Veloviewer Tile Bagging?

My max square is rather frustrating here in Aberdeen due to the angle and existence of the coast.

Currently at:
10604 tiles, average of 3.852 km per tile
Max square 14x14
Max Cluster: 354

Something to keep me occupied on the bike near to home while the audax season is on hiatus.

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I've just signed up to veloviewer to try an encourage me to find some new roads. I also have the problem of living just a couple of miles from the coast. Oddly I live about 5 miles from the edge max square.

I'm currently at:-

1628 tiles, average of 48.940 mi per tile
Max square 8x8
Max Cluster: 180

That average miles per sq is a bit massive isn't it. I don't ride with any kind of GPS other than my phone so its going to be some trial and error linking things up to increase the square count.

What does Max cluster relate to ?

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Max cluster all the blue tiles.

A tiles that counts in your cluster is one that has tiles that have also been visited to the N, S E & W of it.

Aah so that the difference between the red and the blue colours that makes sense now, thanks.

I'm on 18x18, solo rides lately have encouraged me to get some of the pesky London tiles I'd been avoiding.

A bit concerned that the my next nearest tiles out of London are decent 50+mile round trips :(

A bit of work over the last few days has improved thing a bit. I’ve ridden some horrible roads this morning out towards Southampton airport to fill in some gaps, at least it was quite and I’ll never have to ride them again. They have also been some really amazing roads too which I can link up with stuff i already know, including a 16% climb out of hambledon village.

My home is now in the bottom left of the square. I don’t think there is any scope to improve that into the new forest due to Southampton water, the power station and the oil refinery getting in the way. So I’ll be looking toward Chichester and Brighton in the future.

I really need to sort out some navigation, this morning I had a hand written note with street names together with switching between strava and veloviewer to work out were I was going. Does veloviewer really not have an app with live mapping and the square over lad, that would ace!

1652 tiles, average of 48.366 mi per tile
Max square 12x12
Max Cluster: 245

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Did my first ride specifically targeting a tile last week. Went for the single tile limiting my square to the west near Carterton, which it turns out is almost perfectly congruent with Brize Norton air base. I did a slightly sketchy commando raid down a private road to just nudge into the corner.

Many of my limiting tiles are pretty inaccessible, the tiles to the north will require relatively long cx bike rides followed by final footpath stretches, and today I’ll be going close to the southern tile near Abingdon but I think the only way to access that one would be a jaunt down the a34. There used to be a tt on that stretch (Chris Boardman set a comp record there in the 90s) but I don’t fancy riding there these days, even with quieter lockdown roads.

How do other people deal with awkward tiles and what are the greatest lengths you’ve gone to to capture them?

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Part of the 'fun' is finding your way into these bits, for me anyway.

Around London and the SE it seems pretty easy to get to most squares using roads, bridleways snd perhsps the odd illicit footpath, I guess in rural areas it may be a bit harder.

If you're careful with route planning, using OS maps or OSM I think it isn't too hard. However people like @Sparky always seems to find themselves hacking through bushes and the like...

This is on my hit list for this week, hopefully the footpath bottom left will get me in, if not I’m going to have to wait for low tide and go for a little walk. It’s my last square in Portsmouth harbour. I also turned up to the gates of a Boeing factory this week which had heavy security. Lucky I managed to get the square from the other side with an early morning roll through a dead end estate.

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I basically use tiles as an excuse to climb through hedges, get muddy and wind up places I probably shouldn’t be. It’s half the fun.

How do other people deal with awkward tiles and what are the greatest lengths you’ve gone to to capture them?

One of mine was got with some open water swimming:-

(OK, so it would be easy to get it by road, or a run round the lake, but it's more fun this way.

I've got a couple of others with a few "Oh, terribly sorry, I'm lost, can you help!"

Well it looks like several of you have trickier squares than I do. This weekend I got the southerly A34 tile by climbing over a gate, along a disused a34 access road and onto a farm track. I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain myself if questioned (nothing seemed very plausible in full Lycra and aero road bike) but didn’t see anyone.

I’m looking forwards to the cells to the north of my square now. All look footpath accessible so with a bit of planning I should be able to make it a nice extended CX ride and increase my max square by at least 2.

You're clearly doing it the Hardway. :)

I haven't done any tile specific rides, but when I've been questioned regarding my unauthorised presence, I blame my Garmin (even better to call it a satnav). Followed by: "So how do I get out of here?" Ie, I'm leaving, no need to call for backup.

The joy of right to roam in Scotland

Got lost in a farmers yard and he pointed me through to the farm track around the back of the shed I was looking for.

1869 tiles, average of 7.965 km per tile
Max square 12x12
Max Cluster: 308

The four tiles south of Bakewell are going to require some further exploration of farm tracks. Should bump my max cluster up a bit though.

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This morning's procrastination has been plotting a few routes to some fiddly squares. Plan is for some early morning easy riding to get them and boost myself up from 12x12 to 14x14.
One is basically under a runway at Manchester Airport, probably a fair bit of walking my bike through the woods to get to a footpath tunnel for that.

You really don't like us southerners ;)

Edit: was actually looking at Po's maps, not yours....

Ahh, how far I've come in two months!

Tiles: 7243 7332.
Average distance per tile: 4.504 4.584 miles.
Max square: 15x15 19x19.
Max cluster: 643 877.

Some tiles left which look like easy wins for getting up to 20x20, but they're on the tops of moors. That said, should be just about achievable with the CX bike.

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Before and after.

Took the long way to work this morning and got held up by a hundred cows leaving a shed to head for pasture, made more frustrating by not having a view of how many more were waiting round the corner, and knowing that the delay meant not getting to the pharmacy only a mile away by opening time, so I had to queue behind 5 pensioners and missed my daily "standup" call.

40 miles to work, 25 miles home.

Square up from 22 to 24
Cluster up from 810 to 839.

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Next 3 squarey rides would probably have been the routes round Widnes (21mi), Runcorn (23mi), and Leyland (26mi), but those were planned when the weather wasn't as nice and I thought I'd be working from the office a day or two a week rather than once a month.

Had Strava not put route editing behind a paywall, I'd have replanned those areas already.

Just where's the smoke coming from? I think we should be told.

Given the smoke will start at the cooler edge of a flame, I believe the fire is in Congleton.

Tile bagging has become the major focus of my lockdown riding in the absence of any other types of events to train for etc.

Took my max square from 11x11 at the end of March up to 31x31 about a month ago, since when it has proven difficult to expand further. The edges are a now long bloody way from home! As a result I've changed strategy and now ride out to tile 'areas' in a direct out-and-back fashion, but when at the hunting ground I meander around to bag a whole bunch. The result is that my cluster is now 38x31, might get to 40x31 depending on wind/weather this weekend. Then I plan to turn my attention to the shallow side and expand that out to square it off.

I love maps and this is just another excuse to stare at them and plan routes. I also love that there is literally nobody who cares about my achievements but me, nobody can see what I'm doing and nobody knows if I am doing well or not. Unlike Strava it is a true labour of cycling love.

Thank you to this thread for showing me this even existed!