"Currently hoping for a cold winter so I can ride across a frozen lake"
April 28, 2017 12:17 PM   Subscribe

"The Explorer Max Square leaderboard has brought together a small but remarkably dedicated international community of riders taking in new roads and trails at every opportunity in order to increase their Explorer Max Square. What drives them to ride across frozen lakes, attempt to access military bases and buy opera tickets to tick off map squares? Let’s ask them!"

VeloViewer is a (paid) service which imports your Strava activity and visualises and rates them in lots of different ways. One of the more obscure ratings was the Explorer score, which highlighted which arbitrary grid squares had been covered by your activity. This lead indirectly to some quite unusual behaviour.

The next step was the Explorer Max Square, which gives you a score based on the maximum square covered entirely by your activity. The aim was to encourage users to seek out new and interesting routes.

The final step towards insanity was creating a global leaderboard. Self-described "square chasers" were soon out there plotting new routes that would fill in the gaps in their current activity grid and propel them towards global fame.

However, there are some obstacles to progress - the ocean (although you can track different types of activities including kayaking), military bases, bear-infested woods, docks and oil refineries are just some places where users have been making tracks (or being escorted out by security).
posted by Stark (10 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh wow, this is awesome. Thanks, Stark, for the tip!
posted by elizilla at 12:39 PM on April 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


Google has all the data stored in my location history. I'd punch a nun to see a heat map of my previous years travels.

This looks awesome, it falls straight into my sweet spot of desired hobbies (assuming the year was still 1989, because there is no way I'm riding a century (do cyclists still say that here in the future?) anymore. Hell, DRIVING 100 miles would require a nice lunch first.
posted by Keith Talent at 1:58 PM on April 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


Also - a quick shout-out to the Mefi Strava club! Join us and discover excellent cycling or running routes in distant countries, and virtually encourage your fellow Mefi folks.
posted by Stark at 2:15 PM on April 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


Keith Talent - I don't believe thumping a mother superior is required; this location history heatmap seems to do the trick.
posted by Stark at 2:20 PM on April 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


Stark - Thanks!
posted by Keith Talent at 2:26 PM on April 28, 2017


Oh wow, very cool, I hadn't heard of Veloviewer! Must check this out on the computer tmw. PRETTY GRAPHS! Thanks, Stark! (Also yay, Strava MeFi Club!!!)
posted by ClarissaWAM at 3:06 PM on April 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


> I don't believe thumping a mother superior is required

Why is there a killjoy in every thread?
posted by oheso at 5:30 PM on April 28, 2017 [2 favorites]


Aww, bless. Bikies have finally discovered grid square activation. Rare grid squares have been a thing for amateur radio types for decades
posted by scruss at 6:10 PM on April 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


Very interesting topic. The first thing that comes to mind is how analogous it is to the common trope of meeting another mountain biker on the trail who isn't interested in making a new friend or chatting at all and just wants to blaze by you as fast as possible, usually shouting STRAAVAAAAAAAAA and decidedly NOT ringing a bell. This isn't quite so rude, but I can see how 'waiting for a lake to freeze' or 'riding across a golf course' could potentially lead down a similar singletrack, to be all cynical about metering bike rides.

On another tangent, a friend of mine goes on a regular ride in Los Angeles called The Passage Ride (The Passage of A Few People Through A Rather Brief Moment in Time, is the full name) that starts from the same donut joint every time but has been going for so long that their heat maps are fascinating pictures of the city and beyond. He and his ride partner even hosted a lecture a few years ago, positing that the city is actually several cities stacked on top of one another and you can visit the different ones just by changing the way you navigate through it. The city on a bike is one, on foot another, in a car, from a rooftop, from the nearby mountains. These cities, or versions of a city, are only accessible by that particular mode of transportation, and they reveal a depth to the urban environment that is impossible to gauge if you're only ever choosing to use one of them.

As I'm remembering more about the lecture (and re-reading their FAQ)...
What's with the crazy long name?
It's the name of a situationist film (and, later, a book about the Situationists). It seemed to fit. They also wrote the line about dropping usual motives and being drawn to attractions on our home page. The Situationists had some interesting ideas about the city and one's experience thereof. But they are just one amongst many inspirations for the ride.
I've always wanted to go on The Passage, but work's always out later on Wednesdays and eeeeearly on Thursdays, so.
posted by carsonb at 6:30 AM on April 29, 2017 [3 favorites]


positing that the city is actually several cities stacked on top of one another and you can visit the different ones just by changing the way you navigate through it

Oh wow, I love that concept. Thanks for giving me something to think about!
posted by ClarissaWAM at 12:49 PM on April 29, 2017


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