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

[yellowjack]

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...

[ZetecTDCI]

A mere 13 square for me, been stuck on that for a long time as I cant really be bothered with the crap bits south of glasgow or revisiting places I did before strava. I keep meaning to do a few raids to increase it though.
Tiles = 8672, cluster =785

[yellowjack]

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.

[ZetecTDCI]

Good going. Do you go off road much ? Sticking to roads only can limit what tiles are available. I don’t do any off road stuff

[Some Gump]

ZetecTDCI said:

Good going. Do you go off road much ? Sticking to roads only can limit what tiles are available. I don’t do any off road stuff

If you take up tiling, off road is a must!

I've been in fields, down singketracks, occasionally done a bit if hedge hopping, all on a carbon road bike with 23c

Partly because in some rural tiles, there are no roads. There's even one tile i need to get if i'm to expand north west that the tile doesn't even have any official footpaths, so that will be interesting to bag

All adds to the fun imo.

[yellowjack]

Some Gump said:

ZetecTDCI said:

Good going. Do you go off road much ? Sticking to roads only can limit what tiles are available. I don’t do any off road stuff

If you take up tiling, off road is a must!

I've been in fields, down singketracks, occasionally done a bit if hedge hopping, all on a carbon road bike with 23c

Partly because in some rural tiles, there are no roads. There's even one tile i need to get if i'm to expand north west that the tile doesn't even have any official footpaths, so that will be interesting to bag

All adds to the fun imo.

As Some Gump has said, if you're going to get really "into" VeloViewer tiling you need to be willing to expand your horizons as far as the limitations of a road bike are concerned. I've ridden plenty of places I'd never have previously considered taking a carbon road bike. From flinty drovers' roads in chalk downland to lush grassy bridleways on "old money" estates. Although there are some byways and bridleways where you meet your match and decide to go back another time with a MTB or a "gravel" bike.

There are some places where you simply cannot (or at least dare not) go. For me that's 4 tiles covered by the Porton Down labs and training area, another 7 tiles which are artillery impact areas on the Larkhill live fire ranges, and some more which are wholly inside the Imber ranges. I know at least one rider who managed to get those Imber tiles but the MOD Police have stepped up patrols of the Imber end of Salisbury Plain Training area so even when there are no red flags flying it's simply not worth the risk of an illicit entry. There are also a few mostly "wet" tiles (Portsmouth Naval Base has three of them) and an inaccessible tile at Fawley Oil Refinery. They'd need a change of use of the land for me to try on foot/by bike. They might be possible by kayak though, if I ever get hold of one.

Then there are the "naughty but not really criminal" tiles. Usually private land, big estates, off-limits forestry, etc. But, so long as the tiles aren't literally going through someone's garden, I'm personally willing to do a little "light trespassing". Neither VeloViewer nor the 'Ride Every Tile' sites either condone or encourage such trespass, and there are no prizes over and above online bragging rights so it's up to you if you indulge. I've ridden some forest fire roads I shouldn't have been on, and sometimes it's a case of riding a bike where it's officially only a footpath. The purists might object too, but if necessary I'll go on a walk or a run to do some tiling. An example is the Royal Artillery barracks on Thorney Island. There's a Public Footpath around the shoreline, and the guardroom have the ability to remotely unlock the gates for access. Unfortunately I turned up on a bike and they refused to let me in on it (although they let in a young lad who had a family ID card and lived within the wire. For that one I'd need to return and park nearby to go around on foot.

Sorry for the long post so far, by the way. But there's one last type of tile where opinions differ as to how to claim them. One 'Solocle' who posts on here often rides on some big, busy trunk roads to claim tiles. I've claimed those same tiles by riding up to the trunk roads on byways and bridleways. It's horse for courses sometimes and you just do it how you're most comfortable doing it. Misusing my road bike has cost me a few times in terms of needing a new tyre after a byway excursion. I seldom plan a route with "unsuitable surfaces" for my bike, but often pass a junction of road and byway/bridleway as a sort of recce for a return trip with a more suitable bike, only to find a benign looking surface which tempts me off road. Usually to get more than half way along said route and find the surface deteriorates, by which time i'll decide to just forge onward, even if that means walking. Which is why I often put SPD pedals onto my road bike and wear MTB shoes if I even suspect I'll be tempted onto the PROW network. But I was lucky on that last tiling trip because the one Public Byway I rode was also a private road which had been nicely surfaced quite recently, and the Thames Path section i rode was mostly well surfaced with only a relatively short section of good, dry, hard packed gravel.

I've been away from the bike for 5 months (save for a handful of short rides that yielded few VV tiles), and even longer since I determinedly set out to do some tiling, so it's nice to be back at it again. But it is getting tougher these days. Unclaimed tiles are further away now that I've cleaned up the local ones. This means I either have to put in a very long ride to claim relatively few tiles, or I get the train out and ride back (fares are expensive), or more likely drive to a "new" area, do a targeted tiling ride and then drive home, but the price of fuel for the car means long days and big rides too to make the most economic use of resources. That's why I do things like yesterday, where I needed to drive up the M3 anyway to collect my son and all his swag for him to spend a long weekend at "home" to watch the Bournemouth Air Festival and to see his mum. I simply detour on the way to an area where I need some tiles, with a bike in the boot, and sneak in a ride while he finishes work for the day. Depending upon what time he wants me to drive him back up on Monday, I may stick the bike in again and do an afternoon/evening ride on my way back down. Next week may see an attempt to ride the entirety of the Tour Of Britain stage 7 route for me. That wouldn't help much with tiling, but there are a couple of tiles near Chickerell/Weymouth which I haven't yet ridden and are on the route. We'll see how that goes, though...

[ZetecTDCI]

I was just wondering how much off roading was needed to get that many tiles down there. I don't know now big the network of wee roads is. I also wondered how far you travel to do a ride. I'm happy to travel when I got cycling with my wife but if I'm solo I just ride from home. I enjoy getting new tiles and linking up my veloviewer map but am not especially bothered about square especially. The cluster is more appealling, but some of the clusters here and from others I know are really impressive.

I'm not under any delusion about where I can go on my road bikes, I'm just not really into that.
(I wouldn't even bother with 23c's on road only now )

[ukbabz]

I've pretty much stalled my progress of main cluster / max square at
3339 tiles, average of 8.798 km per tile
Max square 23x23 View map
Max Cluster: 874 KML

I did however have fun building a new cluster when on holiday, however the 5x5 cluster in Lyon is never going to join up to the rest!

[dirtbiker]

Big day out for me on Friday - doing the reverse of Stage 1 of the Tour of Britain from Glenshee back into Aberdeen:



An excellent route, 191km and 1,973m of climbing completed in just over seven hours of moving time. Could have used more training!

Explorer score:1,544 tiles > 1,613 tiles
Max square 12x12 (no change)
Max Cluster: 231 > 235

[ZetecTDCI]

Is the strava api on Veloviewer down for everyone ? Seems to have been down for 24 hours now

[Solocle]

ZetecTDCI said:

Is the strava api on Veloviewer down for everyone ? Seems to have been down for 24 hours now

The API doesn't seem down to me, although there's a notice about private activites not being returned.

[ZetecTDCI]

Thanks for that.
I don't see that message. My rides are open to followers only (not everyone). But I tried changing my profile to be public and activities to be public and still no luck. :-(

[ZetecTDCI]

OK, now I see it...

[Solocle]

Set out to fill a gap yesterday evening after work.

[ukbabz]

I need to find some time to join up some clusters, as currently doing longer group training rides for next months LEJOG. That'll also be a long line of tiles that won't join my main cluster.

3877 tiles, average of 8.629 km per tile
Max square 23x23 (I've 3 of these currently overlapping)
Max Cluster: 906

[Solocle]

ukbabz said:

I need to find some time to join up some clusters, as currently doing longer group training rides for next months LEJOG. That'll also be a long line of tiles that won't join my main cluster.

3877 tiles, average of 8.629 km per tile
Max square 23x23 (I've 3 of these currently overlapping)
Max Cluster: 906

I actually did a little tiling with my LEJOG

I had some mini clusters around Leeds and Sheffield, so LEJOG layed the groundwork for an eventual merger. Massive task, though. I have since done work on the Peak section:

[dirtbiker]

I've been focusing on my max square and never really thought about joining up mini-clusters.

Most rides will still be too long for my time constraints but it does open up some interesting options... hmm!

[ukbabz]

Solocle said:

I actually did a little tiling with my LEJOG

I had some mini clusters around Leeds and Sheffield, so LEJOG layed the groundwork for an eventual merger. Massive task, though. I have since done work on the Peak section:

Nice! I'm not planning the route, so no control of that one. We're going further west up England so nothing too close. I've got some clusters in North Yorkshire which I try and extend when I visit family and have a few hour. Maybe one day I can join them all up!

[Solocle]

ukbabz said:

Nice! I'm not planning the route, so no control of that one. We're going further west up England so nothing too close. I've got some clusters in North Yorkshire which I try and extend when I visit family and have a few hour. Maybe one day I can join them all up!

Depends where in North Yorkshire as to how easy that'll be. Enjoy the Pennines

The easiest route for me is in blue, but in terms of payoff, the green route would achieve a thumping big mini cluster between my LEJOG route and the Fosse Way.

I also as of a couple of weeks ago have a random ride in Wales to pair up, so the Bradford on Avon area is a prime target anyway.

[ukbabz]

Solocle said:

Depends where in North Yorkshire as to how easy that'll be. Enjoy the Pennines

The easiest route for me is in blue, but in terms of payoff, the green route would achieve a thumping big mini cluster between my LEJOG route and the Fosse Way.

I also as of a couple of weeks ago have a random ride in Wales to pair up, so the Bradford on Avon area is a prime target anyway.

Around York, Harrogate and Thirsk at the moment. Family are in York, so if I get time to ride when there I try and extend the three together.

The LEJOG route (England bit) goes Worcester, Macclesfield, Hawes then up into Scotland near Moffat.