Pickers wrote: ↑Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:16 pm I'd be interested to see who has a decent square built up around BB Towers.

Doubt you'd get Stu playing this game to be fair. He does have a strava account but its dormant... would be an interesting sqaure to see where he's adventured throighout his (well) ventures...

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:46 pm

Pickers wrote: ↑Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:16 pm I'd be interested to see who has a decent square built up around BB Towers.

Doubt you'd get Stu playing this game to be fair. He does have a strava account but its dormant... would be an interesting sqaure to see where he's adventured throighout his (well) ventures...

True..... but it's the one area where most of us have ridden... it was more the visitors to the area I was thinking about
This is mine, I've ridden there maybe a dozen times

Mine's not dissimilar but a bit more biased inland. I've done one non-BB trip to Rhayader, one WRT, one Bearstock, two BB200s and four Winter Events. Wouldn't take much to start building a square over there.

Centred more around Halfren than Llanbryn or Stu's but I reckon this 10x10 is achievable given a day's hard graft:



Not saying it would be much fun like...

My tentacles are heading for Stu Towers

Pickers wrote: ↑Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:16 pm I'd be interested to see who has a decent square built up around BB Towers.

Roughly Wales


Closer to the Towers

Living near the coast is a pain for grabbing squares, especially if nearly all your riding is from the house with a couple of hours to spare!



One day my square will reach Aviemore and I will claim it for my own

sean_iow wrote: ↑Wed Jul 22, 2020 8:31 am

I've just noticed there's a tile missing that I've been through before, maybe pre-strava or the ride didn't record? It must have been before I was collecting tiles. I known where I'll be going soon

Maybe two, three even if use a rope close to the edge. Also if you took a trip to hurst castle it would join you up to the mainland.

BigdummySteve wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:57 am Maybe two, three even if use a rope close to the edge. Also if you took a trip to hurst castle it would join you up to the mainland.

Thee are 6 tiles that touch the Island I need to get:-

2 I've been through before that are on the coastal path plus 1 attached that just requires a slight diversion along some roads in the holiday camp so no one will notice that.
1 that is the firing range but I can go along the beach to get into the tile
1 in the grounds of Osbourne House so I'll have to pay to get in
1 just outside of East Cowes that will require a full on trespass to get, I always discounted this to but I see on other VV'ers have got it so it must be possible.

I have had Hurst Castle on my radar for a while. Do the Max Cluster tiles only have to have touching corners or do the sides need to touch? If it's just the corners I can extend my max cluster to the mainland

Currently at 25x25 but working on the western flanks, so should be up to 30 X 30 soon.
Then I have to start working towards London

I think it needs to be bordered, you might still need an extra square to the east, isn’t the island famous for sailing, the summer ferry route into keyhaven might do it.

Do the Max Cluster tiles only have to have touching corners or do the sides need to touch? If it's just the corners I can extend my max cluster to the mainland

I think the sides have to touch AND there to be another visited square between its sides and an unvisited one. I.e. a 3x3 max square has a max cluster of one but a "star" of five also has a max cluster of one. So basically you need a corridor three tiles wide to move between clusters. Looking at your map you'd need those two on the Hurst Castle peninsula AND the one in the sea off Yarmouth to get that corridor.

I see VV now colours those tiles that form a cluster in a lighter shade of your max cluster colour - pretty sure this is new, not noticed it before. An easy way of seeing where to focus your efforts in joining things up.

whitestone wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:58 am I see VV now colours those tiles that form a cluster in a lighter shade of your max cluster colour - pretty sure this is new, not noticed it before. An easy way of seeing where to focus your efforts in joining things up.

That was what was confusing me as I have shaded tiles in remote areas that toggle on/off with the max cluster button. I've adjusted the shading and it's a bit clearer.



So only the less opaque yellow is the max cluster, the yellow where I can still see the map under are not in the cluster but fit the criteria if they were joined on. Which means there's no way to join to the mainland just by riding or running... and I'm not heading out to sea and drowning just to improve my VV score

Let's be honest. Those ones on the ferry don't count anyway...



(runs and hides)

Don't know how far off-shore those squares are but you could paddle to them? Not being a watery sort or person nor one who knows what the tides are like around there, this may or may not be a sensible suggestion

ScotRoutes wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:45 am Let's be honest. Those ones on the ferry don't count anyway...

Ah, yes I'm aware of that and wondered how long it would be before someone noticed. Blame Strava There has long been request to be able to sort of blank out parts of rides that are on transport but no updates have addressed the issue. I guess it's tricky to resolve. I'm it a bit of a quandary there. If my number 1 aim was hunting squares I'd obviously turn the garmin off on the ferry but I'd end up with loads of little rides. My focus is long distance rides so I want the records to reflect that.

For example, when I rode from home to Swanage in 2018 my Strava says the ride was 122 miles. So that counts as another century. But if I exclude the ferries we have

Home to Yarmouth 16 miles
Lymington to Mudeford 16 miles
Mudeford to Sandbanks 11 miles
Sandbanks to Swanage to Sandbanks 28 miles
Sandbanks to Lymington 26 miles
Yarmouth to Home 18 miles

So that's a total of 115 miles peddling and 7 miles on ferries, so that counts as a century. But if leave out the 5 ferries I have 6 rides and the longest is 28 miles.

One of the Veloviewer stats is the total amount ridden in a day so it totals all these wee rides up. Might be in the Eddington number section.

ScotRoutes wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 10:38 am One of the Veloviewer stats is the total amount ridden in a day so it totals all these wee rides up. Might be in the Eddington number section.

Just looked that up and I didn't realise it added up the millage for the day. My friends on Strava don't though so how would they know how vaguely exciting I am if I saved it as separate rides Plus,the only way to get rid of the lines from the ferries now would be to delete the rides which is far too much admin. I've noticed that I'm not the only one who does this. Even if you pause the garmin when you get on the boat and restart when you get off Strava draws a straight line for the paused section when you upload.

At least I'm on the flat on the sea, I have friends who leave there's on for uplift days so at the end of the year most of their climbing has been done in the back of a lorry

I'll remember to leave my Garmin on next time I'm flying with my bike.

ScotRoutes wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 11:35 am I'll remember to leave my Garmin on next time I'm flying with my bike.

If it's just you and the bike I'm sure that's allowed



On the one hand I do wish I'd logged the rides separately to exclude the ferries but then I use strava to record my trips and I see that as from home back to home if done in a single day.

There are other ethical issues as well, on a multi day trip for fun I'll save each day as an activity, e.g. when I went to the Cerne Abbas it was Day 1, Day 2 etc. But for the Dales Divide it was a single upload that included the overnight stops as I was uploading the 'event'. Luckily I'm never likely to challenge the leader boards so shouldn't be an issue?

On a different but related note, how do we feel about the legality of accessing locations? When browsing the VV leader board I've seen activities where I know the locations and I know they have climbed over fencers/gates to get into private property (which is clearly signed as such) to get a square, I feel this goes beyond cheeky and is moving into criminal activity? This isn't open countryside but the grounds of private residences.

For all of you who are water adjacent

https://www.storytrender.com/109634/com ... -on-water/

max squares are 3 overlapping 19x19 at the moment. slowly growing it with some longer rides.
should get my max cluster out to spurn point (not the end though) maybe i could eventually extend the cluster from the extreme east to west of yorkshire

sean_iow wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 11:56 am
On a different but related note, how do we feel about the legality of accessing locations? When browsing the VV leader board I've seen activities where I know the locations and I know they have climbed over fencers/gates to get into private property (which is clearly signed as such) to get a square, I feel this goes beyond cheeky and is moving into criminal activity? This isn't open countryside but the grounds of private residences.

People have to be responsible for their own actions. If they decide to break the law it has to be knowing that there could be consequences. Like you and the sea - you've assessed the risk of paddling out to sea and decided it's not worth it. Everyone needs to do this for themselves (probably not a legally responsible perspective but it is my view).

If I do it under my own steam its fair game as far as I'm concerned. Having said that, there have been times when a private road, looks more like a driveway and goes very close to someone's house, and I have decided I would be taking the piss and I have left it.

I have busted down the side of a golf course before though, and I certainly was taking the piss, but I'm not going to feel bad about it in that context. LOL