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Ride VeloViewer tiling in Japan

@Karl ..... I checked, there's no flag ..
This is the activity which covers your tile:

https://www.strava.com/activities/612468895

Seems like a very narrow margin:


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As you can see the route does not follow a road, it goes in a straight line through buildings and the railway track. Perhaps it's an interpolated line between two points for which there was GPS data, but there is no actual GPS data that falls into the square in question.
 
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Yes. It looks like an extrapolation between two points, vs. actual track. Just strange that it used to register the tile (from June 2016 onward), now it doesn't.

I lost a tile up in the mountains due to inaccuracy in the GPS signal, but I kind of expect that to happen in the mountains if it is a close call. In this case, I seem to have gained a tile by extrapolation, then lost it again. No biggie. I'll be up that way soon and snag it for real. Just hope that I don't lose any mountain tiles due to rejiggering of algorithms. That would suck.
 
As you can see the route does not follow a road, it goes in a straight line through buildings and the railway track. Perhaps it's an interpolated line between two points for which there was GPS data, but there is no actual GPS data that falls into the square in question.

Makes sense.... but the algo recognized it previously so, perhaps the algo became more 'sensitive' (checks more GPS points for a given line length...) making the segment in question more curved than a straight line between two points.
 
Perhaps it's an interpolated line between two points for which there was GPS data
Just strange that it used to register the tile (from June 2016 onward), now it doesn't
perhaps the algo became more 'sensitive' (checks more GPS points for a given line length...)
I believe I know the answer. Although it's moot now that @Karl has done the offending tile again, it might help clear up other's frustrations.

There was plenty of GPS data in the original track - individual points every few seconds, see below - and the data follow @Karl's route accurately.

There was a change in algorithm in June 2017, as detailed in the VeloViewer blog.

I think what happened is this:
  • @Karl did the ride in June 2016, and uploaded to Strava.
  • At a later time, @Karl joined VV and transferred the data. His tiles were initially calculated based on the simplified track.
  • Much more recently, @Karl clicked on the activity in VV to examine it. This action prompted VV to recalculate the 'definitive tiles' for that activity based on the full dataset rather than the simplified version.
  • The tile - which hadn't really been collected in the first place - was removed from the record.
Many of us who were already tiling when the update was implemented had, knowingly or otherwise, been benefiting from the 100 m buffer up 'til that point, and then found sudden holes in our map. There was a great wailing and a gnashing of teeth... followed by a mashing of gears as we got our butts out to reclaim the 'lost' tiles. Fair enough - we'd never collected them legitimately in the first place. Conversely, a few extra tiles were gained in spots where the simplification had skipped a short excursion over a tile border IRL.



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@Half-Fast Mike Ahhh.. so desu ka..... Figured it was something like that. Anyway, I double bagged that tile and found a way to Takao that I like much better in the process. Win win.

So, yesterday I went down toward Odawara and began my march to the mountains by bagging tiles down that way. It was supposed to be sunny and 14C but that didn't happen. It was mostly cloudy and the elevation and shade made it feel more like 8-10C. Not too bad though except on the descents.

I started out pretty slow and the Routebuilder guided me onto a road that didn't exist, so rerouted on the fly using Maps Me with my unridden tiles overlay. Best thing I've found so far for getting the big picture and relating it to VV tiles. (Hat tip, HFM!) About 10km into the ride, the road turned to gravel and mud. Fortunately, I was on my Surly with the Contintental Cyclocross Speed tires, which were just about perfect for those conditions. Got a pretty good covering of mud on the bike so today is a wash day. The remainder of the ride was on little used roads in the area, heading up into the mountains and back down again. Very little traffic and good pavement for that portion. Finally, back on the train from Shin-Matsuda to Kakio, reassemble the bike, and home. Always great to get up in the mountains and explore new places.

Soon as things dry up, the plan is "Tanzawa and beyond."
 
Which road was that, exactly? It's for... science. Lots of stuff for me to do in that area.

Always ready to do my part for science.

Routebuilder routed me onto a trail just past the 3 km mark. I couldn't find the trailhead but even if I had, it would have been over private property and probably only walkable. I just got back on the road and detoured around.
 

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Planning this ride for tomorrow. Checks some boxes up around Uenohara, plus one box that I missed up on 521. If you want to join, let me know and we can work out details. If not, have a good day. Sunday looks like really nice weather for riding.

 
28 new tiles added. Max square remains paltry at 21. Waiting for things to dry out a bit before going up to the mountains.

Yesterday was a bit colder than expected, but still a fun day. Did my best to avoid Rte 20 and was off it before it got too busy. Rte 35 was much better on the return with little traffic and good road. As it was Sunday, almost no truck traffic. :) The diversions off 35 to bag some tiles ended up in gravel or trail several times so the Continental Cyclocross Speed 700x35s worked out well. Not too bad on the road and grippy on gravel/trail sections. Some of the grades on these diversions were pretty significant so even with a dinner plate rear cog, needed to walk a couple times. Wouldn't mind if the sun would shine more.
 
Good going @Karl !

The diversions off 35 to bag some tiles ended up in gravel or trail several times so the Continental Cyclocross Speed 700x35s worked out wel

I wish my road bike would take 32 mm or 28 mm for that fact. Stupid road bike with caliper brakes. @Karl which 25 mm tire specializes in tackling questionable rindos?
 
Sounds like a man in need of n+1 ;-)

@Gok You might want to borrow someone's 28s just to see if they actually do fit. My Cannondale (although older model) will run them OK. (Maybe on the Equinox ride, you can check them out) But if you plan on doing much trail riding or the gravel stuff, 32 or 35 would be the minimum width I would do them on. Plus, with the short sharp grades on some of the loose gravel/rock trails, road gearing might have you walking a lot more than you'd like. So, I'd agree with @Half-Fast Mike . Lower gearing and fatter tires means a 2nd bike, or replace the road bike with a gravel bike. (I have my eye on the Reilly Gradient or Tripster ATR V2), but that is for a day far, far away from now )
 
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Tore-off another strip of Chiba on Saturday. The wind was a real killer, but paddling in the Pacific (had to go onto the beach to get the tile anyway) and trundling along some deserted, winding roads in good company more than made up for it.

Negligent omission of one tile two across and one down from the start/finish point. No excuses - just poor planning. Must try harder LOL.

Chiba seems to have a LOT of cemeteries.

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IIRC it's rather spooky, with a looped, echoing Tannoy announcement reminding cyclists to not cycle. Unfortunately it's in Japanese or something :cool:

Yep. A really weird tunnel. Very nice and clean but totally empty. And the announcement follows you as you progress through the tunnel as if it's keeping pace with you. Couldn't make out what it was saying... I was cycling too fast. (Can't imagine walking that thing. It would take forever.)
 
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