VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square

[Graeme]

It's nice to see that expansion of your Max Square involves riding near me. Looking forward to exploring those areas with you.

Building on some good forward planning (a ride down to Macclesfield for the start of a 600 a few years ago formed the spine of my cluster down to Cheshire, for example), my cluster is now pretty impressive. Graeme described it as like the spread of a virus I'm sure a tight square is the most efficient way to get a big cluster number, but I quite like having a breadth of places where I can add to it. Not that I'm likely to be riding round Shropshire or Cheshire anytime soon, mind. I think the tiny line heading up to Moffat at the NW edge is quite pleasing.



Just back from filling in a few gaps north of Eskdale and around Whitby. Back to pushing out the square in spring, audax duties permitting.

[PeteBart]

Building on some good forward planning (a ride down to Macclesfield for the start of a 600 a few years ago formed the spine of my cluster down to Cheshire, for example), my cluster is now pretty impressive. Graeme described it as like the spread of a virus I'm sure a tight square is the most efficient way to get a big cluster number, but I quite like having a breadth of places where I can add to it. Not that I'm likely to be riding round Shropshire or Cheshire anytime soon, mind. I think the tiny line heading up to Moffat at the NW edge is quite pleasing.



Just back from filling in a few gaps north of Eskdale and around Whitby. Back to pushing out the square in spring, audax duties permitting.

Love this cluster Deano… years of effort there! Also it really shows to me how extending the concept of max square to cluster was an essential thing to do. Squares are boring compared to that!

[JonBuoy]

Yesterday's ride was the first bit of gratuitous tiling that I have done for a while.  The forecast was decent and, after last weekend's abandoned ECE, I needed a 200k to keep my RRTY alive so I set off on something that I plotted ages ago.  This followed a fairly established route through the Atherstone/Nuneaton gap to Meriden and then on to Balsall Common which is on the southern edge of my max square.  The southerly wind really sucked the life out of my legs.

The zigging and zagging then commenced aiming to put a border of at least two tiles along that edge and also to break through to my mini-cluster to the west of Warwick.  As is usual the route had a lot of variety - from waterlogged bridleways (see below) and slippery towpaths, through Coventry's cycling infrastructure to sections of busy A-roads.  There were only a few dead ends (and these weren't included in my 200k declaration) so it flowed fairly well.

Having 'done' Rugby I then headed for Catthorpe interchange and another standard route home through the centre of Leicester with the tailwind that I had earned earlier in the day.  The Tigers had been playing and various sets of temporary lights meant that there was mile after mile of slowly moving traffic.  I wasn't in a particular rush so just cruised cautiously past with a smug grin on my face 

I'm sure that taking the towpath north of Leicester seemed like a good idea when I plotted the route last summer but it didn't seem quite as sensible in the dark while trying to dodge various bits of debris that had been left by recent floods.

Veloviewer initially 'missed' one of my tiles but clicking into the ride sorted that out and I bagged 56 with a cluster increase of 119.  Just hoping that the 200k is validated in spite of me avoiding the footpath and the dodgy underpass that I had carelessly included on the route declaration 

[Revolution9]

45 new tiles on @FifeingEejit 's Och-Hills 200 on Saturday 

[FifeingEejit]

45 new tiles on @FifeingEejit 's Och-Hills 200 on Saturday 

I got no new tiles, not even on the ece, I must try harder

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

[carlosferreiro]

Is the Veloviewer tiles Strava mapper plugin on the blink for other folk too?

[FifeingEejit]

Having realized I can't ride Talla Ho! next weekend, I spotted a gap in the rain forecast over East Lothian and draged myself along to catch the first train of the day to Edinburgh.
Note to self, it's a Saturday, you can get home at midnight there's no need to get up at 5.

Needed a few loops to get the distance up and didn't allow for the wind... That wasn't fun.

Anyway filled in a few gaps, and rode Townhill out of Dunfermline and ocer Loch Glow for the first time since around 2007 (LEPRA ride) so added some new tiles close to home.
The wind destroyed me but a F&D Fudge Doughnut and bag of fridge raiders in Kinross sorted me out for the last 50km

Before:


After:

[PeteBart]

Is the Veloviewer tiles Strava mapper plugin on the blink for other folk too?

It is for me - has been since Strava added the “points of interest” option. I’m seeing two of those and if I click the second one it toggles VeloViewer mode!

Haven’t checked if Ben has done an update yet

[carlosferreiro]

Ah yeah, cheers the 2nd "PoI" button does the tile grid here too, I'd not noticed. It was working as normal for me until yesterday, so not the first PoI that made an issue anyhow.

[Revolution9]

5 new tiles from Saturdays 'Newcastleton and back' due to a route change because of a road closure.

10812 tiles
Max square 18x18 (still)
Max Cluster: 845

[Pingu]

First increase in the max square for a while. 32 new tiles, square up to 23, cluster up to 2083 

[quixoticgeek]

Had a friend visiting from the ok, they had a Brompton with them, so we decided to do a bit of an infrastructure safari from Culemborg to Utrecht via Houten. Bagged 4 new tiles. Added a bit to my cluster. And I have another 29x29 square...


Before
12153 tiles
Max square 29x29
Max Cluster: 2099

After

12157 tiles
Max square 29x29
Max Cluster: 2109

J

[Zed43]

Todays DIY200 (slightly over distance at 222km) resulted in 159 new tiles and added 305 to the cluster.

Cluster is now 9999 

No, I didn't plan this (would have gone for a nice round 10k)

[quixoticgeek]

Todays DIY200 (slightly over distance at 222km) resulted in 159 new tiles and added 305 to the cluster.

Cluster is now 9999 

No, I didn't plan this (would have gone for a nice round 10k)

That sounds impressive. Gotta pic?

J

[Zed43]

Ask and ye shall receive 



Also showing last ride from Enschede and the tiles it brought me.

From Groningen to Enschede and back was 5 hours by train, for a 10 hour ride (including pizza, moving time was 9h)... Yeah, I take this way too serious  It sure pays off to have a 34 euro/month railcard that gives you free travel during the weekends (and the bike rides for free too, as it "folds")

Unlike last week when getting the last "restricted" tiles of the "Wehrtechnische Dienststelle für Waffen und Munition" area there was no comedy off-road involved this time. It did have plenty of gravel, forest roads and other unpaved tracks though. The worst are the ones that are somewhat paved with fist-sized pebbles, those are bone-jarring even with 38mm tyres! But that is also the charm of tiling 

(blue square = 58 in case you wonder)

[Ivo]

Looks like you're about to make a big jump.

[Deano]

Good going, Zed43, five figures is impressive.

I had the chance to ride around the Lammermuirs and took it, it was awesome, not least how visible the damage from Storm Arwen in December still is - I had to drag my bike past about a quarter-mile of trees which had been completely flattened.



And today, one of the odder conversations I've had while square-bagging. I had to nip up a track near Alnwick which looked pretty private, and pretty active, there were a few caravans and cars about. Anyway, I walked up, waved hello to the lads outside the caravan, and one of them said in his finest Geordie "the track is private, you'll need to waak on the grass". I shrugged and did as I was asked.

Anyway, cluster is up to Edinburgh (and beyond - nearly Falkirk, and my selfie by the Denny road sign the other week caused quite a stir in a mate's family WhatsApp group) and 7,700, I might be within striking distance of Ivo

[Bilfred]

I went to bag this tile yesterday in the Gosport, Portsmouth area ::




The description on RideEveryTile suggests the below ::



I wanted to advise that it actually wasn’t so bad. You’re dealing with the kind of caper below. With the tide out, a short walk, ducking under the trees will do it ::



Hope it helps.

Stats? :: 3858 tiles, Max square 29x29, Max Cluster: 1542

[RobertW]

I remember getting my feet a little muddy walking out onto the salt marsh to make sure I got that tile.

[Bilfred]

I remember getting my feet a little muddy walking out onto the salt marsh to make sure I got that tile.

Ha, so did I, but looking back at it now you can stay to the sand (beach?) ducking under the trees!

[Revolution9]

145 new tiles from Sundays Delightful Dales

10957 tiles
Max square 18x18   still
Max Cluster: 845   still

[Bilfred]

145 new tiles from Sundays Delightful Dales

10957 tiles
Max square 18x18   still
Max Cluster: 845   still

That’s a huge number of tiles! Do you have a screen grab to share?

[Revolution9]

I have a few others in Spain too

[Deano]

A busy few days' working on my max square this week (and fitted in a social ride too, shockingly).

The square is now up to 54x54 - I think there are five overlapping squares. I think I could have got that extra row south, but I'd have had to ride a few miles along the ridge atop Ilkley Moor, then back into the wind... And I don't mind going back to Ilkley Moor to mop up the rest. Potential for expansion on three sides!



Some photos from inbetween the showers. Bike was a mess after the ride up to Weets Top (just east of Gordale).





Overall scores - 24062 tiles, and the cluster is up to 7881, which puts me ahead of Ivo  (temporarily, I'm sure - I don't think I'll be making any additions for a wee while, he'll leapfrog me soon)

[Revolution9]

I picked up an additional 11 tiles on yesterdays gravel ride in Craik / Eskdalemuir forests

10968 tiles (+11)
Max square 18x18 (still!)
Max Cluster: 848  (+3)