VeloViewer Explorer Score and Max Square

[Solocle]

That reminds me that there is one tile that I've kind of cheated...

When I did that run/walk, I thought the spur was just me being inaccurate with the route tool. It's a bit de minimis when it's the difference between running on one side of the road or the other, and the GPS log isn't accurate enough to tell... Surprisingly, I haven't been through it since, despite being about 2 miles from where I now live. I really ought sort that out.

[imajez]

Well, using the ride every tile heat map to see how others had found a particular tile, I noticed someone had done the straight line trick with the gps "error" to bag the tile.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1280468490

And guess who it is... yep, same person. That's now three rides where he's used a gps error to bag otherwise hard to access tiles. Have reported it.

J

Dear me. How sad and pathetic are some folk who feel they have to cheat at something like this?

[imajez]

It isn't really a gps error - he is taking advantage of a quirk(?) of VeloViewer.

There is still a discrepancy between the tiles bagged if you look at a ride in VV on its own:

It looks like Ben still needs to sort this.

I recall there being an issue with straight line tracks that Ben fixed some years back. It may have been the opposite problem though. Folk riding very straight roads looked like a GPS error. Not something that tends to happen in Europe a lot. But in North America...

[citoyen]

Dear me. How sad and pathetic are some folk who feel they have to cheat at something like this?

I'm with andyoxon on this, in that it doesn't matter to me whether they cheat or not, but it really is a bit pathetic.

[imajez]

I'm with andyoxon on this, in that it doesn't matter to me whether they cheat or not, but it really is a bit pathetic.

However if you do cheat, then you should be removed from leaderboards/disqualified. Because you didn't earn it.

[citoyen]

I'm with andyoxon on this, in that it doesn't matter to me whether they cheat or not, but it really is a bit pathetic.

However if you do cheat, then you should be removed from leaderboards/disqualified. Because you didn't earn it.

Ah! I didn't realise there were leaderboards for Explorer tiles. That does put a slightly different spin on it.

(I never look at the leaderboards, they're of no interest to me, but I did just have a look out of curiosity and... well, I'm inside the top 4,000 at least.)

[andyoxon]

Never bother with VV stats leaderboards either.      Edit.  just checked for 1st time.  Right, back to being oblivious relatively oblivious.

If required, as an antidote to leaderboards, just spend some time looking at JF's 101x101 max square/ cluster, or similar effort.   

[imajez]

If required, as an antidote to leaderboards, just spend some time looking at JF's 101x101 max square/ cluster, or similar effort.   

I see that as a incentive.    I was 11th in 2019 but not being able to ride for 18 months dropped me a long way down board.
It's also much slower going tiling up North because there's so much challenging off road riding to do. So where folk down south easily do 150+km rides, quite a few of mine are just 20-25km and harder work than my rarer 150km rides. Wouldn't swap locations though. It's great up North. 
However I would swap this year's weather for previous few years in a heartbeat.

[citoyen]

Interesting seeing Jonathan F's tilebagging adventures round my way - kind of reassuring to see that even he has run up against his limits with the Medway estuary.

Also provides useful ideas for bagging some of the other tricky tiles round here, eg down on Romney Marsh.

[quixoticgeek]

Interesting seeing Jonathan F's tilebagging adventures round my way - kind of reassuring to see that even he has run up against his limits with the Medway estuary.

Also provides useful ideas for bagging some of the other tricky tiles round here, eg down on Romney Marsh.

The ride every tile heatmap is very useful for working out how to do a specific tile. It's what I use to see what others have done... And find cheats by mistake...

J

[Ivo]

Some riders leave notes about how to reach a tile which only very few people have done. You can find them on the tile heatmap.

[Ivo]

Originally I had planned to use the long pentecostal weekend to bag some tiles on the military training grounds of Leopoldsburg. But seen the current situation in Belgium and the fact that Jürgen C knows this training ground well it's wiser to postpone bagging these tiles. A shame though as they block the extension of my square.

[citoyen]

The ride every tile heatmap is very useful for working out how to do a specific tile. It's what I use to see what others have done... And find cheats by mistake...

Yes, I’ve been using that. Only problem is for quite a few of the tiles I’m interested in, the relevant activities aren’t visible (presumably due to users privacy settings).

[imajez]

A big part of the challenge for me is working out how to get a tile and creating a route to nab as many tiles as possible with the least riding and preferably no doubling back. 
If I simply follow someone else's route, then there's not much challenge for me then.

[JonBuoy]

A big part of the challenge for me is working out how to get a tile and creating a route to nab as many tiles as possible with the least riding and preferably no doubling back. 
If I simply follow someone else's route, then there's not much challenge for me then.

Absolutely!  This uses the same principles as the route planning on the mountain bike orienteering events that I do although that is on the fly against the clock rather than blobbing around at home at my leisure.

Having said that - on some of the less obvious (or less legal ) tiles I do sometimes 'cheat' and use rideeverytile or the Strava heatmap to validate my route planning.

[imajez]

Last time I checked, with quite a few of the more challenging tiles I was the only person to have ticked them off.

[citoyen]

Last time I checked, with quite a few of the more challenging tiles I was the only person to have ticked them off.

I can think of a few tiles where I know for a fact more people have visited than they think, so presumably their data is incomplete and/or out of date.

[paddyirish]

Last time I checked, with quite a few of the more challenging tiles I was the only person to have ticked them off.

I can think of a few tiles where I know for a fact more people have visited than they think, so presumably their data is incomplete and/or out of date.

They only map data from those who are in the Strava Ride Every Tile Club AND make their profile public.  That cuts out a lot of people.

[citoyen]

They only map data from those who are in the Strava Ride Every Tile Club AND make their profile public.  That cuts out a lot of people.

Ah! I didn't know about the club. Thanks.

[Solocle]

Interesting seeing Jonathan F's tilebagging adventures round my way - kind of reassuring to see that even he has run up against his limits with the Medway estuary.

Also provides useful ideas for bagging some of the other tricky tiles round here, eg down on Romney Marsh.

Just wait until our boy gets himself a sea kayak... also I get a bit infuriated looking at the Isle of Wight, because he could take a short swim from Norton and add the whole thing to his max cluster!

[quixoticgeek]

That was absolutely fucking brutal. Ouch. On plus side. 8 overlapping 24x24 squares.

10917 tiles
Max square 24x24
Max Cluster: 1391

More when I've managed to procure some lunch

J

[salar55]

The tile down this path has not see many visitors, the rope handrail is covered in lichen.

[quixoticgeek]

Today was brutally hard. It started so easily, 50km of beautiful tail winds, bagging tiles, really enjoying myself... Then the off road happened.

In total I had 10km of crazy off road shit. It started with a 1.4km hike a bike through chest high vegetation on a path that clearly hadn't been used for a while... At the end of which, the water level had over topped the path, and if there was any hope left of dry feet, it disappeared at this point. Tho I was already soaked upto about waist level from the wet vegetation.

Then began the next 4.3km of slow laborious off road. The "path" was off camber to one side, and made of grass and mud. My GP5K tyres are not really suited to this terrain, which made it even harder than it needed to be. This really made my arms hurt from the amount of effort needed on the handlebars just to keep from falling. I lost the rear end a few times. And if My drive train wasn't dirty enough already... it acquired it's self a shrubbery...



After this sector I mercifully got some tarmac, which was heavenly. Then I got to the next off road section. This was 4.3km in length, and started off relatively rideable. But by the final km or so, I had the mother of all bonks, and it became a trial just to keep going. I ended up getting off and pushing. When I eventually got to the end of that sector, I had planned to find some dry ground, sit down, and have something to eat. Exiting the woods, the rain started. So that plan went out the window. I donned a waterproof, and headed to about 1km to where I knew there was a bus shelter, and sat out of the rain, and had a handful of M&Ms.

I was pretty messed up at this point. I had a drink. I had some food, but I was also getting cold, so only one thing for it, Get on the bike. I decided to not try my luck with the next off road section, tho it looked from the bit I could see, like it may have a reasonable surface. I'll come back for that.

At the 70km mark, I called a friend. "I'm fucked. Help". She spent the next hour and a half, talking to me, and guiding me through, as we modified my route on the fly to just get me to a station, as easily as possible. I am very grateful of this, it really helped. I had to stop a few more times to top up the M&M inputs. I realised around this point that I was starting to dehydrate. I had started with 1L of water, and with 20km to go, was down to my last emergency mouthful. Not good. Fortunately at the 90km mark I found a water tap, for which I was exceedingly grateful. This, and a few more M&M's was enough to get me to the finish. After crossing the Rijn-Kanaal, I just took the most direct route to the station, avoiding any faff for tiles. Just needing to get home.

In the end the ride was 100.6km in length, with 10km of it offroad.

Bagged 30 new tiles, increased my cluster by 54. And I now have 8 overlapping 24x24 squares. And... I learned a lot.

Fortunately there aren't many tiles left that require off roading. So hopefully I won't have to go through this again.

Hopefully.



And the ride on strava if you're curious. https://www.strava.com/activities/5341000184

J

[imajez]

Just wait until our boy gets himself a sea kayak... also I get a bit infuriated looking at the Isle of Wight, because he could take a short swim from Norton and add the whole thing to his max cluster!

I took up kayaking again because I knew the Humber Estuary would become an issue. Was hoping to get a sea kayak and start ticking these off last year, but...
My white water kayak isn't really suitable for this sort of adventure. A sea kayak would have been a handy and very nice way to tick off tiles the Trent flows through too.

Kayaking the Humber by imajez photography, on Flickr

[imajez]

The tile down this path has not see many visitors, the rope handrail is covered in lichen.

Not come across a rope to help you along a path yet. Would have been handy in a few locations it has to be said.
Where is that?