AAA Points

[CommuteTooFar]

I have 2 AAA points     

Very lucky.

I requested that you and daimountaingoat and a couple of others be validated despite being out of time. Only by a bit.  The badly out of time chap was not submitted for validation.

[Steve Snook]

How are people clocking up AAA points this time of year ? I wont even do the flats of Cheshire !

The forecast is for a milder spell over the weekend before the icy spell returns, so now's your chance to get your December AAARTY ride in, perm or DIY.

Steve

[Dinamo]

I have 2 AAA points     

Me Too 

The Primrose Path on February 6th  is a great early year opener and has lumps.

Rode this a few years ago - very icy start !

[red marley]

I read that as the raw SRTM data being roughly a 60m x 90m grid but interpolated into something finer and then smoothed after considering a much wider area (300m x 450m). I can't see why it would use the term 'subdivided' if the data was at a ~1 arcsecond resolution anyway. Have I misread this, are the SRTM raw data are at a ~25m resolution? Is there more up to date SRTM data than the data this page is talking about?

No - SRTM 3 covering the UK at around 90m resolution is the most recent as far as I am aware. The ~25m (1 arc-second at our latitude) figure I mentioned comes from the fact that at the pre-processing stage, I think JPL were using this resolution to then derive the 3 arc-second data that have been made public. They released the 1-arc second data for the US, but for the rest of the world that is not publicly available. I mentioned this because the significant resampling and filtering that has gone on is what has ended up removing the human-made features from the DEM. For some of the details, see SRTM_Topo.

OS OpenData offers a "gridded digital terrain model with a 50 metre post spacing" which is derived from the contours on 1:50,000 scale mapping. It sounds interesting but I've no experience of it or whether it could give results closer to contour counts based on 1:50000 OS maps.

It should certainly give results closer to 1:50k contour counting than just about any other DEM source. When I have time, I will look at exactly how similar or different they are. This is a subject close to my heart as part of my PhD thesis involved looking at the accuracy of the 1:50k DEM by comparison with contours and examination of erroneous artifacts. The work is nearly 20 years old now, but it uses the same DEM that is currently available via OpenData.

[Billy Weir]

Peers out the window.  Double checks metoffice.gov

This weekend I shall conclude my (first?) AARTY and my 3x3xAAA.  Sweeeeeet.

[MSeries]

How are people clocking up AAA points this time of year ? I wont even do the flats of Cheshire !

I did a 50km DIY a few weeks ago with ov 1100m of climb, 1.25 AAAs awarded apparantly. Door to door in less than 3 hours. Too easy. I was planning on doing this every month until March but so far December has been impossible. Still its only the ninth and there is a four day weekend at the end of the month.

[CountrySickness]

How are people clocking up AAA points this time of year ? I wont even do the flats of Cheshire !

I did a 50km DIY a few weeks ago with ov 1100m of climb, 1.25 AAAs awarded apparantly. Door to door in less than 3 hours. Too easy. I was planning on doing this every month until March but so far December has been impossible. Still its only the ninth and there is a four day weekend at the end of the month.

I've got a 50k GPS DIY lined up for tomorrow as I'll sans bike all weekend, even with the 1200m or so of climb involved it does seem like a cheatin' way to an RTY

[Steve Snook]

OS OpenData offers a "gridded digital terrain model with a 50 metre post spacing" which is derived from the contours on 1:50,000 scale mapping. It sounds interesting but I've no experience of it or whether it could give results closer to contour counts based on 1:50000 OS maps.

It should certainly give results closer to 1:50k contour counting than just about any other DEM source. When I have time, I will look at exactly how similar or different they are.....

That would be an exceedingly useful step forward.

The bikehike website will add SRTM3 elevation data to a GPS tracklog which has no elevation data in it. This so far has given mixed results.

What I'm looking for and so far have failed to find is a website which will do the same but using OS OpenData.

Steve

[Steve Snook]

I've got a 50k GPS DIY lined up for tomorrow as I'll sans bike all weekend, even with the 1200m or so of climb involved it does seem like a cheatin' way to an RTY

Do not look down on the 50k. I have reason to be eternally grateful to a certain organiser who shall remain nameless who runs a 50k AAA event from Hebden Bridge. It was my motivation to get back on my bike 3 years ago when 100k was completely beyond me. There are all sorts of reasons people give me for doing them. Make of the AAARTY what you will.  If you want it tougher, then limit yourself to 100k or over, or 200k or over, which only two hardy souls have claimed so far (one of whom I've already mentioned).

Steve

[MSeries]

How are people clocking up AAA points this time of year ? I wont even do the flats of Cheshire !

I did a 50km DIY a few weeks ago with ov 1100m of climb, 1.25 AAAs awarded apparantly. Door to door in less than 3 hours. Too easy. I was planning on doing this every month until March but so far December has been impossible. Still its only the ninth and there is a four day weekend at the end of the month.

I've got a 50k GPS DIY lined up for tomorrow as I'll sans bike all weekend, even with the 1200m or so of climb involved it does seem like a cheatin' way to an RTY

How the hell can it be cheating? It's not against any rule.

[MSeries]

OS OpenData offers a "gridded digital terrain model with a 50 metre post spacing" which is derived from the contours on 1:50,000 scale mapping. It sounds interesting but I've no experience of it or whether it could give results closer to contour counts based on 1:50000 OS maps.

It should certainly give results closer to 1:50k contour counting than just about any other DEM source. When I have time, I will look at exactly how similar or different they are.....

That would be an exceedingly useful step forward.

The bikehike website will add SRTM3 elevation data to a GPS tracklog which has no elevation data in it. This so far has given mixed results.

What I'm looking for and so far have failed to find is a website which will do the same but using OS OpenData.

Steve

That is on my TODO list. Perhaps not a website but software. I could easily do a website if we can find some hosting for it. For me, the website is the easier part, well once I have figured out the data and designed an efficient way of using it, it will all be easy.

[YahudaMoon]

Wow ! some good reading on here. I don't think I will be accending any higher than a few metres above sea level till way into the new year. Either your mad or I'm soft ?

[DanialW]

Do not look down on the 50k. I have reason to be eternally grateful to a certain organiser who shall remain nameless who runs a 50k AAA event from Hebden Bridge. It was my motivation to get back on my bike 3 years ago when 100k was completely beyond me. There are all sorts of reasons people give me for doing them. Make of the AAARTY what you will.  If you want it tougher, then limit yourself to 100k or over, or 200k or over, which only two hardy souls have claimed so far (one of whom I've already mentioned).

Steve

Quite right. Not everyone can manage 100km, for all manner of reasons.

BTW, my first DNF was a DIY50. Two punctures, and I was out of time by the time I'd walked to Bromsgrove.

[daimountaingoat]

I have 2 AAA points     

Yes and well done to u didnt half climb some hills that day and good on you for not quitting either

[Feline]

I have 2 AAA points     

Yes and well done to u didnt half climb some hills that day and good on you for not quitting either

Yes, I am told I am slow but annoyingly persistent 

[daimountaingoat]

I have 2 AAA points     

Yes and well done to u didnt half climb some hills that day and good on you for not quitting either

Yes, I am told I am slow but annoyingly persistent 

When u get ur new bike u will not be so slow and ur doing ok for a novice  what i meant was for someone new to cycling

[YahudaMoon]

Some nutjob has accumalated over 10 AAA points already !!!!

[daimountaingoat]

Some nutjob has accumalated over 10 AAA points already !!!!

Some of the people that chase the AAApts championships are mad with totals that they rack up for the season just had a look at last years championships and some impressive totals by the contenders.

[3peaker]

Some nutjob has accumalated over 10 AAA points already !!!!

Some of the people that chase the AAApts championships are mad with totals that they rack up for the season just had a look at last years championships and some impressive totals by the contenders.

It is getting progressively harder to impress in Championship chasing.  You need to start soon after 1 Nov and develop a commitment that suits your fitness, age, domestics.  By Feb it all becomes so much easier with the lighter, warmer weather around the corner and a bagful of points banked.  Been there on Trike (not chasing AAA then) but have racked up 6.5AAAs so far.  Different motives this year though, like RRTY and AAARTY, which does mean riding monthly, so that is how the points rack up.
SteveP

[Billy Weir]

Some nutjob has accumalated over 10 AAA points already !!!!

DIY by GPS has cheapened AAA points.

I fully expect a silly total at the end of this year, well in excess of 200, which will be completely divorced from the achievements of the past.

Yet more riding by spreadsheet.

[Deano]

Some nutjob has accumalated over 10 AAA points already !!!!

DIY by GPS has cheapened AAA points.

I fully expect a silly total at the end of this year, well in excess of 200, which will be completely divorced from the achievements of the past.

Yet more riding by spreadsheet.

You don't have to use your GPS

My nearest AAA perm is about 15 miles away, and I have thought about riding it, since with the 100 km of the perm, it would make quite a nice 100-miler.  But I'm not daft enough to chance Park Rash in this weather.

[arvid]

Wow ! some good reading on here. I don't think I will be accending any higher than a few metres above sea level till way into the new year. Either your mad or I'm soft ?

Are you calling audaxers mad?

[Ian H]

Some nutjob has accumalated over 10 AAA points already !!!!

DIY by GPS has cheapened AAA points.

I fully expect a silly total at the end of this year, well in excess of 200, which will be completely divorced from the achievements of the past.

Yet more riding by spreadsheet.

No disrespect to Steve and all the hard work he does, but AAA is, like fixed-wheel challenges and so on, just a bit of light relief from the main business.

[MSeries]

Some nutjob has accumalated over 10 AAA points already !!!!

DIY by GPS has cheapened AAA points.

I fully expect a silly total at the end of this year, well in excess of 200, which will be completely divorced from the achievements of the past.

Yet more riding by spreadsheet.

Of course it hasn't it's just made it easier for people who don't live close to the start of AAA perms to get AAA points. If you mean driving to the start of a perm is somehow less cheap ..... 

[Billy Weir]

Don't get me wrong, GPS is on balance a good thing.  But it feels to me like it has broken a link to past benchmarks set by people like Danial Webb, Marcus Yeo and Dave Randerson.  Their achievements felt more earned to me, because they had a limited pool of events to choose from and had to go out of their way to do them.