VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square

[Kim]

Up to max square of 28 now.  Got most of the nasty urban stuff done, apart from Coventry.  Everything else is rapidly deteriorating into significantly long bike rides, or bastard hills.  Often on the other side of 20km of nasty urban stuff.

[L CC]

Way too much hike-a bike on today's ride...

And filth, rain, grass seeds and the regular off road entry to the family's biggest bruise competition.

I'm all about the cluster these days. 1306.

[andyoxon]

So today I finally did RAF Brize Norton / Carterton area - which I'd been putting off.  It turned out to be a goody - one of the great things about explorering.     At the end of the runway, saw a jet taking off and another cyclist there (Darren) turned out to have the same BritishEagle also bought in '92, snap! Chances of that?  Anyway, I'd planned to do one of the runway tiles from a nearby industrial estate - which as it turned out had a weekend locked gate on the entrance!  So I rode around via Black Bourton, and managed to find a section of the disused Witney-Fairford rail line, which took me along the perimeter fence.  Saw the 'Boris flag jet' in the distance.  Cotswold Wildlife Park was heaving to the max, with queues up the A361, as I crossed over.   Unexpected bonus was finding the ford at Shilton, which I had no idea was there even. 

Up to 1424, & 29x29, with the hole filled.

vv280620a by a oxon, on Flickr

[andyoxon]

Way too much hike-a bike on today's ride...
...

A few weeks ago I gave up on my first 'bridleway' (nr Upper Heyford), which was an overgrown nettle-fest (turned out to be on the OS map, but not have a bridleway sign).  I had nettle sting tingling on my legs for several hours after.

[L CC]

"not a convincing right of way"

[Kim]

"not a convincing right of way"

That's either my back garden circa 2012 or the error in the GPX file for last year's York Rally 50...

[Davef]

Way too much hike-a bike on today's ride...
...

A few weeks ago I gave up on my first 'bridleway' (nr Upper Heyford), which was an overgrown nettle-fest (turned out to be on the OS map, but not have a bridleway sign).  I had nettle sting tingling on my legs for several hours after.

I hit some bridleways adjacent to upper Heyford today
Frustrating thing is the nice road the other side of the razor wire

Hit 45x45

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[fimm]

Carried my bike into the middle of a field today. In the pissing rain.

I'm starting to take this way to seriously...


I did get the tile though!! 

[quixoticgeek]

"not a convincing right of way"

That's either my back garden circa 2012 or the error in the GPX file for last year's York Rally 50...

Or one of Sustrans finer works...

J

[quixoticgeek]

Carried my bike into the middle of a field today. In the pissing rain.

I'm starting to take this way to seriously...


I did get the tile though!! 

You know most of us leave the bike by the field gate and just carry the GPS to the middle of the field right?

J

[andyoxon]

Carried my bike into the middle of a field today. In the pissing rain.

I'm starting to take this way to seriously...


I did get the tile though!! 

You know most of us leave the bike by the field gate and just carry the GPS to the middle of the field right?

J

If you're me, you walk into the middle of the field, having left the GPS unit still on the bike, by the gate.     

[quixoticgeek]

If you're me, you walk into the middle of the field, having left the GPS unit still on the bike, by the gate.     

There are two types of tile hunters. Those who have done this, and those that will...

J

[PeeJay]

A big tile day for me Yesterday.  I was on 5 overlapping 44x44 max squares. 

So I set off on this 240km ride which wiggled around to pick up the gaps around Stoke on Trent at the western edge of my max square....


....and ending up with a new max square of 48x48.



Despite a big chunk of the ride being quite urban, it was really very enjoyable, I was in Stoke quite early on a Sunday morning so it was nice and quiet and my route took me along a few canal towpaths and past the old pottery buildings & kilns and then though Whitfield Valley Park, which was lovely  I'd never have never ridden that route if it wasn't for this square game.

[andyoxon]

I wonder what the max possible square size is anywhere in the UK, and where it would be centred...  (Ignoring the 'unbaggable' land tiles e.g. ranges etc)

[Pedal Castro]

If you're me, you walk into the middle of the field, having left the GPS unit still on the bike, by the gate.     

There are two types of tile hunters. Those who have done this, and those that will...

J

I'm in the first group! 

I almost lost my bike too, carried into a field of rape far enough not to be seen from the road (no hedge/gate) , left it 50m short of target because it was getting unwieldy and on my return it was invisible until I pretty much walked into it, which was lucky!

[Kim]

I almost lost my bike too, carried into a field of rape far enough not to be seen from the road (no hedge/gate) , left it 50m short of target because it was getting unwieldy and on my return it was invisible until I pretty much walked into it, which was lucky!

If only you had a GPS receiver to record its location...

[Ivo]

I wonder what the max possible square size is anywhere in the UK, and where it would be centred...  (Ignoring the 'unbaggable' land tiles e.g. ranges etc)

101 has already been done by someone.

[Greenbank]

I wonder what the max possible square size is anywhere in the UK, and where it would be centred...  (Ignoring the 'unbaggable' land tiles e.g. ranges etc)

Zooming out the heatmap on rideeverytile.com so that it shows tiles bunched as 5x5 it might be possible to cover a 29x29 block of 5x5 tiles if you ignore the ungettable ones.

That would put it somewhere around 145x145 (although it could be anything up to 5 fewer or 10 more than this). I can't be arsed to zoom in far enough and scroll around to work it out exactly. This may also require some kayak or swimming action I'm guessing too.

Top left is by Hoylake on the Wirral, bottom left is just East of Cardiff where the Severn Estuary gets too wide. Top right is roughly halfway between Lincoln and Skeggy. Bottom right is SE London.

The limits seem to be the Severn Estuary and the Wash. If you go further East to avoid the Severn Estuary then you run up against the Wash and if you move further South then you've got the Thames Estuary to contend with.

Will upload a pic in half an hour or so:-

[Jack_P]

I did a 130 mile round trip yesterday hoping to finally finish of Northants, but I missed one tile, Doh.    Tough work when you live on the opposite boundary. Nice ride though with some good bridleways and finally found a good quiet route through Northampton.

[fimm]

Carried my bike into the middle of a field today. In the pissing rain.

I'm starting to take this way to seriously...


I did get the tile though!! 

You know most of us leave the bike by the field gate and just carry the GPS to the middle of the field right?

J

Yes, I did do that eventually; it was just there was a "track" further than I expected so I kept pushing the bike.

(I then stopped for a pee without taking much care over concealment on the basis that there was no one else for miles. 10 minutes later another cyclist went past!)

[Kim]

(I then stopped for a pee without taking much care over concealment on the basis that there was no one else for miles. 10 minutes later another cyclist went past!)

This always happens.

[Solocle]

I went and tweaked the veloviewer plugin to show clusters created by new rides.

[markcjagar]

(I then stopped for a pee without taking much care over concealment on the basis that there was no one else for miles. 10 minutes later another cyclist went past!)

This always happens.

EVERY SINGLE TIME

[quixoticgeek]

First proper ride since lockdown, a nice 88k tour de ice-cream of Noord Brabant. Bagged 6 Gemeente for the long term challenge, as well as bagging 61 tiles.

Slightly miffed that poor route planning means I missed this tile...



Oops.

J

[L CC]

I went out early in rain and fog. Perfect weather for visiting Sunderland. I could probably have seen the sea, but as it was I didn't even see the Wear until I rode over it.

Managed not to earworm¹ myself much at Chester Bridge, probably because Penshaw Hill was still in cloud.

1:see what I did there ?