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Ride VeloViewer tiling in Japan

Half-Fast Mike said:
One motivational option might be to go watch - or participate in - the Kawasaki Marine Enduro race that takes place a few times a year on the island. No dates announced for this year, yet, but typically starts in April.

http://www.bikenavi.net/04Kawasaki2018/index.html
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Thanks for the link. Never done an enduro or contemplated racing of any kind...especially given my tendency to be passed by everyone while on the bike.:cry: It does look like it might be fun though. Will have to give it some thought.
 
Karl said:
Never done an enduro or contemplated racing of any kind
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Think of it as an opportunity to get four tiles, 20 times each in quick succession!

Now if we could only persuade them to shift the race venue to the JFE plant, a.k.a. The Fire Pits of Isengard, the final piece of that particular puzzle would become legitimately obtileable.

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Half-Fast Mike said:
Think of it as an opportunity to get four tiles, 20 times each in quick succession!
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Since you put it that way, who could resist?

Half-Fast Mike said:
Now if we could only persuade them to shift the race venue to the JFE plant, a.k.a. The Fire Pits of Isengard, the final piece of that particular puzzle would become legitimately obtileable.
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There's gotta be a way. Even Isengard fell. So will that tile. (May take an ent or two though.)
 
Having just hit upon the wheeze of visualizing future tiling projects in Google Earth, office productivity is way down this afternoon.

Illustrated are some uncollected tiles in Chichibu. Green will be a MTB ride, probably ending with a hike on the right dead-end fork - no idea what to expect up there. Blue should all be paved. Can't wait for the weather to get warmer.

Snap001.png
 
Plenty of single-track hiking trails up there in Chichibu. Can't really say if these tiles are doable by MTB but that entire area can be explored via hiking.... so you may have to ditch the wheels for most of these.

Also, holy cow, how did you plot it on google maps!
 
Gok said:
Also, holy cow, how did you plot it on google maps!
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Karl said:
same question. How'd he do dat? @Half-Fast Mike
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Happy to share the Google-fu...

1. Download Google Earth Pro.

2. Get the grid. I've drawn some grids in Stravr Route ßuilder, so for the pic above I downloaded this grid/route as GPX then converted to KML using MacGPS Pro, an old program for which I have a licence. There are many online tools to do the same thing now, such as https://gpx2kml.com, but there's a simpler way... download your VeloViewer KML file (the same one you might also import into Maps.Me for checking tile borders in the field)

Google ChromeScreenSnapz001.png

3. Download your route(s) or tracks from Stravr or whatever you've got them in, as GPX, and convert them to KML files with whatever tool you have or prefer to use.

4. Load the KML files from (2) and (3) into Google Earth Pro. Drag 'n' drop works fine for me.

5. The VV KML displays automatically as red grid lines.

6. Routes or tracks will initially appear white, but you can change this if you want to:

Google Earth ProScreenSnapz001.png

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7. Zoom and scroll and pitch and yaw, in contemplation of the suffering to come.

Google Earth ProScreenSnapz003.png

You'll see that the grid here from the VV KML does not follow the contours, whereas the one I made earlier using Stravr Route ßuilder does. I think the latter is a nicer effect, but it's a lot more work.

8. If you like, simulate the ride by playing a tour of your route or track... it's a bit like relive.cc. You can make movies, too.

Google Earth ProScreenSnapz004.png
 

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I'm liking it. Takes some time but it makes it easy to figure out what to expect on the course and might help avoid some Route Builder blunders. These are my ruminations on routes near Tanzawa once spring is upon us.
 

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Half-Fast Mike said:
Entirely the wrong route for tomorrow's windy afternoon :-( so I may well stay in bed or just go to Odaiba again.
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Nice route. I had plans for the weekend too but the forecast of 25 kph or above winds put me off. You'll definitely have to hang on your hat today.
 
Karl said:
@Gok I'm feeling pretty inadequate.
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Need to step up our exploration game. Forget about less important stuff like family, children and work; and just head out for a month long bike packing trip! (That's the dream, isn't it).
 
Right.

I'll be back in the States for a month and plan to do a lot of riding there. I plotted one course that goes from the top of my state to the bottom and it has only 450 meters of climbing! If I still lived there, I could probably have a max square of 1,000 and not have to climb more than 2,000 m.
 
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Gok said:
just head out for a month long bike packing trip! (That's the dream, isn't it)
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When I retire! Only ten years to go.

Was chatting with a friend in UK about the abandoned homes in the Japanese countryside that are being given away for (next-to)nothing to anyone who'll have them. [The campaign has been a dismal failure... I forget the actual figure, but recently read somewhere that only around 1% of the hundreds of thousands of akisu available in a particular prefecture found new owners.] Anyway, we were saying they might make ideal time-share holiday homes for a week or so - for example, for mountain/country riding and tiling. But nobody wants to live there for real.

Today I completed the ride I threatened last weekend - starting and finishing at Chiba Station, and hitting beach on the Pacific Coast.

Wind was very light, lovely sunny snshine, and I had a great time. A few stretches of ice and snow were evident in the shadows. And of course some of the bullshit shortcuts that Stravr Route ßuilder came up with turned out to be impassable, soggy fields. Bike and shoes are absolutely filthy, tonight. YEAHH!

Strava: Exploring Chiba to Pacific and Back (80T)

Tiles: +80
Cluster: +52
Max Square: 45 x 45 (unchanged)

Wherever shall I go next....?

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