Tackling Tranquil and Terrible Tainan: The View from Taiwan's Southern Expedition

Michael Turton of The View from Taiwan has posted a magnificent spread detailing his tour of the foothills of Tainan. The full article can be found HERE.

Here is an excerpt:

The 179 turned out to be absolutely brutal, 16 kms or so of up and down hills, none big, but almost all 10-12% grades, a couple every kilometer. Because the area around the reservoir is a conservation district, there was no development -- no houses, no water, no people, nothing. The road surface was broken up with great gashes that ran parallel to the direction of travel, dangerous invitations for your wheels to slide into. And of course, no views, the whole thing was vegetated over. It was basically 16 kms of brutal ascent and descent, with nothing flat.

Biking Taiwan's East Coast: The Glory of Green

Michael Turton over at The View From Taiwan has a wonderful write-up and pictorial spread on his adventures riding Taiwan's East Coast and Green island. It is obvious why the area is ranked the number 2 area in the world for cycle tourism.

Here is one little excerpt on the routes they took and especially on some of the trouble that occurs where the bike meets train. In Taiwan the left and right hands of the civil service are merely the anonymous sperm donors to the same policy.

The next morning, the dawn of a cool, overcast day, we cruised the 193 back to Hualien city, and picked up the 1:02 express back to Fengyuan. It turns out that 193 is much easier and faster done from the south -- I had underestimated the extent to which it is one long uphill slog from Hualien. It's a lovely road, one of the best on the island, never trafficked, and the views over the rift valley are incredible. Highly recommended.

The train proved to be another encounter with the TRA's bike train crapshoot. We bought the tix for the 1:00 pm express in Taitung the day before. There we were informed there were no bike places for our bikes and we would have to bag them --- even though it was a designated bike train with the special car for bike storage without needing to disassemble them and on which bikes could travel for free with a ticket for car 12. The spaces for the bikes were all taken, we were told.

The reality was that, as usual, the TRA staffer was wrong about the policy. In fact, we were able to pay the baggage fee and bring the bikes on the same train as luggage in the same compartment as the free bikes with the bike tickets. In fact, there were no such bikes, for the entire trip ours were the only bikes on the train -- meaning we could have had one of the four free bike spaces. The computer system associates the bikes with a seat in car 12, the car with the luggage facility, meaning that if the seats in car 12 are sold out, then there are no free bike spaces (that's right, bikes do not have priority in that arrangement -- it is impossible to get a free bike shipment if you have to sit in another car, as we did). Someone needs to give the brains of TRA planners are thorough scrubbing. There was absolutely no reason we couldn't have been treated as a free bike shipment and no reason not to reserve seats for cyclists in car 12, since it is a designated bike train. Argh!

Some really lovely photos in this set: HERE

*photos courtesy of Michael Turton

Bike Train

• Tern, the new folding bike company that emerged from the odd family feud from the founders of Dahon, will be advertising heavily in Taipei this week. I would love to know where to actually buy a Tern.

• Taipei Cycle opens today. See what is shaking at the Nangang Exhibition Center.

• The Velocity wins the International Bike Design Competition.

• Formerly on Formosa, David Reid showcases his new bike. This would be ideal for a lot of Taiwan-based riders.

Also:

People laughed at me 4 years ago when I was zipping along roadways with a disc equipped drop bar bicycle. Now, Colnago releases a C-59 Disc roadbike. Vindication is mine!

Excellent Links and A Fitting Tribute To One Of Taiwan's Great Cyclists

Dwight J. writes a fitting tribute to one of Taiwan's great cyclists and one of my best friends... Michael Turton.

What makes Michael one on Taiwan's great cyclists is not that he puts up particularly great numbers, wins races, or accomplishes inhuman feats on a bike. He is not a lithe rail of athletic prowess. On the contrary.... He has grey in his beard, a bit of roundness in the middle, an old foot injury and sunglasses that are clip ons. In many ways he seems like an ordinary guy.

Michael also embodies the passion for cycling that so many of us share. On each ride he brings the heart and enthusiasm that is missing from so many people's lives and his attitude is infectious. Riding with Michael is always a good time. Moreover, Michael takes the time in his week to run intervals up the hill behind his house and strives to become better. He pushes himself to ride and to discover all the life that is happening simultaneously in the cultural fabric of this shared space we call "Taiwan"... and then takes the time to analyze it on his own blog.

Few people actually find the courage to do what Michael has done-- to try something new and difficult. I know for a fact that he has inspired others to pick up a bike in search of the same type of passion. I can only hope they found even a sliver of it.

This July I was happy to share a few stages of the Tour de France with Michael as we chatted online turing the webcast. I couldn't help smiling as he became engrossed in the rolling battles and the slow games at play. He was hopelessly hooked.

I look forward to many more opportunities to ride with Michael and I would encourage any of my readers out there to hunt him down on his blog to ask for a ride. I am sure he'd oblige as he can rarely pass up the chance to throw a leg over a top tube.

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Taiwan Links:

• Taiwanese granny takes bike tour with youth in tow.

• Cycling Satin Cesena looks at the alloy cocktails of 7000 series aluminum tubing.

• The Merida Tour of Changhua (Huan Hua Sai) will be held 9/25/2011. This is a good entry level race for competition or for just a challenge. The course is mostly flat with a short hill climb and a distance of around 100k. You can find details here.

• The Daily Bubble Tea climbs 1150m of hills between Taichung and Nantou.

• Taiwan born cyclist dies on the streets of Seattle in a hit and run.

• I would also like to wish Dom A. good luck. Dom will be riding around Taiwan for the next two weeks for a little adventure. I can't wait for the ride report.

Other Links:

• Going Dutch: Taiwan claims to want to copy the European model, but can we create this type of culture.

• The bicycle is a mind control device. Or at least that's what I tell my wife when I want to spend money. But now scientists are working on the mind controlled bike.

• Team Radioshack's Chris Horner suffered a blood clot following his crash at the Tour de France. See his incoherent babbling here. I cann't believe team doctors put him on a bike... and even more so, I can't believe he finished the stage.

• Titanium and Carbon heart valve gets Contador hater a steel Waterford.

The Outspoken Cyclist interviews Rob Vandermark of Seven Cycles. Rob was also at the fore of Titanium bike frames in the early days of the technology. Nice podcast!

The View From Kenting: Michael Concludes His Romp Through Southern Formosa

Michael concludes his Tour of Pingtung with some routes in and around Kenting. Although Kenting is known as the Palm Beach or Brighton of Taiwan, there are some really wonderful roads that wind around the peninsula. There are plenty of off-the-beaten-track adventures still to be had. Check out the full report and marvelous pictures HERE.

Biking Michael In Pingtung Part III: Kenting

Be sure to visit The View From Taiwan for the third installment of Michael Turton's Kenting leg of his Tour of Pingtung. He has some really excellent pictures and commentary.

Also:

• Cycling Satin Cesena offers a great meditation on bicycle design.

and

• Bicycle Sidewalk shows off his awesome legs in an impressive report on his Hualien riding and Miaoli Triathlon results.

• The Daily Bubble Tea explores the foothills and mountains leading up to the base of Alishan along the magnificent 149甲.

The View From Pingtung: Michael Goes South

Be sure you check out Michael Turton's excellent ride report on his trip through Pingtung at The View From Taiwan.

It looks awesome and I have to say, Michael is looking pretty good too.

The Huffington Post Meets Taiwan Cycling: Michael Turton Writes A Gem

Michael Turton, a man I consider one of the keystones of Taiwan's blogging community, an excellent riding companion, and a good friend, has written a magnificent piece about biking in Taiwan for the Huffington Post.

What is riding Taiwan? Taiwan is going a thousand meters up a massive mountain in a single morning, and buying drinks from scantily-clad betel nut girls in their roadside stalls. Taiwan is piercing curls of smoke on a rolling dawn as the farmers burn off their fields, and speeding past the stink of mud and trash oozing from the muck of a canal next to the ocean. Taiwan is a landslide in the road and a viper lounging alongside it. Taiwan is bantering with the old women selling water and steamed buns on a chill winter morn, and exchanging hellos with farmers spraying fruit trees in the fading light of a summer's eve. Taiwan is gliding into the local fishing port for sashimi, and lapping up the last few klicks to the only noodle stand for a hundred leagues. Taiwan is looking down on the lovely Liyu Reservoir and peering up at the terrifying landslide scarp at Jiufen Ershan. Taiwan is riding next to chasms as deep as geological eras, and hearing the whistle of teapots in houses far above filling the mountains as a crisp dawn cracks across the peaks with forty kilometers of desolate mountain road in front of you. Taiwan is.

For me the article is extra special as the experiences he writes about are also my experiences. Michael and I have biked thousands of kilometers together and each kilometer is full of everything that IS Taiwan and everything that is friendship.

Only a person who is deeply attached to this land can really express it in words like Michael has done.

Taiwan is, like most places, a country of complexities, paradoxes and pluralities. When you live here a while, and even more so, when you experience it by bike, you come to see some of the beauty in the burning, the trash and chaos of the roads. It is not a fascination with the "strange" and "exotic". It is an appreciation of the nuanced complexity of life and lives going on. It is also an appreciation of being a part of it all for as little time as it may be. Biking in Taiwan is living.

Please follow the link and enjoy this piece and Michael's wonderful pictures.