Official Windows 7 Taiwan Bicycle Theme

For all of you Windows users out there, you might be interested in the Taiwan Bike Ride theme for Windows 7. I don't exactly know what it means, but if you are like me and get excited to see Taiwan getting some media attention in ways that have nothing to do with China, then you might like this.

In Taiwan Even Cycling Indoors Is Unsafe

Cycling on Taiwan's streets poses a number of hazards to riders. Weaving scooters, poorly trained or impatient drivers, cell phone driving, blind alley merges and dooring are all regular hazards that come with the territory, forcing many riders off the streets into the safety of the gym, where an instructor can lead them through an hour of spinning in an air conditioned room without the additional expense of equipment. More experienced riders also attend these spinning classes to improve fitness and operate at a higher cadence.

Now, a Taiwanese doctor has come out to warn these stationary riders that their little corner of the cycling universe is also fraught with danger.

According to a report in Taiwan Focus, stationary bikes can be a hazard to your health. According to the article:

Although cycling is deemed a fairly safe form of exercise, Pan Hsiao-ping, chief of the Su Tien Urology and Ophthalmology Clinic's rehabilitation center, said excessive stationary bike workouts can damage the knees, neck and wrists.

"Most patients are unaware of the potential harm of cycling indoors, " said Pan, explaining that some people adopt inappropriately intense exercise regimens in their efforts to lose weight and improve their fitness levels.

Stationary bike users, especially those in group spin classes, get so excited by the accompanying music and the instructor's exhortations that they forget the limits of their own bodies and fail to notice that they possibly have poor posture, she said.

She said that riders in a more upright position, for example, can put too much weight on their wrists, while cyclists with too-low handlebars that are not adjusted to their height can hurt both their neck and wrists.

There you have it. Cycling of any form can be harmful... if it is not done right.

I think the real lesson here is that being properly fit for a bicycle is essential to avoiding injuries. Many cyclists are not injured by cars or road furniture, but by their own bikes.

What the article really highlights is how a laissez faire attitude toward bike fitting can become a health disaster. The risk of fit injuries becomes greater as the distance increases and the repetitive motion starts to put strain on the joints and tendons. This can be true for both bicycles and stationary bikes.

A proper fit should balance the weight bearing load between the sit-bones, wrists, and mainly the core muscles of the body to limit stress.

In Taiwan I see many novice riders outfitted on mountain bikes for road use with the assumption that they will be more comfortable due to a more upright position. I have even had the owners of a bike shop insist that road bikes were uncomfortable due to the more extreme position. With their extreme compact geometries, they can throw more riders over the bar of a mountain bike and sell more stock... fit or not. Many riders are also not taught about proper fit and set their seats too low resulting in knee pain.

The doctor makes an excellent point in how an improperly fitting bike with an upright position can put stress on the wrists and necks.

With stationary bikes, as the proverbial town bike, everyone can have a ride and many people in spin classes simply hop on and don't worry about fit. Many instructors do not emphasize this point either, resulting in lasting injuries to the participants.

A properly sized and fit bicycle, whether stationary or mobile, should eliminate pain, discomfort and injury to its rider. Even a fit problem that doesn't manifest itself in one hour, may become a problem in two, three or four hours... or even over the course of a week or a month. Listen to your body and don't get beat up by the bike. If you haven't been properly fit, get fit by a professional. In Taichung, Rocky and T-Mosaic charges NT500 for a good fitting. The service is of course free with a purchase. My wife, a novice, was fit for her road bike with traditional road geometry and could ride in total comfort from Day 1.

It is not so much the bike, but the fit.

Also:

Hello Dali... goodbye Schweinfurt! SRAM exports German jobs to Dali in Taichung.

Breaking Away: American Cycling, Taiwan Culture and the Mimetic Faculty

Peter Yates (July 24, 1929 – January 9, 2011)

Peter Yates, the director of the 1979 classic, Breaking Away, one of the earliest and best bicycle/coming of age movies, died Sunday at the age of 82.

The plot revolves around a young cycling enthusiast in a small Indiana college town, who is infatuated by all things Italian and all things cycling. He does his best to imitate what he imagines to be everything, "Italian". He tries to speak Italian, eat Italian and even scam on the college hottie like an Italian.

Italian he is not. He is simply another local kid, or "Cutter" who is NOT going to college with the prospect of a life stuck in a small town staring him in the face.

Dave, the protagonist, and many elements of the story, were lifted from the life and times of Dave Blase and his exploits in the 1962 victory of the Phi Kappa Psi team in the Little 500 at Indiana University.

This movie can serve as a starting point for several conversations about cycling, globalization and greater ideas on the power of the image.

To connect this all back to the subject of this blog, I think, and I may be reaching a bit so bear with me, that it not only represents a paradigm shift in the sport of cycling that has had both a direct and indirect on Taiwanese culture, but it also helps illustrate the shifting and impermanent cultural borders that are often portrayed and imagined as fixed and unchanging.

What?!

Breaking Away materialized just at the end of the 1970's when cycling was dominated by the powerful European teams of Italy, France and Belgium. The reign of terror Eddy Merckx had enjoyed for a decade was coming to a close and the surly Frenchman, Bernard Hinnault, was just beginning his own dynasty.

The United States treated cycling as a European farce and very amateur. And... the US sucked at cycling. With football, baseball and basketball... what else was there?

At the same time, Taiwan had used American aid (and pressure), state-run monopolies, joint ventures between state and private companies, and a vast network of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to promote rapid industrialization to help manufacture goods that were mainly aimed at the American market.

By the time Breaking Away came out the United States had already announced its official withdrawal form Taiwan and an end to the 1954 Mutual Defense Treaty which enabled the US to station its military personnel on the island who spread American consumer culture off base.

The point I am edging toward here is that people will mistakenly attribute Taiwan's culture to China, yet for the past 100 years Taiwan's metropoles, its cultural centers... the locations Taiwanese have looked toward to emulate, compare and contrast themselves and their lives... those places, aside from the domestic, have been in either Japan or the United States. "How are we doing compared to America?"

When Breaking Away came out it was just at the tipping point for American Cycling. Team 7-11 was established in 1981to go head to head against the European greats. Team 7-11 featured several great American amateur cyclists including, Davis Phinney, who makes a cameo in Breaking Away as one of the evil Italians.

Team 7-11 gave Americans their first victories in the big European races and as it later morphed into the Motorolla teams of the mid-80's and then birthed the US Postal Service and Discovery teams of the 1990's. With greater success came better sponsorship and more success. American cycling increased its profile in the US athletic market. The increased profile also let to an increase in riders and Americans interested in cycling. These cyclists needed bicycles. Breaking Away had led the vanguard of American cycling and the consumer was quick to follow.

During this same period Taiwanese bicycle producers were coming into their own and offering better and cheaper manufacturing facilities than the Japanese factories. This is when Taiwan started to become the world's producer of bicycles. Taiwan was turning out frames and parts as OEMs for Nishiki, 3Rensho, Shimano and other companies.

Not only did Taiwanese encounter the bicycle as an economic mainstay in the period after Breaking Away was released, but as the popular image of the bicycle matriculated throughout American culture, especially with the rise of Lance Armstrong, that image was exported around the world in the form of advertising and popular media. These images were readily snapped up by Taiwanese. From this point Taiwan had a double cultural investment in cycling-- both economic and popular.

These dual influences have really helped give rise to a strengthening and more nuanced cycling culture that has transformed and been reflected back as something definitely Taiwanese. This only could have happened with the USA as one of Taiwan's cultural centers.

Beyond this, in the movie, Dave, emulates the Italians he idolizes.

This reminds me a little of, what I call, "The Iron and Silk effect". We have all seen this in Taiwan, and maybe been guilty of it at some time or another, of Orientalizing and engaging in a type of mimesis of what we think we are seeing or wishing to be. Periodically, I run into, more often than not, white men who want to be Asian. They wear the jacket with the Sun Yat-sen collar (Sun Jacket), pajama bottoms, maybe get really into martial arts and buddhist imagery... maybe a samurai sword on the mantle. They attempt to integrate themselves into the society and capture some of the imagined "magic" through the mimetic faculty. In doing so, they appropriate essentialized imagery and reflect it back into the people they are trying to mimic, which does not make them more alike as there is a consciousness on both sides of the contact of what is being appropriated and why. It remains an underoos fantasy.

The mimetic faculty and the use of the image has been used for millennia as a form of capturing the power held by the object. By drawing the Ibex on the wall of the cave there is a hope or belief in somehow capturing some of the essence or power the object holds to use for oneself.

Just as Dave in Breaking Away tried to capture the power of Italian cycling, thousands of cyclists tried to capture and appropriate the images in Breaking Away as they entered the sport of cycling, driving the image of the sport to far off places.

The image of drafting a truck probably sold more bicycles that that ad in the back of Sports Illustrated.

(Video) Specialized Downhill Urban Mountain Bike Competition

WOW!

Bike Links and More

Just because my bike is broken doesn't mean I am idle. I had a great weekend shopping and researching bikes. I will add more info in a report to come. I have had all kinds of wonderful offers from friends. And I have been forced out of excuses to getting things done.

I hope I can use some of this time to write a few more less superficial articles that I have been putting off. I also hope to be riding... something... soon.

In the meantime here are some links:

Sabinna has an excellent article on composite frames, efficiency and future:

But, sure, the emotions and processes behind a consumer's decision to purchase a cheaper and slightly heaver alloy-framed bike vs a (assumed high-modulus) carbon alternative assure carbon fiber's position as the pre-eminent high-end material of choice. As the authors of the "Composites" article finish off: the future of carbon fiber will involve greater use of nano-materials, an emphasis on damping and making composites more environmentally friendly ie. bio-based polymers.

I am really not convinced carbon fiber is for everyone... but hey... with a profit margin which is something like 60% on a CF frame... I have an idea who really likes it.

Also:

Don't forget to stop by Cafe Terry for some Genmaicha Cake.

Links:

British boxing champion killed by a car while cycling.

Motorcyclist claims cyclists need training and licensing for their own safety. After all... look how safe motorcycling is in Taiwan.

The Inner Ring gets into Grand Fondo... no not dipping bread or other foods into a pot of molten cheese or chocolate.

The Independent says cyclists left unprotected by the courts. In Taiwan you almost never hear of cycling accidents in newspapers or on television.

USA announces Cyclocross Worlds Team. The women are the ones to watch.

Trek has unveiled new bikes and colors for Team Schleck...er Leopard. I really like those Schlecks.

Cycling for smokers? It is amazing how many guys I see resting at a 7-11 for a smoke break after a day of riding.

New film profiles The Gentleman Cyclist.

What a world cycling center should look like. Where's the roast corn?

Could This Be My Next Bike?

Chinese State Media Sells Cycling Tourism in Taiwan

The state owned broadcaster and English language propaganda outlet, Chinese Radio International, has released an interesting story promoting Bicycle tourism in Taiwan.

After several days on the road in Taiwan, I've came to realize that the charm of this far-flung island lies not only in its landscape and scenery, but also its people.

The opening sentence above immediately frames Taiwan as the exoticized and fetishized object of desire. This island that is supposed to rest snugly in the bosom on the "motherland" is perceived as "far flung". Furthermore, "its people" firmly locates Taiwanese as "other". Had the author followed traditional protocol they would have been "us" or "our compatriots".

I have met many fellow travelers throughout the journey, most of whom are Taiwan locals who try to enjoy themselves away from the hustle and bustle in Taipei. Some of them even settled in the countryside of eastern Taiwan, making a living by managing shops selling coffee, travel souvenirs, and commodities of various kinds.

A Du is one of these self-employed travelers. He sells bicycles in his shop and works as a local guide leading tourists on bicycle tours into the rural country roads in his spare time. A Du has his own theory of discovering the beauty of Taiwan. He suggests his customers see Taiwan from a different perspective, even if it means you have to lie down on the ground and listen to the trucks whooping by.

Despite the ambiguity of the term, "Taiwan locals", the author goes on to fixate on this period of "contact" between "one" and the exoticized "other". In an oddly foreboding tone Taiwanese are described in ways that echo earlier European colonial enterprises that filled volumes on the "strangeness" of the natives.

Wang Yuping, the owner of a lifestyle studio in Hualien, also shares A Du's attitude towards traveling. She operates a café shop where tourists can find an array of local travel information. The former Taipei dweller brings groups of travelers to visit ethnic families in Taiwan so as to offer them an in-depth view of Taiwan's culture.

The term "ethnic families" is used to gloss over the troublesome topic of Taiwan's indigenous population and align them more closely with China's own ethnic construction of minzu, a term borrowed from Japanese nationalism to define human populations in terms of "race". The author sidesteps the thorny issue of who these "ethnic people" are while by proxy maintaining the Chinese nationalist belief that its modernist Han construct is not "ethnic".

Entrepreneurs also have their eye on the expanding travel market in rural Taiwan. Zhang Qinglai spent ten years establishing a holiday resort in Yilan, which invites tourists to experience life on a ranch. He named his ranch "Shangri-La," in dedication to the peaceful and carefree lifestyle he wished the ranch could offer.

I think this is just funny in that it references "Shangri-la", the name for the fictive Himalayan paradise of Tibetan lore.

As Taiwan plans to allow individual mainland tourists to travel to the island this year, backpacking and independent traveling is also becoming a trend within the island. What's more, I believe the bounty of Taiwan's travel resources are in the lesser-known countryside.

The way China officially conceives its relationship with Taiwan and the way that relationship is actually conducted are entirely different things.

Beyond that, I have to wonder who the intended audience is for this article. It is wonderfully written in readable English and I suppose it is intended for "Overseas Chinese" and therefore the foreign audience may affect the content.

Lastly, with China's state media getting into the act it signals the importance tourism plays in China's own goals for Taiwan.

What I do see is more Chinese discovering Taiwan for its particularity and having to come to terms with its differences.

Food for thought.

Also:

CENS declares Taiwanese bicycle export value has increased 10%

Corporate Cycling On The Move: Taiwan Circled By Giants

Giant has announced that 10 members of its top brass will embark on a 900km tour of Taiwan in an effort to get out of the office and reconnect with their profession at road level.

Giant CEO Tony Lo will lead 21 Giant executives on the ride, advancing Giant’s mission of promoting the cycling lifestyle globally. The Formosa 900 will also showcase Taiwan cycling culture to Giant GMs from far-reaching corners of the world. The group will tackle tough mountain climbs and long days in the saddle as they circle the island in a counterclockwise route.

I suppose they might find a country that is eager to construct ready-made points of interest in close proximity to Giant retail and rental shops. They might find several kilometers of bike trails to nowhere. They will see trinkets for sale and roast corn.

What they will not see is a bike friendly environment outside the spots allocated by local leadership for cycling tourism.