What is the best kind of bike, (road, hybrid, mountain, or other) for touring Taiwan? I plan to ride around the coast lines and do about 80-120 km per day.
Are you carrying panniers/backpack/luggage of any kind?
Are you a regular and experienced cyclist?
it’s impossible to answer such a question without more detail.
For unloaded touring, I’d recommend a road bike with shimano running gear (more places could fix a problem) and wide tires (30 mm or so, for handling rougher surfaces and more comfort). Better posture than a mountain bike for long rides. If you’re carrying luggage, I’d recommend a proper touring bike, probably with disc brakes if you’re going to hit the mountains ever.
For the amount of km’s you want to put in each day, the only givens would be 700c wheels (unless you are particularly short) and drop bars. Beyond that, you have to answer the questions posed by Urodacus before anyone can give you anymore advice.
I will probably carry some panniers and a small backpack, as unloaded touring is probably a bit too advanced for me right now. I would say I am an intermediate cyclist. The most I have I done is 100km in a day. Never more than a day though. I plan to buy a bike and train for 3 months, riding around North Taiwan, Taipei, Taoyuan coast, Keelung, maybe Yilan before going the full swing around Taiwan.
Wondering what the price for a touring bike is and where’s a good place in Taipei (doesn’t matter where in Taipei) to buy one.
How tall are you? The shorter you are, the more options you’ll have for buying a bike here.
A quick sidenote: if you have panniers, don’t take a backpack. Riding long distances with a backpack is no fun, particularly when you’re riding on consecutive days. If you want to have ease of access to things like your wallet and a camera, get a handlebar bag.
Road bikes are extremely popular here in Taiwan. If you are already comfortable on a road bike, then that is what I would recommend.
About 178cm. According to measurements, from my crotch to the floor is about 32inces, which puts me at a M bike I believe.
I do plan on taking some luggage, so it sounds like a touring bike is better suited for my purposes
In that case, a road bike with pannier eyelets for attaching a set of panniers to the rear wheel. and a mudguard if you’re able to find a bike with two sets of eyelets.
A touring bike is basically a road bike with slightly longer frame (mostly the stays at the rear), slightly more relaxed steering (for loaded stability) and lower gearing (for going up hills with a load on). If you’re only lightly loaded (say, 10 kg max) then you can just do that on a normal road bike.
Unloaded turing is even easier: just arrange hotels before you leave and carry your credit card, or have someone drive your gear to your destination.
Look for a bike with a compact crankset (chain rings of 50 and 34 teeth), and a wide range cassette (say a 13 to 30 ten speed). You should also try to get a shorter stem and keep as much of the rise in the fork as you can: there’s no need for a racer-style low cycling position, and you have better stability with a load if you’re a bit more upright. More wind resistance too, but it’s less of a concern at lower speeds.
Panniers (Ortlieb are the best brand) may seem expensive but an actually waterproof set that doesn’t collapse after a few months are worth their weight in gold. And don’t ride with a backpack if you can avoid it: strap the backpack on top of the panniers. Avoid having too much weight on the handlebars, and be aware that you’d probably want to be able to see the front wheel and in front of the bike if you’re ever riding on loose stuff, so don’t hang your sleeping roll off the front either!
have fun!
Pllease, no backpack! You’ll thank us for that. Let the bike carry the weight, that’s what it’s there for. There’s no reason you can’t carry all you need in 2 panniers (plus a handlebar bag if you want one). I just rode around the island with 2 rear panniers, and then camera, money etc. in my back jersey pockets.
Touring bikes start around 15,000 for something halfway decent but you can tour on anything. I rode a 5000NT mt bike 800km’s to/from Hualien a couple of years ago. Now I have a new Surly (32,000NT) sitting at my LBS waiting to be ridden.
Some luggage is a vague term. Are you talking about a change of clothes and a 2nd set of cycling clothes with a few personal items and staying in a hotel? Or are you going to be camping?
For hotel/hostel touring you can use a road bike with a rack bag or a small set of panniers. If you are camping then it would be better to get a touring bike because they have more mounting points (for racks), better heal clearance (for panniers), stiffer frames, more tire clearance (bigger tires are possible) and probably several other benefits if you are loaded. Most likely you won’t find what you want in a store in your size. touring bikes are not very popular.
One very important thing to look at when buying is the gearing. I struggle when I hit the base of the mountains loaded with a 28 (smallest front ring) and 28 (largest rear ring). I am really looking forward to the new surly with 26f and 34r.
In Taiwan I would be shocked if someone needed more than 2 panniers unless you were going through the mountains in the winter. And even then 1 set of panniers should work unless you are carrying a lot of stuff. I have the full set of Ortliebs but I’m planning on only using the fronts with my tent on the back rack. This should create much better balance on the bike. Ortliebs are great panniers but they are not light. Yet you are really going to want waterproof panniers in Taiwan. It rains here. A lot.
What is your price range?
Yeah, I think once you answer that people can start recommending a few different models and where to find them.
I’d prefer to keep it between 15,000 NT and 30,000 NT. I plan to use the bike for more than one trip. For now, I plan to stick to the coast, but I will want to go into the mountains in the future. As for accommodations, I’m not 100% sure yet. I’m going over routes. I plan to do it in August. Yes, I know it’s bloody hot, but I can tolerate riding a bike in heat as long as I have enough water.
Luggage is basic toiletries, some change of clothes (probably my backpacking stuff that dries quickly) and stuff for picture taking. By backpack I mean a water carrier (camelbak 2 or 3 liter).
If I were to buy a touring bike, this would be high on my list.
http://www.speedonebike.com/_en/product_list.php?id=27
I have one of there road bikes. They are well priced and most sized are available.
and their CX8 cyclocross bike is made in 853 (a simply gorgeous frame steel) and has eyelets front and rear for panniers, and DISC BRAKES. and a wider range cassette… very nice.
I wonder how much that CX8 costs? I feel it’ll be out of budget for the OP as their similarly specced road bike in 853 costs around 45000NT after “discount”
True, but it has DISC BRAKES.
very handy for Taiwan mountains, especially when loaded up.
Mug your milkman.
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[quote=“nonredneck”]I’d prefer to keep it between 15,000 NT and 30,000 NT. I plan to use the bike for more than one trip. For now, I plan to stick to the coast, but I will want to go into the mountains in the future. As for accommodations, I’m not 100% sure yet. I’m going over routes. I plan to do it in August. Yes, I know it’s bloody hot, but I can tolerate riding a bike in heat as long as I have enough water.
Luggage is basic toiletries, some change of clothes (probably my backpacking stuff that dries quickly) and stuff for picture taking. By backpack I mean a water carrier (camelbak 2 or 3 liter).[/quote]
In August you will be traveling light and definitely not camping. I also don’t mind the heat either but I reach my breaking point camping. I need to be able to escape the heat for the night.
The guys in this thread recommending compact doubles are far stronger than me. I wouldn’t consider a touring bike with anything bigger than 28T smallest front cog paired with a 11-34 rear cassette. I actually want to buy a 13-34 rear cassette for better gear spacing but it is pretty expensive.
Fair enough. I still do a lot of climbing on a single speed, for strength training, and regularly used to climb Yangmingshan on 42-17 when in Taiwan. but finding a bike at that price range with a triple, or a lower range double, will be hard, and you’d probably need to go for a custom set up, which is expensive (and could cost almost as much as the bike itself). even that touring bike from Speedone has a compact double.