Trip blogs - keeping in touch

GarryM

I'm off with 3 friends in a few weeks riding through France. Our wives have suggested we keep a blog so they can see what we're up to! None of us are very techy or web savvy so we don't know how best to do this. Up until now, we'd planned on making the occasional 'phone call!

Can anyone suggest ways of publishing a blog? We have a laptop (we have a support driver so we wouldn't need to carry it on a bike) and what about things like facebook? None of us are active social networkers so it's a bit of a unknown area. Is an iPhone or similar a better option?

I have a Garmin 800 which I'm getting to grips with so perhaps the blogs could include the routes we have completed that day. Help will be much appreciated.

Hoopdriver

A Wordpress blog is pretty easy to set up.

www.wordpress.org

There are a lot of free themes you can use to give your blog a sense of style - and there are some even better themes you can get for a small fee. I've got the Magazine Premium theme on mine and like it a lot. It - and Wordpress in general - is very, very simple to use and post to.

You can see mine - with the Magazine Premium theme - here

http://www.my-bicycle-and-i.co.uk

andymiller

I'd definitely recommend Wordpress for a permanent blog - but if you just want something to set up a quick and short-lived blog without having to worry about hosting, then Bloogger.com might be a better choice. Or there's www.crazyguyonabike.com.

Of course there's always picking up the phone and giving the missus a ring.

andrew@snowrace

Hi I used blogger.com which you can update from a mobile phone you can also publish photos from camra phones great fun and you could be suprised how many people look at your progress. have a good trip. Andy

andymiller

GarryM wrote:

Can anyone suggest ways of publishing a blog? We have a laptop (we have a support driver so we wouldn't need to carry it on a bike) and what about things like facebook? Is an iPhone or similar a better option?

I have a Garmin 800 which I'm getting to grips with so perhaps the blogs could include the routes we have completed that day. Help will be much appreciated.

If you have a laptop that's probably the simplest option, but there are apps that let you blog from a smartphone. You can also blog by email.

For maps probably the easiest option is to upload to a map in MyMaps in google maps and then simply share the link to that map. There are other slightly more complicated ways to include the map in you blog page. There are Wordpress plugins that make this process very simple and probably Google make this easy for Blogger.com as well (as they own it).

GarryM

Thank you all very much for your helpful advice. I have had a good look at the options and blogger seems to be fine for what we need. I can borrow an iPad so it looks like it wont be too much of a chore to keep in touch. There's no doubt a 'phone call would be easier but this has been requested so it's only fair we do it!

andymiller

Just a quick note about uploading to google Maps - you need to convert the file from .gpx to .kml: this is easy to do using the convert utility on gpsies.com (you can also use it to simplify the file and add/replace elevations).

GarryM

That's great Andy, thank you. So much to learn!