Pointless Prize: Wandrer’ About

[Dachs6]

We ride bikes in winter for commuting, for fitness, for exploring, for peace. This game is for those who aspire to ride in new places, using new (to you) streets and paths. Check out the website Wandrer.earth, if you are not already signed up, it is free to do so, in the process you have to give the website permission to read your Strava activities. Upon sign up, the free tier will sync your last 50 activities from Strava. The paid tier will sync your entire Strava history, and some other things (like unlimited GPS map overlays for a Garmin or Wahoo that shows streets you have not ridden yet and a browser extension for Chrome that works with a multitude of mapping sites making it easier to directly build routes that will allow the rider to earn more new miles). But, all you need to play this game is to have a free tier account at Wandrer.

Rules: Ride your bike, outdoors…basically the same rules as Freezing Saddles. There is no required hashtag.
Winner: The most unique miles on a bicycle as recorded in Wandrer from 1 Jan (today) until the end of Freezing Saddles (20 March 2024).
Prize: I will gift to the winner one year of a premium tier account on Wandrer. If you already have one, I’ll gift you your next renewal.

Yes, I will play, for fun. If I win (unlikely), I guess my wife will buy my next renewal…but, I will concede the win and award the second-place finisher the win and the “pointless” prize.

Please note: to be the most effective, please read the FAQ paying special attention to the section titled “The Map.” It will explain which roads/streets/paths will count for crediting your unique miles. With that said, there are many roads in the OSM database that Wandrer is based on that are tagged bicycle=yes that are definitely NOT for bicycles.

CHANGE: Please respond to this thread, with a text string in the format “bikearlington username” / “Strava username” (“Strav ID”)…then I can just cut/paste it into the 2nd post for the running tally of players.

Additional Note: There may be a slight restructuring of how this is run due to how the data is captured at Wandrer. I’ll keep everyone updated. For now, just keep on riding your bikes in new places!

[Dachs6]

1. Aaron bikes / Aaron Schuetz (8680335)
2. Ahano/Akiko Hamada-Ano 36388817
3. Annaheim / Anna He (85344644)
4. arlcxrider / Paul Wilson (43537271)
5. bigredboiler / Kris Stein (380419)
6. camiller / Cathy M (10678140)
7. CaseyKane50 / Casey Kane (356291)
8. cvcalhoun / Carol ✊ (3487165)
9. Dachs6 (Andy) / der_Bierpuncheur (281386)
10. drevil / ricky d (190447)
11. gspatter / Geoff Patterson (33937007)
12. Joan / Joan Britt (9133135)
13. karenbikes2 / Karen Hass (38633292)
14. LhasaCm / Chris M (12125159)
15. Ltierstein / Leslie T👚 (10356941)
16. Laurie E. / Laurie E. (9290806)
17. matteblack / Matt Williams (721498)
18. Muku.tbd / Michael Chen @tbdcycling (34577084)
19. Nigel Brockton / Nigel Brockton (216328)
20. Rod Smith / Rod Smith (1129136)
21. Serdar / Serdar Jorayev (11555517)
22. sszibler / Steve Szibler (120519)
23. SteveO / Steve Offutt (1547193)

[Serdar]

Hi. Thank you for this prize. Please, count me in. My Strava name is Serdar Jorayev.

[cvcalhoun]

@Dachs6 227040 wrote:

At some point, I’ll have to get Your Strava IDs so that I can work with Craig (the guy who runs the website) to pull your mileage.

If you have the Strava username, you can get the Strava ID by going to https://freezingsaddles.org/people/ and clicking on the username. The page that comes up will have a URL that is something like https://freezingsaddles.org/people/3487165. In that example, 3487165 is the Strava ID.

[LhasaCM]

Count me in – Chris M (12125159 because it’s out there so why make it harder for you to find?)

To confirm: is this the total number of “new to you miles” in this period, or the number of unique miles in this period even if you’ve ridden it before? For example: riding 2 miles on the MBT yesterday (that I’ve ridden a zillion times) would be “unique” if just looking at this period, but is not “new” to me so doesn’t show as “new” on Wandrer this year. Do those count?

[matteblack]

@LhasaCM 227108 wrote:

Count me in – Chris M (12125159 because it’s out there so why make it harder for you to find?)

To confirm: is this the total number of “new to you miles” in this period, or the number of unique miles in this period even if you’ve ridden it before? For example: riding 2 miles on the MBT yesterday (that I’ve ridden a zillion times) would be “unique” if just looking at this period, but is not “new” to me so doesn’t show as “new” on Wandrer this year. Do those count?

Same question…there are very few “new to me” miles in my immediate area!

[Steve O]

I’ll play. Too bad last week was 2023, because I got a bunch of new miles in Savannah, GA

Steve Offutt is my name, Wandrering is my game.

[gspatter]

Fun idea. I’d vaguely heard of Wandrer but never used it previously. Just signed up, and here’s my info:

Geoff Patterson (Strava ID 33937007)

[Dachs6]

@LhasaCM 227108 wrote:

Count me in – Chris M (12125159 because it’s out there so why make it harder for you to find?)

To confirm: is this the total number of “new to you miles” in this period, or the number of unique miles in this period even if you’ve ridden it before? For example: riding 2 miles on the MBT yesterday (that I’ve ridden a zillion times) would be “unique” if just looking at this period, but is not “new” to me so doesn’t show as “new” on Wandrer this year. Do those count?

For now, based on how the mileage accrues in Wandrer (as you’ve noted), it’s “new to you” miles from 1 Jan to 20 Mar. I’ll ask Craig if he can do unique miles for the period, as you describe. More to follow.

[Dachs6]

Not sure if you can see my map…I’m hosed in this regard unless I want to ride a train or ride for a long, long way. Ultimately the goal is to encourage people to ride more in more places. See my reply to LhasaCM, I’m going to discuss with the guy who runs the site…

[LhasaCM]

@Dachs6 227136 wrote:

For now, based on how the mileage accrues in Wandrer (as you’ve noted), it’s “new to you” miles from 1 Jan to 20 Mar. I’ll ask Craig if he can do unique miles for the period, as you describe. More to follow.

Makes total sense – and what I figured would be the case because that’s easiest (in that it already exists), but it does put those with a longer history on the site at a disadvantage. Oh well – such is life!

(Just gives me all the more reason to work on adding to my DC map – there’s still 30% that I could realistically ride on that I haven’t ridden yet!)

[Dachs6]

@LhasaCM 227138 wrote:

Makes total sense – and what I figured would be the case because that’s easiest (in that it already exists), but it does put those with a longer history on the site at a disadvantage. Oh well – such is life!

(Just gives me all the more reason to work on adding to my DC map – there’s still 30% that I could realistically ride on that I haven’t ridden yet!)

I feel your pain. Not bragging at all…look at my map. I live immediately to the east of Brussels, a few km south of the Airport (huge empty space in the map, duh). Getting new to me miles is hard for me. COVID gave me lots of free time to ride and ride and ride, and I decided to just go ride everywhere that was within a day’s ride.

[CaseyKane50]

@Steve O 227113 wrote:

I’ll play. Too bad last week was 2023, because I got a bunch of new miles in Savannah, GA

Steve Offutt is my name, Wandrering is my game.

Yet again, poor planning rears its head. If only you had been riding in Savannah this week, you would already have 57.35 new miles. The good news is you still have 199.8 new miles to capture in nearby Alexandria. See you on the road 😎

[CaseyKane50]

@Dachs6 227136 wrote:

For now, based on how the mileage accrues in Wandrer (as you’ve noted), it’s “new to you” miles from 1 Jan to 20 Mar. I’ll ask Craig if he can do unique miles for the period, as you describe. More to follow.

I too have lots of roads and trails ridden in the DMV (need less than 1/2 mile in Alexandria). I wouldn’t try to change the way Wandrer is structured in capturing new miles. Leaving it as it is, might benefit newer riders, but that just makes it challenging for riders who have ridden more and further. When I was chasing the unique miles in Alexandria, I learned to vary my route to get that new mile, turned down all the dead-ends, and went down hills that I knew I would have to climb up. In the meantime, I found new places to ride and new ways to get where I needed to go. However, you might need patient friends to tolerate your going down endless dead-ends on your ride.

[LhasaCM]

@CaseyKane50 227155 wrote:

I too have lots of roads and trails ridden in the DMV (need less than 1/2 mile in Alexandria). I wouldn’t try to change the way Wandrer is structured in capturing new miles. Leaving it as it is, might benefit newer riders, but that just makes it challenging for riders who have ridden more and further. When I was chasing the unique miles in Alexandria, I learned to vary my route to get that new mile, turned down all the dead-ends, and went down hills that I knew I would have to climb up. In the meantime, I found new places to ride and new ways to get where I needed to go. However, you might need patient friends to tolerate your going down endless dead-ends on your ride.

My only slight “concern” is that there’s the possibility that someone who is a very experienced rider and has ridden throughout the area but is new to Wandrer (or, gasp, Strava!) could benefit from the way it’s structured (since, if you don’t pay, it doesn’t pull much of your history, so most things will show as “new” in the tally). Probably a giant nothingburger, and it’s not going to change at all how I ride or approach this silly game or anything else like that. Besides, at the end of the day, whatever der_Bierpuncheur says are the rules goes!

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