There’s a race taking place at the Jung Fu Gong, Dayou Rd, Taoyuan on Sunday the 23rd.
Registration is opening at 9 and I think the racing will start at 1:30pm.
The course is about 900m in length with a vertical drop of 134m I think. It’s pretty steep in places with a few jumps thrown in at the bottom (and chicken lines!).
Entrance fee $150.
If you’re interested, this is a link to a map of how to get there. It’s about 5km from the Nankan exit to Freeway 1.
I can’t wait for the next one now hey. My wife’s OK’d my new bike already. I told her I would have won if I had a DH bike which while possibly not true had the desired effect of her saying I can get whatever bike I want! Plus if you and Lance aren’t here next time I don’t even have to go any faster to finish 5th.
What do you reckon, Glory 01 ($86,000 complete bike), Transition TR250 ($3300 American frame & shock when available) or Corsair Dominion ($2000 frame only when available)?
First choice is the Transition but I’ll only go up to $40,000NT for a frame. I’m not paying the full US retail of $67k for a bike that’s made here when I can get a Giant complete bike with Boxxers for an extra $20k. It just doesn’t make financial sense and I’ll probably be just as fast on any of them.
That’s the hard bit, one can only find out the day before it seems.
You must be mad or filthy rich if you’ld buy anything else then a complete here in Taiwan. :loco:
As for Giant; the Glory is way too big for Taiwanese Tracks - we were only riding those DH-things because it’s the only thing we’ve got here. A 5-6", lighter bike would have been perfect, as well for Speedtrap and such.
I’ld go for a Reign or a Faith at most.
It seems I’ve got time end of this or beginning of next week - if you’ld like some personal advice. (there’s also the option of Banshee, Astrix or Canfield)
I know the Glory is too big but it’s also cheap and looks good. Everyone knows what it looks like is more important than what it goes like.
The Transition is adjustable between 160 and 180, the Corsair is adjustable between 105/135/170/200 with different shocks which are dirt cheap here. They’re just cooler than Giant and certainly better for me but not cheap.
I want to build it up with Totem forks, 180mm travel.
I know what I want, it just comes down to cost. If I can get a frame, fork, headset and shock for $65,000 I’ll only have to get a new back wheel and BB then just chuck everything off my STP on it until I can get the rest of the bits to build up two bikes.
A nice bike for $100,000 would be OK but I’m not sure I can get a Transition or Corsair frame for less than US retail price. For sure $60k - $70k is too much but there must be a way to get them cheaper. I’m even considering driving down to the Transition factory in Changhua with a stack of cash and knocking on the door on a Friday arvo when the bosses have gone to hit the piss! My wife says it won’t work but you don’t know until you try!
how much is this one? - what’s wrong with it? The ugly sticker? I kinda like the color and if you’ld find one of last year, I think they had a golden one
(way better engineering as well)
I admit the Corsairs Maelstrom & Mark are beauties - but wouldn’t spend that much money to let the humidity here eat it away in a couple of months anyway.
How do you insert photos into a post? I tried copy and paste yesterday and it fucked me off!
The Faith is on my list of bikes to maybe get. The things that put me off are the Totem forks are the Solo Air ones which I’ve heard are very unreliable compared to the coil ones (the Glory has Coil Boxxers). Other things are not really putting me off, just I prefer the spec on the Glory. The rims are DT on the Glory, Sun Ringle on Faith; the Faith has a little fat freeride seat which I don’t like the look of; Kenda tyres as opposed to Maxxis; green paint that I don’t hate, just I think that the white Glory looks fantastic.
Nothing major, mostly academic or looks based but I’m a shallow guy. I think it’s probably possible to change the air spring to a coil spring setup too, but if I’m buying a new bike I may as well get the one I want from the off.
Maybe you can shed some light because I don’t really know having never ridden either for more than a couple of mins, but it seems to me that there wouldn’t be much difference between a 180mm bike and a 200mm bike anyway?
Last year’s cheaper Faith was white with gold linkages. That’s the bike that got me thinking about getting into DH again actually purely because it looks beautiful. They have one in my local Giant dealer but it’s a small with something like a 21.5in top tube. I’d never get a new bike shorter than 23in because I’m 1m83 and I have a long body and short legs. He’ll do it for $56k he said, but for $62 I could get the 2011 bike, and for $86k I could get a 2011 Glory 1 or Faith 1.
Like I said it comes down to cost. There’s no way I’d get a Transition or Corsair if I had to pay the full Euro/US price. If I can find some way to get it a lot cheaper then I’d rather go for one of those bikes just on cool factor. I’m not saying I don’t think Giants are cool, I think their hydroformed tubes look great especially the top tube, it’s just that I want to be a poseur and boutique brands are better for posing in this country.
Plasmatron do you know off the top of your head the head angles of the spicy and froggy bikes? My STP has a 69 deg HA, which is twitchy in corners when cranked over on the gas. I want to try something really slacked out like 63 or 64 on my next bike. Not sure I could justify the cost of one either what with Giant being so cheap here. Glory is 65.5 which with an Angleset could be taken out to 64. The new Corsair can be taken out to 62 which I have no idea about but I’d like to try!
I’m planning to take the plunge in April or May depending on when I get my bonus and the weather. I don’t want to get a new bike and get it shittened up in the mud in the first week…
Spicy (enduro frame) HA 67, Froggy (FR frame) HA 66.
I’d be interested to know the prices of the Froggy 518, 718 and frameset when available. The 718 in lime green looks pretty special but I’m sure its out of my price range what with the Crossmax SX wheels etc…
I was going to ask you about that actually Roel! Thanks for the offer, I’d love to take you up on it!
I’m going to BKK with my wife and Pimbu on Tuesday and coming back the following Monday (I think, it could be Sunday). I’m a bit bummed about having to take Pimbu but hey, a week in BKK still beats a week sat at home in my freezing cold apartment here with all the shops & restaurants closed for CNY. I was here for it two years ago and I remember it being thoroughly miserable! At least Thailand will be 25 degrees and sunny even if I have been there about a hundred times before.
I’m not going back to work until Tuesday the 15th so I’m down to ride before then for sure. I’m deffo going to meet up with Andrew and the TeamFeeBike guys at the Beitou track one evening. He’s got a prototype Corsair Dominion which I’m hoping to have a go on. Other than that I’m up for a session at Beitou one day when I can get the car as long as it’s not raining.
I had a few goes on that guy Tony’s brand new Specialized Demo the other week at JFG. It pedals and rides really well, I’d love to get one if it didn’t look crap and cost $190,000! It feels a lot lower than your Glory, the chainring must be on the ground when it’s bottomed out. They didn’t waste any time getting the “2010 World DH Champ” stickers made up for the production bikes either ha ha!
I’m leaving for a Thailand trip on next Friday and won’t be back untill 16th. So guess we’ll have to plan a ride after that.
Just hoping the weather will get better. I’m really sick and tired of this wet cold shit.
No worries Roel. It’s probably going to piss down here for the whole holiday anyway.
Pommes, what would you say would be the ideal bike for that track at the weekend? That’s what I’m buying it for, so I want the best bike I can to go faster than everyone else (including you!). I’ve noted what you say about not needing a full blown DH bike for this country, watched a few WC DH videos on YouTube and I have to agree. They ride some much sicker shit than anything at Jung Fu Gong!
I’ve been thinking about your post and doing research all day pretty much.
I’ve found out that Solo Air Totem forks can be internally adjusted to 150mm travel quickly and easily, just by putting a spacer at the opposite side of the air seal on the plunger rod in the air cartridge.
The Faith comes with two sets of dropouts for 66.3 or 66.8 degree head angle.
The shock length is 216x63.5mm giving 180mm travel at the rear.
Changing the shock would change the travel and geometry as follows at a cost of about $6000.
216x63.5 = 180mm travel as stock
216x60 = 170mm travel with no change to geometry
200x57 = 161mm travel with slightly slacker geometry
200x51 = 145mm travel with slightly slacker geometry
What do you think about that? Would you recommend going for if I was to go down this route? 150mm front and 145 rear?
The only thing I’m absolutely certain about is that I want Totems simply because they look totally rude.
One last thing, you say that Giants have way better engineering than Transitions. Are Transitions badly made or is it just that Giants are really very great?
[quote=“jaame”]I’d be interested to know the prices of the Froggy 518, 718 and frameset when available. The 718 in lime green looks pretty special but I’m sure its out of my price range what with the Crossmax SX wheels etc…
Does the frameset only come in brown?[/quote]
As soon as I get final confirmation from France I’ll let you know pricing. Froggy 2011 frameset is black and gold and looks even better in reality than in pictures. Really tight.
Speaking of cool frames in black… I don’t think anyone’s got much to top this for 2011.
I won’t deny the DH920 looks almost like sex!
I think it’s probably the best DH bike in the world if Nico had a hand in making it. If Sam Hill was on it, it would be DESTROYING the field every week on the world circuit!
Speaking of Vouilloz, remember Cap D’Ail 1992? I’m planning to make the Taoyuan DH track into MY Cap D’Ail by moving into an apartment at the bottom so I can ride it twice a day before work!
The next race is going to be held there in March or April. From what I could gather today, they are planning a team 4X event on one of the main wide tracks leading up the hill to the temple. You have to enter as a team of 4 for some reason. Maybe they’re going to have 8 teams of four or something, and eventually wittle them down to a wnning team as opposed to a single winner.
Roel, are you keen? Pommes, are you going to be here around March or April do you know? They told me they’ll put me in a team with locals if I can’t get a team together which I’m OK with too. Also I’ve got a mate possibly coming over for the Taipei show in March which would be pretty handy as he’s no slouch.
