Veloviewer. Who is using it, and what do you get from it?

Veloviewer. Who is using it, and what do you get from it?

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yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Tuesday 13th July 2021
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Right.

Aside from current riding, I've got a question regarding "historic" rides that aren't on Strava because they were ridden before I got a GPS.

There is a tool called gotoes.org that I have used in the past to claim ride time/distance where/when my GPS device had had a brain-fart.

This morning, while looking for something else entirely (and which I typically cannot find), I turned up my old hand-written 'Cycling Diary'. This was meticulously maintained with notes on routes, by village and town, dates and start times, and the mileage and average speed as returned by an old Cateye "cycle computer". It even has weather notes.

This data is primarily based around Saffron Walden in Essex, with the odd ride around Farnborough and one or two rides from my sister's house in South Wales. As such they definitely won't affect my Max Square, and almost certainly won't expand my Max cluster either. But they might bump up my VeloViewer Score, and will definitely inflate my Explorer Score (total tiles ridden).

So the question really is "would you regard that as cheating?"

Not that it matters (in the grand scheme of things) because as far as I'm aware there are no prizes for tiling. And I'm not making anything up, only stuff that actually appears in the ride diary. A full two years of riding up in the North Yorkshire dales won't appear because I didn't keep records back then.

I mean, I'm uploading the ride data anyway. I just wondered what other people thought of me doing this.

Just to confirm - all rides added this way will appear on (backdated to) the actual date and time they were really ridden. And the only annoyance (for me at least) is that the first two, when processed and uploaded, have credited me with 1.5 to 2.0 mph more in terms of average speed than I actually managed, but so far not taking the piss, nor knocking anyone off their KOM/podium spots. It's not about Strava leaderboards though. Just creating an accurate record of VeloViewer tiles I can demonstrate beyond any doubt that I've ridden.

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Tuesday 13th July 2021
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Solocle said:

I have done recreations before - year 8 coastal walk here. I think that as long as you've definitely been to the tile and don't mess with leaderboards, it should be fine.
Yeah, definitely been to them. And so many of the rides will be repeats of the same loop(s) anyway. I've even uploaded one just now where I drove the car to have tyres fitted then cycled back to barracks in my lunch hour... https://www.strava.com/activities/5620141747/segme... ...Why I'm bothering with silly little 4-milers I don't know, but it seems like the "right" thing to do if I'm going to recreate data to recreate it honestly and thoroughly. Warts and all.

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Friday 13th August 2021
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Well. I got bored quite swiftly recreating old rides from my cycling diary. So I got back to more current activities. I've been targeting tiles in west Dorset recently, but in the past two weeks I've switched my attention over to east Hampshire. Managed to get a 92 mile ride in yesterday too...


Some of these tiles I already had, but I needed to mop up a few missed tiles.


Down to one unclaimed tile on the Gosport peninsula now, and that one would probably need wet feet at low tide.


Nice to finish a section of "colouring in" and join some completed sections up.

The ride itself... https://www.strava.com/activities/5784842318

This area could be promising for increasing my Max Square too, albeit with absolutely no crossover with my current 29x29. But it will take two or three more rides minimum to reach that point. I've also got Berkshire in my sights now as a county to complete.


The current state of play, focussing on my Max Cluster.

I've rediscovered my Mojo for tiling again, after losing interest for a little while.

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Monday 20th September 2021
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Bumping the thread up to ask how everyone is getting on?

I'm struggling for motivation at the moment. Tried non tiling rides. Tried long days of tiling. Had a lot of days where I could have done a massive ride but have just sat at home feeling sorry for myself.

I think it's partly that there is no one single obvious area that'll get my Max Square up in size. Too many little sections that need sweeping up. Plus, apart from a few Dorset and Wiltshire tiles, I'm getting into the realms of making a two hour trip to get any decent tiling done now, and that's before I get the bike out of the car.

This is the full picture of my tiling as of now...


Closer detail of the main cluster...


...with those four poxy Porton Down tiles just left of centre. I've a 29x29 Square to the left of them, and a rectangle of 29x27 to the right of them. If I ride the "right" group of tiles next time out I could have two equal squares of 29x29. Then I could play tile ping-pong and expand one, then the other square. But any progress I make now means a long day out. Three hours in the car means I feel compelled to get at least six hours of riding in to make it worth my time and the cost of the fuel to get there.

I'm still doing it all guided by tiles drawn by hand onto OS 1:50k Land Ranger maps too. Although I'm getting more and more tempted to buy a new GPS so I can follow an electronic route for better efficiency. Too often I find myself going much further into a tile "just to make sure" I claim it when I get home. And too often it's a tile with only off road PROWs in it. Which makes for slow progress.

Anyone else closing in on a goal? Or given up? Or just struggling to motivate enough to make best use of their available riding time?

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Monday 20th September 2021
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pablo said:
You may think it’s cheating but ditch the car, book some one way train journeys out to a start point and ride home. If you’re still farnborough way(?) there must be a train that could get you out to Bath/Marlborough easy enough?,
It's a consideration yes. I'm in Bournemouth now, so still have a railway station (or three) close by. Not such a great service as the Farnborough mainline though.

I've still been making a few "from home" tiling rides, but they seldom net more than a dozen tiles now due to the time it takes me to get out to the tiles I'm hunting.

My biggest issue, though, is being indecisive. I'll plan a ride, sort out the right maps, check they're marked up-to-date with progress so far, put fuel in the car, and identify a place to park. Then, next morning, I usually end up second-guessing myself, getting the laptop open again to "quickly check" something or other. Then I change my mind, use up a couple of hours working out a new plan, then go out much later than I intended. And sometimes traffic conspires to kick a ride into touch. Huge problems on the M3 and A34 last week had me bailing out before I got to the queues and heading east along the M27/A27. Which meant I didn't have all of the right maps for the area, and I hadn't pre-selected a parking spot, and that consumed even more of my time. Obviously it's within my power to change this behaviour, but that's easier said than done with my "issues". And in the end I am making progress. It's just not as focused or efficient as it could really be.

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Tuesday 21st September 2021
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ukbabz said:
...Yellowjack - when seeing your tiling map I'm always amazed you've not started on the Isle of Wight, lovely roads there (if not a tad hilly) and not too many cars...
The Isle Of Wight is an odd one. It probably wouldn't do all that much for my Max Sqaure or Max Cluster. At least not without "cheating" and leaving the GPS running on a ferry. Either that or buying/borrowing a kayak. It's also very self-contained, so my thought was to "save it for later". When I've pushed as far as is practical in all other directions I can easily bike to the ferry from home and tackle it in smaller sections over a series of one day rides. Or I could book a campsite on the island and make a week of it. I've got plenty of mapping for the Isle Of Wight already, both 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 scale so I can sketch out a few routes ahead of time. Probably something best left to fill a day when the weather is too miserable for cycling. The great thing about it is that the island is always on one map sheet. None of this having to take four OS maps to grab 2 dozen tiles because they're spread over the edges of where sheets meet.

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Tuesday 21st September 2021
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Lately all the new maps I've bought have been the weatherproof version. This means that I can write on them with old OHP pens I have a (dwindling) collection of. And I can erase my scrawl with old ink erasers from the days when we drew things on film on a drawing board instead of clicking around on CAD. It takes a few hours to mark a map from scratch with VV tiles, and to then remove the ones I've already got.

These images are 'before' and 'after' shots from my last big tiling ride out to Hayling Island and the area between Havant and Chichester...





It can feel like slow progress, nibbling away at the edges to extend my Cluster, and I suppose it is. But then you gradually whittle it away until there's a single ride left that jumps your Max Square up by a couple of digits. I'm within one ride of a second, entirely separate, 29x29 Square now. But if I could just nab those four Porton Down tiles (or if there was a way to "credit" them to everyone who has legitimately claimed the surrounding tiles) then I'd already have a 37x37. But there's no point in moaning about that. It's the same for anyone who 'Tiles' in this part of the world. As it is with the limitations of living near the coast as it tapers away to nothing along the length of the West Country. For all my whining about such frustrations, I can see how much harder it would be to start tiling from Falmouth, say, or Truro...

Edited by yellowjack on Tuesday 21st September 10:41

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Wednesday 22nd September 2021
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A tough ride yesterday. Heavy on the hike-a-bike element, but good fun all the same. Rode 63 miles, but better than that, managed to clean up all the VeloViewer tiles on OS LandRanger 1:50,000 scale sheet number 185 (Winchester and Basingstoke), and as a bonus I'd planned to create a second, entirely separate 29x29 Square, but some unplanned extra tiles meant that ended up stretching out to 32x32. And some single rides should now net increases in both of those Squares if I want to.

Part of me is annoyed that I didn't simply concentrate on the one Max Square. But to be honest? It's nice to have variety and options available. Still irritated by the four 'Porton Down Impossibles' that separate the two Squares, but it is what it is and I'll have to work around them.

So here it is...



Depending upon how you look at it, there are 6 (possibly more?) options for the 29x29, based on where you place the corners. And 3 options for the 32x32. But VeloViewer seems to only credit you with multiple Squares if they are identical in size and wholly separate from one-another.

Whichever way you look at it, it's now decision time. Max Square ping-pong where I alternate between the two Squares, or just concentrate on growing the 32x32 because that's got greater scope for expansion anyway? It'll work itself out in the end, I suppose, but it was a nice surprise when I uploaded the data from yesterday to find I'd managed to get a bigger Max Square than I'd planned for.

Yesterday's ride for those interested... https://www.strava.com/activities/5999929043
To get the Beacon Hill tile I respected the 'Private - No Right Of Way' signs on the Highclere Stud road, and instead marched myself, and my bike, to the top. Hard going, and no realistic chance of riding it up there, but it was legitimate Public Access land and I always use that where it's available. Trespassing is always the last resort. Although I did ride a Public Footpath along an old railway bed, but I'm going with "reasonable use" on that because it was maintained as a farm road. Some other bridleway/byway hike-a-bike at the end too. Turns out I could have ridden up a tarmac road to get to Combe from Buttermere. but my scrawled map marking had obscured the road so I went cross-country instead. Netted me two outlying tiles though, so very much worth doing.

Stats:
Explorer Score: 5540 tiles
Max square: 32x32
Max Cluster: 3625 tiles
Veloviewer score: 99.220

Edited by yellowjack on Wednesday 22 September 12:41

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Friday 24th September 2021
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Solocle said:
Some Gump said:
I'd be tempted to drive west and make that 29x29 bigger, surely 2 rides and you'd have it at 34x34 or even 35x35?

mind you, one major reason is that other than on the closed roads of Ride100, I can't think that riding near London is any fun at all =)
I think a 40x40 is defintiely possible between the training areas and the Bristol Channel.


I'm on it!

And yes, one more ride could easily knock that up again to 35x35. A little nibble at that five-tile "bump" around Bruton will do it, Beyond that and I'm looking at a MTB/gravel ride into the ranges at Imber and Larkhill. The imber range is a definite no-no but others have done it, and I probably will too.

As for 40x40? Possibly. I'd had it worked out as 39x39, but it could easily be 40x40 depending on how the coastal tile boundaries fall in relation to the coastline itself.

I'm not sure about another expedition today now. It's a bit late for a long ride, or an hour or more each way drive to get to productive tiling grounds. Weirdly my wife wants me home for dinner together tonight.

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Saturday 9th October 2021
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Returned to Hungerford today, and finally bagged a second helping of 33x33 goodness...



...including 42 new tiles. And just for a change, no annoying single tiles left as gaps in the area covered.

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Tuesday 9th November 2021
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ukbabz said:
I have finally managed to expand my max tile slightly and plugged a hole in Reading. Although I did it through running rather than cycling...
Which reminds me. I have some unfinished business in the Reading area which would contribute nicely to Max Square expansion. And I also need to push out toward <shudder>Slough</shudder>

Looks like I'm heading toward Midsomer Norton this weekend though, which won't really help expand my Square, but will be a whole new area to explore. Details are sketchy but I'm taking my son to stay with one of his friends for a night or two, so I'm going to take a bike and try to maximise the opportunity after I failed to make the best of my trip up to Derbyshire a while back. Just spent half a day drawing the VeloViewer tiles onto three (new) OS maps of that area (where he's staying is literally right on the edge of a map) so that I will have plenty of options. Maybe Cheddar Gorge? Strike out for the coast? Work back toward my existing Cluster? Maybe the Bath/Bristol cycle path? Who knows, really? I'll make it all up "on the hoof" as usual, I suppose...

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Friday 31st December 2021
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Harpoon said:
100km this morning to finish the year with two overlapping 25x25s - decent increase from a 16x16 at the start of the year.
That's decent progress in a year. I've stagnated a bit toward the end of the year if I'm honest. My Max Square effort is still split, and unless the MOD close Porton Down, or at least the training area/range there, then it always will be split.

Currently I'm on two entirely separate and not overlapping in any way Squares, each of 33x33 tiles...

...which is irritating because if it weren't for the four 'Impossible Tiles' in the middle then I'd have focused my effort on a single Max Square which would be much larger.

This is how those two Squares fit into the full picture...


The western, left hand Square is also compromised by some Impossible Tiles to the north of it, in the Larkhill Artillery Range impact area, and some off-limits tiles that should be "possible", if not strictly permitted, around the Imber live fire training area. It looks like fairly easy pickings to push the left hand square out to 35x35, and the right hand one out to 45x45 in a few big rides. Beyond that? Not sure the left hand Square can be expanded much beyond 39x39 with the coast and the MOD Impossible Tiles constraining me in the west. In the east, expansion much beyond 50x50 will mean a lot of riding inside the M25, which isn't really my idea of a good time.

Tiling is tougher now, and very difficult if I were to be wanting to ride only from home. To get any ride of a decent distance in I have to drive at least an hour to start on/near the edge of the current Cluster of visited tiles. Also annoying that, on current data (inclusion threshold of >4007 for cluster), I'm only 4 tiles away from getting on Pete Bartlett's 'Ride Every Tile' UK leaderboard on the strength of my Max Cluster. I probably ought to drag myself out and expand that beastie before he next updates his site...
https://rideeverytile.com/tiles/leaderboard_nation...

Having said all that, I'd be a bit further ahead already if a bout of depression hadn't kept me off the bike for five straight weeks over November/December.

This is my year, by the numbers...

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Monday 10th January 2022
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Solocle said:
Some new tiles, I believe the first since November.

Coastal ones are always hard, so trying to get them out of the way.
I'm struggling with Portland and Chesil Beach too. I probably ought to have included Portland itself in a bigger ride early on, because now it's a long way to go for just an isolated small batch of tiles.




Probably 24 tiles in all in that area that I "need". Some will involve walking on the seaward side of Chesil Beach if I'm to claim them, and I'm not even sure if that is permitted... (Edit: I found this link... https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/chesil-beach/ ...which says it can be walked legitimately, subject to closure of the range danger area at Chickerell... https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chicker... ). The coastal path and all other PROWs definitely run on the landward side of The Fleet. A couple on Portland may need a walk too, on the eastern side of the "island". Then I suppose it will need a kayak to nab the tiles containing the breakwaters of the old naval base.

I've got a couple of tiles still to get on Purbeck too. A couple in the Lulworth Range boundary, and some on (or just beyond) the coastal path, all of which will be more efficiently claimed on foot. As you say, nabbing every last coastal tile with "dry land" in it can be tough. Access isn't either easy, or permitted, in many cases.

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Friday 28th January 2022
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Solocle said:
...I might well be doing the seaward side of Chesil this coming weekend.
Did anything come of that for you? I've not managed much at all in the way of new tiles this month. Had plenty of time to ride, but anxiety struggles and "overthinking it" have sunk many of those riding opportunities. I managed to go for a walk last weekend from Tyneham to Worbarrow on the Lulworth Ranges, but no new tiles from that.

I also managed a MTB excursion onto the Larkhill Artillery Ranges on Salisbury Plain, but failed in my quest to ride all but the Impossible Tiles in the area. So a trip back is in order at some point.

Entering the last weekend in January I see I've clocked up only 45 new tiles in the month. How is "tiling" going for everyone else over the winter?

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Monday 4th April 2022
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Battle On The beach race weekend for me this weekend. So I wasn't expecting much in the way of VeloViewer tiles. It was, then, quite a pleasant surprise to find I'd nabbed one new one...



...as a result of changes to the beach exit part of the lap.

I just wish I'd marked up my OS maps now, as I'd have plugged those two obvious holes in my coverage too, with a ride either before of after the race. It will keep for another time, though. This area is entirely isolated from my main cluster so any tiling activity here is just a byproduct of enjoying cycling at the moment, not really a focus of tiling for tiling's sake.

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Friday 22nd April 2022
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Solocle said:
A tiling walk for a change. Only added a couple of squares to my max cluster, but that was really an aside. An epic one it was too, at about 20 km. Nor was it an easy 20 km...

...Especially as it was a question of Do, or Do Not. There is no try!
You've beaten me to it, then!

And if I don't get my skates on and walk it next week I'm going to have to wait until September. Or find a kayak...

I was thinking of parking in Weymouth then getting the coastal bus toward Burton Bradstock and walking back from somewhere on that route. Where I start depends on which tiles I need really. I think I will try to walk a lap of Portland at some point too, because some of the tiles at the edges are inaccessible by bicycle as far as I can see from my maps. At the moment, though, I think I need to concentrate on getting "bike fit" again. First ride in ages yesterday and 38 miles really left me feeling wrung out. Shocking how quickly you can loose fitness and condition. It's not like I've been completely inactive but it seems that walking does little to keep you feeling bike fit.

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Sunday 1st May 2022
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Solocle said:
yellowjack said:
You've beaten me to it, then!

And if I don't get my skates on and walk it next week I'm going to have to wait until September. Or find a kayak...

I was thinking of parking in Weymouth then getting the coastal bus toward Burton Bradstock and walking back from somewhere on that route. Where I start depends on which tiles I need really. I think I will try to walk a lap of Portland at some point too, because some of the tiles at the edges are inaccessible by bicycle as far as I can see from my maps. At the moment, though, I think I need to concentrate on getting "bike fit" again. First ride in ages yesterday and 38 miles really left me feeling wrung out. Shocking how quickly you can loose fitness and condition. It's not like I've been completely inactive but it seems that walking does little to keep you feeling bike fit.
That's effectively exactly how I did it. Parked at Park Street Car Park, a very short walk to King's Statue, where I caught the last X53 of the day up to Abbotsbury. At the other end I caught a bus back from Chesil Vista holiday park - the last one of the day, I was in time for the previous one, but it was running early and didn't stop.

In all honesty I was a bit underprepared, and not exactly walking fit... but time was running away from me to, so I figured I'd just get it done.

Edited by Solocle on Friday 22 April 09:55
Ah well. Looks like I've missed the deadline now. September or nothing it is then. Rather irritatingly I was at Abbotsbury Subtropical Garden yesterday and I could see all the way down The Fleet and Chesil Beach, but it was just out of reach...


Edited by yellowjack on Sunday 1st May 14:36

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Wednesday 8th June 2022
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Portland is on my "to do list" too.

Sadly I've had to hit the 'Pause' button on my tiling adventures for now. My wife has had surgery and is laid up for about ten weeks, so I've not done any cycling this last two weeks, and anything I might get out and do in the next few weeks will probably be close to home. Although she does want to make our long planned trip to London at the end of the month, so if she's up to that I'll feel more confident about leaving her at home while I ride... wink

yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Wednesday 31st August 2022
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I'm back on my road bike now! New Goodyear F1 tanwall tyres have been fitted and it's back on the road.

Not much use for grabbing new tiles at the moment, although I did nudge my VeloViewer Score up from 99.318 to 99.321.

I headed out from Bournemouth to Blandford via Wimborne, and came back following the last 27 miles of the route for Stage 7 of the Tour Of Britain. I'd driven it in my car on Monday coming back from Cranborne Manor and it seemed very flat and "fast". And it probably will be for the pro peloton in a couple of weeks. But a combination of going too hard on the outward leg and 5 months off the road bike (with only a handful of MTB and gravel rides in that time) meant I suffered on the way back. Wandrer Earth credited me with 19.3 new miles which I thought was high, but no change on the Veloviewer tile front...

VeloViewer stuff...

VeloViewer Score: 99.321 (up from 99.318)
Explorer Score: 6134 (no change)
Max Square: 33x33 (no change, and there's still two of them)
Max Cluster: 4176 (no change)
Eddington Score: 78 miles (no change)

The two 33x33 squares? They're completely separate, not overlaps. At some stage soon I'm going to have to set aside some time and energy to expand one of them. Probably the western one first off as that's going to be restricted to 35x35 anyway, pinned on three sides between the coastline, the Porton Down laboratory and training area complex, and the Imber Live Fire Training Area on Salisbury Plain. There are also some obvious areas where a relatively small ride would net me a decent increase in my Max Cluster...


yellowjack

Original Poster:

17,082 posts

167 months

Friday 2nd September 2022
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yellowjack said:
I'm back on my road bike now! New Goodyear F1 tanwall tyres have been fitted and it's back on the road.

Not much use for grabbing new tiles at the moment, although I did nudge my VeloViewer Score up from 99.318 to 99.321.

I headed out from Bournemouth to Blandford via Wimborne, and came back following the last 27 miles of the route for Stage 7 of the Tour Of Britain. I'd driven it in my car on Monday coming back from Cranborne Manor and it seemed very flat and "fast". And it probably will be for the pro peloton in a couple of weeks. But a combination of going too hard on the outward leg and 5 months off the road bike (with only a handful of MTB and gravel rides in that time) meant I suffered on the way back. Wandrer Earth credited me with 19.3 new miles which I thought was high, but no change on the Veloviewer tile front...

VeloViewer stuff...

VeloViewer Score: 99.321 (up from 99.318)
Explorer Score: 6134 (no change)
Max Square: 33x33 (no change, and there's still two of them)
Max Cluster: 4176 (no change)
Eddington Score: 78 miles (no change)

The two 33x33 squares? They're completely separate, not overlaps. At some stage soon I'm going to have to set aside some time and energy to expand one of them. Probably the western one first off as that's going to be restricted to 35x35 anyway, pinned on three sides between the coastline, the Porton Down laboratory and training area complex, and the Imber Live Fire Training Area on Salisbury Plain. There are also some obvious areas where a relatively small ride would net me a decent increase in my Max Cluster...

Managed another ride today. Broke a journey to collect my son, and set off after some small groups of Veloviewer tiles south and east of Reading. Successfully bagged 13 of them in the end, annoyingly missing one (running out of time) near Sonning. So some changes to my numbers for a change...

VeloViewer stuff...

VeloViewer Score: 99.321 (no change)
Explorer Score: 6147 (up by 13 tiles from 6134)
Max Square: 36x36 (up from 33x33, but now only one of them)
Max Cluster: 4208 (up by 32 tiles from 4176)
Eddington Score: 78 miles (no change)
37 tiles ridden today, and 13 of them were new ones.


https://www.strava.com/activities/7738892758

So no more 33x33 (x2) Max Squares. Almost disappointed to see just the one 36x36, as the "other square" is, I think, limited to a maximum size of 35x35. Not important now, as I can either concentrate on this new 36x36 square or head west and concentrate on growing my Max Cluster for a while.