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

[Solocle]

yellowjack said:

ZetecTDCI said:

Yes I understand that, but why is a low or high ratio bad ?

I don't think it's either good or bad. It's just an observation, and perhaps unusual among "tilers" because for a time there was only the 'Max Square' to aim for. The 'Max Cluster' came along later to cater for folk who have difficulty in building a square. Think about riders in Cornwall, for instance. Or Canada, where huge areas of wilderness and lakes galore interrupt a square. And riders who live near conflict zones, or borders with unfriendly countries. I've got issues with a number of 'Strictly No Access' MOD sites. Others have issues with oil refineries. I think there's at least one 'Impossible Tile' entirely on a USAF base in the UK.

Sometimes we're guilty of taking it a bit too seriously, but I think this is just a turn of phrase, not a judgement. I'm annoyed that I didn't find VeloViewer until after I'd moved house from Farnborough to Bournemouth. I had to go back a couple of times to mop up single tiles and small groups here and there. Or I didn't have to but I wanted to. It frustrates me that it was easier to expand my Max Square up there, but now I'm within a couple of tiles of the coast it's more difficult because I'm limited by the sea.

I'm struggling anyway at the moment. Very little cycling means I've only picked up the odd single tile here and there on walks. A 26 new tile return since September 2022 isn't exactly setting the world of Tiling alight. I keep telling myself I'll get back to it, (both cycling and tiling) but there's always some excuse not to. Currently it's being a bike down, and the weather at the top of the excuse list. Whatever, though. Overthinking it is my worst enemy if I'm honest, and because there are no prizes I probably should just get a bike out and get out there, even if the nearest unridden tile for me is at least a 60 mile (round trip) ride away.

Ultimately it's no big deal. It's up to you how you use VeloViewer and "do tiling" if you're into that. Comparing yourself to others? Do it if you you want to, and although I do pay some attention to folk with more impressive tile tallies, I'm into it more for the spur it gives (gave?) me to explore routes and areas I'd never gone down or into before. I like the data, and "colouring in" the tile map. It's also a great tool for finding segments and old rides/walks/runs, especially when I haven't got many rides in a more distant area. Much easier than trying to sift through years of activites on Strava.

Exactly. It's just a metric, sort of how straggly your rides are. If you went bike touring all over the place without a mind for tiling, you could have 10s of thousands of tiles, but a 4x4 square and not much bigger cluster.

Just noting that my cluster looks quite straggly, but I don't have a gagillion rides zipping all over the place, so the ratio is brought up somewhat.

[ukbabz]

ZetecTDCI said:

Yes I understand that, but why is a low or high ratio bad ?

Sorry if my comment came across negative, it was not my intention I just wanted to check that you'd not added a zero :-)

I'm finding the tiling trickier to do these days, mainly as my longer rides are club rides but I did manage to do a longer ride on Saturday to add a few more to my cluster (8). I'm 1 tile away from increasing max cluster to 26x26 which is going to be tricky due to roads near brize norton but should be doable.

Current scores:
5502 tiles, average of 7.028 km per tile
Max square 25x25
Max Cluster: 968

[emicen]

Its another layer of stats and numbers to geek out on I guess.

For me, starting using Veloviewer has helped stop things from getting stale. I find it’s far too easy to fall in to just riding the same routes over and over and that gets boring and difficult for motivation in mid-winter. Conversely, the problem I now face is, I need at least 2 hours on the bike to stand a chance of getting any new tiles and back to base! The km per tile is an interesting measure, but unless you know the riding habits it really doesn’t tell you much. You might go out and strike new tiles every Sunday, but if you commute the same route Mon-Fri, that’s going to ramp up the km per tile.

Also depends what you’re trying to achieve, I’ve been working on colouring in to make my cluster as a big a blob as possible, others might be looking for as long a blob as possible. Start of the summer my max cluster was about 10% of my total tiles, it’s now over 30%

Date	4th June	21st July	28th Aug	1st Sept	17th Sept	15th Nov
Tiles	812	848	917	925	943	983
km/square	6.702	7.200	7.519	7.552	7.572	7.553
Max Square	7x7	9x9	10x10	11x11	11x11	11x11
Max Cluster	87	145	195	240	257	323

Aim is 1000 tiles / 350 cluster by year end. Things were going well until I lost motivation towards the end of September and then got hit with another dosing of covid in mid-October.

Think I’ve figured out the solution to my first impossible tile, which may not actually be impossible after all. The one that I will encounter at 13x13 is tougher though. Fields with no paths and a large section fenced off due to hosting the central Scotland TV transmitter tower

[ZetecTDCI]

No apols needed, I was curious on what you meant is all
Yes it’s just a metric, and I know loads of people like to get a big square and cluster but I’m not very bothered about that. I do like going new places though.

Agreed, it’s a great visual way to see where all you have ridden. I love VV for that. It’s pretty much the only reason I use Strava tbh. I’m not a premium Strava user

[Solocle]

Some Watling Street action

[emicen]

emicen said:

Start of the summer my max cluster was about 10% of my total tiles, it’s now over 30%

Date	4th June	21st July	28th Aug	1st Sept	17th Sept	15th Nov
Tiles	812	848	917	925	943	983
km/square	6.702	7.200	7.519	7.552	7.572	7.553
Max Square	7x7	9x9	10x10	11x11	11x11	11x11
Max Cluster	87	145	195	240	257	323

Aim is 1000 tiles / 350 cluster by year end. Things were going well until I lost motivation towards the end of September and then got hit with another dosing of covid in mid-October.

Partial fail.

31st Dec, 994 tiles, 366 max cluster. Found a whole load of new quieter roads to ride in the process.



(Hit the 1000 tiles mark on 3rd January and got the max cluster to 382)

[Solocle]

Started on the IOW