smittie61984

I have a speech presentation (worst class ever designed) for college and decided to do it on bicycles. But because bicycling covers soooooooooo many different styles I wanted to narrow it down to 3 kinds. Those being BMX, Mountain Bikes, and Road Cycles since those are the 3 I own.

I would just say cycling but that can cover so many bikes.

I figured I'd classify BMX, Mtn, and Road as "Sport Cycling". I didn't want to call it "extreme cycling" because I was going to focus more on basic BMX, cross country, and road riding. But didn't want to call it recreational riding because I wanted to emphesis pushing yourself including stuff about triathlons, duathlons, etc which I wouldn't consider basic recreational riding.

Need opinions, thoughts, suggestions, and maybe some things I can point out for my presentation.

dcmurf

Hi Smittie,

As a one-time public speaking teacher, I suggest you think about how much your audience knows about cycling and how much time you have. If you have 10 minutes or less (which seems likely) and an audience that desn't now much about cycling beyond riding a cruiser across campus (also likely), you should probably keep it pretty general. If you get into too much detail, you'll be able to see their eyes glazing over.

Audience analysis!

Good luck.

Tom Stormcrowe

Adrenaline cycling.

Treat them as styles that get the competitive juices flowing. Use that sense of excitement to get your audience hooked (presuming you aren't giving the speech to a group of couch potatoes. )

Cyclaholic

Ever heard of 'recumbent'? you might want to throw that in.... and it's usually the type of bike that captures non-cycling people's interest.

smittie61984

Adrenaline biking. Sounds good.

DCmurf:
The speech is about 3-5 minutes. Trying to make it good because my last speech I barely passed. Apparently in the corporate world you can't say the "S" word, even if it's part of a quote. Tough change for me consideirng my job is for a utility construction company and you can't give a speech without throwing in "Listen here you GD MF stupid SOBs. This is how "poop" works. Fail to listen and your dumbass will die". Otherwise people won't take you serious and someone will get killed or hurt. This PC stuff is jsut a giant change to me.

The speech has to have Visual Aids, a Power Point, and othe crap. Normally I have to dress up fancy (I have no fancy or nice dress clothes at all) but instead I'll wear my mountain biking shirt and Izumi baggies with my Shimano SPD shoes since it's a theme.

Might just do mountain biking but I know another kid in the class is a hardcore mountain biker (way beyond me) and I'm sure that'll be his subject. He also looks part comptuer geek so I'm sure his power point stuff will be on movie production scale.

My audience. Most of the class can give you a better analysis of the latest in celebrity and jock worship happenings than ET, TMZ, and ESPN combined. But I have 1 Triathlete, 1 hardcore mountain biker, and 1 part time mountain biker who is a computer geek. I'm just a knuckledragging silverback who can speak and stomps on technology when it gets confusing.

But I figure if I put in BMX I can incorporate my giant scar from when I busted my spleen doing a jump...


Oh yeah. It's a 2year tech school and an evening class with an average age probably around 25-30.

smittie61984

Well I guess I can do a speech on Road Biking only. I need 3 main points for the speech.
1. The bike/Gear - tights, shirts w/ water bottle holders, bike it's self, emergency flat tire stuff
2. The benefits - exercise, scenery, comradery
3. The dangers - prostate, cars, crashing, dogs.

How would that work? I'll bring my bike in too to show the class. If I had more time I'd show them how to change a tire with a CO2 cartridge.

BarracksSi

Hmm -- see if you can do it in three minutes. Bring just a wheel, not the whole bike.

Besides that, I might avoid the obvious stuff (road bike racing, radical MTB'ing, X-Games-like BMX) and do a Commuter Bike presentation. If you don't have a fully-equipped commuter rig, go to Koga's build-a-bike page and grab some screenshots to use for a quick Powerpoint/Keynote presentation.

I did a presentation on how to lubricate the valves on my tuba. Some of the kids thought it was fun, and the professor appreciated the extra knowledge I passed along.

stapfam

I give talks to Gardening societies on Alpine Plants. But I am talking to the nearly converted about a slightly different form of gardening. I still lose the attention of a few of them though so that is when I Do the practical demonstration. The changing of a tube may keep their interest as I presume some will be riding bikes.

But you have to have the ability to talk while doing the changing of the tyre. Nothing worse than 3 minutes of silence in the middle of a talk.

smittie61984

Alright Score!!! The class went over their topics. The triathlon girl is talking about soccer, the hardcore mountain biker is talking about mattresses (no clue why), and the recreational mountain biker is talking about the company Apple (after trying out my girlfriend's new I-Mac I'd like to discuss hte proper way to chunk it out the window).

So I'm going to discuss mountain biking since I know the most about that. I'll bring my bike into class and give a small rundown. I'll wear my Izumi baggies (no lycra for them. Don't want to scare anyone), shirt, gloves, and clipless shoes.

I think as a good attention getter I'm going to get on my bike, clip in, and show what happens when you stop and loose balance while clipped in and fall over (something I am a profesional at).

Powerpoint is required which sucks because I have never used powerpoint. Infact I haven't used Microsoft Word in probably 6 years. My girlfriend is in a "business communications" class (basically speech but harder) at Emory University here in Atlanta. It's a private college and suppose to be one of the toughest schools in Georgia. I believe her professor said that if they brought in a Power Point that he'd automatically fail them for the semester (At $42,000 a semester).

I'll probably concentrate on my own personal experience with mountain biking and why I enjoy it.

I'll also get an interview form a local bike shop since I'm required to get one from my Central Idea or Persuasive. And since Thomas Jefferson isn't around for me to talk to about Article 1, section 3, clause 1 of the US Constitution and why it was put in place I'll do my interview in this one.

Appreciate the help and advice guys/gals/its

Kimmitt 

Most professional folks end up using powerpoint eventually. It's a nice skill to have.

BarracksSi

Fixed.

It's one thing to use it to emphasize points, but it's another to put all your notes up there and just recite them for the audience while their eyes glaze over as if they were watching TV.

To me, the fewer slides, the better the Powerpoint. We didn't keep erasing whole chalkboards every twenty seconds, nor did we draw up fifty sheets for an overhead projector -- so why do people insist on throwing all that crap through a projector?

[/rant]

downtube42

You want to grab and hold their attention. You want to impress them with your credentials. Suggestion: Make an entrance riding your bike into the room to start your speech. Give the speech from the saddle. The scar is awesome, if you can describe the accident without making yourself look stupid

Don't put a lot in the powerpoint, just points to talk to and maybe an image or two. You want their attention on you and what you say, not some stupid gimmicky slides.

smittie61984

Thanks for the pointers. I do believe my girlfriend knows Powerpoints fairly well. So I'll bring my laptop over to her place this weekend. And I'll give a speech infront of her sorority friends or something. Gonna feel weird with millions of dollars worth of brain critiquing my $400 a semester knuckledragging silverback that can barely talk brain.

I'll have a rough draft of my power point finished tonight since I have to bring in something. Oh yeah it's a max of 6 slides (including title page).

Also if you guys have some good mountain biking pics I could use that'd be appreciated. I'll have to look up how to credit them properly via MLA format (how about a speech on kicking Mr. MLA in the jewels???). Actually pics of all kinds of riding (including unicycle if you got it) because I'd like to use pictures on my 2nd slide showing various styles of biking. The reason being I want to point out there are many types of riding but mention that mountain biking is one of my favorites. After that slide I'll keep everything simple.

I also emailed some questions to a local bike shop. I know they are a good bike shop and that they'll respond providing they check email daily.

Before I forget. For my 3 main bodies I wanted talk about mountain biking

1. The bicycle and Gear - knobby tires, tights with padding, gears, helmet, clipless shoes (including me demostrating what happens if you stop, loose balance, and don't unclip)
2. Benefits to riding - excercise, increased strength, health improvements, fun
3. Dangers - crashing, injury, prostate

How does that sound?

I also like the riding in idea. I think I'll come in, stop at the front and pretend I'm thinking and then have the bike fall over with me clipped in. Get up and joke around for a 2nd and mention that I tried to put my foot down but was unable to. And that I'll explain it in a bit. Or may save it for later incase I can tell I'm loosing the audience.

Thanks for all the help guys.

daven1986

Hmm might not want to fall over by "mistake", might make you look a bit of a 'tard!

BarracksSi

+1 to not falling over. That's all they'll remember -- you looking stupid.

Unless you want to turn people away from biking, in which case it'll help a lot.

smittie61984

Yeah. I'll just take in a clipless pedal that's clipped into my shoe and explain how they work. I can shake the pedal around on teh shoe and demostrate how it won't come out. Now it is a "Central Idea" speech so I'm not obligated to try and convince people to get into mountain biking. Rather just talk about it which means I could show the bad side to it. Not sure what I'll do but I'll have the weekend to figure it out.

I did a trial run of Power Point.

Here are some snips.

I'll probably drop the 2nd slide and not go into other forms of biking and just stick to mountain bikes.

Probably drop the pic of hte scar and just show the class the scar on my body since that's were it resides if I decide to show it at all.

I just did that in about 15minutes or so. All pics are mine so I'm not sure if I have to credit them.

Kimmitt 

That looks like a great framework, and I'm thrilled to hear you're practicing in front of some other folks. It really sounds like you're doing right by your education. Good luck!

noglider 

"chicks dig scars"

Ka_Jun

+1. Wonder how often that statement shows up on power point presentations.

JonathanGennick 

So when do you deliver? Have you already? How'd it go?

smittie61984

I already did it. I went pretty decent except for me using a wrong name when I referenced a bike shop store owner who i did an email interview with. Spent all day working on the road, dodging cars, and rehearsing for roughly 5-6 hours to muck up the name.

I did redo the power points on there from what they were.

1st slide remained unchanged. 2nd slide is the 3rd slide except I added what is my avatar to the side. 3rd slide I got rid of "clipless pedals keep you clipped" and moved water up and then added "Preperation" in which I demostrated a CO2 tank hitting up an intertube (intertube off the bike). 4th slide is the last slide except I removed "Chick's dig scars". My 5th slide said "Let the lessons of the trails rule your life" and blabbed about pushing forward, never giving up and blah, blah, blah. And since the teacher mentioned "end with a bang" as a very big deal I mentioned how mountain biking also teaches you humility. Then said how you can do a fun, downhill, dangerous run to end up falling in front of your buddies by not unclipping and then fell over.

The teacher loved the falling over part so I guess I'm good there.

I now have to do a persuasion speech. I felt like doing it on persuading business owners who are serious about their business to fire anyone who comes in with a power point presentation. I rather have someone up there with a blank chalkboard and chalk drawing out the chart and formulas used instead of some fancy picture jacked from "Google Images".

BarracksSi

Start it with a point-by-point Powerpoint (heh) where almost every word you speak is also spelled out on the slides. Make it "how to do presentations" or something. Then, break from the slides and go, "That's completely WRONG." Talk for a while about what the presentation needs to do, then turn off the projector and write on the chalkboard with no more than three main points -- "focus on the presenter", "simplify for clarity", and one more that I can't think of right now; maybe "recitation is boring". Speak about each one, but write nothing else at all.

Just an idea, anyway. I've never done one on that subject before.

smittie61984

Not a bad idea on how to do a powerpoint on how you shouldn't do a powerpoint. But my teacher is absolutely in love with them and said "If you use a whiteboard you won't look like you know what you are doing". Me, I feel the opposite. If I was a CEO of GM, Apple, Exxon, etc I don't want a broadway production with fancy crap to distract me. I want someone who is going to say to me "Look, this is how **** needs to be done and let me draw this chart out with the forumula 2x-7 to demostrate..." because I don't want to be entertained while my company fails. I'm a CEO and have an average work week of 80hours. I have plenty of time so bore me with your facts and numbers.

But I'm giving a speech for a Constitutional Amendment that would repeal the 17th amendment that supercedes Article 1 section 3 clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution. I'm sure it'll put the class in a coma but I don't want some basic cookie cutter presentation on how you should spay and nuture your pets, stop child abuse, legalizing marijuana or to get kids to exercise. I hope to after recieving my associates degree to transfer to Emory where my presentations will be crazy hard.

BarracksSi

Whiteboard? My college still didn't have those when I was there...

The best lecture class I had was with a professor who'd say, "Now write this down," and write a short phrase on the chalkboard. Then he'd rattle off on it for the next twenty minutes, often engaging the class in a sort of guided discussion.

To me, the only good thing that a Powerpoint shows is that you know how to type stuff onto a computer and make it move pictures for you. But really, who doesn't know how to do that?

Google for "powerpoint dumbs down meetings" and have fun. I like this comment from this page: "The practical conclusions are clear. PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and projector. But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has become a substitute for it. Such misuse ignores the most important rule of speaking: Respect your audience."

So your Constitutional speech will mainly be on the election of US Senators by the people instead of their state legislature? Should be interesting; if the class pays attention, I wonder how they'll react over the idea of having their votes taken away.

smittie61984

Yep. And how they'll react. Well most gossip about American Idol, Desperate Housewife, Gray's Anatomy, etc when they come in. Infact I'd be real suprised if any of them could name their US Senators (that they elected) and their US Representative. Most probably only give a damn about the elections every 4 years (despite they happen every 2 years) and they pick them the same way we pick our favorite sports team. "My daddy loves UGA and hates Florida state and so do I!" or "My daddy loves Florida State and hates UGA and so do I!". I think the reaction will be that I want to take away their rights and that I am evil. Oh well.

Infact when the teacher went around and asked what we wanted to do I said "I want to push for a constitutional convention to add an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would repeal the 17th amendment that supercedes Article 1, section 3, clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution". The teacher then goes "And that is???". I explained it and then someone asked "Why do you need to make a new amendment". I then explained you can't repeal an amendment without an amendment. Then gave the 18th and 21st amendment as an example. Still had confused looks even after I explained the 18th prohibited alcohol sales in the US and the 21st repealed it.

Probably a bad topic to pick but it's a topic I enjoy and I don't feel like pretending to persuade people to eat their vegetables or to remember to floss.