How was your ride today?

Well not been yet, but it’s finally stopped raining (after 2 weeks straight) and the sun is shining.
The bike is pumped, I’m pumped. We’re off :smiley:.

I was going to go for a ride this afternoon but luckily dragged out my morning with some impressive procrastination. Now it is pouring rain outside. Glad to be in and not out.

oops on that then

Is this the wettest autumn on record for Taiwan, or what…

Is this the wettest autumn on record for Taiwan, or what…[/quote]

I think you mean Taipei…Hsinchu’s dry as a bone.

Is this the wettest autumn on record for Taiwan, or what…[/quote]

I think you mean Taipei…Xinzhu’s dry as a bone.[/quote]

No one cares what happens in the provinces.

so i rode a provincial 80km today, Hualien to Tianxiang (Taroko) round-trip. I’ve not been ridden for 3mths+, but still, it hurt like hell.
Have had a bad headache since I got back, and neither food nor water has shifted it. Hopefully sleep will.

Still, Taroko looked perfect, the rivers were in full-flow and plenty of waterfalls for folks to feast eyes and cameras on.
Saw 3 other wai-guos set-up for touring: 2 slowly ascending the gorge, 1 happily descending.

There was a rock-fall being cleared just south of Yanzikou, and when they finally let us through it looked like a whole arch (that the road used to pass through) has just collapsed. There’s a forlorn looking pillar on the right side. Hope no-one was driving through at the time :astonished:.

My 6k round trip commute to work through Xinyi district was as usual. Most interesting part is passing by the south side of 101 and gawking at the hordes of Mainland tourists milling about and being confronted with very dedicated Falun Gong members. It’s quite a scene.

Awesome. I gotta go check that out.

I just bit the bullet and bought a bike and started riding last week (before I came to Taiwan I raced road for University of Colorado in the States). Some fast guys from the shop where I bought the bike, one of whom speaks okay English, have taken me out on a few rides into the mountains (I have little idea where we go, but it’s SO BEAUTIFUL), and I’ve done some rides on my own up to the top of the Maokong Gondola and back down.

Early this morning we went from Xindian over the mountains to Sanxia, and then did a little climbing around there, all in the rain. About 60km I think. It is so wonderful riding with those guys because otherwise I’d have no idea where to go and I’d definitely get lost.

Got back by 9am, in time to hit the morning market, do laundry, and study some Chinese!

By the way, I’m gonna be doing little morning climbs up Maokong and then noodling around on the river paths pretty regularly during the week from 6am-8/9am, and I’d love to have some buddies, so if any climbing enthusiasts are out there shoot me a PM and let’s exchange numbers.

Too early for me, but I used to ride up into Maokong a couple times a week when I lived nearby. Beautiful for riding.

Here’s a tip: don’t ride through the streets but head into the uni grounds. Climb the ring road and just before the top (if climbing with the uni to your right) turn left onto a side road. Follow 200m up to a barrier. Cross and you are on the road up to the gondola. Much better than rider through the narrow streets around the uni.

Also the ring road is nice for a bit of short climbing practice as it gets damn steep and there is no traffic on it (or one car an hour).

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[quote]so i rode a provincial 80km today, Hualian to Tianxiang (Taroko) round-trip. I’ve not been ridden for 3mths+, but still, it hurt like hell.
Have had a bad headache since I got back, and neither food nor water has shifted it. Hopefully sleep will.[/quote]

He he he…I thought you said 80km.

Oh. You did. But there are mountains in that area. Are you mad? :notworthy:

Ach, it’s only a mild 20km climb to Tianxiang. And an easy 20 back down. The worst was the final warm 20 on the flat back to town.

Today took my daughter went for her first ‘big’ ride around the back of Liyu Lake, I jogged alongside. Got halfway around and on one of the downhill bits I was looking ahead for obstacles, and she was watching a boat on the lake, and not looking where she was going. Heard a big SCREAM, and looked back to see her ride straight off the side of the road and face-plant into a drainage ditch :astonished:.

As a dad, I dropped the ball in a big way. She cried, but thankfully just mud, shock and scratches. Even managed to get her back on the bike as we headed back to the car :thumbsup: .

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Rode the 193 today from Hualien to its end at Yuli (110km marker plus change), then train back. Cloudy and great riding weather.

Items:

1 tortoise slowly crossing the road. Stopped and helped him, as I wasn’t sure he’d make it before getting a squashing.
50+ other cyclists out and about. Couple of large groups.
Speeding car overtakes me, then a car pulls out from a side-track. They just avoid each other. Close to being spectacular, and I’d have been first on the scene (gulp).
Yuli town centre has a roundabout (traffic circle) :bravo:.

When I was in Yuli last year they were putting in a cycle path from the train station to the road out to the Walami Trail. About halfway down signs veered off to the left that mapped out the backcountry roads to Fuli. Wonder if it’s ready. The parts I did were nice.

My ride today from Kaohsiung to San Di Men and back. 56 miles (90 km). I like my ride data so I will share it with you :smiley:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/125474327

Rode out to Pinglin last Tuesday and then did this circuit anticlockwise on Thursdee. Didn’t intend to do this exact route but I missed a left turn going from Pinglin to Pingsi. That Píngshuāng Road has a fantastic descent :smiley: . Saw a Taiwan Beauty Snake on the climb out to Pinglin, a roadkill snake that was black with white bands ( Many Banded Krait ?) and a medium-large raptor at close quarters.

Might head out that way tomorrow.

Me ride tonight was grand around Gaoyuan. Not many clicks mind you, more like a 10K stab in the dark. Low cloud cover, obscured that moon.
Oh, Allah!
Much to my dismay, they have actually whitewashed the sides of many a back country side bike road, so one can actually negotiate the darkness without a compass. Shame, shame!
A sad state of affairs for one that prefers the challenge of riding on country side road with no headlight or obtuse blinking tail light. There are no cars on these paths or roads down our way after the farmers call it a day. Only packs of dawgs, flying roaches, low hanging spider webs, and the fear of fear to deal with.
Just what I needed!

And only less than two hours to go before the next pre-dawn jaunt.
And I know just the trail, though it might get hairy, as it is off-road, very much downhill, and full of packs of inbred dawgs.
Excuse me while I prepare for this arduous patrol outside the perimetre.
:whistle:

Only got lost three times yesterday. :laughing: It’s great being able to ride around the mountains and buy water at fairly regular intervals though. Coming into Pinglin from Pinxi I took a ‘shortcut’ to Shiding that turned into a punishing longcut. :aiyo: Highlight of the ride was getting directions from a young monk with a beaming smile near Huafan University.

Losing a bit of fat doing this stuff in the heat.

Don’t know how accurate these elevation profiles are but they seem about right.

I’m glad I first learned that maze of roads in a car. :laughing:

I’m glad I first learned that maze of roads in a car. :laughing:[/quote]


Turn left! Turn left! If you want an expedited journey to Shihding . . .

At one point on the climb I thought I saw the main Pinglin-Shihding road and climbed towards it only to be confronted by the realization that the road I was on was in fact a dead-end driveway, with a curious home-owner looking at me like, ‘What the fuck are you doing intruding on my mountain paradise?’