A few that I like…which reading the links above would (IMHO) classify then as Beginner…
bikepaths to Zhishan Road past Palace Museum and then take the small road on the right to Baishihu Suspension Bridge (白石湖吊橋), in the middle of Zhishan Road section 3. The road up is a good climb and relatively quiet/safe, the road down is a little narrow and more traffic, so take it steady. Only problem is you have to navigate Neihu to get back to the bike paths
Trip round Taipei - basically bikepaths and a straightforward climb from Nangang to Shenkeng (or vice-versa). Route 106 after coming down the hill to Shenkeng has some traffic - but after a while it connects to the zoo and bikepath at Muzha.
Bitan to Wulai and Fushan. The road from Bitan to Wulai has traffic, but the road from Wulai to Fushan is really good, minimal traffic, with some easy climbs. Since it’s a one way road, going to Fushan is uphill and then it’s downhill back to Wulai - though the trip back to Bitan has a couple of hills…
The easiest, entry-level climb in Taipei is Chongde Street, aka the Graveyard. It goes from Liuzhangli to the top of a graveyard, where you can descend down to either Nangang or Muzha. The grade is gentle with hardly any traffic. If you live in southern Taipei, you can get in a quick workout going up to the top and sliding back down in 30 minutes. Having ridden it countless times, I’m now looking at a third option. Near the top there’s a hiking trail. I’ve been told I could hike my bike down that trail and connect to a mountain road in Xinyi that will take me down to the foot of Elephant mountain. I think some cyclocross action would add a bit of spice to my regular routine.
It’s not long at all. The trick is finding the trailhead in the mountain of graves, and here it is:
This is very near the top, either second or third to last section of graves before the top. Just push your bike up that slope and you’re at the ridge. After that it’s just a short walk down a flight of stairs. The hike-a-bike takes about 3 minutes, but still you might not want to wear clipless shoes to ensure firm footing. You’ll come to a small temple, go right, through the temple, and you’ll come to a concrete trail. Here it’s actually rideable if you have wide enough tires. I didn’t want to risk puncturing my 28mm tires so I opted to push my bike. The trail will drop you in a quiet suburban neighborhood. Ride down the mountain and you’ll find yourself in the hustle and bustle of Wuxing St. All in all, a fun little detour.
Route name: Guan Shan Riverside Circuit Start point: Guan Shan Riverside Park Google Maps End point: Guan Shan Riverside Park Google Maps Traffic level:Low Main climb(s): N/A Total estimated distance: 500m Total estimated elevation gain: 10m Max elevation: 13m Difficulty:Beginner/Moderate/Hard/Wish you never got up this morning Description:
Ok, so I know a few of you guys were asking about some more beginner routes or segments and I know this list is lacking. So here she is!
Here’s some quick tips about the location and circuit
This loop has been a long time comin’ and we are lucky enough to have something right smack dab in the city. The tarmac is fresh and it’s easily accessible via Song Shan or Nanjing Sanmin MRT stations if you are coming from afar.
What I suggest is if you are heading this way on a weekend, to starting early! Word has gotten out that there’s a brand new area for people to ride bikes on and the place is scourged with people on Ubikes and kids by midday. There’s not much you can do about it as it is a public facility, all you can do is avoid it!
There’s two different loops on the circuit. The small loop is .5km and the larger one is 1km. I personally like the short .5km loop as it’s quick, so you can’t really remember what number loop you are on, which I actually prefer.
If you aren’t out there for a training ride, it’s one of the most picturesque spots on the riverside with planes taking off and landing on Song Shan airport and 101 in the background.
Bump! I’m trying to piece together how to do this route counter-clockwise, but using the graveyard climb rather than 109/Nanshen (南深路): I can see how the start of the graveyard climb (which I’ve never done) connects to the riverside, but once I get to the top, then what should I do to continue the circle?
(Keep in mind I know next to nothing of the routes in that corner of town, apart from two times doing the route above, clockwise.)
Turn left at the top of graveyard no 2. Follow the ridge to next intersection and make a right towards Nangang (I think there’s even a sign for Nangang). That puts you on this segment: Yanjiuyuan Climb | Strava Ride Segment in 南港區, 台北市, Taiwan
Follow that down to the university and at the end turn right. Just follow that around through the community there and you’ll be spit back out onto 109.
Sorry, the segment I posted is the uphill version but you’ll obviously be going down in the opposite direction.
You should hit an end to the riverside paths right past Muzha MRT station. Hop onto the road and after the second light, you want to take a left onto this segment:
Once you get to three way intersection at the top, turn left. You’ll go through a lot of s turns, up and down section until you get to another intersection here:
Going straight would lead you to Lin Guang MRT/Liu Zhang Li area. Going right will take you down towards Nangang. Turn right!
Follow the road down to the bottom and turn right. Follow that road another 2km or so and you’ll pass Academia Sinica. You should know where you are by then.
Two rules of thumb: Stay on the main road and always pick the uphill option at intersections, even at the top; the way “down” to Academia Sinica is the uphill option, a sharp right turn.
Inspired by a GCN video, I’ve just designed a 100 km route with as much climbing as possible* without going by the same road twice. I wanted Hongshulin station to be the start and finish for convenience. If convenience is something that can applied to a route of 100km and 2900 meters of elevation. The route should be just under 100km, but Komoot insists on doing a weird thing in Tamsui station.
DISCLAIMER: I have not ridden it. I think I have ridden about 80-90% of the roads sometime in the past. It should be fully rideable, but if anyone tries it, let us know.
*There can be harder routes in the area starting from the same point and following the same criteria to design the route, I don’t know. In the km15.4 of this route, you can do a wall is you want. This is the Strava segment: https://www.strava.com/segments/15250698 I don’t know how it is in reality, but by the looks of it in Google Street and the climbing profiles… It looks like MTB gearing territory.
Maybe you’ve found the answer since you asked the question three years ago, but by chance you haven’t, the “double north” refers to Beiheng (the northern cross island highway, which is Rt. 7) and Beiyi (the Taipei-Yilan highway, Rt. 9), not Taipei and New Taipei, as many mistakenly think.
Bump, and a question about route details on this: it looks like there are a few options when descending from the Fengguizui / 風櫃嘴 summit down to Jinshan. Does it particularly matter which roads one takes, or are they all much the same?
I got lost! Well, not exactly lost - that’s difficult these days with a functioning smartphone - but I certainly wound up on a route too adventurous for me.
I’m too used to the mountain roads in Sanzhi / Danshui / Shimen, where any downhill road will basically always get you to the coast road. So I didn’t bother figuring out a route from Fengguizui and just took a few downhill turns. Eventually I realized I was heading in a wrong direction, so I used Google Maps, and that led me into a maze of narrow farming lanes. Those can be fun if I know the area better, but today there were a bunch of steep hills with way too much wet leaf litter (“Um, I think I can safely get down this” - and I did - “but I have no idea how I’d get up it”). And those are the sorts of lanes where I’ve got in trouble with dogs before: never bitten, but realized “Oh, I can’t get past this one. Time to turn around.” Fortunately that didn’t happen today.
Google amused me, telling me it was 30 minutes to Jinshan this way. Sure, if you can ride straight, but it was a friggin’ maze and I was stopping every minute to figure out which route to take at the many oddly angled intersections of indistinguishable near-abandoned lanes. Eventually I was close enough to another main road - the 北28-1, I think? - and that worked out fine.
So, next time, it’ll be the main route. But … what IS the main route?
For the main routes, left takes you up some pretty steep ramps and then a direct descent into Jinshan. Right is relatively flat/downhill thay will take you down to Wanli, which you’ll have to ride another 10km or so to Jinshan.
I went left because the routes looked more fun. Alas (well, not exactly alas, it was sort of entertaining), at some point I turned off whatever route I should have been on, and that got me in mild trouble.
Wouldn’t have really mattered, but I was worried about getting over Yangmingshan and down Balaka before sunset - and I barely made it.
Once you do it a few more times (based on the route) it starts to make sense. Otherwise, can only say the main route is the quicker way we’ve found to get from FGZ down to Jinshan/Wanli
