Arrivée est arrivé!

[Chuffy]

Picking up on Tim's plaintive cry for articles I've bashed out lovingly crafted an epic write-up of Sundays Old Roads 300k *and* nicked some quality pics from my mate Dave.

However, looking around on the inside page for submission info it was a bit depressing to find the instruction 'go look in the Handbook' rather than anything more user-friendly. 

[Ian H]

Picking up on Tim's plaintive cry for articles I've bashed out lovingly crafted an epic write-up of Sundays Old Roads 300k *and* nicked some quality pics from my mate Dave.

However, looking around on the inside page for submission info it was a bit depressing to find the instruction 'go look in the Handbook' rather than anything more user-friendly. 

The handbook gives guidelines on content, formatting, pics, etc. Basically, send plain text with large photo files to Tim (see also PM).

[Oscar's dad]

I too am thinking of putting pen to paper finger tips to keyboard.  I'm wondering if this could be made into some sort of article.  The only trouble is I don't have many pictures.

[mattc]

I too am thinking of putting pen to paper finger tips to keyboard.  I'm wondering if this could be made into some sort of article.  The only trouble is I don't have many pictures.

How about a map? I find most photos a bit dull (I'm sure pictures of me are dull to everyone except my mum). What many ride reports lack is a feel for where they went - for readers who don't know the area, anyway.

Jo's 'alternative' annotated map of the MC1k was one of the best things in Arrivee for years, but you don't need to do anything that sophisticated!

(Obviously you need to check copyright issues)

[pangolin]

What Arrivee was that in?

[mattc]

Not sure, but probably autumn 2010. I think jo posted it on here as well, but I doubt the Search facility will help you very much (there's a challenge for someone).

[Oscar's dad]

I too am thinking of putting pen to paper finger tips to keyboard.  I'm wondering if this could be made into some sort of article.  The only trouble is I don't have many pictures.

How about a map? I find most photos a bit dull (I'm sure pictures of me are dull to everyone except my mum). What many ride reports lack is a feel for where they went - for readers who don't know the area, anyway.

Jo's 'alternative' annotated map of the MC1k was one of the best things in Arrivee for years, but you don't need to do anything that sophisticated!

(Obviously you need to check copyright issues)

That's a good idea. I keep the GPS tracks of all my rides. I wonder what's the best way of translating them into a publishable format?  And, what do I do about copyright issues?

[mattc]

Draw your own. I think crayon would be the best medium. (WordArt would probably be the worst.)

[pangolin]

Oooh is it this? My google fu is strong this morning

http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=19720.1170

[mattc]

Well done! Your link doesn't work for me, but here's the post I think you meant:

My ride report delivered through the medium of cartography:



You'll need to view the PDF version to read the text.

I think Jo cheated - he used a wide-nib pen instead of crayon. Nevertheless, he produced something best appreciated in a printed magazine, cup of tea by the sofa 

[frankly frankie]

That's a good idea. I keep the GPS tracks of all my rides. I wonder what's the best way of translating them into a publishable format?  And, what do I do about copyright issues?

You could use something like GPSVisualizer to overlay the track on an OSM map, and screendump that.  OSM is not technically copyright-free, but near enough I would think.

And with that particular method, you can do clever things like having the Track colour vary depending on altitude.

[Oscar's dad]

I'm not sure my meagre artistic skills are up to cartography.  I will have a play with FF's suggestion - thanks.  Any more ideas?

[mcshroom]

Stick the route in Easy GPS and create a line drawing. Then stick dots on all the points you want to label using an image editor?

[ETA]
Actually, having had a look at the OS Opendata Licence I think you could use their 1:250k road maps if you put the appropriate acknowledgement on it.

I don't know if this would be fully legal^[1], but I would probably stick the gpx into Mapyx Quo (free download and the OS 1:250k is free to download on there IIRC) and make a pdf from there.

[1] The map is IMHO legal to use, but there may be some proprietry stuff in the way Quo has formatted it I don't know about

[frankly frankie]

Quick'n'dirty example using GPS Visualizer.  A little map showing an ascent of Snake Pass, with the track colorized (!) for riding speed in this case.  Dumping it like this preserves the attributions (map, and web facilities - NB in this case although it's an OSM map Google were still involved) just in case.

(edit: replaced with 'better' version)

[Oscar's dad]

FF, how do you do the colourising thing?

[frankly frankie]

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map_input

Huge range of options available here, before you 'draw a map' - many are hidden at first.
See 'Track Options' (you can colorize by speed, altitude or gradient, among others)
and also 'show advanced options' (to fine-tune the colours).  It gets quite elaborate!

[mattc]

A really enthusiastic editor (or one owed a favour by Francis) could produce an overview map to accompany the Contents Page.

[Oscar's dad]

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map_input

Huge range of options available here, before you 'draw a map' - many are hidden at first.
See 'Track Options' (you can colorize by speed, altitude or gradient, among others)
and also 'show advanced options' (to fine-tune the colours).  It gets quite elaborate!

That's excellent!  Many thanks.

[frankly frankie]

A tip with artwork for Arrivee. 
Line art produced on the computer - such as a map - I find that if it's looking good on screen you can simply doublesize the image (ie double the width, and height to scale) and it will look good, though smaller, in Arrivee.  2250px will fill the width of a page (allowing for margins, 190mm) so you can work with a map size on screen of half that, which is comfortably within most monitors or even a browser window - on my monitor 1125px is about a foot across, a very comfortable working size.

So the map example I put upthread, for example, is 560px, it only took me a few minutes and without any further work this would upsize to 1120 and print as 95mm wide on an Arrivee page looking good and sharp.  (Tim would trim that - it's slightly too big for 1 column of 2 - 530px /~/ 90mm would be better.)

(Photos obviously you just submit a big file (big in terms of pixel count) that Tim can downsize to fit as appropriate (the full A4 is approx 9Mpx, 3600x2500 allowing a bit for bleed).  Jpegs are fine, I've had a lot of photos in Arrivee over the years and all my recent submissions (including cover shots) have been jpeg only.)

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I've had photos published at up to full page with my meagre 3 megapixel camera.  Its as much the quality of lens that matters as the resolution of the image.

[mtrike]

_{*Except possibly fboab.}

Hey, I think you're sub-human if you

• ride sub 200k events
• ride a tandem
• ride a recumbent
• have white frame, bar tape or saddle
• ride faster than me
• ride slower than me
• have a beard, brooks, or carradice
• wear a helmet, or hi-vis
• are male
• are female
• are thinner than me
• are fatter than me

I'm pretty indiscriminate in my discrimination.

I'm concerned about this concept of banter.  It's bad enough riding without having to interact with others.

[frankly frankie]

  

[arallsopp]

I see Roly Cockwell has metamorphosed into Andy Allsopp on the inside cover. I know this to be true because I took that photo with Roly's camera, at Coxwold  .

Ah, but were you pointing it at me?

[Exit Stage Left]

I've had photos published at up to full page with my meagre 3 megapixel camera.  Its as much the quality of lens that matters as the resolution of the image.

Being there at the right time is helpful.

[GrahamG]

That is an awesome cover shot - love it.