I just stumbled upon this thread while searching for DH riding in the Taipei area. I just moved here last week for a 3-4 year stay and am looking to find some trails to ride and people to ride with (XC and DH both). I was a pro downhiller back in the states for a number of years before I decided going that fast was just unwise and no longer enjoyable, so lately I’ve been spending most of my time behind a camera lens and not enough on my bike (for those of you that follow DH websites, I’ve been one of the guys supplying the World Cup photos over at Vital and Pinkbike). Definitely looking to put the camera down for a while and have some fun riding again, maybe even fit in a race or two if there are any.
I’m in Taipei so for now I’m primarily looking for rides in this area. At the moment I do not yet have a car, but will shortly when I’ve got the rest of my move sorted out. What do you all suggest?
Speedtrap - not sure if being maintained or not but worth spending some work on it anyway.
My bike should be ready soon - then come and check it out again…
As soon as you have a car - Jaame did some great work on the Taoyuan trails…
Thanks. Do you have directions to Speedtrap that you could offer? I’ve got a vague idea of where it is from other post here and on the old fattire site but they aren’t the best.
the land where the trail is, is mostly private - however we never had issues with the land owners.
Best way is to go to this parking area and try to find some locals; this is where they meet and organize shuttles; goo.gl/maps/CmA8x
This is the entry of trail; left down the stairs; goo.gl/maps/2H42w
By yourself however, it’s not obvious which trail to take, so try to find a local - he will also know the latest about the situation with the land owners…
I ride regularly with a mixed group of locals & foreginers on most trails around North Taipei.
Speedtrap is the most DH-oriented. Situation with landowners is OK, as long as you ride slowly on the connection dirt road crossing their plantations. But indeed, better to go with some locals to find the correct way.
Skilift / Wuzushan also has some DH sections, but overall more AM oriented.
Same for Graveyard.
I’ll post here about the next time we ride, if you want you can join.
Usually we decide on Thursday/Friday about the weekend’s ride.
[quote=“RoelC”]I ride regularly with a mixed group of locals & foreginers on most trails around North Taipei.
Speedtrap is the most DH-oriented. Situation with landowners is OK, as long as you ride slowly on the connection dirt road crossing their plantations. But indeed, better to go with some locals to find the correct way.
Skilift / Wuzushan also has some DH sections, but overall more AM oriented.
Same for Graveyard.
I’ll post here about the next time we ride, if you want you can join.
Usually we decide on Thursday/Friday about the weekend’s ride.[/quote]
Sounds good. At the moment the only bike I have with me is a more xc oriented Giant, but it’ll have to do until I get the rest of my stuff sorted out.
Pommes - Mike says you’re going to Dadu Shan the second weekend in October. If that turns out to be the Sat the 13th, I’m keen. Can you repost a map of the location please, I had to reset my phone and I lost all my starred places. My wife has to work a lot of weekends this month so I should be OK to go most weekends actually. And I’m keen for another ride on my CPI with my dad over to the mountains before it gets too cold. We’ll take the scooter too, so you should come. No one’s bought it yet so may as well have another blast on it if it’s dry.
Roel, you should come to Dadu Shan next month too if you can. They’ve built a really cool FR track, basically a jump trail, and the jumps are all made of dirt and have landings. It takes a couple of hours to get there but it’s worth it, especially since the sun shines there every day.
There are only a few guys that ride MTB in Taiwan. There is a scene in Taipei which Roel is best placed to tell you about. There is a scene in Taoyuan where I ride most weekends, and there is a scene in Taichung that Pommes knows all about. I think a few guys ride dirt in Khaohsiung too, like that Canadian guy Rob and his brother, but I’ve never been there. I’ve seen it on Pinkbike though, it looks a lot better than what we have up here.
The DH scene here is in its infancy. Mostly old blokes trying to get a couple of hours off from the family at weekends (er, like me). High on enthusiasm, low on time or skill. They spend more time sitting around talking than actually building cool trails or riding. Where I ride we have an area of private land (that the landowner doesn’t want bikers to use) that is used for FR and two or three informal DH races every year, stopwatch timing, not that good tracks. Still, it’s great fun and the guys who ride there are very friendly. Generally the races are free to enter but only publicised in Chinese the week before. If you used to be a pro, like Pommes the crazy Belgian, you’ll find yourself on the podium just by turning up. I’ve been building stuff there for about two years with real dirt and landings (the TW guys prefer the quicker results to be had from pallets and flat landings!) and we have a pretty flowy DH line going about halfway up the hill now. I think I’ll try to finish it at Chinese new year when the jungle has died back and the dirt is soft. It’s too overgrown, dry and hard to so anything in summer.
If you’re interested, I’m going to sell my 18 month old Corsair Konig frame over the winter. It’s too short for me and I right fancy a Devinci Wilson Carbon.
Lee if you want to come over with a camera, I live by the Taoyuan High SPeed Rail station. I could pick you up and take you over to Taoyuan if you want to check it out one weekend. ARe you here for a job in the bike industry or something else?
Just remembered. Last week I was talking to a couple of blokes at Jung Fu Gong. I saw some pictures on facebook about a bikepark in Beijing that they went to. It turns out, six of them went over for 8 days in the summer holiday. There’s a park 4 hours from Beijing and they paid $30,000 each including flights, transfers, accommodation and tuition for six days. That’s a good deal considering the flights are $15,000 alone. And cop this, the tutors were Thomas Vanderham, Matt Hunter, and some other famous riders from North America. Now I know Thomas Vanderham is famous, I saw a video of him on Pinkbike for Saint. Plus I’ve seen Matt Hunter in an Adidas goggles advert. Don’t know anything about them but they must be pretty top drawer hey.
Next year they’re talking about doing it at Dalian Bikepark, which is 15 minutes from the airport, same tutors. I told them I want to go for sure!
Hopefully I’ll have my Devinci Wilson Carbon by then too (or at least a carbon Glory)
—if I’ld go to Dadu, I#ll post it here.
-What Mike really meant tho (at least if understood correctly) is to go up the high mountain and do some crazy hikers’ path UP and down. That’ld take 1,5days at least and more with XC bikes then DH.
-if you want a DH frame, get a Banshee Legend (is that the name?) - from the money you save, you can buy light parts and get a really topnotch bike.
-I have my new frame lying on my office desk (raw), just need to paint it and find some details like cranks, gears & brakes - should be done soon.
-Your Taoyuan Trails (Lion Head Mtn?) rule - lets finish them off and call out for a race ourselves - at least track and timing will be “ok”…
I don’t know what I want to get, just something new I think, maybe nothing. The Konig has always been a bit too short. I might just go back to the STP for winter, clean the Konig frame up and sell it on eBay, then just take my time to get something new and recycle all my old parts. Hopefully I can find something at the right price with a 135 back end so I don’t need to buy new back wheel and cranks.
I went over there for an hour this arvo. I think I saw someone die on the way there. Massive blue truck smash on Cheunr Lu, driver hanging out of the door. It looked grizzly but everyone else just carried on so I did too. Anyway I digress. I reckon, three hours’ work with four or five guys like we did last CNY, and a wheel barrow, and we’ll have that new track rideable. Just need a shitload of dirt on the landing of that stepdown. Currently it’s covered with logs and rocks but only rideable slowly. Can’t use that kind of shit as a landing. The undergrowth to link the shit steep section of the old one to our new one will be gone in half an hour with a saw and a sickle, no worries.
What colour are you going for on the new frame?
I’m going to get some of those Spank Berrecloth bars. Black with the cyan lettering looks cool. I might get two actually, one for each bike.
All of this sounds promising for sure. I’m keen to ride, build, shoot photo, race. . . whatever. Can probably get some content up on Pinkbike as well at some point too. I don’t get around to checking this forum as often as I should, but I’ll try to make a point to keep up with it. If you want to search for me on facebook it’s certainly more convenient on my end anyway. ‘Lee Trumpore’, there’s only one of me.
I went to Jung Fu Gong on my STP this morning. I built a new back wheel last week because the freewheel on the old hub was jiggered. Last time I built a wheel I was 17. I’m pleased to say it’s still almost round. It was hard work trying to ride that bike over the bumps though, you’ve got to pick your lines carefully to avoid getting bounced off.
I tried a 2013 Glory 2 which felt like it could ride through anything. I also tried a Lapierre DH720 and I was really impressed. It felt a bit looser than the glory over bumps but when pedalling it felt like a much shorter travel bike. I rode it up a couple of tracks that had the glory stalled. I would say that the glory would be faster on really bumpy tracks where you don’t have to pedal, and if there is any pedalling or jumps the Lapierre would be faster.
On the other hand, they said it was $113,000 for the DH720 which is the low spec one.
I’d be interested to see what it costs for the frame. I would consider that for my next bike if the price was reasonable.
Also I was looking at the pics of Rampage on Pinkbike and saw one of Lacondeguy with his new YT Tues 2. It looks sick as. Then I found they are going to do a carbon one next year for 3000 Euro complete. That’s something I am interested in too.
I mean, bikes don’t get much better looking than this, do they?
I’ve got a problem with wanting to change bikes every two minutes. I know as soon as I get a new one I’ll want to change it after a couple of months.
ANYWAY; Mike D is back on his feet and needs to do some trailwork on the Dadu trails near TC.
The idea would be to go there on sundaymorning (we leave from Taoyuan area) , put a good use to them shovels untill lunch and then put some riding in. Either that trail itself or do some AM/XC around there. Then might even get the BBQ out. (I think we can arrange a van if more people wanna join)
