Velo Viewer

[Skuhravy]

Hurrah, the flags were down at Bellerby Ranges, so I knocked off those annoying three squares. I'd have hated to have ridden that far into the hills and a headwind only to see the flags up.

Up to 32x32. Take that, Si.

 

[Skuhravy]

So I did manage to get a slightly better workflow going yesterday, I used the export to KML option in VV which I then loaded in to Garmin Basecamp in which I have a customised OSM map installed. It does this by representing each square as a 6 km track.

I was then able to see a lot more detail in basecamp (obvs still not UK OS but sort of close enough and more detail than in RWGPS for none road items etc) to ensure I plotted a route that caught tiles, I then duplicated this in RWGPS allowing me to double check the route with Google street view.

I suppose I could use the route straight out of Basecamp, but for some reason I have never had successful rides when using basecamp for some reason or another

I've used a few different methods - I've not found a decent techy on-the-go solution yet (I often carry OS maps with a rough square scrawled over it), but I try to plan it in advance, and I use a mix of Strava heatmaps, Google Earth and good old OS maps to work out a decent bike ride taking in the squares.

 

[bruce1530]

well, my square unexpectedly went up from 10 to 11 today.

I know that doesn’t sound much compared to some of you chaps - but because of the local geography, the closest side of my “square” is about 6k away from where I live

 

[Siclo]

Progress of a sort, up to 17x17, planned to bag a few more at the weekend but got distracted by some new infrastructure on the A556, should have known better since not much later I got dumped out somewhere really nasty and had to ride the A533. I'm reminded that a lot of the holes in my heatmap are simply there because I know alternative routes, this weekends escapade included the A34, the A537 and the A530, ordinarily I'd use the parallel lanes which are much nicer if significantly slower.

I've also noticed that there's obviously a quite a bit of point filtering that goes on when the rides are plotted on the map, resulting in straight lines with sharp angles. This is a bit of a swings and roundabouts thing in that I can see I've got tiles that I know I've never ridden through but not got some I know I have. Seems like the longer rides are affected much worse than the shorter ones.

 

[Siclo]

Does this work?

 

[steverob]

I've also noticed that there's obviously a quite a bit of point filtering that goes on when the rides are plotted on the map, resulting in straight lines with sharp angles. This is a bit of a swings and roundabouts thing in that I can see I've got tiles that I know I've never ridden through but not got some I know I have. Seems like the longer rides are affected much worse than the shorter ones.

The lines on the Activities map are simplified, so yes you do end up with a lot of lines that have sudden changes in angle, especially on the longer rides - this is just to make the map load faster according to Ben from VeloViewer. However the tiles that are coloured in are based on your actual ride line, not the simplified line, AS LONG AS you view the ride in VeloViewer at some point (e.g. click on the activity name). When you do that, it calculates your actual ride path and works out which tiles you should/shouldn't have got with 100% accuracy.

If you identify any tiles you don't think you should have got (or some you think you should but haven't), just going in to each of the relevant activities once, then refreshing the map page will sort it out for good.

 

[Siclo]

@steverob Thanks, I guess I have some viewing to do

Edit: you've just saved me hundreds of miles and I don't have to choose between riding the A523 or jumping the fence at Woodford aerodrome

 

[tallliman]

@Siclo, a good excuse to visit xm603 though!!

 

[Pumpkin the robot]

I just checked my explorer view, and I have a very modest 10x10, but there is a lot of low hanging fruit that will boost that pretty quickly. I am aiming to add a square each week now, see where that tales me!

 

[13 rider]

I just checked my explorer view, and I have a very modest 10x10, but there is a lot of low hanging fruit that will boost that pretty quickly. I am aiming to add a square each week now, see where that tales me!

Enjoy the easy picking it's great to start off with as you fill in the little gaps and your square builds but then it gets harder when your riding 25 miles to the first new square

 

[Pumpkin the robot]

Fortunately I have done all the squares for Manchester town centre, and only need 3 more for everything inside the M60 (I am aiming to pic one of them off this afternoon, with an alternative route to my LBS!)
I have just checked the route for tomorrow's group ride and that picks another solo square off for me as well!

 

[tallliman]

Another 8 squares for me today to bring me to a cluster of 1369.

Little easy pickings now though.

What's the most squares you've got in a straight line? Mine's somewhere in the mid-40's from a quick look!! Might be longer if I look a bit harder.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Another 8 squares for me today to bring me to a cluster of 1369.

Little easy pickings now though.

What's the most squares you've got in a straight line? Mine's somewhere in the mid-40's from a quick look!! Might be longer if I look a bit harder.

I've got a couple of lines in the 50s, longest counted so far is 54.

Bagged four more squares today, might have had to go down a private drive to get one of them

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Found a line that is 64 squares

 

[tallliman]

Quite impressive!