I have recently relocated from Tainan to Taichung and am looking for good bicycle shop that specializes in mid to high end road bikes. Top notch mechanical skills are very important as I need a bit of work done.
No follow ups to the OP, so I’m not hugely optimistic here, but just in case…
I’m also looking for a high end bicycle shop in Taichung city… A place that would be likely to carry high end components, not just complete bikes… The only places I know of off hand are just Giant dealers who sell a range of middle of the road complete bikes and some ho-hum accessories…I’m after some Crank Brothers pedals, a set of XTR shoe cleats and a few other bits and pieces…
any leads much appreciated… 
You could try the Giant store at 17 Wenxin Rd (near Wuquan Rd intersection). I don’t know high-end the components are, but they stock high-end complete bikes and do have a large range of components from other makers. Their number is 04 2475 8525.
From Formosa Fat Tire:
Taichung
Shop name: Three Peaks
Focus: XC, DH, Freeride
Address: 772-1 Taiyuan Rd., Section 3, Taichung City
Phone: 886-4-2436-8842
Fax: 886-4-2436-9237
Website: threepeaks.com.tw/
Email: service@threepeaks.com.tw
Directions: Heading east on Taiyuan Rd., its just past Hanxie Rd. on right side.
Contact name: George
English spoken: George speaks English well.
Brands stocked: Cannondale, Element, Azonic, FSA, Xtension, Answer, Manitou, Rock Shox, Tioga, Easton, Ellsworth, Race Face, Park Tools, SixSixOne
Shop ride details: Groups go out on weekends - contact George for details.
Comment:
A very well stocked shop offering plenty of options for both parts and tools. Conveniently located on the east edge of town, close to the Playground. If George (the owner) isn’t there, be prepared to use your Chinese with the helpful and friendly staff.
Thanks cfimages / Feiren much appreciated… :bravo:
I don’t hold out much hope for Giant stores since I think they are contractually limited as to what aftermarket brands they stock, which makes sense since they don’t want to be promoting aftermarket components that they themselves don’t spec on their bikes… Still, if it’s a big store maybe this Wen Xin one is different, I’ll give it a shot…
The other “Three Peaks” store is one I’ve seen before but sadly it seems to have dissappeared… I went looking for it and found nothing but shut steel roller doors, maybe I caught them on a day off though…
[quote=“plasmatron”]Thanks cfimages / Feiren much appreciated… :bravo:
I don’t hold out much hope for Giant stores since I think they are contractually limited as to what aftermarket brands they stock, which makes sense since they don’t want to be promoting aftermarket components that they themselves don’t spec on their bikes…[/quote]
I would agree with that completely, but I think Giant does a terrible job of supplying even the replacement parts for its own brand of bikes. Quite a few parts that are found on Giant bikes cannot be supplied by Giant in spare parts, which makes their shops not that attractive for some riders. Specialist shops are the way to go for a serious biker I think. For example, I recently tried to order butterfly bars through Giant as one of their ready built bikes comes with them fitted as standard, but alas Giant does not supply butterfly bars, or even the foam for the handlebars.
Its a bit frustrating as Taiwan produces so many of the after market components in the world, but it seems to Taiwan consumer market itself is starved of the very things it produces.
Does anyone think that bicycling is gaining in popularity recently? There have been many stories and high profile bicyclists around these past few days eh?
I was riding my bike to work for the first time today and I realised that everyone has started staring at me. Is this a good thing for advertising the advantages to cycling or am I just a freak?
You’re a freak, Sulavaca… just like me. Out of about 2,000 people working here, I am the only one I know of who cycles here regularly from home… except for a couple of people who ride about 200m from their dorm to their lab. My commute is about 15km through the hills: a beautiful start to the day.
It is a tad warm for most people to want to cycle here at the moment. I am glad I can have a shower at work.
It is gaining in popularity, but it is still mostly seen as light weekend recreational activity and not as a serious alternative to scooters. I just competed in the Giant Cup in Taichung county (DaJia) yesterday, and there were about 1,000 racers there, many of whom I had not seen before (most of my racing is done up here in Taipei). It is quite a decent scene, but not well known outside the circle.
Flatlander: Your comments on the dearth of specialist stores are quite true. It is lamentable that most of the stuff is made here but sold only OS. I get most of my gear on mail order from the USA or Europe. Try Jensons for your CrankBros parts. I avoid Bike Nashbar, or performance cycles, as they don’t want to deal with Taiwanese credit cards, even through paypal. Isn’t my money good enough for them??? Also get really good deals through EuroBike parts,especiually on Campagnolo and some things like DT spokes. Frames are cheapest here though, especially if you take freight into account.
Whoops! I should have checked more carefully. They appear to have moved:
公司資料 :
三捷輪企業有限公司
地址 : (406) 台中市北屯區景賢八路222號
電話 : +886-4-24368842
傳真 : +886-4-24369237
E-mail info@threepeaks.com.tw
Contact Information :
THREE PEAKS BICYCLE COMPANY
Address : No. 222 Jing-Xian 8th Rd., Beitun District,
Taichung 406 Taiwan R.O.C.
Tel : +886-4-24368842
Fax : +886-4-24369237
E-mail info@threepeaks.com.tw
They appear to be distributors for the brands they carry and have a long list of affiliated shops here:
threepeaks.com.tw/htm/stores.php
They claim to be the earliest distributor of high end brands frrom the US in Taiwan.
[quote=“sulavaca”][quote=“plasmatron”]T
Does anyone think that bicycling is gaining in popularity recently? There have been many stories and high profile bicyclists around these past few days eh?
I was riding my bike to work for the first time today and I realised that everyone has started staring at me. Is this a good thing for advertising the advantages to cycling or am I just a freak?[/quote][/quote]
Bicycling has been gaining in popularity steadily over the past few years and rather dramatically in the last year. The network of bike paths in Taipei City and County as well as elsewhere got people on their bikes and then they started exploring elsewhere. The owner of Giant has done a great deal to promote cycling and the proposed trail network around Taiwan is going to include bike paths. I believe he has just completed a 15-day round the island trip.
The documentary Island Etude is also having a big effect. Ma Ying-jeou’s around the island trip has helped, and the Ministry of Transportation is drawing up plans to encourage cycling to work (instead of just for leisure before).
Anecdotal evidence–I began riding in Taiwan in the early 1990s. At that time, it was extremely rare to see other riders and I really was a freak for riding to work. Five or six people commute to work at my office now and I see dozens of other office workers commuting on my way every day. And there are many riders out on popular rides like the Xindian Loop and the Northern Cross Highway. Bicycling is exploding in popularity.
Wow, I had sort of forgotten about this thread. After being in Taichung for a while, I did find a high-end bike shop. Turned out it was only about 5 blocks from my apartment. There was discussion of the Giant store (Together shop) on WenShin. If you go north from the Giant shop on WenShin about 5 blocks, you come to a park. Continue to the intersection with the pedestrian overpass. You are now at the northeast corner of the park. Turn left (west) and go about 3 blocks. Past the Flower Market, to the south side of the street you will see a big grey Post Office building. T-Mosaic Bikes has a shop in a corner of the Post Office building on the first floor. They sell Colnago, Pinarello, Merlin, Garneau, De Rosa and perhaps some others. The people who run it are very good and are excellence mechanics. They do group rides usually every Sunday. The manager is Rocky and his assistant is Wei Lin. My wife and I rode with them a few times and it was very good. There’s quite a cross section of people. At the time, we were the only westerners, but the Taiwanese included an airline pilot, a university administrator and his family, a golf course manager, a salesman, etc. Neat people!
I also commuted to work in addition to weekend rides. I tried to do it at least twice a week. It was not terribly far (about 6 miles), but the pull up XiTun Road up to the Science Park was a good workout.
After 3 years in Taiwan, I came back at the end of this past January. Definitely miss it!!
I was pleasantly surprised today when I turned up at work in cycle wear and nobody seemed to have a problem with my attire. I did have shell suit bottoms on and a tight breathable shirt, but I’ll give it a few days of cycling to work before I weigh the general reaction to my attire and the fact that I park my bike in a store cupboard. It seems to have gained some positive attention so far however and many colleagues were asking how long it took to get to work and how I got my bike and stuff.
Now might be a good time to remind folks about alansmountainbike.com.tw
Which is where I got my bike on Roosevelt road (Taipei). These guys are the most professional I have found in Taipei and Yen’s (Alan’s wife) English is excellent, which will help any foreigner get which ever service they need with the greatest of ease. They are very good at sourcing parts too, even though it may take them some time for some items. They can get frames made to order which is nice and I’m thinking about saving up for a nice titanium frame for the future, they have one in the shop for just 20,000nt which is pretty cheap I think.
[quote=“urodacus”] I just competed in the Giant Cup in Taichung county (Dajia) yesterday, and there were about 1,000 racers there, many of whom I had not seen before (most of my racing is done up here in Taipei). It is quite a decent scene, but not well known outside the circle.
[/quote]
Do you have a link to a site in English, or are you able to give a bit more info about the racing scene here? I love watching cycling races (to unfit and lazy to compete myself) but I always find out about races after they’ve happened. Yesterday is a good example - Dajia’s not too far from me, and if I’d have known there was a race on, I’d have gone to watch and get some photos. Instead I spent a boring day at home doing nothing much.
Thanks.
there were a lot of very good racers there from all over Taiwan and other countries like Singapore and Malaysia, and the top places were all taken by guys from Team Fuji and Giant Asia Racing: semi-professionals. Scarily fast: makes me respect the guys in TdF that much more, as they are as much faster than these winners than the winners were faster than me!
Race information: http://www.cyclist.org.tw in Chinese
Photos afterwards: http://www.bikeman.org in Chinese
Multisport (triathlon, duathlon, etc): http://www.taiwanracing.com in English
Thanks urodacus
Alan from the bike shop mentioned above came fourth I was told and that was after running to his car for a spare wheel for a flat tyre he sustained on the first lap. That guy can fly eh?
Well yesterday I went by the Three Peaks store as kindly recommended by Feiren earlier in the thread… They’ve moved into a side road (JingXian 8th Rd) just off TaiYuan Rd. diagonally opposite their old location if anyone’s looking for them… although I can’t really recommend the place much, great guys, very open, friendly and easy going, don’t know if they speak English or not… It’s once again their product range that lets them down, they only carry the 6 or 7 brands they are agents for and then they only carry the middle of the road models, for eg. they are the Fox agents, but they only carry 4 or 5 nothing special Fox forks, and 2 shocks… same goes for the other brands Mavic, Cannondale etc. all in all a very sparse, rather empty shop… TBH it seemed like the store front was just an afterthought to the warehouse facility they have next door, so maybe one of their other stores in Taichung proper would have more variety… Evidently there’s one on Xiang Shang Rd…
The quest for Crank Brothers pedals continues… :s
If you’re just looking for Egg Beaters, Look has licensed the design and is making slightly cheaper versions available in some stores here. i have seen them in Colorful Cycle and Kent Cycles in Taipei, for example.
It is ironic that even though it’s all made in Taichung, you can’t buy anything there.
cheers urodacus… I’m really after their Acid and Smarty pedals to do some testing with… I actually work in the bike industry and I’ve already contacted CrankBrother’s head office to apply for OEM buyer status, since I want to spec these pedals on some of our high end bikes, but they are oh so finicky about their OEM sales, I guess understandably since they’ve got a huge aftermarket profit margin empire to protect…
You’re right about it being ironic that so many of the high end product lines are manufactured in the Taichung area yet are basically unavailable for purchase, I was talking with Tony Luo, Giant’s GM/CEO earlier this year and he was saying that it’s a huge obstacle for Giant’s local bikes sales, Taiwanese still view bicycles as being a +/-NT$2000 product, whereas EU/US folks consider a US$2000 to be a fair starting point for a weekend cyclist bike, with enthusiasts spending anything up to US$10,000 for a top flight road setup… hell just my RockShox fork cost 3 times what most 26" MTB hack bikes go for and that’s OEM pricing, retail would be closer to 6-8 times the cost of a complete “bike” from Carrefour etc. and for the “cheap uber alles” local market, it’s going to be the Carrefour junker every time… Hopefuly like Feiren said earlier this recent rise in popularity of cycling might drive a stronger retail/aftermarket environment in TW…
I do like Crank Bros. All my bikes have either Egg Beaters or Candy pedals, so i can wear any of my shoes with any of my bikes.
I think i will actually put the Eggs onto my TCR to save 50 grams. i seem to be able to clip into the eggs faster than the candys. the desperate-must-have-a-pedal-any-pedal-so-i-dont-fall-off-the-mountain-even-if-i’m-not-clipped-in thing seems to be in the candys favor, so my MTB won’t mind. once you’re clipped in the shoe can’t tell the difference.
[quote=“urodacus”]If you’re just looking for Egg Beaters, Look has licensed the design and is making slightly cheaper versions available in some stores here. I have seen them in Colorful Cycle and Kent Cycles in Taipei, for example.
It is ironic that even though it’s all made in Taichung, you can’t buy anything there.[/quote]
I bought a Ritchey BreakAway 2 years ago so that I could have a bike to travel with instead of having a bike in Taiwan and one in the US. The bike was designed by Tom Ritchey and sold as a Ritchey and also licensed by Dahon (Allegro model). However, even though they are built in Taiwan, neither company sells them in Taiwan. My local contact in Tainan, who is a bona fide dealer of several US brands as well as Giant, tried to get a BreakAway through his distributor. The distributor said that it would be a special order. He didn’t want to do it as it would be more trouble than what it was worth. All I can say is that I tried…
By the way, I have Quattro SL’s on the Ritchey and I really like them. No adjustments to mess with. Just jump on and go. My wife has Candy SL’s on her road bike; an Orbea Mitis Dama. I guess you could say that we are all Cranked Up!?!?