You've not had to resort to os maps to determine rights of way yet I see!
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You've not had to resort to os maps to determine rights of way yet I see!
Supersuperleeds
Legendary Member
- Location
- Leicester
Not yet, I think most of the squares around this way will be fine. They seem quite big as I thought we would get stuck with Rutland Water, but the path around it covers it all
Supersuperleeds
Legendary Member
- Location
- Leicester
@tallliman I've found a square near South Croxton that looks like it only has footpaths on it. What are the rules for getting these squares? Do I have to carry the bike over the fields to get it or can I lock it up at the stile and walk with the GPS?
Yep, all the squares around South Croxton have been claimed. I'm missing one at Tilton On The Hill (but not been that way for a while) but have them all from Scraptoft/Tilton north to just south of Melton.
This is quite handy if you use chrome: http://blog.veloviewer.com/veloviewer-chrome-extension-for-strava-website/
This is quite handy if you use chrome: http://blog.veloviewer.com/veloviewer-chrome-extension-for-strava-website/
Supersuperleeds
Legendary Member
- Location
- Leicester
It's a bit further south than South Croxton, definitely no roads on it.
I don't use chrome, but have installed it and had a look and will be using it to plan routes to get the squares. Strava doesn't plot a route on the square mentioned above.
Supersuperleeds
Legendary Member
- Location
- Leicester
I've come up with two ideas.
1) Take a second GPS unit with me. Pause the one on the bike , walk into the square with the second unit and back to the point I paused the first unit and then carry on with the ride. Upload the walk as a run on Strava, this should give the square.
2) Not sure if this one is cheating or will work: Get as close to the square as possible and pause the GPS and then ride around the square so you have an "as the crow flies" line going through the square and turn the gps back onto recording. This will on Strava put a straight line through the square, it does mean you will lose some distance cycled and also may have to re do a square next to the one you are trying to get.
I'm not sure if this will work as your data file may not record a point within the square and therefore veloviewer may not recognise it. It depends on how it verifies where you have been.
If the square is covered entirely by private land then bar a bit of trespassing 1) above won't work.
When I'm off in a couple of weeks I am going to see if 2) works
#1 Seems perfectly reasonable to me.
steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
As the person responsible for derailing this thread onto the subject of Explorer Squares, I thought I should at least update with my own progress. A few months ago, I dug out the running shoes and went on a rather marshy cross country jog to get that one square near me that didn't have any sort of cycleable trails across it and that took me from 13x14 right up to 17x17 in one hit. Since then, have started doing some rides in and around Milton Keynes to cross off squares which will lead to getting possibly an 18 or a 19 square in future, but for now I'm on 17x20.
steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
1) I've done that, except I didn't even bother breaking it into two separate activities. Edge of a square was about 200 yards off a main road and there was a bridleway that would get to it, but it would have involved lifting the bike over two stiles to get there (and then back over them again to get back to the road) and I couldn't be bothered. So I locked the bike to a gate, removed the GPS device and took it with me on a walk far enough to get the square and then came back and carried on the ride. Strava just sees it as a couple of minutes where I was travelling at 2 mph - my average speed isn't that fast that this would affect it much anyway!
2) I could test this just by editing one of my recent rides - if I export it as a GPX and delete a chunk of waypoints, it will look like a straight line crosses an otherwise empty square that the road skirts round. Will upload it as a test and see what happens (will delete it afterwards, keeping the original ride) and let you know.
Supersuperleeds
Legendary Member
- Location
- Leicester
If I can get this pesky square a 70 mile ride will take my square to 20x20
steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
Tested and confirmed - as long as the line goes over some part of the square, even if it has no waypoints in it, VeloViewer will mark it as having been crossed. Now whether that is "cheating" or not is another matter that I think will be down to personal opinion... (gets popcorn ready)
There's an ex-RAF base near me that is now a "secure" business park that takes up almost exactly the whole of one square that I know I'll probably never be able to access, but I still think there's a possibility of getting close enough to one of the square borders via an unmarked country lane (former railway trackbed) to cross it off. The trouble is I'd need a mountain bike (or something with very good suspension) to get down it and there's nowhere round me that rents out bikes any more. Doesn't matter too much as there's a number of other difficult squares I'd need to cross off before this one even became an issue - probably at around 22x22?
Supersuperleeds
Legendary Member
- Location
- Leicester
I'm not too worried about the honesty perspective as you are actually having to ride around the square to be able to tick it off. Plus this method means the adjacent square you use to go around will not get flagged as being ridden, so you will have to do that one twice. I do think it should only be used for squares with no ridable roads on them though.
