[quote=“Vorkosigan”]Lost, Hualien-Taidong is easy and you shouldn’t be worried about a flat. Remember, motorcycle shops can easily fix a punctured tube as well. They will enjoy helping you too, and probably charge you little.
Also, if flats are a recurrent problem you might thinking about switching to tires that have a kevlar belt under the tread. They are not expensive – I ride Continental Ultra Races that are 750 each. Maxxis, the local brand, has even more inexpensive ones.
Also, I am tentatively doing the Hualien-Taidong run the weekend of Aprl 23 to monday Apr 25. Let me know if you want to come.[/quote]
Cool - thanks for the invite and the tips. Unfortunately, I’ll be too busy at the time; I’m just finishing a week’s break, and I was hoping to head out on a trip, but I’ve just got too much to do (fulltime student, fulltime teacher… blech. It’s going to be a rough 4-5 years).
Good to know about the Hualien-Taidong route. So there’s always going to be a scooter shop reasonably nearby? I guess this is Taiwan, after all.
Flats haven’t been a problem for me in a while: when I was cycling around Tainan, I used to get them all the time, but since I moved to Taipei they’ve been much less common. I’ve assumed that’s because in Taipei I’m usually on cycling paths rather than roads - it seemed like in Tainan County I was always suddenly swerving around patches of broken glass. Oddly, in Tainan I usually had Continental tires, but now they’re some kind of Michelin slicks (is that the word?). I have absolutely no idea if they have a kevlar belt, but they were in the 800 range if I recall correctly.
The slicks are another thing I need to figure out: my bike’s fine if it’s dry, but if it rains the tires and lack of fenders are a definite problem. When I bought the bike, about 8-9 years ago now, a guy who knows a lot about cycling helped me with the purchase - loosely “touring”, i.e. mountain bikish frame, but road tires - but I don’t really understand enough about what I have.