Veloviewer map - explorer tiles

[slarge]

I've still not committed to Veloveiwer to get going yet tho but may do

Its the best £10 you'll ever spend

It's £10 / year, gives you loads of graphs and stats to look at, and supports a bloke in a shed / spare room who built the site then gave up his job to take it further.......

[whitestone]

I've still not committed to Veloveiwer to get going yet tho but may do

Its the best £10 you'll ever spend

It's £10 / year, gives you loads of graphs and stats to look at, and supports a bloke in a shed / spare room who built the site then gave up his job to take it further.......

Didn't realise he'd given up his job. I've been paid up for at least three years now. Embarrassingly good value for money

[Boab]

I imagine he charges the pro teams a bit more than £10 a year...

[Blackhound]

And the VV owner, Ben, is a Yorkshire man - or at lives in Sheffield. Pretty handy on the bike as well!

I was wondering how he may do when renewals come up. As said, £10 is not a lot, but if you lose your income then is an easy extra to cut back on.

[Richard G]

First I heard of this tile collecting was my first ride on the WRT last year and Richard G was shooting off to collect a tile and i was like WTF is that all about, but seems a great idea to ride new pastures. I've still not committed to Veloveiwer to get going yet tho but may do

Man... that feels like another lifetime at this point. =/

[composite]

And the VV owner, Ben, is a Yorkshire man - or at lives in Sheffield. Pretty handy on the bike as well!

I was wondering how he may do when renewals come up. As said, £10 is not a lot, but if you lose your income then is an easy extra to cut back on.

My life is now square hunting since the Audax season was suspended, been getting massive value for my tenner the last month or 2.

My renewal is tomorrow as it goes and I was thinking of going for the Pro+ account to chuck £20 in the pot to support the site, as I had had a similar thought that there might be a lot of people who decide to not renew at the moment.

[Chew]

Unsure the PRO+ account is worth the extra money, but the standard account is worth more than £10 a year.

Unsure on Bens model, but I imagine he has a good solid membership base and at £10 a year most people will just renew, as in context it’s not that much if you consider how much a new tyre is.

I wouldn’t be surprised if his membership base isn’t increasing as more of the Audax community switch over for something to do this season. They need to turn their ocd to something....
There’s certainly more discussion on yacf and there’s the article about it published in cycling weekly.
(Can’t find they link, but it’s similar to what’s been said before)

Think Ben gets a lot of business via the pro cycling teams so he’s probably more dependant on their business and how he works the contracts with them?

[composite]

Unsure the PRO+ account is worth the extra money, but the standard account is worth more than £10 a year.

Unsure on Bens model, but I imagine he has a good solid membership base and at £10 a year most people will just renew, as in context it’s not that much if you consider how much a new tyre is.

I wouldn’t be surprised if his membership base isn’t increasing as more of the Audax community switch over for something to do this season. They need to turn their ocd to something....
There’s certainly more discussion on yacf and there’s the article about it published in cycling weekly.
(Can’t find they link, but it’s similar to what’s been said before)

Agreed, I would never pay the extra for the extra features, but I would pay £20 for the features as a whole. I hadn't really considered the extra people that he might be getting at the moment. I did stumble across that very long thread on yacf last night though.

Does anyone know if there are any "rules" to square hunting, like the rules of self-supported? Maybe etiquette is a better word... just wondered if it was a thing.

[In Reverse]

Does anyone know if there are any "rules" to square hunting, like the rules of self-supported? Maybe etiquette is a better word... just wondered if it was a thing.

Just doing it under your own steam is all I'm aware of Neil. I haven't been putting any restrictions on how I go about it.

[Blackhound]

As far as I know it is just to get into them self propelled. I always cycle when I can but have walked or run when riding not allowed or just to cheeky. My own rule is not to drive out to get squares but I will use a train in normal circumstances. I used to ride through a square when possible rather than dip in, grab square and turn around - unless a dead end. As max square got bigger starting to let that slide on occasion. Nothing much within a 100km round trip for me now.

Today I reached 18x18 for 2020 so pleased with that and still hope to reach 2 in next few weeks all being well.

[BigdummySteve]

I’m at 21x21 and yes it starts to be a longish ride just to the edge.

[ScotRoutes]

Walk, run, ride, paddle, ski. It's all the same to me.

Drive or train to get further out? Absolutely. It has to then involve one of the above activities though.

My max square has barely increased in the past couple of years but I've been working on my Cluster instead.

[whitestone]

Once your local max square gets to a certain size (somewhere around 20x20) then it gets increasingly difficult to head out to pick up the odd square here and there - the new squares per mile/km travelled starts to drop dramatically. There's one or two missing areas bounding my max square that will need some walking to get ticked off - the estates aren't keen on anyone let alone bikes.

I just record all my rides in Strava and then worry later about how I got to/from that ride, actually I don't worry at all

Like Colin I've mostly been working on my max cluster and I ended up with two big areas: one in the Dales and one in the Lakes. A bit of work in and around the area between Kendal and the M6 saw me link them up. I've another big area in the northern Dales that needs just a couple of isolated squares to join up with the main cluster.

Next target is to do all the squares in the Yorkshire Dales National Park

[belugabob]

I've stalled at 18x18, due to not wanting to stray that far from home, at the moment.
When I feel comfortable about going further afield, I think a half dozen decent rides will get me up into the mid twenties.

I was recently wondering if anybody has done all of the squares inside the M25 - then I realised that Johnathan France has...
https://veloviewer.com/athlete/2151491/ ... =0,0,5,6,9

[BigdummySteve]

Blimey! He’s been busy.

[Chew]

Does anyone know if there are any "rules" to square hunting, like the rules of self-supported? Maybe etiquette is a better word... just wondered if it was a thing.

The only rule is for it to be self propelled.

Etiquette is a better term and thats up to the individual.
I used to start all of the rides from home, but relaxed that once by square got large, as it wasnt feasible once my square grew large and I had to start to pick off some awkward squares up here in the Southern Pennines.
(although those are usually the best ones)

I've just said to myself that if I do drive to the start the ride/run/walk has to be of significant duration. It stops driving somewhere just to step out of the car for 5 mins to get a square.

I've always seen it as Explorer Squares rather than Collecting Squares, so its been about going to new places and discovering things which I would never have done without this.

[composite]

I haven't increased my square much lately but I have increased my square count and my cluster quite a bit. I guess this is because I working towards a specific max square goal right now, and filling in sectors of the map has meant little progress all the way around the edge of the current square, just a lot in certain directions.

[slarge]

It’s a great tool to encourage exploring. Today I ticked off a couple of new squares that should take me to 20x20, and am glad that one of the tracks I will never have to ride again!

[benp1]

I have 4 17x17 squares but struggling with finding time to get out to the edges and build it out, particularly as with three kids my riding time is evenings only.

Will probably start driving out to the far edges/corners

[Lazarus]

Even those of you doing this dont seem to be enjoying it that much ...this place really does like type 2 way too much

[ScotRoutes]

Nah, I really enjoy it. I've found all sorts of nice trails, views, woodlands, waterfalls and old ruins. Even surrounded by a huge network of trails it has given me other places to explore.

[Blackhound]

I enjoy it as well. As others have said once past say 20 x 20 it becomes a bit of a commitment perhaps but I have found some nice roads and trails I would not have bothered without this. And I am with Chew in that I will not drive out to ride or walk for a couple of minutes to get a square. I keep meaning to look at expanding my cluster but never got round to seeing how it works.

[whitestone]

I have been known to park up the bike and walk along a footpath past houses to get a square There's one between Pateley Bridge and Summerbridge in Nidderdale where the main road goes about ten metres past the corner of one square! Not done that one yet.

It's mostly fun, there are a few occasions where I've headed across heather moorland wondering "WTF am I doing here?" but then I've probably had those sort of moments in every activity, work or leisure related, that I've done.

[ScotRoutes]

It's mostly fun, there are a few occasions where I've headed across heather moorland wondering "WTF am I doing here?" but then I've probably had those sort of moments in every activity, work or leisure related, that I've done.

Ah, it's usually my Missus saying "WTF am I doing here?" but then she has also been with me on Scotways path surveys that have proven less than fruitful so she sort of knows what to expect now..

[PJG]

Looks like the very recent Strava update has included a major overhaul of the route planning. As far as I can see, this means that there is currently no integration back to VeloViewer, meaning I can no longer plot routes with an Explorer Tiles overlay

I've emailed Ben @ V-V to see if he's got any plans to re-introduce this - will keep you posted if I get a response.

In the meantime, what other resources are people using to plot Explorer routes - other than labouriously cross-checking the route in one window against the tile view in another ?