As some of you may be aware, Rapha has opened up a clubhouse in Taipei. I believe they had are in soft opening mode and will have a grand opening in a few weeks.
I visited a few days ago and having not ever visited any other Clubhouses, nonetheless, it does have a Rapha vibe to it. Simple and classy.
The upstairs is their coffee shop/viewing gallery for cycling events and downstairs is their store. From what I’m hearing on the interwebs, the store prices reflect the online prices! So, buying in the Taipei store equates to buying from Rapha’s online store. Which is a huge deal for those that have been playing the customs game with ordering their Rapha gear online and shipping it to Taiwan.
The store has a men’s and women’s section, but boasts more men’s apparel than women’s. It does NOT have the full line of both men’s and women’s. For example, I didn’t see any water bottles or a lot of their street wear available.
Despite the haters for their apparel line, I think Rapha coming to Taipei is a great sign that the cycling hobby has not diminished as many have assumed. I don’t think Rapha would have came to a market that did not have riders!
Another great thing about Rapha is the bike rental service (for their RCC members). Now, there’s a spot for high end rentals in Taipei. As an RCC member, you know the rental rates and you know the availability. I think this will definitely bring some cyclist travelers to Taipei that normally would not have considered Taipei (or Taiwan) as a destination.
Here’s the address and Google maps:
No. 228, Yanji Street
Da’an District, Taipei City, 106
I do like their designs, but I don’t need them, not at those prices. Cycling, like many other hobbies, has a problem with prices. Most of the components are ridiculously expensive.
I have a bit of a concern about the whole Rapha ‘club and/or membership’ thing. I don’t know, as I have not investigated, but my understanding is that if you want to have access to the club(house), you need to spend a fair bit on kit and/or pay some kind of fee. I am not comfortable with the exclusivity - rather like a golf club for which you need to be proposed/seconded etc. I would not want to join such a club; others would find it suits their needs precisely.
I get the impression that Rapha is for the wealthy (this is the signal I get from their pricing), so I don’t care to buy in to that (even if I could afford it.) Similarly, I wouldn’t buy a Merc, when a Ford does what I want. More pertinently, I wouldn’t buy Super Record when Chorus does just fine.
I guess it’s a personal choice, and people are free to spend however they like. I suppose it’s a good thing that Rapha is more visible in Taiwan as anything to promote our wonderful sport is better than another Merc dealership.
I shan’t be wearing any Rapha any time soon. My Assos does just fine.
19 RCC Chapters in major cities, providing an international riding community
Weekly rides from every Clubhouse and Chapter
Extended riding adventures
Global RCC Summits
10% off your first Rapha Travel Trip*
Free bike hire on Rapha Travel**
Exclusive access to RCC racing and training kit
Fleet of high-end Canyon bikes and Canyon Commuter bike hire from Clubhouses**
Limited edition RCC x Canyon bikes available to buy
Riding and skills clinics at Clubhouses for riders of all abilities
RCC team to help support members’ riding development
Strava RCC members club
Limited edition bike collaborations
RCC Race Jersey lifetime crash replacement*
RCC support at major races and sportives
Events and screenings around major races in Clubhouses
Join us at the Mobile Clubhouses whenever a Rapha Pro-Team team is racing
Race advice from the RCC team
Annual RCC Hill Climb Challenge
RCC Championship race at each Summit
Monthly socials hosted at Rapha Clubhouses
Free coffee at any Rapha Clubhouse
New personalised member card
Free bi-annual Mondial magazine
Preferential shipping rates - half-price express shipping on all orders*
Priority access to annual sales and select new products
Annual end of season party in Clubhouses and end of season rides
Online members’ forum
RCC smartphone rides app with new features
Special RCC podcasts produced by The Cycling Podcast
These are all the benefits that come with your 7,800NT yearly fee.
You can say some benefits are elitest, but some are just benefits you’d get from joining any kind of club. Access to limited edition gear, events and priority.
I don’t have much against it, but I won’t be throwing my 7,800NT to Rapha anytime soon. However, I will note one thing…
Free coffee at any Rapha Clubhouse
If you drink coffee everyday and a clubhouse is near your office. This is a no brainer. At around 60-80NT for coffee, you get your yearly fee back in about half a year. Ask @Liub , he states the only reason he signed up for RCC is because his old office used to be next to a clubhouse.
We say “hustle and bustle” and we say a “bustling city”, but not a hustling and bustling city. For Taiwan standards its not a bad translation but its still clunky and the source text is very obviously in evidence.
All of the tourism copy for Taiwan needs to be rewritten from scratch by a native speaker, you can’t directly translate it because the Chinese has too much hyperbole. Not every tourist site in Taiwan can be described as the eighth wonder to the world but that’s what the Chinese often tries to do.
I remember seeing on the RCC website that they are looking for a “community manager” of sorts for the clubhouse in which one of the requirements was mid-high fluency in English and Chinese. Seems they haven’t found that person yet.
The leadership they have now are very reluctant to speak English. I’m not sure they are serious about that requirement here. All the local copy (emails, etc.) I used get from them was in Chinese.
Thanks. So it is grammatically correct, but strangely similar to a saying… but not quite the same, hence your complaints about how it sounds.
As for the hyperbole, I don’t think it’s a Chinese language thing, I think it’s more a Taiwanese thing. I might be wrong, but everything, every place here is “famous”. The shittiest noodles in the crappiest of the shit holes in the island are “famous” for some inscrutable (to me) reason. I hate that.
However, I liked the video. Actually something “weird” happens to me regarding Taiwan. I think I love it. And I’m emotionally very bound to this piece of land, to the point that when I see images or videos of Taiwan, it (really) thrills me, specially if it’s like a Taiwan “showcase” like this video, or this other:
I just love this land, and these videos show some of the reasons to the World. That has a strange effect on me
