@autorelease fitting name though 
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Eh, don’t worry about it. It’s happened to me twice, once after the first time I got them, and a second time after I hadn’t been on a bike in a long while. That’s over twenty years. Happens to everyone once or twice but isn’t a regular thing.
Definitely a rite of passage. First ones I got I had cranked up the tension to the max thinking that was the safest. So, my flop was in front of the store a gal I was trying to impress worked at. I was flailing around on my back trying to get my feet out of the pedals while she and her co-workers watched through the store windows. Never again.
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No way shell forget you though. Amiright?
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I did same thing, except not fall off but when my companions stopped for a break I carried on riding round in Circles trying to remove my feet so they didn’t notice.
Asked you not having a break, I’m like no I’m sweet today. Eventually leaned against a tree and managed to get cleats out.
Missed my break, Worth it rather than The embarrassment,
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After years I’m still nervous about this happening in traffic.
You’re not alone.
I came across this video and it looks like the path you took. Gorgeous views, indeed! But they only rode up to the hydroelectric power plant, which is where the bike path ends apparently.
Last week I saw this foreign couple on a race bike passing through the boonies.
They look something like this?
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Last week I saw this foreign couple on two race bikes passing through the boonies.
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Aw man, the original would have been more exciting.
Nice ride this morning, out along the coast from Danshui, up the 北18 from Cape Fugui, around Qingshan Road up in the hills. I’ve done the reverse of this route a bunch of times, but today was the first time I did it this direction. That climb up 北18 was tough, but not as horrible as I anticipated.
I started doing more hills back in January or February. My times kept improving for a few months - but my segment times are currently a significant amount slower than they were back in May (at least for those segments I’d done back then). I’m hoping this is just a summer thing, and when the temperatures cool off I’ll get faster again.
I also hope that, once the heat wanes, I won’t be stuck in a brain fog for the whole day after I ride!
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Take a siesta like the locals. Clears away the fog.
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Today’s ride: I did @ranlee’s Tour of Taipei, clockwise, with an additional 25km or so added on to get there from Danshui. Despite foolishly turning Strava off for a brief stretch, the 90km recorded still wound up being my longest ride recorded with Strava (bike computer said 96km) - probably my longest ride ever, although not as tough as those circles I’ve been doing via north coast / Jinshan / Balaka.
Huh. So that’s where Academica Sinica is. I’ve wondered about that for a long time.
I seem to be more homesick for Vancouver than I realized (I normally visit every summer). To my surprise, I saw a crow while descending … er … whatever that hill is. Only hill on the route. First time I’ve seen a crow in the Taipei area, although I’ve seen them higher up in the central mountains. I thought to myself “No way, that’s not a crow!”, and then it caw-caw-cawed, and I suddenly deeply, deeply missed the friggin’ noisy and annoying and swarming crows of the Vancouver area.
I’m now at 421km for the month, which is another personal best with Strava. Not sure if I’d have done more than that in pre-Strava days. The bikes weren’t as good, the regular rides weren’t as long, but I was younger and sometimes riding more frequently than I am now.
Legs were fine, bum was not fine. Ouch.
You’d think by now I’d have a better read on Taipei weather. So often I’ve turned around due to threatening clouds, to get home and see skies that remained rainless. Today I thought, nope, all fine! Even in the last stretch coming home to Danshui, there were some fluffy clouds that made me think “Oh, those might be a problem in a couple of hours.” And then 20 minutes after I got home, darkness descended, and heavy rain came soon after. Good timing on my part, but where was that storm hiding?!
Doesn’t work for me, unfortunately. I’ll pass out for an hour or more (sometimes much more!), be even foggier upon waking up, and then have trouble getting to sleep that night. I know, I know, it’s supposed to be better to set an alarm and get up after 30 minutes or so, and I’ve often set that alarm, but I have never, ever succeeded in getting up with it.
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I also wonder about this. I rode a lot in Colorado during college, but it was pre-GPS (or at least, bike GPS was just coming out and so expensive that no one had it, I actually remember one guy on the team recording his rides and we could go see the map online, the novelty of it was amazing).
How much did I actually ride back then? How fast was I? Who the hell knows. Lost in the mists of time. I seem to remember doing 300 miles a week… but like, isn’t that a lot…?
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Yup - no doubt I’m at “my best” for cycling right now; I’ve certainly never been doing hills like I have this year. But there was a year in Korea, and my first year in Tainan, when my only form of transportation was a bicycle (very cheap bikes!), and I was riding everywhere in those days, including for commutes and grocery shopping and weekend trips. And, er, more times at pubs than I care to think. (Plus lots of walks or buses or taxis back to bars the next morning, for the times I was wise enough to leave the bike locked up.) All those trips must have added up.
I definitely wasn’t doing 300 miles a week!! But 40km a week? 150km? Could be anywhere in that range.
This past weekend I finally made it to the base of the Taipingshan climb. I set out (very) early from home in Yuanshan, Yilan, cut down to the Annong River path and rode that straight out to Tiansongpi. From Tiansongpi you climb a bit then ride out to Niudou, where you can cross the Lanyang River over to Route 7, or you can ride the south bank of the river, which is the 宜51, starting in Niudou. I intended to ride the 宜51 out to Tuchang (base of the Taipingshan climb) and then back the same way.
But I made a rookie mistake and didn’t bring any food, thinking the big bowl of oatmeal I’d had at home would be enough. It wasn’t–I have barely any miles in my legs and you need more food in that condition. So by the time I got to the new bridge out at Tuchang, I was ravenous. I opted to cross to the north bank and ride back on the 7, in hopes of finding some food. Sure enough, a lady was selling Pocari and snacks by the side of the road.
Having now fully ridden both the north and south banks, I would say the 宜51 is far superior. However, you have to climb more. The 7 is high traffic and very bumpy, whereas the 宜51 is stunning riding on smooth recently paved tarmac with zero vehicles. Big thumbs up.
The route: 76.1 km Ride Activity on August 23, 2020 by Henry K. on Strava
The new bridge:
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This is the write up that we need, but do not deserve.
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Up and down the Balaka, out of Danshui, this morning. Stupid phone weather apps … woke up at 6am, checked my phone, it said it was raining, almost an hour later I opened the curtains and discovered it was gorgeous! (I have GOT to get in the habit of just getting up and opening the curtains, rather than reading my phone before bothering to get out of bed.) By the time I headed out there were clouds looming; by the time I got to the start of the Balaka road there was sun one way, heavy dark clouds the other way. The whole way up I kept thinking “OK, one more km, maybe turn around then, because I don’t want to get caught in rain” - but no rain actually started until the first parking lot, beside the small lake. Went to the second parking lot, and by now it was definitely starting to rain, so rather than head up Datunshan I headed home. The ride down was interesting - HEAVY rain for about five minutes at one point. So … water can pool up in my cycling shoes, enough for one of them to get squishy? I didn’t know that!
Mountain rides + weather are amusing. I’m never sure if it’s more accurate to say “It’s raining now” versus “It’s raining here (but maybe isn’t raining 100 meters down the road)”. I like to think I worried some of the climbers on my descent - I was pretty obviously drenched, and they were still riding in sunshine. “Uh oh, are we about to ride into a storm?” “Yes. Yes you are.”
We’re still getting summer temperatures, but things have cooled down enough that my performance is definitely improving. I got personal bests on almost every segment today, which was nice. And during the first stage of that descent, in light rain and cooler temperatures at the top, I was almost cold! I don’t think I’ve ever actually been cold on a bicycle in Taiwan! (This is not because I’m tough, but rather because I’m too much of a wimp to bother cycling on cold wet days.) Hey, maybe that cycling jacket I got years ago will prove useful after all, assuming it doesn’t disintegrate when I finally try to wear it.
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