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

[Solocle]

Filled in the last gap in Northeast Dorset, bumped my max square from multiple 19x19s to one 23x23!

Max cluster now 1364.

[Some Gump]

Gah! Just as I took 2nd place on the PH leaderboard you come and pinch it back =)

Will have to work harder I guess!

[Solocle]

Some Gump said:

Gah! Just as I took 2nd place on the PH leaderboard you come and pinch it back =)

Will have to work harder I guess!

Eh, I've got 3 easy tiles that are literally 2 miles from my house (Brownsea Island). That'll bump my cluster by 10. But after that, it's tricky coastals and West Dorset, which will slow me down!

[Gareth1974]

Solocle said:

Some Gump said:

Gah! Just as I took 2nd place on the PH leaderboard you come and pinch it back =)

Will have to work harder I guess!

Eh, I've got 3 easy tiles that are literally 2 miles from my house (Brownsea Island). That'll bump my cluster by 10. But after that, it's tricky coastals and West Dorset, which will slow me down!

I'm only a single 35 mile ride away from going from 17x17 to 20x20, and can get to 22x22 with only a couple of other rides after that.

[Some Gump]

Solocle said:

Eh, I've got 3 easy tiles that are literally 2 miles from my house (Brownsea Island). That'll bump my cluster by 10. But after that, it's tricky coastals and West Dorset, which will slow me down!

Oh you're miles ahead of me on total cluster, no worries there! I can get close to you on max square (purely because you're way more hampered than me by having a full on sea next to you) but unless I find >400 tiles down the back of the sofa, no danger here =)

[Solocle]

Some Gump said:

Oh you're miles ahead of me on total cluster, no worries there! I can get close to you on max square (purely because you're way more hampered than me by having a full on sea next to you) but unless I find >400 tiles down the back of the sofa, no danger here =)

According to conventional tiling wisdom this is what the max feasible square around these parts would roughly look like:

A nice round 50x50, if you can get the watery ones in the Bristol Channel, that is.

[Some Gump]

That would be some square!

I have the mersey stopping me east, in theory i could go above 50x50 but the eastern side is very hillly, and the highlighted area has at least 2 5x5 patches that don't actually contain a road. Thing is, by the time i got to there i'd be fit as a butchers dog so its still all good

[yellowjack]

Solocle said:

Some Gump said:

Oh you're miles ahead of me on total cluster, no worries there! I can get close to you on max square (purely because you're way more hampered than me by having a full on sea next to you) but unless I find >400 tiles down the back of the sofa, no danger here =)

According to conventional tiling wisdom this is what the max feasible square around these parts would roughly look like:

A nice round 50x50, if you can get the watery ones in the Bristol Channel, that is.

I can see the four Porton Down "Impossible Tiles", but I struggle to see how there is only one Salisbury Plain "Impossible Tile". I know the Plain as well as anyone, and while it isn't fenced off at the Imber end, there is a strict 'No Public Access' policy due to the potential for UXO anywhere off the road to/through Imber Village. And there are tiles within the Larkhill Artillery Impact Area that have no PROWs through them whether they are firing or not. I mean, I made a sneaky 200 metre incursion beyond the red flag to nab one extra tile last week, because there were no sentries out. But the Range Wardens and Training Area Safety Officers now have drones to help them spot trespassers on the ranges. I intend to try to get some of them, but I will not put myself in danger or get myself into legal bother simply to build a bigger square on VeloViewer.



I've got two tiles needed to move to a 29 x 29 Max Square, squeezed between Porton Down and the south coast. But those two tiles need either a mad dash down the A303 or a MTB to get up to the Great Ridge woods. So I've started on OS LandRanger 1:50,000 scale sheet number 183 Yeovil And Frome now. Today I filled in a 7 tile group south of Shaftesbury during a 2-hour time limited ride, and I'm hoping to get a long ride in tomorrow to mop up another isolated three tile group south of Longleat, and to tidy up the slightly ragged edge of my cluster from Frome down to Gillingham.

Edited by yellowjack on Tuesday 27th April 00:07

[Solocle]

yellowjack said:

I can see the four Porton Down "Impossible Tiles", but I struggle to see how there is only one Salisbury Plain "Impossible Tile". I know the Plain as well as anyone, and while it isn't fenced off at the Imber end, there is a strict 'No Public Access' policy due to the potential for UXO anywhere off the road to/through Imber Village. And there are tiles within the Larkhill Artillery Impact Area that have no PROWs through them whether they are firing or not. I mean, I made a sneaky 200 metre incursion beyond the red flag to nab one extra tile last week, because there were no sentries out. But the Range Wardens and Training Area Safety Officers now have drones to help them spot trespassers on the ranges. I intend to try to get some of them, but I will not put myself in danger or get myself into legal bother simply to build a bigger square on VeloViewer.



I've got two tiles needed to move to a 29 x 29 Max Square, squeezed between Porton Down and the south coast. But those two tiles need either a mad dash down the A303 or a MTB to get up to the Great Ridge woods. So I've started on OS LandRanger 1:50,000 scale sheet number 183 Yeovil And Frome now. Today I filled in a 7 tile group south of Shaftesbury during a 2-hour time limited ride, and I'm hoping to get a long ride in tomorrow to mop up another isolated three tile group south of Longleat, and to tidy up the slightly ragged edge of my cluster from Frome down to Gillingham.

Edited by yellowjack on Tuesday 27th April 00:07

This seems to cover the harder ones of Imber - Strava

[smack]

Ok, signed up to VV, I was going to last year, but my lockdown cycling effort fizzled out by June. But now this year with the goal of getting back to my weight and fitness of 10 years ago, I'm going to make a serious effort - if I don't do it now, I'll just make another excuse. And being a geek if I am honest, with a love of stats and graphs, my current goals have been making achievable mileage type targets, and catching some mates on Strava (and finally overtaking and fat old boss that cheats with an ebike!).
So I'm following in the tire tracks of those here. So downloading my history I'm starting on:

161 tiles, average of 10.278 km per tile
Max square 6x6
Max Cluster: 74

So I've got some work to do! Most of it is MTB, with only last year I dusted off my roadbikes after getting fed up with all my offroad routes to get anywhere getting clogged up walkers and family cycling with kids etc.
I have 4 vertically overlapping 6x6 squares, which I can fix up pretty easily as I found a dead end road to a farm so I don't have to go into MOD Army ranges danger area, although I'm probably ventured through it on night MTB rides in pre Strava days.

Without having to dig through all the pages on this thread, I seem to remember that someone setup some private PH group on VV?

[Some Gump]

Join the pistonheads club on strava and then you'll see it on vv.

Way to see on vv is leaderboards - club leaderboards (then drop down clicky for ph)

[yellowjack]

Yesterday's ride...


https://www.strava.com/activities/5204502046

...and how it fits with the north western limit of my Max Cluster...



None of the 60 new tiles count toward my Max Cluster yet, due to that three-tile gap just south of the Longleat Estate.

Yesterday's stats...

75.44 miles ridden, in 7 hours and 7 minutes moving time (9 hours 48 minutes elapsed), with 6,250 feet climbed.

VeloViewer Score: up from 98.726 to 98.727
Explorer Score: up by 60 tiles to 4077
Max Square: No change at 28 x 28
Max Cluster: No change at 2682
61 tiles ridden, and 60 of them were new ones.

I'd planned to ride a century, but a later start than intended, a road closure, and having to find an alternative parking spot due to the Longleat Estate locking the car park at Shear Water (still!) meant an extra hour travelling to the (hastily revised) start point. And that, too had to change. Hence why I didn't manage to fill in those "problem" tiles which are preventing this new cluster from merging with my Max Cluster. It's all good stuff though. Good miles, if a little hillier than I'm used to, and really lovely countryside stuffed with pretty villages and interesting buildings and historical features. And a couple more nice places mentally bookmarked to take my wife to when we're out and about. Lovely!

[yellowjack]

A fairly short ride for me today. Went to my road bike, still in the boot of my car, and "thumb checked" the tyres. The rear was flat, even though it had got me back to my car OK on the last ride. I decided to throw that bike in the garage, and drag my old Cannondale out again, because slinging a spare set of pedals onto the 'Dale seemed like a quicker solution than fixing a puncture.

So, with a bike more suitable for Byways and Bridleways available, I headed out to grab those two pesky tiles that were blocking expansion of my Max Square. 12 new tiles ridden, and an empty block of tiles filled in, and success!






I'm now up to the limit of this particular Max Square, at 29 x 29. It's "squashed" between four 'Impossible Tiles' at Porton Down (not even I'm going to risk arrest for a VeloViewer tile ) in the north, and the coastline in the south. Time now to decide which direction to go to concentrate on building a base for a "new" Max Square...

VeloViewer Stats and stuff...

VeloViewer Score: no change at 98.727
Explorer Score: up from 4077 to 4089
Max Square: Yay! Progress! Up from 28 x 28 to 29 x 29. Finally...
Max Cluster: 18 new tiles taking me up to 2700
Eddington Score: no change at 72 miles

Edited by yellowjack on Thursday 29th April 22:36

[Solocle]

Tried for this blasted tile again.



Grrr.

[Some Gump]

This looks like closest approach? Theres a path there that just nudges the square?

[Solocle]

Some Gump said:

This looks like closest approach? Theres a path there that just nudges the square?

That's this point here

[yellowjack]

Solocle said:

Tried for this blasted tile again.



Grrr.

Here's my effort, for what it's worth... https://www.strava.com/activities/3569237412 ...I entered the area up by the rifle range, off Holme Lane, took a bridleway south for a bit, then headed west to the tank range boundary fence, did a bit of hike-a-bike through fields of Gorse, mainly, but nettles too (it would have saved my legs no end to have jumped the fence onto the range perimeter road right at this point). Then I went over the fence near the quarry, I think, and cut back across farm land that is technically within the range boundary, but had livestock grazing on it, and being dusk I took a punt on not being seen by any farmer/landowner types. That gate in you photo, I think I came out of that. Or over it, perhaps. I can't exactly remember now.

Edited by yellowjack on Saturday 1st May 21:00

[Solocle]

yellowjack said:

Here's my effort, for what it's worth... https://www.strava.com/activities/3569237412 ...I entered the area up by the rifle range, off Holme Lane, took a bridleway south for a bit, then headed west to the tank range boundary fence, did a bit of hike-a-bike through fields of Gorse, mainly, but nettles too (it would have saved my legs no end to have jumped the fence onto the range perimeter road right at this point). Then I went over the fence near the quarry, I think, and cut back across farm land that is technically within the range boundary, but had livestock grazing on it, and being dusk I took a punt on not being seen by any farmer/landowner types. That gate in you photo, I think I came out of that. Or over it, perhaps. I can't exactly remember now.

Edited by yellowjack on Saturday 1st May 21:00

Yeah, I remember the gorse! I followed the boundary along the path you took, and put my bike over the fence into the range at one point, but the real killer was the thicket of rhodedendrons.

It does show you as coming over/past that gate - my approach would probably be the covered barbed wire to the side.
As for your work out west, here's the detail on my rides in the area.

You've really got to take the bridleway between the C12 and the B3143. Not the easiest to find, but it's serviceable and direct. There's also a nice bridleway up from Grimstone towards Cerne Abbas in the same vein. These rather conveniently tie in with the parallel roads for strip tiling.

Naturally, I ended up on the A35 on the same ride...

Edited by Solocle on Sunday 2nd May 11:35

Well...

Edited by Solocle on Sunday 2nd May 15:56

[yellowjack]

Solocle said:

Well...

It's a freakin' massive hole, isn't it? Much bigger a quarry than I expected to find there. But does this photo mean you managed to get that tile now? I hope so. There are many, many tiles I have absolutely no interest in ever returning to, and this tile is one of them. absolutely no joy to be had cycling there.

Similar to my Lepe Beach tile the other day. Totally unrideable without a Fat Bike due to loose sand and a deep shingle layer, it's a mile to walk out and back. But there's an impressive area of remnants of D-Day preparations to see, so (for me at least) it was worth going the once. But It might well be one better visited as part of a walk or (dare I mention it on a cycling forum) a run. But to balance things out I've found some great bits of road and traffic free cycling paths which I'd love to visit again and again, to the point where I'd happily give 'Tiling' the heave-ho once in a while to go over the same ground again. The old railway line between Frome and Radstock is the latest gem, for instance. Along with the Dorset Trailway out of Blandford, and the on-road NCN route from Wimborne to Blandford. one day I hope to stitch a good long low traffic/traffic free route together up to maybe Bath or even Bristol...

[Solocle]

yellowjack said:

Solocle said:

Well...

It's a freakin' massive hole, isn't it? Much bigger a quarry than I expected to find there. But does this photo mean you managed to get that tile now? I hope so. There are many, many tiles I have absolutely no interest in ever returning to, and this tile is one of them. absolutely no joy to be had cycling there.

Similar to my Lepe Beach tile the other day. Totally unrideable without a Fat Bike due to loose sand and a deep shingle layer, it's a mile to walk out and back. But there's an impressive area of remnants of D-Day preparations to see, so (for me at least) it was worth going the once. But It might well be one better visited as part of a walk or (dare I mention it on a cycling forum) a run. But to balance things out I've found some great bits of road and traffic free cycling paths which I'd love to visit again and again, to the point where I'd happily give 'Tiling' the heave-ho once in a while to go over the same ground again. The old railway line between Frome and Radstock is the latest gem, for instance. Along with the Dorset Trailway out of Blandford, and the on-road NCN route from Wimborne to Blandford. one day I hope to stitch a good long low traffic/traffic free route together up to maybe Bath or even Bristol...

Yep, I got the tile! The sudden sound of engines was rather unnerving as I half expected a tank to come rolling out of the gorse, but it was just diesel generators.

Then I was actually on NCN 25 yesterday, as it's basically the direct route to my parents... but very quickly got a puncture, and took to the A350 then the A357. Then I got a second puncture after Stur Newton, and was basically buggered. Bloody GP5000s! So I've now got some GP 4 Seasons, and I've cranked up yet again from 28 mm to 32 mm. Does that count as a fat bike?