Linkou bike trails?

Hi everybody,

I live in Linkou, New Taipei City, and am interested in cycling to de-stress on the weekends. When I lived in Taipei there were lots of nice Riverside bike paths everywhere. I haven’t found anything similar near linkou. Does anybody know of any good cycling options near here? My preference would be for actual bike paths (meaning, not shared with cars/motorcycles, etc). Thank you!

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As far as I know, nothing even remotely similar to Taipei. You’d have to deal with vehicles and Linkou dogs, which are even worse than drivers.

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Never thought about it before but yeah I guess not many bike paths.

The small winding roads on the outskirts of the city are hilly and pretty but motorcycles and sports cars fly through them show up all the time expectedly.

There are bike path just beside the sidewalk along Ren Ai Rd (Carrefour/Starbucks) that have intertwined link to several locations including old street and Outlet.
Not much, but it is there.

That’s in the city, not scenic at all, right?

And it seems in terms of being in nature, there’s only the roads in the surrounding hills, which are shared with cars…

Some options

Throw bike on MRT during bike hours or bag it.

Exit at Kengkou station with bike paths all the way into Taoyuan city or to ocean

Exit Zhongli station or others with bike paths in the city and out into the countryside

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You can ride to Bali from Linkou via the golf course. I’ve done it a few times on a YouBike. There’s some steep downhill runs. So steep the YouBike brakes were literally smoking.

Have to turn left at the golf course to avoid the traffic and trucks. Once you pass the rubbish tip, it’s very lonely. Watch out for stray dogs.

Wouldn’t recommend cycling from Bali to Linkou. Too steep, and the dogs would have a fair chance of catching you.

There’s a lot of bike paths in Bali. I think you can get onto the main bike track back into Taipei.

If you using disk brake, watch out for fire.
If you using pad brake, need to replace the brake pad each time going downhill.

There are people cycling individually or in groups on Saturday and Sunday morning.
After lunch time, probably you and the rabid wild dogs are alone.

The longest route probably the best route (albeit longest) for cycling up to Linkou.

You may see the original Linkou Train Station within the coal power plant area.

Thanks everybody for the tips. I’m not very experienced with biking mountain roads (only driven cars on them) - when you mention dogs, what exactly is the issue with them? will they chase and actually bite you?

and is riding on these mountain roads (for example, to Bali or the northern coast) pretty safe in terms of car traffic?

Yes, some will chase you. My experience is that Linkou dogs are especially enthusiastic about chasing cyclists. Will they bite? Probably not, just keep pedalling so you don’t offer a static target, just in case.

Mountain roads in Taiwan are generally safe to ride in terms of traffic (there are exceptions). Many roads are deserted.

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. . . but still well paved :sunglasses:

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Not around Linkou. People like racing to and from and around the golf courses. It’s even dangerous just driving normally in a car

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you’re talking about the golf course on route 105? and turn left to get onto the 北79?

Also, how does that route compare to just taking 北51 all the way up to Bali?

Yes that’s the turn.

I’ve driven on 51. I didn’t want to cycle on it because there’s too much traffic. And the roads are very narrow.

I chose 北79 because I had my younger son cycling along with me and it seemed like a much quieter road, and it was.

Once we passed the garbage tip / cemetery (below) we were the only people on the road.

Sounds good, I’ll try this route sometime. Thanks!