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Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Sunny Story Bike: Your French Connection

Sunny Story Bike:
Manager: Lu Sheng-yin
Address: No. 350 Shang Yang Rd. 
Fengyuan District, Taichung City, 420
Tel: 0933-464028
Email: Sunny16816@kimo.com


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As an early birthday present, I went out last week and picked up a new set of bibs. As a man with a taste for long rides and too few opportunities to indulge in the finer things in life, I decided I needed a new pair of Assos bibs. Assos is the Swiss made gold standard of bib shorts and my last set fit me perfectly. For the price you pay they'd better be good.... and they are.

My problem was finding a vendor.

Assos felt their Taiwanese vendors were not moving stock fast enough and decided to consolidate to fewer vendors.

Rather than spend a day hunting for the few suppliers who still carry the brand, I went straight to the official Assos distributor; the most unassuming major bike shop in central Taiwan-- Sunny Bike.

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Sunny bike doesn't look like much on the outside, but their connections with the powerful Shen Yang company, one of Taiwan's largest owners of bicycle distribution rights, little Sunny Bike is a major source for just about anything you want.

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Apart from being one of only two official Assos dealers in central Taiwan, Sunny Bike is also the regional distributor for the French brands Time and Look Bicycles.

Look is one of the few carbon fiber bicycles that I really wouldn't mind having. The legendary 585 was an amazingly balanced bike. Look provides house designs for their crank arms, stems, forks and their signature pedals. The Look 695SR Mondrian pictured above is the SR version to be Super Stiff compared to the standard model. They were offering discounts as high as 45% off for the Look. So tempting.

Sunny Story is the regional distributor of Lightweight Wheels as well. 

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They also had a supply of Colnagos, Ridley, Stevens and others.

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The all alloy Colnago Prima pictured above is a size 46 and is perfect for a lot of women who are looking to get into road cycling. The Shimano 105 grouppo makes for a nice, easy, reliable shift on a double chainring.

As a 2010 NOS bike, Sunny was offering up for a negotiable NT35,000. A steal for what you get.

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Sunny also has connections with Rikulau, Taiwan's custom titanium and steel bike maker. The bike on display was a gorgeous Reynolds 953 steel frame with Tung Blossom design.

For a lot of Taichung residents Sunny Bike may seem a bit out of the way. But if you can make the trip it is surely worth it.

The owners understand some English, but do not speak it well.

... and if you ask nicely they may even show you their Dorcus. 

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