VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square

[Pingu]

Increased the max square for the first time in ages by bagging some awkward tiles near Oldmeldrum. It's now at 20. I don't think it's going to be increased much beyond that. Cluster now 1626.

[Solivagant]

I like Statshunters but I have noticed that it sometimes misses tiles like the one in the middle of this area:



It seems to use simplified track similar to VV but zooming in shows that I did cross through the tile - but only just:



The more detailed view from VV shows I definitely bagged it:

Behind the scenes, if you let an app like VV or StatsHunter have access to your activities, the app can use the Strava API to get two different "representations" of the ride. They both use the same Google polyline format, but the first one is a minimal rough cut and the second one is a complete one that really follows every contour of where you went.

The first one is obviously much smaller in terms of data to copy/store/process. VV uses the first one initially, and it can get your tiles wrong if you just clip the edge of a tile. This is where the advice to click into the ride details comes from - if you do that that VV loads the second more detailed form.

I have loads of holes in my StatsHunter max square too - I am pretty sure it only uses the first form, unfortunately.

If you click on the ride in Statshunters it gives you a few options, one of which is to 'update activity precision'. Much the same as in VV I do this after every ride now and it's worked for me so far.

As an example I've shown what I assume is PeeJay & JonBuoy's Thrussington tile, it's down to individual preference or your own 'set of rules' if you like but I've got no qualms with doing a u turn to bag a tile and avoid a dual carriageway.

[citoyen]

Went for a walk on the Isle of Sheppey this afternoon. Lucked out with the weather - we arrived at our starting point just as a three hour window of fine autumnal sunshine opened in between the bouts of heavy rain.

While tile-bagging was not the primary goal of the outing, it would have been remiss not to take the opportunity to fill in a few gaps. But annoyingly, I failed to get one that I'd targeted. It can only be reached by a spur path that leads to the tip of Shellness, at the farthest end of Sheppey (as in farthest from the sole access point to the island), so is pretty awkward to get to. Our starting point was the parking area by the entrance to the Shellness gated community and before we headed off on the main part of the walk across the marshes to Harty Ferry, I'd planned to nip along the path far enough to enter the tile in question, but there was a barrier across the entrance to the path and a notice saying it was closed because of bird breeding (the area is within an RSPB reserve). But surely they're not breeding in mid November?

Anyway, I could easily have vaulted over the barrier but the path was looking extremely boggy with the kind of puddles in which you risk losing footwear, so I decided to leave it to the end of the walk and see if I felt like giving it a go then. But by the time we got back to the car, the heavens had opened again so I gave it a miss... disappointing. But it was a lovely walk none the less.

[simonp]

Bunch of tiles around Shepton Mallet today. Square unchanged.

[quixoticgeek]

Had an amazing ride today. There are 3 tiles with no road access that require walking across farmers fields. I didn't want to do these on my own, and wanted to take a Dutch speaking friend. Fortunately I two Dutch friends who also have a tile addiction, needed the same tiles. So I rode 37km out to meet them, we then walked through the field to get the first two, then rode another 35km or so together to bag some more tiles, then after they headed back to their cars, I went and grabbed the 3rd tile. Everyone has said it's easy, the gate is open, walk into the field, done.

Gate was shut and well tied to make it closed. As i was inspecting this, I heard a loud clang from a nearby farm. I wandered over to find the farmer tidying up. He spoke good English, I explained what I was upto, and asked if I could ride through the farm yard, then turn round. He said yes. I thanked him profusely, and proceeded to ride past the loud dog, out the other end of the yard, check I was in the tile, and then turn round. That's got the hardest tiles of the area.

Cluster up a little, no difference to max square, but it does mean that I can push the square straight south, so I don't need to move it east to make it bigger, as I had feared.



Cluster now reaches the edge of Bodegraven.

J

[citoyen]

I wandered over to find the farmer tidying up. He spoke good English, I explained what I was upto, and asked if I could ride through the farm yard, then turn round. He said yes. I thanked him profusely, and proceeded to ride past the loud dog, out the other end of the yard, check I was in the tile, and then turn round.

 

I wonder if British farmers would be so accommodating. There are a couple of awkward tiles on Sheppey that are only accessibly via farm tracks and they have threatening signs at the entrance, so I'm not sure I'd want to find out - although a couple of them are actually marked on the OS maps as public footpaths or permissive byways, so the farmers in question are being very naughty.

[L CC]

It depends. If you're polite, generally farmers are OK.

Permissive Byways are just that- by permission. Which can be withdrawn.

I've got holes in my paramo from crawling under/over/through barbed wire on what the OS defined as a footpath which was invisible on the ground.

[citoyen]

Permissive Byways are just that- by permission. Which can be withdrawn.

Of course. I was thinking the 'permissive' part applies to who is allowed to use them but I'm just confused.

[psyclist]

I explained what I was up to

I've often wondered how I might explain this to the layperson. Up until now I have always avoided it when out and about, so for instance when I did a detour from a mixed use path to grab a square near to a small river, when I got back on the mixed use path again and had to re-pass a walker I had previously spoken to, I just said I had been down to see the river. At other times when I have doubled back on a bridlepath having acquired a square, I've said I'm just out exploring. I guess the latter is true enough!

[quixoticgeek]

I explained what I was up to

I've often wondered how I might explain this to the layperson. Up until now I have always avoided it when out and about, so for instance when I did a detour from a mixed use path to grab a square near to a small river, when I got back on the mixed use path again and had to re-pass a walker I had previously spoken to, I just said I had been down to see the river. At other times when I have doubled back on a bridlepath having acquired a square, I've said I'm just out exploring. I guess the latter is true enough!

I had the app on my phone, i showed him the where the tile boundary is, and how it's about visiting every bit of the country.

Generally if you end up where you shouldn't "fucking google maps" seems to work in multiple languages. Certainly saved my arse at least twice.

J

[Auntie Helen]

I had to try to explain this to security at a former RAF Barracks (Javelin) in Brüggen. In German.

They sounded vaguely interested and I got my tile - just!

[FifeingEejit]

Remind sme I should probably try to claim the tile using the foreshore at mod Leuchars before it gets more difficult for me.

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

[quixoticgeek]

I had to try to explain this to security at a former RAF Barracks (Javelin) in Brüggen. In German.

They sounded vaguely interested and I got my tile - just!

I had the issue of arriving on the wrong side of a security barrier at Schiphol. "fucking google maps" was all I said, and they opened the gate and let me out...

J

[Kim]

I explained what I was up to

I've often wondered how I might explain this to the layperson. Up until now I have always avoided it when out and about, so for instance when I did a detour from a mixed use path to grab a square near to a small river, when I got back on the mixed use path again and had to re-pass a walker I had previously spoken to, I just said I had been down to see the river. At other times when I have doubled back on a bridlepath having acquired a square, I've said I'm just out exploring. I guess the latter is true enough!

"I'm trying to visit every grid square on the map" seems to suffice.  You don't need to get into the details of OSM and Strava and Veloviewer for people to understand that as a concept for making solo bike rides more interesting.  If they assume you mean the OS grid, as BRITONS who are old or outdoorsy enough to understand proper maps are inclined to, that doesn't matter.

And yes, if someone catches you somewhere dubious, blaming Google or Garmin usually works.

[citoyen]

"Fleeing from the lava, his satnav pleading thus:
I'm not from round here, mate, you should have caught the bus"

[Davef]

I explained what I was up to

I've often wondered how I might explain this to the layperson. Up until now I have always avoided it when out and about, so for instance when I did a detour from a mixed use path to grab a square near to a small river, when I got back on the mixed use path again and had to re-pass a walker I had previously spoken to, I just said I had been down to see the river. At other times when I have doubled back on a bridlepath having acquired a square, I've said I'm just out exploring. I guess the latter is true enough!

"I'm trying to visit every grid square on the map" seems to suffice.  You don't need to get into the details of OSM and Strava and Veloviewer for people to understand that as a concept for making solo bike rides more interesting.  If they assume you mean the OS grid, as BRITONS who are old or outdoorsy enough to understand proper maps are inclined to, that doesn't matter.

And yes, if someone catches you somewhere dubious, blaming Google or Garmin usually works.

I say “each square mile” ( as that is what they nearly are ).

[paddyirish]

Remind sme I should probably try to claim the tile using the foreshore at mod Leuchars before it gets more difficult for me.

We have our eyes on the same tile...  The heatmap shows that it can be accessed from the East- maybe best on foot.

[Zed43]

Generally if you end up where you shouldn't "fucking google maps" seems to work in multiple languages. Certainly saved my arse at least twice.

"my GPS directed me here" is my standby excuse (that I didn't have to use yet). Never mind I had to lift my bike over a 3 foot high barrier to get here  (as happened last weekend to get 2 coastal tiles East of Eemshaven, I'm sure Slugbait knows the ones I'm talking about  )

[telstarbox]

In Essex I've used a couple of farm tracks (with no gates etc) to get a few squares, only going as far as the tile edge and then straight back to the public road.

"I took a wrong turn" would have been plausible but there was nobody around for miles anyway.

[quixoticgeek]

"my GPS directed me here" is my standby excuse (that I didn't have to use yet). Never mind I had to lift my bike over a 3 foot high barrier to get here  (as happened last weekend to get 2 coastal tiles East of Eemshaven, I'm sure Slugbait knows the ones I'm talking about  )

Um, I have one question.

Why the fuck are you using feet as a unit of measure? I thought you were Dutch?!?!!!

J

[telstarbox]

 

[Zed43]

Just narking resident geeks 

(and having the misconception that the UK was still fully imperial on measurements, but according to wikipedia "In schools metric units are taught and used as the norm." so there's hope for ye yet)

Anyway, as long as precision is not required (ie 90cm being good enough for 3 feet) I can do inches, feet, yards, miles and pounds easy enough. Don't ask me to do furlongs and stones though...

[psyclist]

,,, according to wikipedia "In schools metric units are taught and used as the norm."

Anybody entering the school system in the UK from about 1971 would not have touched the archaic measuring scales, at least during their secondary school period onwards. The original intention was to transition to a metric system, but somewhere along the way that didn't quite happen.

[Kim]

Indeed.  I was born in 1979, and my official education was pure metric, other than literary references and the occasional unit conversion as a suitable basis for a maths question.

Imperial units are alive and well in domain-specific contexts (it's still a 30mph speed limit, or a 0.1" pin header, or a 1500mm length of 2x4), and the minds of Older People, so most of us achieved varying levels of fluency with the common ones.  I seem to have been unusually resistant to measuring the height and weight of human beings in imperial.  I mean, sure, 6ft means tall, but I've no idea what a stone is or what a healthy baby should weigh in pounds.  I can however easily add the weight of my bike and body together to achieve something meaningful.

I'm bilingual in Fahrenheit, but only for body temperatures: Medical parents.

I spend a lot of time on the bike converting miles to kilometres and back.  I measure speed in miles/hour, and UK road signs are in miles.  But on bike and foot I navigate in kilometres like any right-thinking child of the 80s.  I'd quite like a car SatNav to be able to do speed and distance estimates in miles, but use metres for turn prompts, but it's not really an issue in practice as 'yards' are synonymous for those purposes.


Basically it's a mess.  But I think most Brits are happy to use metric when it gets vaguely technical, in a way that USAnians seem more resistant to.

[citoyen]

a 1500mm length of 2x4

2x4 isn't actually 2x4, though - it's a purely nominal measurement.

For that matter, pints and miles are strictly nominal measurements these days as well, defined by reference to SI units.