Hi Everyone
In April I will be making a solo bicycle ride from Dallas, TX back here to Dallas, GA, to support the Humane Society’s “Spay, Neuter and Adopt” program and call attention to the national problem of shelter overcrowding.
My website is here.
What I need tech help with is: I would like to phone in reports which could be loaded onto my website, so that people can actually listen to me as I ride.
Anyone know how such a thing could be managed?
Thanks
Q
That looks like a great ride. A bit more than I personally would want to tackle solo. I’m hoping to do a cross country trip next year when I take my sabbatical, but that would be supported. I’d be able to use my road bike instead of a fully loaded tourer, and there would be someone there to bail me out if I got into real trouble.
How many days are you planning on taking for the trip? What gear will you be bringing?
If it were me, I’d bring a ultracompact computer like the Asus EeePC, and plan on recording/uploading/recharging each evening at the hotel/campground.
Hey John,
And thanks for your reply. My main bike is a Trek1000 and my “breakdown” bike is my beloved Schwinn Sierra (which has been hybrided for the ride! 
)
I have a “Sag-Wagon” that is being supplied by Enterprise and my son is going along as my bike mechanic.
I am not sure if I can afford the computer you suggested, and am looking into cheap alternatives. (YouTube, maybe?)
Also, I would very much like for people to hear me actually huffing and puffing and trying to talk from the bike itself!
I need to make the trip in 8 days, which means 100 + miles a day. I am taking vacation time from my hospital job, so it is important that I get back on time!
Thanks again for visiting the site and please keep me in your thoughts, I need all the “moral support” I can get!
Bill
That makes me feel better about your ride. If you and your bike are prepared for the trip you probably won’t have any problems, but if you do it’s nice having a backup. I’ve been on solo rides in areas without cell reception and hardly any traffic, and I’ve always worried about what would happen if I had a major breakdown.
The EeePC recommendation was mainly for its small size and low weight. If you have a Sag, those become much less of an issue. Pretty much any laptop should do. If you don’t have one already, maybe you could find a sponsor who is willing to donate an couple year old one. It should be more than adequate for your purpose.
Then you might want to look into a helmet cam like the Oregon Scientific ATC-2000. It can record an hour of audio and video at full resolution with a 2GB SD card. I’ve seen these mail order for about $100. You could upload this to the PC/laptop at the end of the day, extract a video using their software, and upload it to Youtube, or some other video sharing service.
I don’t want to sound too critical, but looking over your log, I’d recommend increasing your training volume significantly this next month. Putting in 100 + miles per day is a lot different than putting in 20 - 30 miles per day. I’m training for my first double in May, and I’m concerned that I’m not getting enough saddle time myself.
Will do!
Doing hill training next week in Alabama, John. The Piedmont area is gonna kill me if I don’t!
Bill
PS: Thank you , Sir, for all the advice!!!
Ooooooooo ! Quasi ! Let me know where/when you’re crossing Mississippi (PM is fine). We can be on standby for any emergencies. Or just line up along the road and wave as you go thru !
Get a voice mail # that will send your messages as email attachments ( like SkypeIn, just for one example).
Call it from your cell phone, leave yourself a message. Upload the sound file from your email to your web site.
Hmmm … I take that back about Skype.
But I have a spare line available in my business phone system with Onebox that I can make available to you if you think voicemail-to-email would do what you want.
email’s in my profile.
Twoflower, that sounds **exactly ** like what I need! Can I load a “button” onto my website that would take people there, or would I need to create a new link?
NinetyWt, we will be crossing into MS on Tuesday April 8th, and heading up the Trace for Starkville. We will be overnighting in French Camp, and would love to have you and your group along as escorts part of the way, if you like!
Thanks to both of you and I will be in touch via e-mail/PM!
Bill
John I have actually been thinking of getting a helmet cam to do a mini-documentary of my Ride, but I understand the quality varies along with price. (Duh! :smack: )
We will also be filming the ride with a video cam for news media use, but I really wanted to do a “bike’s ear-view” with me huffing and puffing and doing little “vignettes” about animal heroes as I ride.
I realize I am probably asking a lot, but I want to make this very special and even though it will be "tape delayed’ I would like folks to be able to actually “hear” me do the Ride.
John , I wish you all the best on your cross-country tour and if you have a website that you will dedicate to it, please let me know!
Also, for those of you who are cycling enthusiasts, I am a member of the “Rails to Trails” organization and our aim is to one day connect the entire USA (with the exception of Hawaii and Alaska - and who knows? Maybe Alaska too!) with bike trails and B&B’s along the route.
Won’t that be GREAT???
Thanks for all the help!
Quasi (Bill)
I think the deal with Onebox is that you call a number and leave a voicemail that is saved on a computer somewhere as a sound file and Twoflower sets it up so that sound file goes to an email address you specify. Then it will be up to you to take that sound file and upload it to your Web site, and then link to the file from a page.
Whoops! When I went to your profile, Twoflower, I got told you didn’t want e-mails…
Q
Sorry about that! I updated my email address and accidentally screwed everything up in the process! :smack: I think it’s fixed now.
Anyway, Zipper got it in one. I can set you up with a phone number that will send your voicemail as a sound file attached to an email. Unless someone geekier than me knows how to automate it, someone will have to check the email and upload the sound file to your web site.
My first thought on an easy way for people to listen to them would be to put a link from your main page to a web-ftp page. You could simply name the sound files by date or report# or something so that they would automatically sort themselves in the file list. I could probably help you set that up as well, if you need it.
I have extra capacity I’m not using; I’m more than happy to lend it out for a good cause!
Sounds like a great thing to do!
Send me an email address you’d like the messages forwarded to and I’ll set it up so you can play with it before the pedaling starts.
By the way - if you need someone who’s willing to grab the emailed sound files and post them to your site, let me know. I’m both a Web designer and a doggy lover and I’d gladly do it for free for you.
Send me a PM so I know the message won’t get lost.
PM sent, and thanks, ZipperJJ and TwoFlower, if you 2 want to share in this, so I won’t tie y’all up (it’s an 8-9 day ride), that would be great too.
Q
Quasi -
Check your email. Your phone-to-email is set up! Now we just need to work out the details of linking your site to them & getting them posted.
If Zipper could handle some/most of the posting, that would be great, as I’m going to be camping & offline for several days during your ride.
Twoflower and ZipperJJ,
My sincere thanks for your kind assistance with communications for the Ride for Wet Noses!
It is going to be so cool to actually be able to talk from the bicycle and have people just click on a link to listen to what is going on, on that 800 mile bike ride.
We did a test run today from a mountain I was on, and it sounded awesome!
2 Dopers helping a Doper help the animals. I am just totally on Cloud 9!!!
Thank you!
Bill (Quasi)