How to Create a Bike North Cue Sheet
During the years one thing which has often raised its head at Ride Leaders’ meetings is the question of how to do a cue sheet. This article is divided into two main sections: collecting the data, and collating the data.
Collecting the data
This is the fun part for most people as it involves developing your idea for a route then riding it and making notes, as well as making any adjustments to the route. It’s perfectly possible to develop a route from a map. If it’s a ride for road bikes, make sure your map shows sealed and unsealed roads. If it’s an off-road ride, a topographic map and the appropriate reading skills might be required. However it is essential that once you’ve done the initial route design, you ride the route. There is just so much which cannot be learned from a map. Certainly its much easier if you know the area well and are familiar with the traffic patterns and intersection treatments, but you still need to ride the route.
When you set out to ride the route take a working and calibrated cycle computer! Also essential is either a voice recorder or pen and paper. Optional but useful items include a recording GPS unit, digital camera and mobile phone.
To create a good cue sheet you need, at a minimum, to be able to tell other riders where to turn, which way and how far that is from the start. In addition it is often very helpful to note major landmarks or buildings to assist with recognition of a location. Further you should note long or steep hill climbs, long or steep descents, toilets, shops, water availability and any hazards such as dangerous intersections, blind corners on cycleways, poor road surfaces and so on.
The ride will take you much longer than usual as you’ll have to keep stopping to note distances and the other information as listed above. In the past I found a voice recorder made the ride much quicker than writing things down, but unless you type as quickly as you speak, taking all that down later into a text document on a computer can be slow. On the other hand you’ll have to type up your hand written notes anyway, so choose the method which suits you best. If you have a recording GPS unit that solves the problems of noting distances and turns as all this info can be taken from the data on a computer later, but it does not help with hazards, descriptions and so forth. Take some photos as “memory joggers” if you don’t want to pen too much on the ride. A mobile phone is useful in some areas as its useful to note if you have coverage (coverage varies across companies but its still useful to know if your’s is out of range).
Use your own shortcuts in the information you collect - I always use the minimum I need but make sure that I record anything special about a location in some way, or include a ‘memory jogging’ comment if that’s quicker at the time. By the finish of the ride you should have noted all the turns with street names (if applicable), the distance each location is from the start, hazards and points of interest, difficult terrain and so forth.
And now for something completely off-bike…
Collating the data
This requires a computer with either a simple text editor (not a full-blown, over-blown or fly-blown word processing package) or a spreadsheet package. If you use a recording GPS or a digital camera you will hopefully know how to handle the data from those devices. If you do have a recording GPS contact communications@bikenorth.org.au to discuss data formats for the online rides calendar system.
A Bike North cue sheet requires exactly 4 columns of data:
- cumulative distance
- interval distance (from the last location)
- action
- location and notes
From your notes, in which ever form, you will know the cumulative distance. You will also know the action: turn left, board ferry, u-turn, exit cycleway... and have any notes you wish to add such as “warning, rough surface”. This leaves only the second column to be calculated. If you are using a text editor, you’ll need to do some simple mental arithmetic. If you use a spreadsheet, a simple formula will make life easy.
The text editor method
These days many people don’t use text editors, so if you really must use a big word processing package, don’t use any automatic features (spelling is OK) and especially DO NOT USE TABLES! There are many good text editors available for free. MS Windows users could use Crimson Editor for example (Notepad is no good as it does not support tabs), Macintosh users could use TextWrangler (BBEdit) or TextEdit. Lunix users have many from which to choose.
Here are the steps. Distances are to be given in kilometres but type only the numbers (e.g. 200 metres = 0.2, 1.5 kms = 1.5)
NOTE: At no time attempt to make this all line up in columns by typing extra tabs or deleting tabs. If you wish it to line up and the software supports tab positioning, select all the text and position the tabs stops to your preference. The positioning, but not the tabs, will be discarded when the file is saved as a cue sheet.
- type the column headings, with ONE tab only between them
- type a return to begin a new line
- type 0 (zero), a tab, 0 (zero), a tab, “Start” (as the action), a tab, then the location of the start, an finally a return
- type the cumulative distance to the next location, then a single tab
- calculate the distance from the last point to here (simple substraction) and type that, then a single tab
- type the action for the location, followed by a single tab. Keep this short! Any further information (street name for example) should go in the final column
- type the location name or description and any extra notes such as hazards. Keep it as short as possible, but this column can take a little more text than the others. If the information wraps to a new line DO NOT take any action to stop that. end with a return!
- repeat steps 4 through 7 until you reach the end of the ride
- save the file as a TEXT ONLY or ASCII file using the ride name as the file name if possible. The file extentension MUST be “.txt”.
The spreadsheet method
Do not bother with fancy formatting unless its for yor own benfit as all this will be lost when the file is saved. If your spreadhseet allows cell-wrapping turn it off!
- type the column headings in the top row (A), each in the next column
- type the first line giving 0 (zero) as both distances, “Start” as the action and the location as usual
- type the first real cumulative distance on the next row
- in the next cell (B3) type the formala “=A3 - B2”
- select this cell and as much of the column below it as required and choose a “Fill Down” command from the menus. Now this column will auto-calculate as you add data.
- move to the next cell (C3) and type the action, then to D3 and type the location and any notes.
- continue typing cumulative distances in column A, letting column B’s formula do all the work for you, and typing actions and locations in columns C an D respectively
- save the file as TEXT ONLY or ASCII. the file extension must be “.txt”. Some systems may require you to export rather than save. Some systems may ask you what the field delimiter should be - it should be a tab, and the record or line delimiter is a return. Do not allow anything to be quoted and do not use comma delimited files (CSV) unless that is your only option.
Sharing your hard work
Check your spelling. Send the finished file by email to rides@bikenorth.org.au or communications@bikenorth.org.au making sure to note what the ride name is or will be. The file must undergo one last small change (done by BN staff) and then it goes online.
Templates
Here we provide a simple template in plain text format, and in MS Excel format. For those who use different spreadsheet software such as OpenOffice or iWork (Numbers) don't worry, this file will open in most spreadsheet packages
Last update: 01/02/2010 — Copyright © 2005