Sounds dreamlike, i look forward to enjoying it one day
If you didn’t go around the duck head, you could’ve gone to Keelung (just follow Keelung river upstream) and back. Well, maybe not all the way to the harbor, but certainly into Keelung city limit, which you’ll cross inside a bike tunnel. Look for the marker on the floor. Much more interesting than staying in Taipei city.
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Thanks, I need more night routes…weather permitting will give that a try tomorrow night.
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If you want to try a climb in that night route of yours, you can give Jian Nan Rd a try. It’s about 1km up the road from the DaZhi river entrance with minimal traffic. The climb itself is short, has new(er) tarmac and well lit.
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Yahtzee!!! thanks, if not too wet tonight will skip duckhead and go up there to explore.
If you are feeling up to it, there’s an alternate road up to an amazing look out. The road is well paved, but narrow and has no street lights! If your front light is not at least 400 lumines, I would not attempt it at night.
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My front light has a several settings but will have to research how many lumines. 
I might check out the narrow part during daylight if seems like it is too sketchy.
Hmm. Never knew that existed. Funny, I rode around those parts for many years and was always surprised by how many tiny little tracks went every which way and I never found them all. Them and all those 1000s of tiny roads east of Taipei, between Keelung and Ruifang. Great way to explore by getting lost, as long as you still have some elevation left in the legs.
Night time that seems like a good place to find plenty of snakes as well, so factor that into your light choices…
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The second half of that road/look out could be new, but maybe before it was industrial road surface for the back entrance to the military installment on Jian Nan Rd.
I still can’t believe you were hammering those tiny roads on the gearing you had. I have ridden the climb up to this spot by Gong Liao and it was probably the hardest climb I have ever done in Taipei.
God no! I have more than one bike, you know! the SS steel frame Colnago was good for riding Balaka and so on, but the exploring days in the mountains were on a good old TCR with carbon wheels and Record compact 50-34 with a 10-27 cassette, thank you very much. As light as possible, and enough gearing to climb whatever i found.
How many times a week do you guys ride?
Still a pretty godly set up for Taipei mountains. I am crying on 52/36 with 11-30. I see a huge difference when I swap out the crank set for 50/34, but I just haven’t had the time to make the swap ever since level 3.
I try to get on the bike 3x a week. Anymore than that and the SO gets a bit unhappy.
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Before the Level 3 covid restrictions I only rode once a week. But without the ability to play sports after work (and now working from home) I’m riding 3-4 times a week.
It’ll be interesting, how I might divide my time once things start to open up and if I am back in the office until 6pm.
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Try some of the back roads between Mudan and Huotong Cat Village. download a good scale Google map before you go because reception is very bad there in places. there’s also a tenuous connection over to Luodong and/or Fulong. You might want to catch the bus home…
I try to take one day out of the work week to do a night ride. I get home at around 7 and have a snack, head out by 7:45 and home by 10:30. If it’s a rough week, it’s good for stress relief and I usually sleep better.
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Thanks @ranlee for the recommendation for the night climb. Looking at the gradient % when making the route I thought I was in for some holy hell pain, but it was pretty mild. It didn’t seem like average of 6.5% on some of those segments.
Was lucky that there was not a drop of rain in that area. The skies looked threatening but I took a chance. Heading back home and over the bridge I took duckhead down south and there were lots of puddles, so that side must have been hit with showers.
One problem with strava route-building is that they don’t know certain tunnels bikes cannot go through. So I’m following my wahoo and it says go straight into the tunnel when I see the sign it is a no-no. So with my lack of knowledge I had to figure out how to get to the bridge.
I guess I will have to be ultra careful as I know there are a few tunnels just as you get out of Taipei-proper.
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So true. I had a terrible day with work problems yesterday and just had to get out even with the dark clouds and forecast saying 50% chance of showers.
Yes, I would not advise taking the tunnel underneath Song Shan Airport. Some cyclists take it early early in morning as it is quite empty and gotten lucky with cops more concerned about drunk drivers at 5-6AM than cyclists taking tunnels.
For Zhi Qiang linking Dazhi and NPM area, you can take that in both directions. However, the NPM → Da Zhi direction, there’s no scooter lane, so if you are not used to cycling in a tunnel with cars right behind you, I would advise just taking Jian Nan Rd. back. It’s much safer, but the tunnel is there if you are in a rush to get home.
What I usually do is take the tunnel going to NPM and then Jian Nan Rd back. Despite how physically dead I may be from my ride, Jian Nan is always
a better choice as you don’t need to exert too much physical and mental strength when it’s a near empty road.
If you have a bit more in you and want to explore a bit more, you can try heading towards Bai Shi Hu draw bridge/Bi Shan. This climb is a bit tough in the initial hairpins after Feng Lin Bridge, but once you get over the hump, it’s pretty smooth sailing from there.
- Head up towards Zhi Shan Rd
- Turn right onto Feng Lin Bridge
- After 2 hairpins, you’ll enter a 3 way intersection, turn right (yes, I know that ramp looks stpee af) but trust me, it is much easier after you get over that hump.
- There’s a cross road, go left towards Neihu. (right takes you back to Zhi Shan Rd)
- Follow the road to another 3 way intersection, turn right and 50m in front of you is the peak.
- Follow the road down and you’ll find yourself on the road behind Neihu MRT/Neihu City Link
The descent into Neihu is pretty steep and technical, if you are not used to long(er) and steep descents yet, I would stay away from this for a bit until you are used to climbing/descending.
Choice number 2 is just going to the end of Zhi Shan Rd. There’s a small temple at the top once you pass Shen Ren Waterfall sign. This is good to practice descending because Zhi Shan Road is pretty long, wide and gradients vary from 2% all the way to 8-10%.
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