Talk:Bicycle geohash achievement

Icons

I also drew an Icon for the Bicycle geohash achievement. Now, we have two. Decide, which one you want to use: -- Hermann 19:03, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

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Splitting

I observe some users adding multiple expeditions with their bikes. In my oppinion, a user earnes the Bicycle Geohashing Awarad once, with his fist successful hashing by bike, and shouldn't be named on this page a second time. We should then make a complete list of all hashings with bike on another page. If noone speaks against this idea, I'll create that biking-page. --Hermann 18:33, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

• I agree that a particular person should appear at most once on the achievement page, but I don't have any problem with someone moving up the list if they go on a longer ride. Brett Daniel 00:13, 25 June 2008 (UTC)
• I now split the list. The complete list with all rides is now available though Bicycle geohashes. --Hermann 20:17, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Where does the ride start?

A conversation on a recent geohash raised some questions and we thought they should be settled before someone has done the bike ride. For the purpose of the longest ride to a geohash, if ...

• I start riding south from Vancouver, Canada on Monday, and check the coordinates each morning. Everything in Washington and Oregon is in the sea, mountains or private property on my way south, but on Friday morning I see that there will be an on-street geohash in Sacramento, California. I ride there and make the meet. Is my bicycle geohash the 450 km from where I looked up the Saturday geohash, or is it the 1450 km I rode from Vancouver?

• I ride my bike to Kelowna and stay there a week in a motel until an accessible geohash arises. I ride 43 km from the hotel to the geohash and claim it. Is my bicycle geohash 43 km, or 43 km plus the 400 km it took to get to Kelowna.

• I am doing an endurance geohash, biking from one graticule to the next and spending the night in a tent, a nearby motel or with friends, as circumstances allow. I reach the seventh geohash after 875 km of biking. Is that my record for the bicycle geohash, or am I limited to the longest interhash segment?

Assume in each case that there is no doubt that I have made each of these rides for the sole purpose of geohashing. -Robyn 05:36, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I think the odometer starts as soon as you know where you're going. So if you started on a Friday morning for a Sunday hash you'd get to claim the entire distance because when you set out Friday morning you target destination was the Sunday hash (you could obviously still visit intermediate hashes on the way). But for the endurance hash, you should only claim the distance cycled starting at the previous point because after you reached your destination (the first point) you added a second destination.

I still wouldn't have a problem with someone posting their entire distance for a week-long hashstravaganza, but if an "official" distance had to be figured out, I'd use the above guidelines. Thepiguy 06:14, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

So the upper bound on geocycling distance will ultimately be the speed of the cyclist and not raw tenacity/willingness to cycle for three weeks straight? -Robyn 07:01, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

What if you set out to cycle to Houston, Texas, with the aim of making the hash there on, say, Saturday 23 May (I have no idea how far it is from Vancouver to Houston). You get there on the appointed day, look up the coordinates and make it to the hash. Wouldn't that be a cycle ride with the express purpose of making it to that particular hash, even though you don't know where it is when you start? -- Benjw 18:51, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I do see your point. So if I were to do a week long endurance hash from say Wurzburg Germany to Geneva Switzerland, I would just claim longer and longer distances? I guess my question is: can I count the same portion of my trip to more than one hash? Thepiguy 19:41, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Um. Now I'm not so sure. It seems clear, in my mind, that a long cycle ride to one particular hash is one expedition, even if you go somewhere else on the way (such as Arvid's long expedition). But a week's endurance hashing would be seven separate expeditions. I think the difference is a subtle one, based on the geohasher's intentions, and that doesn't translate well into an achievement description. Hmmm. -- Benjw 19:29, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I think we're both thinking the exact same thing. I was also thinking of Arvid's multihash. Mainly the fact that if you want to bike more than ~150km to go to a hash point, unless you explicitly skip intermediate hash points (which would be stupid and contrary to the entire spirit of geohashing) you're going to make it to more than one, but that shouldn't cut you cycling distance. The endurance hash has a small underlying difference. The more I think about it though, the less important it seems. I wouldn't have any issues with someone claiming a 700km endurance hash; it's all about having fun! Thepiguy 19:41, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I basically agree here. An expedition starts when you set off to actually reach those coordinates, not for any other goal, and not only for a general direction to get a better starting point. Whatever you do on the way, is part of this expedition. On an endurance hash, each days coordinates are a separate destination, and, IMHO, each expedition starts earliest at the hash before, and ends latest at the hash after. Multihashes are one expedition to multiple places in this context. --Ekorren 19:35, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I agree with the fact that you have to know where you are going when your trip starts. In Robyn's case that makes leaving friday morning and getting there on sunday the longest possible trip, or a weekend with NYSE holidays combined. In my case I could start on friday evening and get there on monday(not fair, I/Europeans have more time). Geohashing isn't about raw tenacity/willingness to cycle for three weeks straight imo. If you want that, go randoneering. (like I will be doing most "saturdays" in may). Also if two people would cycle for three weeks straight, the faster cyclist will get further than the other, when they cycle the same amount of time.--Arvid 21:04, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

I, too, agree that you have to know where you are going to when you start. But I wouldn't count a Friday-to-Sunday trip as one expedition except if you cycle all the time without stopping to sleep (stopping for lunch or repairs is okay). If you make an extended break to sleep or rest for multiple hours that ends the expedition as far as the "longest bicycle hash" odometer and the mental "I'm moving" state is concerned (you are still allowed to visit the hashpoint after you wake up of course). Arvid's long multihash was all in one go, so no problem there. - Danatar 21:46, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

• My recent expedition 2011-05-28_51_7 has an interesting new feature: I first went the wrong way by train, before actually getting on the bike and cycle to the hashpoint (and way beyond). According to the rules I'm not allowed to use non-human-powered transport, but in this case I didn't use it to reach the hashpoint. I just started and finished the ride in Zwolle, not Enschede. I obviously didn't go to Zwolle to reach the hashpoint. For the total distance I could only count the 600km ride+detour, and not the bits from and to the railway stations (which would make it 598km instead of 616). I'd like some opinions on whether this is a "proper" bicycle hash, or that it isn't. --Arvid 05:43, 2 June 2011 (EDT)

Inline skates

Do inline skates and similar devices count as a bicycle? If not, how do I count an expedition with them? They certainly don't count for the walk geohash. - Danatar 21:46, 18 July 2009 (UTC)