Who the heck is Mr. Q?
How I turned cycling into cycling adventures
Polish version below | Polska wersja poniżej
The dilemma
I must admit, I’m in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand, I’d like to recommend a really cool website to you. On the other hand, I’m afraid that after getting familiar with it, you’ll become consumed by the same desire that I did, which will make your rides never be the same. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained (and definitely no SQUARES collected, hehe), so let’s dive into the topic, but be warned - you’re reading the rest of this post at your own risk!
But let’s start from the beginning...
The unexpected turn
I was no longer a novice cyclist, but not yet an advanced one, when the problem of monotony crept into my rides. Despite my love for cycling, I realized that sticking to the same routes clashed with my inner Columbus. I lacked something similar to the world map in Settlers, which gradually revealed itself as we made new conquests. Around that time, as if sensing my dilemma, a friend dropped a link in a comment on Strava with a short note: “check this out.”
Clicking on the link, I didn’t expect that this day would completely change my cycling life...
Mr. Q
The service itself is incredibly simple. Just create an account, then connect it to Strava or Garmin Connect, and that’s it. From now on, all the magic happens autonomously.
Squadrats.com divides the world map into squares, the so-called Squadrats, with sides one mile long. Each Squadrat is divided into 64 smaller squares called Squadratinhos. To collect them, you need to “cut through” the square of interest with any muscle-powered activity recorded with a GPS device. In practice, this will be a phone, sports watch, or bike computer. Then, upload the activity to one of the supported services, such as Strava or Garmin Connect. After data synchronization, our conquests will be visible on the account at squadrats.com, and the mysterious Mr. Q will send us a message summarizing our achievements.
When connecting the account to Strava, the service will download our historical activities, allowing us to start the adventure with an already impressive collection of squares. This will be a big plus for those who have years of exploration on two wheels under their belts.
The Squadrats (and Squadratinhos) collected this way form larger formations called Yard (and Yardinho) and Übersquadrat (and Übersquadratinho). You can find a more detailed description of the rules under this link. We don’t have to collect squares blindly. The service offers a plugin supporting route planning in popular platforms such as Strava, Komoot, RideWithGPS, and Garmin Connect, among others.
The service also features rankings, thanks to which we can see how our conquests stack up against the entire community.
That’s all there is to it. The power of simplicity.
The World in squares
Although squadrats.com is not the only service of this type, it is definitely the one that stole my heart and made me obsessed with squares. Thanks to it, I’ve visited places I would have never reached under normal circumstances (including closed workplaces 🙈🙊). Often, it’s squadrats.com that motivates me to go on more long-distance rides and brings variety to my cycling life.
I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t try to find a hole in the whole thing and look for potential flaws. So far, I’ve noticed one - the desire to collect new squares can be so strong that rides around the house lose their appeal to me, and the vision of conquest becomes more important than the pleasure of riding itself. Luckily, most times, I’m able to balance it out.
Squadrats has its own community on Strava, which I warmly invite you to join, and to which I belong myself. Because it’s a small service, we can count on direct contact with the application creators there. This makes it easier to report bugs, submit suggestions for application development, and show off our achievements.
Squadrats.com is more than just another “fitness” application - it’s a tool that can turn your rides into cycling adventures. Of course, this can have a negative aspect, but the advantages definitely play the first fiddle here. Despite riding thousands of kilometers through the wilderness, navigating thickets and reeds, dealing with closed workplaces, punctured tires, and all those times when I had to carry my bike on my back - squares, I love you and hate you!
Your support means a lot! If you found this helpful, consider buying me a coffee. Thank you! ☕👇