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Ride VeloViewer tiling in Japan

I looked at the Statshunters.com site and saw that many of the tiles that VV credited to me were not accepted on that site
Pikeys! I'm outraged.

I hadn't looked at that site before. Had a pleasant reverie watching it choke on my 4500 Stravr activities. But then... same thing as you. Several little holes in far-flung places. Still, I guess these things are all work-in-progress and some feedback will help; it may be a calculation glitch. Veloviewer remains the definitive indicator, but these other visualizations are cool on a cold evening.

36 x 36? Pull the other one...

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There's a function to update the precision, supposedly. I've tried it on a couple of rides that just grabbed tile corners, but no luck so far. The map even shows my ride inside the tile.

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@Half-Fast Mike I tried the precision update, and also no luck. I have one tile not so far from me that I may hop over and grab again, just to see if it then registers.

@joewein I wondered what you were up to this weekend. Kudos on the +53.
 
After a night's sleep, here's the tiling report for the above mentioned ride :)

I had printed out a map of the missing tiles around my max square but had trouble making up my mind of which end to tackle next.

I like going to Miyagase-ko, but the tiles needed there involve a serious amount of hiking over mountains that are 1300+ m high. My first attempt at mapping a single out-and-back hike for 5 tiles came to 12 km to the turnaround point, I don't even know what elevation gain that would have been. Save that for another day and a better plan.

There are bunch tiles north of Shiraishi / west of Ogawamachi that I never find time for because after that it's still a long way back to Tokyo. Maybe these are best reserved for a busy day starting from closer nearby, such as the car park of a michi no eki to which I can drive, as I sometimes do for places too far for cycling out and back the same day.

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And finally, there were tiles to the west and the south of Kasukabe in Saitama that involved no hiking and I could pick up new tiles within three hours from my house. So that it was. I cycled past the Imperial Palace and Tokyo Skytree to the area between the Arakawa and the Edogawa and then north along the edge of my cluster. This took me to Shibamata, Katsushika, the setting for the Tora-san movies ("男はつらいよ"). It's a charming little neighbourhood with a lost in time feel. There are many old shops between Shibamata station and Shibamata Taishakuten, a Buddhist temple. There's also a Tora-san museum and cafe, which I only passed but didn't stop for. One of the shops had a variety of beautiful face covers and I bought a Tora-san mask for my son.

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Heading north I mostly cleared a corridor two tiles wide but sometimes dropped back to a single tile, as I was worried about running out of time for the main job near the NE corner.

Once the traffic lights gave way to fields, it became much easier to progress. I really enjoyed that.

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The weirdest sight of the day (apart from what was left over of a dead rat after being run over by uncounted vehicles) was this house:

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While it looks like a ruin, I am not positive it is uninhabited. I am all for free speech but I also pity the neighbours who have to look at this every day.

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Anyway, I got all the tiles I had planned and two extra by the time the sun set. I then cycled to Kitasakado to enjoy coffee and cake with my mother-in-law, before riding back to Tokyo. It was a fun day.

This was my 24th Century ride this year (160.9+ km). It enlarged my Max Square from 27x27 to 28x28. The 27x27 could slide east-west by one while the 28x28 can move by three. So the chances are good I can turn that into something even bigger soon.
 
that owner has some story to tell I'm sure! some of the messages imply having one or more limbs amputated, others seem to protest the consumption tax raises and control of the political world by the large financial interests... I'm sure the person is seriously disoriented and probably isolated, maybe with mental health issues. but the house is certainly something else
 
that owner has some story to tell I'm sure! some of the messages imply having one or more limbs amputated, others seem to protest the consumption tax raises and control of the political world by the large financial interests... I'm sure the person is seriously disoriented and probably isolated, maybe with mental health issues. but the house is certainly something else
A lot of anger there for sure! Standing on the roof tiles to paint the political messages upstairs on the outside is even more difficult to imagine for someone with a missing limb, if that's the case.

You really see all kinds of unexpected things while tiling.
 
I looked at the Statshunters.com site and saw that many of the tiles that VV credited to me were not accepted on that site. Has my max square at 20x20 as a result. :eek:

36 x 36? Pull the other one...

It turns out that in reality my 28 x 28...

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...really is a solid 28x28! :)

That doesn't mean all was clean - I did lose 14 tiles from the explorer tiles, probably some boat rides or other (supposedly paused) parts of activities. It agrees with Strava on the Max Cluster, which would be unaffected by ferry rides, etc.
 
@Half-Fast Mike I'm trusting VV over Statshunter at this point, so how do you know VV was a false positive and Statshunter wasn't a false negative?

I've got a handful of tiles that look like false positives on SH, but VV has them. A couple of them would require revisiting some stuff up near Aone on the Doshi Michi. :tdown:
 
how do you know VV was a false positive and Statshunter wasn't a false negative?
I was checking for false negatives on StatsHunter, and found several that I could put right with the StatsHunter recalculation. One of them wouldn't capitulate, however, so I investigated Veloviewer too.

The ride that ticked the tile was from 2009, long before tiling was a thing. The original Vv algorithm had ticked it based on the original summary line. Clicking through from the Activities map to the individual activity in Vv recalculates the track and tiles for a ride using the "2017 ClusterGate" algorithm.

So I have, in fact, never been in that tile. I'd ridden that way twice more, in 2014 and 2015, but each time I took the same route that neatly dodges the tile. (All three occasions were group rides, led by the same guy.) Now that the tile is gone from Vv, I can't restore my MaxSquare without riding it.

Never mind. I'm about ready for another spin around the bike paths of Musashi-kyūryō Shinrin-kōen. The tile is close to there. Long, flat, winter ride. See which way the wind blows...

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So, I clicked through on the activities on VV IOT update the calculation and the ones in the green circles still register as 'bagged' on VV but not on SH. The one in the red, however, will have to be done again. It has disappeared from my VV map after updating. The one on the lower right corner of my max square is along the Sakaigawa cycling road which I've done many times, so not sure which track registered the tile. It's an easy pickup so I guess I'll mosey down there and get it sometime soon. As it stands, my max square is greatly reduced till I get this fixed. Bummer!
 
the more I keep reading about this, the less I understand why would people do it hahaha but sure, whatever ticks your "tiles" ;)
 
The one in the red, however, will have to be done again.
Oh, snap. The approach to Tsuru-tōge. Tile-Denial.

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whatever ticks your "tiles"
Not so much "ticked" as "nearly tickled".

The annoying thing it that it's so trivial to get it, but have to go all the way back there when there are so many fresh tiles waiting.
 
@luka The tiles are just a motivator and side benefit/obsession to get out and explore new areas that I might otherwise not bother to go to. I get really bored riding the same routes. Every time I go out, I see something new and interesting. That, and it gives me an excuse to get up in the mountains, away from traffic, focus on the challenge, forget about the day to day crap and enjoy nature at its best. It has been a big help during this Covid lockdown period. To each their own.
 
The annoying thing it that it's so trivial to get it, but have to go all the way back there when there are so many fresh tiles waiting.

Yeah, I passed that point many times (pre-tiling era) and never had a reason to make that tiny detour from the main road to grab the tile so it's also still on my to-tile list. But the good thing is, I love the quiet back country along Rt18. It's a much more quiet road to get to Kosuge-mura and Okutama-ko than via Tomin and Kazahari toge.

the more I keep reading about this, the less I understand why would people do it hahaha but sure, whatever ticks your "tiles" ;)

@luka, I know you're just teasing us ;)

I'm a creature of habit. I like going back to the same restaurants I've enjoyed and order the same favourite dishes over and over. Same for bike rides: Once I knew enough routes it was easy enough to, uhm, cycle through half a dozen of them and not get bored. However, that's not the same experience as when I started riding my bike after moving to Tokyo and would simply set off somewhere and find out where the road would take me, riding on roads I had never seen before with no real plan. While they may not be the most exciting of places, you will feel like an explorer, never knowing what's around the next corner. Your brain will be in a different mode.

The rides I enjoyed the most were where I covered long distances on roads I had never ridden before, such as brevet routes in unfamiliar territory or the times I dropped out of 600 km brevets while still 300 km from Tokyo and then making my way back. It's like watching new movies vs. re-runs ;)
 
I'm a creature of habit. I like going back to the same restaurants I've enjoyed and order the same favourite dishes over and over.
Every time I ride past Sherpa in Ome I think of you and keep my eyes open in case you are there. I have never had the chance to eat there (or meet you!), but your habits have also affected my habits!
 
I think this is happening Saturday. Anyone wishing to accompany me just DM me and we can figure out times/places. Using the opportunity of bagging the tile up by Tsuru pass to also snag a couple more.

 
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@Half-Fast Mike I heard on the news that the area in the yellow box has been surrounded by 'unobtanium.' Any attempt at bagging this tile would therefore be futile. :cool:

(*Was thinking that if I could just get those tiles up around Tsuru, I could get my max square up to 33x33 and claim I was just 5 more away from challenging the #1 tiler in Japan. But I figured you probably wouldn't let that tile stay unbagged for long. :cry:. )
 
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@Half-Fast Mike I heard on the news that the area in the yellow box has been surrounded by 'unobtanium.' Any attempt at bagging this tile would therefore be futile. :cool:
Fake news, my friend. ;)

That otherwise humdrum lump of Saitama had been burning a hole in my soul.


So this morning I embarked upon a quest to claim it. The title of my quest: Saitama Tile Reclamation Loop 172.3 km, 773 m climbing, +1.5T

And all is right with the world again.

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I'd done most of the route several times before. It was delightful to ride the Arakawa again, with her refreshing headwind :rolleyes:. And to see nostalgic sites such as the spaceship, Honda Airfield, the cherry tree-lined section, and the annoying when-will-they-sodding-pave-it-already gravel section.

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In the spirit of exploring, I explored the barricaded track between Irumagawa and Arakawa, to see what I could see. I found a lot of bamboo, and no way through.

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There were still some autumn colours to be found, here and there.

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One place I'd never noticed before was the management office for Yoshimi Sports Park. Perhaps it's a recent innovation, perhaps not, but they're very cycle-friendly, with parking racks outside, a nice terrace for a socially-distant sit-down, some snacks and beverages, floor pumps you can borrow, and a selection of bike parts and accessories. I needed a pack of tyre boots, so this was very fortuitous; cheaper than Rakuten, and no shipping to pay. If they got (even a 7-Eleven style) coffee machine, I think it would attract some more of the cappuccino crowd.

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Refreshed and refilled, I set off again. Around 7 km further on, opposite Kumagaya, I turned southwest away from the river and the headwind became a more manageable crosswind. Got the offending tile, and travelled a little further west to secure another that was 'mine' on Veloviewer but not on StatsHunters. (That's the extra "0.5", in case anyone was wondering.)

As I'd pass very close, I'd also considered a diversion for a lap or two of Musashi-kyūryō Forest Park, with its 17 km of bike trails. A quick calculation told me that I wouldn't have time to do that and get home before dark/cold, so I'll go back to play another time. (I like that park.) I thus set my sights for home. and thoroughly enjoyed the tailwind: even on busy R299, even traipsing through stinking Tokorozawa.

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Arrived home at exactly 5 p.m. Just gone dark. Good timing. Verified MaxSquare restoration on Vv and SH. Happy but exhausted. It's my longest ride of the year (so far).

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@Half-Fast Mike "That otherwise humdrum lump of Saitama had been burning a hole in my soul."

I knew you couldn't let it stand for long but didn't expect you to fix it so fast. You're back in the saddle with max square back in the 'unassailable' range. Nuts. Well done! :innocent:

Kudos on the unshaven look. :tup

FWIW Was looking over the StatsHunter site again and noticed that I must be so skinny that I managed to tick neither the tile to the left or right of my track in a couple places. Recalculations haven't fixed it so guess I'll have to gain some weight.
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