"Bike and hatching eggs research, I need thoughts and opinions."

#PokemonGO: Why a Bike?I have always loved bike riding. They are just an incredible and simple vehicle which is powered by your two legs. Having recently moved to Denmark where everyone rides bikes, the infrastructure for cycling is amazing and I am definitely starting to take advantage of it now that I finally got a bike.In the main games I always loved breeding and hatching eggs, it was very relaxing. Riding a bike was a big part of this as it sped up the whole process quite significantly. It was only natural that I try to get the same out of Pokémon GO and hatching eggs like in the main series.Unfortunately there is a lot of information out that with everyone claiming different things in regards to what speeds work best for hatching eggs. I have decided to finally put my time to good use and try and get to the bottom of this.What we know.As far as I have read and I have read up on this a lot trying to find some concrete information. Here a few points I have come across in multiple places.When travelling your game is pinged every minute. When you are pinged the game marks your location and then 1 minute later you are pinged again. The game then draws a straight line between these two locations and that is your distance traveled.StraightThis means that travelling in straight lines is the best way to track your distance. So straight lines are the best way.Imagine a circle.CircleloopNow say you were to walk a track, the first ping hits and you walk in a loop just as you get pinged for the second time. If in the 1 minute window you walked back to your starting position you would get no distance tracked due to the way the mechanic works.Another thing which people have reported is that within this time frame you can only travel a maximum of 300m or the game considers this too fast. I am not sure if this is true or not, but let’s just say it is for now.300m/minute = 18kms/hr or 11 mphRealistically this is meant to be the top speed to be able to hatch eggs. 18km/hr or 11mphAnother thing to note, since recent updates tracking seems to be working better, so this was a great time to start experimenting.I set out with the information and the base speed of 18km/hr or 11mph to see what I could find out.My Track and ThoughtsI mapped out a track in my neighbourhood which according to google maps was 2.7km long. I rounded it to a nice 2.5km to account for some slight errors and just to keep it nice and easy. If I could cycle my track and get 2.5km tracked on my egg I would be happy. 2.5km = 1.5milesMy track is a rectangle, almost a square. I know straight lines are what’s best, but I wanted to try and keep away from them as in my town the only straight road which is of a decent distance is the main road and I didn’t want to get in people’s way if I had to go pretty slow. It is a biking town after all, so I just wanted to find somewhere more private. With that said, the straights on my track are of decent distance so it shouldn’t really be a problem.One thing I am worried about though is the downhill portions. Sure, I can stay under 18kms easily when travelling uphill but downhill may prove to be a problem.The average walking speed is something like 5km/hr, roughly. I am hoping that riding the bike will prove to be at least twice as efficient, but I would love for 15kms or 9mph to be able to accurately track eggs.2.5km @ 18kms/hr = 8 minutes 20 seconds (11mph)2.5km @ 15kms/hr = 10 minutes (9mph)2.5km @ 10km/hr = 15 minutes (6mph)Test 1Because I didn’t know my actual speed, I was going to just see how fast I could ride the track to get an understanding of my average speed. I was going to go as fast as I could considering it was the first ride of the day. PoGO was off.Results8 minutes and 25 seconds, so my average speed worked out to be 18km/hr or 11mph. I went pretty fast and I think it was too fast to both enjoy the game and do it over a longer distance, 4 or 5 laps. Plus the hills took it out of me.Test 2With the knowledge of Test 1 I turned on PoGO and decided to go at a speed I would consider to be a perfect speed for my fitness level and being able to enjoy the game. The egg started at 0.0kmResultsIt took me 12 minutes which made my average speed 12.5kms or 7.5mph. Unfortunately I tracked only 400m or 0.4km on the egg.I was quite upset with this result as I would have loved for this speed to be work consistently. Seeing as the rumored speed is 18km/hr or 11mph I still am not convinced with this result.I have a theory that at a certain speed say roughly 11kms or 6mph that the distance/ping mechanic comes back into effect at a much larger scale. Because my track is essentially a loop I have a feeling that going at 12km/hr or 6mph on a much longer straight line would prove better results. I will test this tomorrow.I think distance/ping is a way of scaling peoples distance who travel at higher speeds for a long period of time.Test 3I was a bit upset about the previous test so I made a point to go super slow. I put the bike in 1st gear and didn’t go very fast at all.Results19 minutes 20 seconds = 7km/hr or 4mphI actually managed to track 2.3km or 1.4miles which was great but I found it so hard to stay that slow on a bike. I don’t think it is very efficient. I decided to aim for 15 minutes on my next trip.Test 4I put the bike in 2nd gear and decided I would try and hit a sweet spot between Test 2 and 3.Results15 minutes = 10kms/hr or 6mphThis was a decent speed, still a little bit slow, but doable. I ended up with 2km or 1.2miles tracked. I believe that I would be able to get a little more distance at this speed, but I think the distance/ping mechanic comes into play here and I lost a little distance on my turns.SummaryPlease keep in mind that all speeds and distances are rough and not exact.Distance 2.5km or 1.5milesTest 2: Speed 12km/hr or 7.7mph = 0.4km trackedTest 3: Speed 7km/hr or 4mph = 2.3km trackedTest 4: Speed 10km/hr or 6mph = 2km trackedLooking at the final results I am not convinced that Test 2 results are correct. I find it hard to believe that a difference of 2km in speed would result in such a small amount tracked.I am starting to think that perhaps I went downhill too fast. Let’s just say that the 3 minutes faster was due to going downhill too fast and I went over the cap of 18km/hr but I find this extremely hard to believe as I was very mindful of my speed going downhill. This either means that the cap is lower perhaps 15km/hr? Going over the cap could screw with the whole tracking process.It is either that or the ping/distance mechanic comes into play at a certain speed which is meant to scale distance down if you are going to fast?I am not sure what to make of this. What do you guys think?I would like to hear your distances traveled, speed, distance tracked on eggs and whether it was straight lines or lots of turns.What is next?I am going to redo Test 2 again and hopefully go a bit slower down hill but otherwise keep most things the same. I want to confirm that going at the rough speed of 12km made it unable to track distance on eggs not just because I went too fast downhill. If it does prove to be due to the fact that I went downhill too fast then maybe I can push it a little faster.If I still get a similar result after this then I will try and do 12km on a straight line and see if that changes anything.Also if you would like to read a better formatted version feel free to check out http://ift.tt/2aMuj6y via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2aNZi5F