good suggestions
zhongshe i have to try for sure. seems to be a hotspot on the strava heatmap.
This week i did another very scenic route:
zhishan road → left turn into pingjing st. → wenhua daxue → tianmu
27km / 560m elevation gain
actually wanted to extend up to qingtiangang, but left too late and didn’t want to ride in the dark.
notice: you need good brakes for the steep descend down to tianmu.
Brave taking that descent down from the university, but since those restaurants and the uni are not open, you don’t get that much traffic going up or down.
yes, much less cars than usual. but still lot’s of scooters, the area outside the university and also down the road near the “the top” restaurant was full with parked scooters.
but still better then “yangde boulevard”, which feels like a race track.
thank you! i only bring my phone galaxy s10, all default settings.
If you make it up towards Sha Mao Rd, you can consider descending Zhong Shan North Road Section 7. Really steep at the beginning of the descent and then the road narrows to a one way near the bottom, but I do it for the view halfway down the valley.
Ha … amusing how busy this thread is on such a rainy day. Maybe we’re all eager but unable to ride, so we’re posting here instead.
Aww man, Saturday morning is the soonest time the Forecast Bar app is showing it NOT raining in Danshui, and that’s just for a couple of hours in the morning. I hope it’s wrong.
I just came from a quick ride. Since the forecast says rain for the whole week, I just prepared my mind to assume I’d get wet. It felt like I went swimming instead of cycling. But at least it reminded me a bit of competing in triathlon.
It’s not that bad once you stop worrying of keeping yourself dry. Also, it takes away the nastiness of cycling in the heat!
I’m not so much worried about getting wet as the safety. Don’t the roads get awfully slippery? Especially anything painted, which in Taiwan is often a big chunk of the road?
I hit the road quite hard in the rain when I drifted wide and tired lost traction on all the dead plant matter and bs that accumulates at the edge of the road.
When it was sunny I forced myself to go ride because I knew there would be many days of rain coming up.
It must be the dream to live in California because it doesn’t rain much there.
Htfu and go ride in the rain! It’s so much cooler than the full-on sunny days.
Just make sure to wear glasses. And gloves. Mudguards if you’re soft.
And then wash your bike before you take it back upstairs in the elevator.
And do a full clean and grease. And wash your chain. And replace your brake pads. And oil your saddle. And drain and lube your bottom bracket. And clean all your cable runs internally.
Or just have a beer and watch tv. Tour de France coming up!
The only time I really did not enjoy riding in the rain was during my Huan Dao and the stretch from Feng Bing to Hualien on the coastal road. It started down pouring and there were zero street lights on the road. My buddy who I was riding with decided to go all out and left me in the dark…
Oh yeah, there was another time when I wore a white jersey.
I stick to the riverside tracks on rainy days and ride at a lower speed. It’s more boring, but works if you are desperate for a ride and some fresh air.
But yeah, cleaning the bike is a pain in the ass. Sometimes I’m lazy and just use a youbike or work out at home.
I went out yesterday from about 16:30 for 40 minutes and kept wondering if it would rain. It didn’t and it was a nice little ride.
Today, started at 101 and went up Balaka, then down balaka and down the No 8 to No 2 and back home.
Balaka road was wet in a lot of places with a lot debris in the road on some corners. I took it super slow. I checked Strava and man those guys must of been flying down. The person on top today had an average speed of 32km/h while mine was 21km/h.
Not many cars were on that road which was great and I’m really enjoying cycling during covid with less cars on the road.
