Greater Taipei Cycling Routes: A List

Do rae mon

Route name: Doraemon hand Fist of Legend | 90.7 km Road Cycling Route on Strava
Start point: National Palace Museum 7-11 Google Maps
End point: Er Zi Ping Parking Lot Google Maps
Traffic level: Low
Main climb(s):

Total estimated distance: 100km
Total estimated elevation gain: 2200m
Max elevation: 800m
Difficulty: Hard

Description:

Another classic route.

When you got some time in the day and want to get in a nice long ride. Look no further. Why is the ride called Doraemon? Well…look at the route.

There’s two climbs you can begin with. You can pick Leng Shui Keng or you can pick Feng Gui Zui, pick your poison. Leng Shui Keng drops you straight down to your rest stop in Jinshan Old Street area and the other requires you to go through a series of small climbs and through downtown Jin Shan to get to Jinshan Old Street area. The Strava route I have posted above has you take the Leng Shui Keng route.

This is one of those routes where you can go all out and climbs and still have some gas to left over since you have a good 15-20km between climbs and you will rest. This route is no fun if you go full blast from beginning til end!

You can stop at the 7-11 at the corner of Yang Jing and the No.2, I suggest heading a bit further into My Warm Day Google Maps , there’s outside seating and room for your bikes. Personally, I get really tired of eating 7-11 food on rides all the time, something different never hurt anyone.

Once you set off, you got about a 15km flat blast towards Shimen followed by some hilly routes up towards Sanzhi before you head up to the final climb of Balaka. FYI, the road to get to the foot of Balaka is harder than Balaka. So don’t feel too alarmed. Balaka is one of the best beginner climbs in Taipei because the gradient doesn’t get high…at all.

Word of advice, bring some snacks or gels for the ride. You’ll stop to rest and refuel, but don’t be alarmed if some of what you eat will get burned quickly and you need something to refuel while your in the saddle!

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Gazebo to weather station

Route name: 不厭五分/Bùyàn wǔ fēn/Never Tired of Five Points 不厭五分 | 96.2 km Road Cycling Route on Strava
Start point: Shi Ding 7-11 Google Maps
End point: N/A
Traffic level: Moderate
Main climb(s):

Total estimated distance: 100km
Total estimated elevation gain: 2,400m
Max elevation: 720m
Difficulty: Wish you never got up this morning

Description:

There’s a lot of ways and routes you can do this ride, but I find this way to be the least amount of traffic and better flowing.

Starting at Shi Ding 7-11, you got a long long ways until you get to the bottom of the first climb, so save your energy. I suggest stopping at least twice (depending on weather) before you head up the climb towards the pagoda. There’s convenient stores in Ping Xi (Google Maps) as well as near Shuang Xi train station (Google Maps) after you’ve left Shi Ding.

The first climb itself is not difficult, but quite long. It has maybe one or two parts that shoot up to 8-9% gradient and the worst part is…being able to see the pagoda from about 3-5km out. You think you’re almost there, but you go into hair pin oblivion to get to the peak. As long as it’s not 100% overcast, your efforts will be strongly rewarded once you’ve made it to the top.

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(It’s actually 1000x more awesome when there’s a slight overcast)

Onto the second peak. Your decent is down into Jiufen Old Street, so do pay attention to your surroundings and take it slow. There’s going to be lots of people and lots of cars once you get passed the nice scenery.

If you didn’t rest too long a the pagoda, you can get some rest before turning into the final climb at this Family Mart (Google Maps) . On a clear day, you can see the weather station from all the way down the mountain. It’s a bit intimidating that you’ll actually climb all the way up there. Make sure if you’re low on water, to fill up, the climb you’re about to embark on, can be very rough, especially if it’s hot.

The climb towards the final climb, is actually harder than the final climb. If that makes any sense. So…make sure you take it easy. The full segment from the Family Mart I posted above is around 13km, which accounts for most of the flats in the beginning. There’s gate that signals you’re in the last 4km of the climb, so once you get there, give it everything you got! The views on this mountain are just as spectacular as the previous, so all the hard work will be worth it.

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Make sure you get plenty of rest because you still got a long ways to get home! You can descend the the same you came or go back down towards Shi Fen and go back on the 106. The No. 5 isn’t as busy as you think it is, but what’s good about it is, there’s plenty of shops to stop if you need to rest, whereas the 106 there’s less cars, but less places to stop.

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KUOLAI

Route name: Kuolai/闊瀨尋奇/Kuò lài xún qí
Start point: Shi Ding 7-11 Google Maps
End point: Shi Ding 7-11 Google Maps
Traffic level: Low/Moderate/High/Heavy
Main climb(s):

Total estimated distance: 90km
Total estimated elevation gain: 2,000m
Max elevation: 600m
Difficulty: Beginner/Moderate/Hard/Wish you never got up this morning

Description:

Every year, there’s a race that follows this route and despite it being held at the hottest time of the year, it’s still very popular among the locals. Word of advice if you want to do this route in the heat of the summer months, ration your water. There’s plenty of places to stop for a refill, it’s just that you tend to be in the sun for long periods of time, so they feel like they’re super far apart.

In light of that here’s my suggested water stations:

The route starts off with the 106 climb that gets you going up for around 8.5km of multiple switchbacks. You then roll down towards Ping Lin and if you drank a lot of water, I highly suggest you take a right turn after the descent and take a pit stop there. As mentioned before, you’ll have the sun beating on you…a lot for the rest of the ride.

Once you get out of Ping Lin and head towards Kuolai, it’s a series of bunny hills in the middle of nowhere. You can go hard knowing that there’s a short downhill or flat section coming up shortly after. Once you get to this teapot, you know that there’s a long downhill coming along…

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There’s actually a cheat route in which if you think you can’t do the entire loop, you can cut towards Ping Xi here on 北43 (Google Maps).

If you’re taking this as a social ride, don’t forget to stop and check out the views!

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Do be careful of the final downhill back towards the No.2, the turns can be very sharp and there’s lot of leaves on the ground, so it’s likely to slip.

Once you hit the 2 and are climbing towards the tunnel, just keep in mind, this is the last climb climb before the bunny hill finish on the 106 into Ping Xi! Almost there…except you got 15-20km to go from Shi Fen to Ping Xi!

Lunch at Fulong

Route name: Fulong Biantang FuLong | 81.8 km Road Cycling Route on Strava
Start point: Shi Ding 7-11 Google Maps
End point: Fulong Train Station Google Maps
Traffic level: Low/Moderate
Main climb(s):

Total estimated distance: 90-100km
Total estimated elevation gain: 1600-1700m
Max elevation: 300m
Difficulty: Moderate
Description:

This is another great beginner/moderate route for those looking to add some kms and to get away from the riverside. Before you read on, make sure you check the weather before you head out, it tends to rain when you head east especially since you’ll be passing by a bit of Keelung!

The great thing about this route is there’s plenty of rest stops along the way:

The route itself is about 80% flat, going east, but you do a fair bit more climbing on your way home if you choose to double back and ride the same route home. Nonetheless, just remind yourself it’ll be over soon, the highest elevation is only 300m above sea level.

There’s multiple ways you can return, you can either make your way up the east coast and turn west once you get to Jiu Fen/Ruifang or you can just head back the way you came. If you take the east coast, it does get a little busy and there’s some parts without a shoulder lane, so do be careful!

A lot of people like to treat this ride as a very long flat TT (time trial) since there’s really only 3 parts on the entire route (east) where you climb for more than a minute. The flattest portion is right after you finish the downhill from the Ping Xuang Tunnel.

Lastly, make sure you try the bento at the Fulong Bento Box store (Google Maps) . Make sure you go to the correct store! If you’re facing the train station, it’s the store to your right with the huge line! You only got one choice and one price, so if you don’t like this and that in your bento, don’t waste your money! There’s always 7-11 across the street.

Don’t feed the strays…even if they give you puppy eyes like this one did

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BONUS

Cao Liao Tunnel Google Maps

A little under 1-2km from the Fulong train station is a nice pedestrian/bike tunnel that used to be a railroad tunnel for transport. Emerging on the other side puts you in Yilan after 2km. Last time we went, it was well worth the short trip. The nice crisp ocean breeze with sunlight was an amazing final destination to our trip.

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Ha, ha! ranlee, chompin’ at the bit with the good weather forecast for tomorrow- a Saturday!

THE HAND aka The Buddha Hand aka Hand of God aka 神掌/Shén zhǎng

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Route name: The hand THE HAND (如來神掌) | 141.3 km Road Cycling Route on Strava
Start point: National Palace Museum 7-11 Google Maps
End point: Tai Bei High School Google Maps
Traffic level: Moderate
Main climb(s):

Total estimated distance: 140-160km
Total estimated elevation gain: 3300-3600m
Max elevation: 800m
Difficulty: Wish you never got up this morning
Description:

This route is almost like a right of passage if you are a cyclist in Taipei. There’s not too many like it. If you’re visiting town, I highly suggest you give this one a try.

If you have ridden some of the above routes that I have shared, a lot of the climbs you’ll be familiar with. Nonetheless, if you are not riding with someone who hasn’t done it before, best download the GPX file and upload it to your cycling computer for navigation. It’s very easy to get lost. There’s a reason some parts of the fingers are named after places in Middle Earth.

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I will mention that in order to successfully finish this under daylight, you WILL need to start very early and I highly suggest you equip a front light. It may be light when you start in the morning, but it’s likely you’ll ride into early evening and into traffic going back home. Friends have completed it in 7-8 hours, but both times I did it, I did it in 10-12 hours mostly due to rest time at the bottom of each descent.

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The toughest climbs are the right wrist (LSK), thumb (from Jinshan) and the middle finger (from Baishawan). So, keep in mind to save gas for those three, otherwise you might bonk and end up not finishing and missing a few fingers. However, do not underestimate the other long, but low gradient climbs!

Good luck!

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This was an awesome post, thanks for sharing!

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Bump.

I have been mixing it up as of late. Let me know if you guys want some more routes and what kind of routes.

I’ve noticed that the Strava links for the above routes have gotten quite a lot of clicks.

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Always down for new routes :slight_smile:

60km/1000m seems to be the sweet spot for me these days but hope to push both of those when I’m back later in the summer.

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Route name: Double North 雙北 爽北 | 237.9 km Road Cycling Route on Strava

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Start point: Xindian District Office MRT Google Maps
End point: Xindian MRT Google Maps
Traffic level: Moderate/High
Main climb(s):

Total estimated distance: 220km
Total estimated elevation gain: 3,300m
Max elevation: 1,190m above sea level (Ming Ci)
Difficulty: Wish you never got up this morning
Description:

Remember this one @okonomiyaki ?

I have no clue as to why this route is called Double North (雙北), but it is what it is.

This is one of those routes that depends 99.9% of weather conditions. You are very deep in he mountains on the No. 7 to start and if you run into any rain it will take you a lot of extra effort to turn around or head out of the mountains, make sure weather report is for zero rain. You are going from New Taipei → Taoyuan → Yilan → New Taipei. For those of us that have been living here, we know that anything can happen when you cross districts in Taipei and we can’t imagine what it would be like crossing city borders.

Another thing to keep in mind is to stop whenever you see a convenient store of sorts along the No.7, there’s not many chances for water/food. However, not a issue once you roll into Yilan and head back towards Xindian! I normally do not roll with two bottles unless it’s race day, but this a special case!

One last tip, start early. I was up at 4AM to meet at 5AM and I got home at around 7PM. However, I was in a group of 10+, so we did wait for everyone at certain points. I would NOT suggest you do this solo, being out in the deep mountains, anything can happen, always ride with a buddy…or two.

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Ha. It does look good, but way beyond my capabilities (Xindian and back from Danshui is a long ride for me!).

I’d definitely like to know more about routes in the 60-80km range that go through, or very near, Danshui.

To be honest I’m sort of bewildered how anyone can be on a bike after about 10am in Taipei summer temperatures.

:joy::joy:

I tried. I really did.

I can start listing some segments around Taipei and giving my reviews of them. You guys can then piece them together and make a route out of it because a lot of the climbs around Taipei have a few ways to get to and from.

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I’ve done that twice. Both in summer, and only finished once. Both times it just bucketed down in massive thunderstorms just before Mingchi Forest, which made the descent down those massive switchbacks kinda exciting.

and the second time i sorta bailed by riding around the north coast Fulong, Keelung, etc, to get home. I did not have a gram of energy left for climbing. longer, but less effort.

but one of the highlights of northern Taiwan riding nonetheless. Not quite as much an achievement as Puli-Hehuanshan peak, or Wuling to Taroko, but awesome memories.

don’t feed them greasy bian dang or just don’t feed them at all?

I think it’s safe to say, don’t feed them at all.

to help stop the stray dog problem from growing or what?

The bentos are oily and salty, not very good for their health…or ours, but definitely worse for them.

I really wanted to do that decent all at once because it’s pretty awesome, but stopping at the No. 7 77km sign to take pics is like…a right of passage. I guess it’s unlucky if I don’t?

Still waiting for the next time I get to attempt this monster of a route.

@ranlee This post is incredibly helpful, thank you! I’m planning to hop over from Hong Kong to visit Taipei with my bike at the beginning of October, and will definitely be doing a few of these rides. Just need to get used to riding on the other side of the road…

Hope to see you out on the road - would be great to find some company or group rides to join.

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@voodoo_economics No problem! This is why I created the thread.

Feel free to PM me on your schedule and I am sure we can make something happen.

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