometimes it isn’t the telling, but how you tell it.
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
I really enjoy ride reports because being stuck in the office all day allows me to live a little “outside” while being cooped up. One of my favorite past-times is to have my lunch and read Advrider and all of your blogs. It’s kinda like porn. I don’t know you personally but since you like motorcycles and I like motorcycles I kind of care about what your experience is whether it be about a road I’ve never heard of or a product review or an incident that happened to you.
I read ride reports. I use the info from the average person when planning my trips and rides. I would rely on the comments and suggestions of the ride reports instead of listening to the “professional journalist.”
I like reading about the roads, the sights, the places to eat, and the experiences.
I really enjoy finding out about other parts of the United States/World and hearing people’s stories. I think you are getting grumpy and need to take a good long vacation and write another ride report! Geesh man…isn’t that what blogging is about? Maybe I’m completely wrong. I try to put a bunch of different things into my blog…ride reports, videos, interviews….am I doing it all for nothing? I think not.