Author Topic: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square  (Read 337026 times)

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #450 on: 30 December, 2018, 08:03:44 pm »
My coverage of East Kent is starting to look quite healthy - I've got another couple of routes worked out that will fill in most of the gaps around Folkestone and Dover, and I've still got to find time for an MTB outing to Sandwich to tick off that cluster, but it won't be long before I'll have to start expanding westwards...


Took the dog for a long walk today and filled in that annoying hole near Sandwich - the path along the Stour was well churned up in places, would have been tough going even on an MTB. There was also a flooded section that had to be circumvented by climbing a couple of fences. Jolly good fun!

15km walked, four tiles ticked off and max cluster increased by 12 to 437.

Hoping to get out on the bike again tomorrow - have my sights set on three tiles that will, if my calculations are correct, increase my max square to 16x16.

Next ride after that will be down to Folkestone to fill in the gaps round there, which ought to take my max square up to 19x19. And I have another dog walk planned to fill in the last coastal squares near Sandwich - at which point I'll have ticked off every Kentish land tile east of Ashford.

Maybe I should be looking to Lewis Pugh for inspiration for my next adventures in tile bagging...
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #451 on: 30 December, 2018, 09:45:25 pm »
Did 110km around Otmoor today, so cluster is now on 356, and 14x14 square.

The dead end track to Drunkard's corner turned into a bit of a mudfest halfway down, after the signs to beware of shooting(!) - fortunately clay pigeon.  I had to poke out mud and leaves from my brakes with a twig, just before rejoining the road, and also spray electrolyte on the brake pads.  Don't know how I haven't had any visitations in the last month with the tracks I've been on.  Certainly getting used to hosing the bike down, post ride.

cluster 30122018 by a oxon, on Flickr

edit.  TBH not sure I'll have the will to do Swindon, if and when the time comes, we'll see.   ;)
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #452 on: 01 January, 2019, 11:00:28 am »
I intended to ride Saturday's club run to get some 'easy' miles towards the Festive500 but woke up late.  Plan B involved collecting tiles in the Bingham, Bottesford and Belvoir area.

32k northwards along some really mucky (but lovely) little lanes to get to the first tile then a bit of meandering around the Bingham area before diverting for coffee at the excellent Caffe Velo Verde in Screveton.  An unpleasant uphill into wind stretch on the A52 before escaping back onto the lanes and one of the less obvious tiles.

When I was planning the route it looked like the only legit approach was 600m down the farm access track to Tythby Grange.  I checked on Streetview (dated March 2011) and it looked OK but when I got there I was faced with gates, intercoms, cameras etc.  Maybe they had too many tile-chasing cyclists wandering down their drive ;)

The next best alternative appeared to be to approach the tile from the south by riding 1k along what I thought was a canal towpath even though it was only shown as a footpath.  When I got there it was obviously not a towpath as it was the wrong side of the fenceline from the canal that I now discover is actually the River Smite  :-[  Anyway - the 'track' ran along the edge of the field and looked rideable - so I did.  There was a bit of mudguard cloggage at one point but not too bad.





I meandered through four more tiles before getting back onto the A52 for a stretch towards Bottesford.  This was far more fun as it was downwind, felt mostly downhill and picked up another two tiles :)

The flat roads across the Vale of Belvoir suddenly changed to the crinkly bits past the castle as I headed for Croxton Kerrial and the A607.  I really don't like riding this road as it is undulating, twisty and feels narrow for an A road.  Fortunately it wasn't too busy and I also 'needed' to dive off down the delightful little lane that leads to Croxton Park for another tile.

By the time I reached Waltham on the Wolds the A607 had yielded another two tiles and that was the end of Plan B with a 25k run home into the wind.  I also had a Plan C loaded into my GPS which was to pick up a stray tile near Coston.  This would add about 20k to the ride home but I convinced myself that as it was about 4pm it would allow the headwind to reduce a bit more for the homeward leg  :-\

I had planned to ride King Street Lane from Stonesby to Coston - the Streetview car had been down it and it didn't look too bad.  After being suckered into it with a stretch of good surface it deteriorated to a sloppy mess.  It was fortunate that by this time I was generally coasting downhill and the dyno-light was good enough to pick out a half decent line rather than struggling for traction uphill (probably pushing) and with negligible lighting.  There was also a ford crossing just before Coston that washed a fair bit of the slop off.  With hindsight I should have done the extra mile (or two) on the road via Sproxton but where's the fun in that?

The run back into Melton was a bit of a struggle into wind so I diverted to get home via the Wreake valley rather than use the more direct but more exposed B676.

This ride bagged 20 new tiles and bumped my max cluster up by 71 to 1683 and I now have 5 off 33*33 squares.

Plan D is Derby.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #453 on: 01 January, 2019, 12:52:59 pm »
Interesting extra challenge has crossed my radar.

https://www.longtermnlchallenge.bike

Similar idea to the veloviewer tile game, but with municipalities. There's one for Belgium too. I'm at 48% of Dutch municipalities. Am waiting on the Belgian one to finish processing to see how I'm doing with that one.

I'm hoping that RatN will give me a good chunk of these, but it gives me an extra target along with the tiles to chase!

I wonder if there is one for .uk...

J

Edit: 27% of Belgium it seems...

I got an email from the guy behind the Long Term NL challenge talling me that I was in joint first place for number of Municipalities added in 2018, with 155. Ooh, says I, wait. I haven't synced my festive 500 rides yet. *syncs*. 159 total for 2018, sneaking 1st place at the last minute.

My 4 am Jaunt round a remote polder with a manually operate ferry on xmas eve paid off!

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #454 on: 01 January, 2019, 01:05:26 pm »
This ride bagged 20 new tiles and bumped my max cluster up by 71 to 1683 and I now have 5 off 33*33 squares.

Sounds like a good ride - and very productive. :thumbsup:
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #455 on: 01 January, 2019, 01:06:29 pm »
My 4 am Jaunt round a remote polder with a manually operate ferry on xmas eve paid off!

Do you ever fear you’re taking this too seriously? ;D
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #456 on: 01 January, 2019, 01:08:52 pm »
I have decided that my big target for 2019 will be to link up my main East Kent cluster with my mini London cluster. Should be quite achievable.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #457 on: 01 January, 2019, 01:19:28 pm »
My 4 am Jaunt round a remote polder with a manually operate ferry on xmas eve paid off!

Do you ever fear you’re taking this too seriously? ;D

It was my festive 500 attempt. I had only 3 days in which to get the 500km, and it also had to end up with me being in Leipzig. So I left home just after 3am on xmas eve, did 240km, hotel in Munster, then another 180, and completed with 77km and a train on the 3rd day. But I did wiggle the route a bit to bag me some extra tiles near Huizen, and to avoid me having to cycle round Flevopolder again. And when leaving Leipzig I did take a weird route from hotel to station so there was no hole in the tiles I had. Sure it doesn't add to cluster, or to my square, but it does mean I have no annoying single tile hole in the middle of Leipzig...

I was going to go out for a 50km ride today to find some tiles, but I'm still tired, and it turns out I need to spend my day swapping cassette and chains...

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #458 on: 01 January, 2019, 07:26:30 pm »
Good 60km NYD ride via Ewelme to unlock a Chilterns cluster - so now 423, and 16x16 square. 
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #459 on: 02 January, 2019, 08:54:11 pm »
Added 73 tiles to the max cluster  :) Now up to 532.


vv_max_cluster_027 by The Pingus, on Flickr

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #460 on: 04 January, 2019, 04:47:21 pm »

Not allowed to cycle at the moment on advise of Physio. She said if I was feeling restless to go for a walk instead, but no running. So I went for a walk.

I took a bus to the Waterleidingduinen, which is an area near Amsterdam that is primarily used to for water treatment of drinking water. I had a hole of 8 tiles that I can't get to by bike, only on foot. Ideal if I can't ride, a walk with purpose.

14km in total (thought it would be nearer 8, oops). Got all 8 tiles tho, and even made it to the bus with 3 minutes to spare.

Alas does nothing for my cluster yet, there's a couple of single tiles blocking things.



I'll grab the single tiles when I can ride again, which hopefully won't be too long.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

pdm

  • Sheffield hills? Nah... Just potholes.
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #461 on: 04 January, 2019, 09:18:19 pm »
Hard work this tile chasing lark here in the Peak District...
Did a 103km ride climbing 2000m today.
Went from 3 10x10 to 2 12x12  :P

Max Cluster: 231. Average of 26.268 km per tile so far...

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #462 on: 04 January, 2019, 09:39:07 pm »

Couple of shots from todays walk. Couldn't get much closer before they ran off, but I had a good with the limited kit I had with me.




J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #463 on: 04 January, 2019, 09:52:30 pm »
Nice  :thumbsup:

Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #464 on: 05 January, 2019, 12:38:36 am »
I went yesterday to bag a few missing squares in crappy bits of Hendon/Edgware/Stanmore/Wembley/Neasden that I'd not cycled anywhere near before because why would you? Square increased to 19x19 though.

I do need to learn to zoom in further when designing routes - this one wanted me to ride on the 8 lane no pavement underpass section of the North Circular near Hanger Lane. Fortunately I found a service road on the opposite side.

Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #465 on: 05 January, 2019, 04:00:43 pm »
I have decided that my big target for 2019 will be to link up my main East Kent cluster with my mini London cluster. Should be quite achievable.

With really careful planning you can do it with 2 one-way journeys (or one return journey), but each route would need to be a bit convoluted (I just blindly follow the pink line on my GPS so I don't care).

3 one-way journeys is obviously easier, and is very easy (in terms of planning/route-choice) with 4 one-way journeys.

If I get bored of trying to cover all tiles inside the M25 I may try and connect my Henham/Ugley mini-cluster with my London cluster. One or two 100km rides up there (train back) will do it as I've got a number of tiles already (and it will give me a chance to cover some new North London roads on the way, and fill in some missing tiles up at the top too). But rides like this will have to be weekend rides as I can't fit them in to my day off (I've only got 5.5h whilst MiniGB is at school).

I've got another mini cluster out West near Henley and another proto-cluster down by Dungeness (thanks to the Invicta 300 and Flattest Possible 300 Audaxes).

Maybe that could be my next big goal; to spread my cluster as far and wide as I can (with a bit of work I can get it to cover: Brighton, Cambridge, Henley, Guildford, Dungeness, Braintree and most of London within the M25). Hmm. Getting a ballot place in the Ride 100 would certainly help my motivation (focused on running now and swimming later in the year).
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #466 on: 05 January, 2019, 04:26:56 pm »
First person to get to 100x100 squares

https://rideeverytile.com/2019/01/05/the-first-tiling-century/

Think I can just about squeeze that size in between the Mersey and Humber, but it’s going to take some time....

Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #467 on: 05 January, 2019, 08:36:02 pm »
First person to get to 100x100 squares

https://rideeverytile.com/2019/01/05/the-first-tiling-century/

Think I can just about squeeze that size in between the Mersey and Humber, but it’s going to take some time....

 :o  His 100x100 totally overlaps my 16x16 in Oxfordshire - interesting to see how he's tackled some of the trickier tiles around these parts...

JF's VV link... 
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #468 on: 05 January, 2019, 08:52:23 pm »
First person to get to 100x100 squares

https://rideeverytile.com/2019/01/05/the-first-tiling-century/

Think I can just about squeeze that size in between the Mersey and Humber, but it’s going to take some time....

 :o  His 100x100 totally overlaps my 16x16 in Oxfordshire - interesting to see how he's tackled some of the trickier tiles around these parts...

JF's VV link...

Mighty impressive.

I'm wondering if a Sea kayak is going to figure in his shopping some time soon...

I've been looking at the Dutch map. There's no way to get more than about 60 or so, there's too many military bases that are off limits. I wonder what the max is in the UK before you hit up against tiles that are totally off limits.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #469 on: 06 January, 2019, 01:47:24 pm »
JF's achievement is great, especially 100x100 in 2018 alone.

I added about 30-40 tiles to my total as I spent Christmas and New year away from home, so no addition to my square or cluster.

Like @QG, I am going to have to take to the water to expand my max square.

For the first time, my goals for the year don't involve ride or total distance, but exploring.

Want to get my cluster over 1000 and expand it to include Dundee, Perth and Dunbar.  Also want to complete the Lomond Hills, the Pentlands and the Ochils.

Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #470 on: 06 January, 2019, 05:48:35 pm »
I discovered this game a couple of weeks ago. With today's ride I am at 14*14 filling in a couple. 100 by 100 is certainly a lot of dedication!

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #471 on: 06 January, 2019, 10:00:49 pm »
I have decided that my big target for 2019 will be to link up my main East Kent cluster with my mini London cluster. Should be quite achievable.

With really careful planning you can do it with 2 one-way journeys (or one return journey), but each route would need to be a bit convoluted (I just blindly follow the pink line on my GPS so I don't care).

Yes, it would be doable but I’m taking more of a nibbling away at it approach. I started planning some routes to pick off lots of tiles in one go but if I’m realistic, I’m never going to go out and actually ride them. Better to plan shorter routes to pick off tiles strategically in small numbers. I don’t have the time for big rides at the moment (unless they have the letters BRM attached to them).

I have a mini cluster around the Sevenoaks area so I’ll aim to link up with that first, by filling in a few gaps between Ashford and Sevenoaks, and then get to London by filling in the gaps between Sevenoaks and Biggin Hill.

I’m also finding that dog walking is a good way to reach the more inaccessible tiles, and ViewRanger is a good source of routes. Did a lovely 10km dog walk yesterday near Faversham, with a splendid pub stop and bagged another couple of tiles in the process that fortuitously increased my max square to 14x14.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #472 on: 08 January, 2019, 06:31:10 am »
Nice, the VV inforgraphic now has room for Explorer details.  Here is mine for 2018.

veloviewer 2018-all-PI by paddyirish, on Flickr

Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #473 on: 08 January, 2019, 03:32:24 pm »
I need to change my (Strava) name.


Re: VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square
« Reply #474 on: 08 January, 2019, 04:09:49 pm »