Nyco, I don’t check this page very often so I’m just seeing your posts now. The facebook page you are looking for is here:
facebook.com/groups/taiwanoffroad/ They post mostly in Chinese, but since I’ve been joining them on rides a couple guys have been helpful in trying to add a bit of English translation to help out. Great group of riders, super helpful and very friendly.
You can search for me there as well, ‘Lee Trumpore’, and I’ll give you the details on our riding scene here in Taipei.
Cheers Lee, i’ll get involved once i get my bike sorted. Put the cranks back on tight but I reckon they’re not safe. Seems i’ll have to wait until I get some sent over from the UK.
[quote=“Nyko”]Cheers Incubus, couldn’t find the trail entrance yesterday but went back today and found it. Ended up spending many hours lost inside. Rear braked packed in for some reason. Fell down an embankment at one point when I wasn’t even riding my bike. And then on the way home my cranks somehow came undone and slipped around so they weren’t level, meaning I had to walk back. Pretty shit day.
I think I definitely need to find that bike group and forget about going solo on trails I’ve never seen before…
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Glad you found it. The nice thing about Gas Plant is that it’s so accessible, especially if you live in southeastern Taipei. But I wouldn’t do it on the weekend. Too many hikers. Don’t go with a group either. The trail is already narrow as it is, the last thing you want is get stuck in a moutain bike traffic jam. Go solo or with a buddy, but before you ride it again, I’d just go hike it once. You can access it from the other end via Linguang MRT. Get to know the trail and make a mental note of the technical sections. Then go back on a weekday, around noontime, you’ll have the whole mountain to yourself.
We’re going for a trailday at Taoyuan spot on the 11th AM. Lifts available from the Taoyuan HSR station in my car to any of you TPE peeps who want to come over to get stuck in with some manual labour.
I’ve got a stock of tools building up - 2x spades, shovel, tree saw, lawn rake, machete. Of course, bring your own if you have any. There will be a lot of digging and hauling of rocks to make some berms.
I finished building up my new wheels the other day, laced them up myself I did. That brings my total to 4 wheels in my life and they’re getting easier and better every time thanks to sheldonbrown.com!
Looking to get Zee cranks and Spank bars this month, then all I need to do is sell the Konig and find a second hand Wilson.
I’ve been riding the STP a bit and working on my new line. There are a couple of really steep bits which I think will be a lot safer with some wooden fence posts to support them. I’m going to look into the price of said posts. Pommes, have you got a sledgehammer at your work that you could borrow for the 11th?
Is anyone going to do it? That course looks shit, except the jump at the end. I wouldn’t mind giving it a bash but I hear you have to be registered with the UCI to enter and have finished top-3 in a national race in Taiwan (think x-ride, where I was 4th). I reckon you could blag your way in, but I’m not going to bother. Too far to go for such a thing. If they have it at Tai Mall I might do it.
Roel, Pommes? Are you going for it?
TRAIL DAY AT JUNG FU GONG on the 11th AM… please come!
Looks like fun to join, not purely for racing, but more the event around it. But indeed it’s a bit of a far drive just for that…
Don’t think I’ll go. I know Nikoi is considering to go, perhaps some more Taipei guys will join.
Hi all
This is a great thread.
I’ve been in Taichung riding the Dadu trails for just over a year now. Let me know if you’re down here and keen for a ride.
We often ride on Friday nights with lights, but also Sundays too. Unfortunately I work on Saturdays so I often miss things.
I’ll try and plan a trip to Taipei one weekend soon.
I’d like to explore a bit more of Taiwan and hopefully do a DH race this year too. I’ll keep checking back but please let me know of any events coming up.
Our new DH line is now rideable from top to bottom. Still needs quite a bit of work to improve the flow and make it easier to ride, but it’s going in the right direction. The guy who organises the races there said it’s a deffo for the next race. Hopefully I’ll be rocking the Wilson by then!
Still not rocking the Wilson! Selling my Konig was not the one day affair I was hoping for. I’m going to drop the price to 29k and see if anyone bites!
Looking on facebook today, I can see they have finally built the road gap at Jung Fu Gong out of dirt and rocks. Amen to that. I wonder if they have removed any of the broken glass from the landing, but I would guess probably not. I haven’t been there since CNY holiday. I might check it out next week.
Nobody bought my Konig, even when I dropped the price to $28k, which was less than half what I paid for it in that spec. Alas, I was forced to keep it. I’ve repainted it and rebuilt it with some new parts and stickers in the hope of it feeling like a new bike. Still waiting for brakes so haven’t tried it yet.
There has been some activity and a trail day at Jung Fu Gong with a load of pallets (eek!). When that happens, it usually means there’s a race coming up. I haven’t been over there since CNY but I’m keen to check it out some time.
There is a race on the 14th of July, but not at JFG, it’s at Tigerhead Mt. Same hill, different location a bit further over. I haven’t seen it yet save for a couple of videos of isolated bits on the facebook page.
I went over to try my bike out last week, some guys said they were going to check it out but I didn’t have time.
I’m not sure if I’m going to enter or not, my wife isn’t keen on the idea of me going away all day and leaving her with two screaming kids. Wait and see.
I’ll post up with the location if i find out in time. I think it’s $100 to enter.
I talked to the guys from Dirty Bikes who came down to look at the “race tracks” and said they are definitly not coming… Guess we have to organise our own event once
Barry told me they are going to use the old track, with the bit we did at CNY, for a race later in the year organised by Ant again.
I’m going to try to find the new track tomorrow morning. It’s on the bit of the hill that all the rambling hikers and dog walkers use though, with concrete steps and feral dogs everywhere. I’d guess it has to cross over walking tracks, which isn’t a good idea on a Sunday in my opinion because it gets a lot of walkers up there, and the shuttle truck will spend a long time stuck in traffic. Either that, or it will be really short, like a 40 second run and push-up.
I’ll try to find it anyway and post up my findings.
I am going to Taoyuan for several months. What riding opportunities are there nearby? Are all mountainous areas frequented by hikers? Are most places shuttleable or do you have to pedal for it sometimes?
