Taiwan In Cycles

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

A Bicycle For Our Minds: Steven P. Jobs (1955-2011)

Steve Jobs passed just a short time ago, and I must admit that I have been a longtime admirer of Jobs.

One thing that has always struck me about the late Apple CEO has been his unique perspective on technology and on the world. Technology is often a cold and unfriendly place where geeks try to outgun each other with their own arcane knowledge of geekdom. I guess in the bicycle world we have some of those too.

Now, as Jobs is all over the news and the retrospectives flow through the various streams of media, many of which Jobs helped to pioneer, I keep thinking about one particular metaphor Jobs liked to use to articulate his vision of technology and its impact on people: The Bicycle.

Steve Jobs believed that his devices were in many ways analogous to bikes in that they are examples of a technology that is refined to simplicity and allows the human being to squeeze more from life using that device.

Jobs' admiration for the bicycle drove him to create products that he hoped embodied many aspects of the bicycle in their elegance, ease and their ability to empower. He believed in this so deeply that he briefly toyed with the idea of calling the first Macintosh a "bicycle computer" and had envisioned people toting his machines on the backs of their bikes.

Many of us long time Mac users who also ride can understand this appreciation for how Jobs made us care about our computers with the little touches of humanity similar to how we become attached to our bikes.

I know I am not the first person to hedge at throwing away an Apple computer box or keeping unused machines around the house as decoration. The design was always superb.

Although the bike and the computer are seemingly unrelated technologies... maybe there is enough common thread in the root DNA to tie them together. If there ever was... then Steve Jobs was the man who could make you believe it was true.

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.

They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.And while some see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
that they can change the world… are the ones who do.

Thanks Steve!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Bike Insurance Options Coming To Taiwan

Taiwanese can expect to see their bikes insured in the not so distant future.

"....in BestWeekAsia-Pacific, Taiwan’s insurers see new market and product potential for bicycle insurance as bicycle usage becomes more popular.
With 10 million bicycles in Taiwan - one for every two residents - there is good market potential for bicycle insurance covering personal accident/injury and liability risks, according to Dan Ting, president and chief executive of Zurich Insurance Taiwan."

With the number and cost of bicycles rising in Taiwan, this might be a profitable and reassuring proposition.

Road Bike Rentals in Taipei

I get lots of people stopping by to inquire about road bike rentals in Taipei. This is a natural choice as Taipei is the largest metropole near the largest international airport. Unfortunately, information on renting road bikes in Taipei is scant and I haven't had a whole lot of answers... until now.

Behold!

There are more options, but more expensive:

單車家族台北市內湖區港墘路123號 0226597123 傳真:02-26586802 張先生

車租\租期	1天 day	3天 day	5天 day	10天 day	15天 day	30天 day	備考
Road Bike 16(24速)速公路車 8sp	800	1600	2400	4000	4800	8000
Road Bike 18(27速)速公路車 9sp	1000	2000	3000	5000	6000	10000
Mtb 27段登山車	500	1000	1500	2500	3000	4500
Mtb 24段登山車	400	800	1200	2000	2500	4000
Mtb 21段登山車	300	600	900	1500	2000	3000

單車租借時間超過10天以上提供以下服務：貨架、馬鞍袋（貨架袋）、前後燈、安全帽、車速表、維修工具、打氣筒、內胎二條（耗材有使用才需付費）。免費行程規劃建議指導、體能訓練、騎乘技巧及維條訓練，租金起超過5000元以上免費提供衛星導航機借用。 Reserve for more that 10 days and the shop will throw in touring gear, GPS, helmets, mini-pump, tubes, light, speedometer. Each rental over NT 5000 will receive free GPS mapping tools.

If anyone has any more information on road bike rentals in Taipei, please feel free to pass it on here.

A commenter below suggests finding information on renting road bikes HERE.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Free Tibet Protesters Use Bicycles To Petition Taipei

The Taipei Times reports on the bicycle protest in Taipei by Taiwanese and Tibetan protesters to demand greater attention from Taiwan's central government, which has increasingly strayed from its traditional support for the Tibetan movement and for the basic human rights of religious and ethnic minorities in China.

For decades, as part of the ROC's rivalry with China's Communist government, officials in Taiwan have taken a traditionally activist role in welcoming Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners as part of a greater propaganda message that the ROC is somehow a more tolerant and less authoritarian natured beast than the CCP.

Sadly, that veneer of difference appears to be wearing thin as the governments in Beijing and Taipei edge closer to political negotiations.

Over the past four years observers have seen an erosion of the ROC propaganda mainstays of freedom, democracy and providing a safe haven for those groups persecuted in China.

Two years ago, Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer had her Taiwan visa application rejected. There have been other breaks in the rank and file as well, as military and civilian leaders with sympathies toward China have provided the PRC with useful intelligence on not just defense issues, but also on pro-democracy, Tibetan and Falun Gong groups. What might seem most puzzling is the lack of urgency the current administration displays to deal with this problem.

The fact of the matter is that the two political parties involved in these negotiations are both cut from the same Chinese nationalist cloth with a long history of Leninist structure and strong, centralized government with the preeminent goal of seeking ethnic, cultural and political uniformity to hold the disparate peoples of a former empire together under the flag of a single nation. There is no room for Tibetan, Uighur or Taiwanese independence under Chinese nationalism, so it is not surprising to see the KMT in Taiwan back away from its earlier promises to help these minorities in their struggle against an authoritarian China, when the KMT is hoping to eke out a place at the front of the bus in the Chinese nationalist dream. The rest of China's persecuted peoples are finding they are running out of roadway.

Made In Taiwan Pedals The Cross Island Highway: Ride Report

Jonathan B. writes a wonderful ride report on his trip across Taiwan by bike.

Here's a little excerpt below: You can read the entire report HERE.

The opening climb dispatched (and insults swatted away), we again reached Renai and the start of the climb proper. Keeping a decent cadence, we passed increasingly unlikely hotels and resorts, themed to resemble Swiss chalets, German villages, and imagined English mountain-top castles. The GPS chirping less frequently than I would have liked, we slowly winched our way up the hill, stopping at the 7-11s that we passed to keep the fluids topped up and energy maintained. There were plenty of other cyclists on the road – many that we bumped into multiple times on the climb – but we were humbled when we chatted to two guys on folding bikes (sporting speakers and huge luggage panniers) that said they woke at 2am to ride up from Taichung to the peak in one day. Respect.

Also:

Check Michael Turton's report from his soggy weekend of riding in Kenting.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Along Alangyi Ancient Trail and Other Links

I am sitting out this weekend with a sore shoulder. It seems like an old weight training injury coming back to welcome me to middle age... again.

Above is a video of some folks biking the Alongyi Ancient Trail. It looks perfect for my CX bike. The quest to pour more concrete is now threatening this little corner of cycling nirvana. Please get out there and ride it before it is replaced by busses of Chinese tourists and parking lots full of crap vendors.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

President Ma Stumps For Bikes and Fitness: Taiwan Sports Island?

As part of his campaign stump speech, Taiwan's reluctant president, Ma Ying-jiu, has made a vow to transform Taiwan into a "Sport's Island".

First, the phrasing is interesting as it avoids defining Taiwan as a "nation", an idea Ma has had great difficulty grappling with during his first term in office.

Taipei, Sept. 24 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou said Saturday he is determined to turn Taiwan into "a sports island," where people will exercise regularly.

"It's a very important political platform that I proposed four years ago during my election campaign," Ma said in Taichung at the launch of a countrywide support group for his reelection bid.

Secondly, this pledge contradict his other education and labor policies, which actually run counter to promoting physical fitness and exercise.

At the event at Taichung Harbor Municipal Stadium, Ma said he had built or renovated 80 swimming pools in Taipei during his tenure as mayor 1998-2006. The aim was to encourage every student in the city to learn to swim and perform well in the sport, he added.

He also constructed bike paths in Taipei during that time, and since May 2008 when he took office as president, more than 500 kilometers of cycling trails have been built around the country, he said.

The president said he has seen the development of a trend in which cycling is becoming a national sport.

"The reforms must not stop," he said. "I will continue to do my best to build Taiwan into a sports island."

A critical definition needs to be made between construction and promotion. I have to admit the Ma administration has been bullish on construction... of anything: highways, residential districts, petrochemical factories, nuclear power plants, and practically anything fashioned from concrete.

This may have less to do with promoting... whatever, and more to do with the powerful construction constituency, which is widely acknowledged to be stacked with all types of dirty politics and... "extra"-legal activities from kickbacks to bid rigging.

To really promote health and fitness, the government can start with education and labor reforms.

Taiwanese children are asked to study too much, while physical education is routinely cut in favor of classroom oriented subjects. Children have precious little time to devote to learning a sport. Rather than mandate fewer classroom hours, Ma's administration has chosen to emphasize Confucian studies in schools to help promote his idea of Confucianism as the state religion. Moreover, there are fewer urban green spaces for children to use if they would like to play sports. The government owned land is far too valuable to invest in green space. Instead it has been parceled off to developers. As far as bike paths go, most children, even if they had the time, could not even get to a bike path without someone driving them.

In Taiwan fitness and leisure is the domain of the privileged. A person needs time and money. In Taiwan's modern reality these things are still not granted to everyone. For a few years things had improved with the implementation of the 5 day work week. When I first arrived in Taiwan we were still working every other Saturday. The problem is that the cost of living has been steadily rising while incomes have stagnated. People are having to work more hours for less money to maintain a middle-class lifestyle, pay for the cram schools which have been built into the education system as a necessity, and to pay on an overvalued mortgage as ordinary families compete for housing against property speculators. How many families really have the time or money to spend on biking? Not nearly enough!

When I ask students how they spent their weekends, 90% respond with the same answers: slept, studied and watched TV.

Their parents were too busy working to take them anywhere so they get the TV babysitter.

Funny how complicated these simple promises can get when tied to the larger realities of life in Taiwan.