If you are “here to cycle” (despite your original thread title), why are you spending all your time in the major cities? Even a small amount of research would show you where the best riding is which assuredly is not in the major city centers. Strange post is strange…
I’m also very baffled by the OP. The culture here is vastly more accommodating to road bikers than where I’m from. There are heaps of great roads to cycle. The Ubike program has been a raging success, those bikes get A LOT of use.
There are green belts surrounding the city with dedicated bike lanes. I can ride with my seven year old son from Taipei all the way to Danshui on the North Coast and never have to worry about a single car. People from my home town in the US (Portland, Oregon) has a lot of misplaced pride about how friendly the bike culture is there, it isn’t.
At this point I just have to find the OP funny. His observations and the conclusions that he has drawn are also quite funny. Taiwan is an awesome place to cycle but cycling is a form of recreation enjoyed by the middle/upper class in their free time. Making conclusions based on the bikes that are left to rot outside MRT stations or the bikes that the poor ride around on is silly.
I certainly hope that the OP actually gets out of Taitung on his bicycle ride because even Taitung city sucks but the entire east coast is cyclist’s dream.
He actually prides himself in not making research, but rather arriving in a place with predisposed ideas and looking for what he expects to find, not what is there. Hence his gripes. It should be as he envisioned it, why, it can’t be any different than what he already has in mind. It is like traveling with a ViewMaster crazyglued to your eyes.
OP you don’t see many expensive bikes outside the mrt because someone will steal it if it’s an expensive bike or in decent shape, particularly if it looks like it’s abandoned for a while. so the better bikes are kept indoors.
The city of Taipei is not bike friendly if you want to ride long distances or commute. the way taipei is built doesn’t allow it. on the weekends you can find hoardes of people riding along the riverside parks to the point that it’s annoying at the huge crowds.
OP is right. Back in my country outside of the train station there’s an endless line of carbon frames, and kids go to school on nothing less than custom steel frames and 10 speeds.
In Taichung there’s a decent amount of people riding bikes. In Taipei Ubikes are everywhere, to the point where walking can be almost dangerous xD
Now I live in Yilan county, riding here is amazing at any time of the day and there are so many people commuting to work on bike. Just a few days ago I spotted a wild Kuota cruising around, looks like all the advertisement on some local cycling magazines is paying off!
