Now that you’ve got your bike, it’s time to take it for a ride down the bike trail leading south to Route 207. Actually, you don’t have much choice, because if you try and exit west, a man will enthusiastically block your way and tell you that you really need to try out the bike trail! Ooookay then.

Operating the bike is simple. By pressing B, you can switch between third and fourth gear. Third gear allows you to maintain a constant speed, while fourth gear starts out slow but quickly reaches high speeds. Fourth gear is particularly useful for gaining speed necessary to fly off bike ramps and ride up steep slopes.

Along the bike trail, you’ll run into several trainers. You can carefully avoid all of them if you’d like, but since they give good EXP and money, it doesn’t hurt to fight them. And if your team gets low on health, you can easily bike back up to Eterna and hit up the Pokemon Center. When you finally reach the building at the end of the trail, you can talk to the scientist inside. If you have at least 35 pokemon listed in your Pokedex (not necessarily captured, but at least seen), then he’ll gift you with the handy EXP Share item. Exit out and you’ll be at the entrance of Route 207, where you’ll see your friend standing around. They’ll ask how you’re doing, and then give you the Item Finder Poketch application, and the VS Seeker. For information on using both of these great items, see our Pokemon Mastery guide.

If you head south from here, you can return to Oreburgh city via a shortcut. (To get back to the main part of route 207, ride up the bike slope after gaining speed in Fourth Gear. You can also explore the area beneath the bike trail (Route 206) if you want – just chop down the bushes blocking the path with Cut and head back north.

ROUTE 206 POKEMON

Kricketot – Level 14 – Rare
Kricketune – Level 15 – Rare
Stunky – Levels 14-16 – Common (Diamond only)
Bronzor – Level 15 – Rare
Geodude – Level 14 – Rare
Ponyta – Levels 14-16 - Common

Above: Do the Dew

There are some goodies stashed along the way, and there are a couple caves you might want to explore. The first, Wayward Cave, is located all the way north. The second cave is actually a little bit south and to the left of Wayward Cave, and has its entrance obscured by the bike trail. Unfortunately, you can’t actually go anywhere in this cave yet without Strength, but you’ll definitely want to remember its location for later. As always, you can attempt to catch several new pokemon here. Bronzor is a steel-type pokemon with killer defenses, while Stunky’s the pre-evolved form of the Skuntank you just fought.

Route 207 swings eastward towards a cave. There aren’t any patches of tall grass here in which to encounter wild pokemon – just trainers who are standing around all day wanting to pick a fight. (Sometimes it seems like hardly anybody in Sinnoh has an actual job, doesn’t it?)

Entering the cave, you’ll meet with a mysterious stanger who will babble some emo crap at you about hating the world. Take it to Livejournal, buddy, we’ve got Gyms to conquer. Once he’s out of your face, you can cross the path to the other side of the cave. If one of your pokemon has Rock Smash as an ability, you can take a shortcut by crushing the boulders in your way. Approach the light at the end of the tunnel, and you’ll emerge at Route 208.