Motorcycle trip planned, gets complicated

Life Cars & Motorcycles
1

I am planning this Motorcycle trip with a few friends.
Our plan is going down the east coast, over the central mountain “highway” and back the 7 towards Taipei.

I am riding a ten year old 125 Wolf, which is doing a great job around the hills of Yangmingshan. But for going into the central mountains and taking a passenger, I would like to change to a bigger bike.

Not as easy as I thought it would be!
In south Taiwan, Pingdong, Tainan, Chiayi, this would simply mean going to the rental place and renting a nice 150cc KTR or T1 for about 800/day, maybe get a two day discount.

Not so in Taipei, none of the (few) Scooter rental places have any motorcycles at all.
The motorcycle rental places only rent really heavy machines, with 250cc on the low end for 1800NT$/day… See here for example: 62.com.tw/n_menu2.htm

BTW, scooter rental places can be found on the following website, if anyone is looking for it: motor-map.cc/rent.html
They also have Info on motorcycle shipping to other cities in Taiwan and contacts for mechanics.
I also found Bike Farm, run by Jeremy bikefarm.net/ who rents scooters on a montly basis to people visiting Taipei , especially foreigners, but he doesn’t rent short term for long distance trips…

The closest place along my route that has anything useful, would be in Luodong in Yilan County…

Any suggestions from anyone? Maybe someone has a Zinger or something to lend out he is not using on the weekend April 30. and May 01.? Or did I miss a place?

2

Check on Chengde Rd.

Zhengjie rentals Chengde Rd. Section 1 No. 82

Xiangshun Chengde Rd. Sec. 1 near Huaiyin

Hongyang just past the Tonglian Station [is that still there?]

According to the post here Xiangshun is the best of the lot. There are more rental place on Chengde Rd. since t is near the bus station.

[quote]正捷租車 25585914 承德路一段82號 <尊龍旁> 125cc 一天650元<旺日700> 一小時80元----本人覺得ㄊㄉ車不是說很讚><

翔順租車 0938551799 承德路一段.華蔭街裡面.25507869 125cc 一天600 <旺日650>----ㄊ們ㄉ車不錯,都很新~~高手.RS.G3.G4.勁戰都有!!而且ㄊ們可以甲地借乙地還

宏揚租車 25596177 也在承德路上,統聯過ㄑ一點就看到了! 125cc一天650 一小時80元<旺日700>----可以凹價錢,熟了以後常常跟ㄊ凹價錢~老闆人很好~但是ㄊ們的車 我只能說"不予置評"拉~每次騎出ㄑ每次都有問題 還要我們賠摳摳><
[/quote]

[quote=“jmeyer”]I am planning this Motorcycle trip with a few friends.
Our plan is going down the east coast, over the central mountain “highway” and back the 7 towards Taipei.

I am riding a ten year old 125 Wolf, which is doing a great job around the hills of Yangming Shan. But for going into the central mountains and taking a passenger, I would like to change to a bigger bike.

Not as easy as I thought it would be!
In south Taiwan, Pingdong, Tainan, Jiayi, this would simply mean going to the rental place and renting a nice 150cc KTR or T1 for about 800/day, maybe get a two day discount.

Not so in Taipei, none of the (few) Scooter rental places have any motorcycles at all.
The motorcycle rental places only rent really heavy machines, with 250cc on the low end for 1800NT$/day… See here for example: 62.com.tw/n_menu2.htm

BTW, scooter rental places can be found on the following website, if anyone is looking for it: motor-map.cc/rent.html
They also have Info on motorcycle shipping to other cities in Taiwan and contacts for mechanics.
I also found Bike Farm, run by Jeremy bikefarm.net/ who rents scooters on a montly basis to people visiting Taipei , especially foreigners, but he doesn’t rent short term for long distance trips…

The closest place along my route that has anything useful, would be in Luodong in Yilan County…

Any suggestions from anyone? Maybe someone has a Zinger or something to lend out he is not using on the weekend April 30. and May 01.? Or did I miss a place?[/quote]

3

That was a good call, at least the guy from 翔順租車 knew a colleague near Danshui who has 150cc Wolf, that might make things easier… They are asking for 900/day

4

Could be wrong here, but (assuming your 125 Wolf isn’t knackered) I’d be surprised if the hassle and expense of renting an unfamiliar 150cc machine is justified by the marginal gain in performance.

I’d say service your machine and go.

5

You might be right, but let me explain my train of thought…
Hmm, at least from riding other 150cc bikes, the performance gain is not that marginal at all… It’s the critcal torque when going up long mountain stretches…
With two passengers a 125 needs to be held on low gear high rpm, its ok for Yangmingshan or something, but i am not so comfortable with long distance uphill.

Or to put it differently, I just want to try something new and different… Seems like fun… Last time I borrowed a T1 in Chiayi and had quite a day…

6

[quote=“jmeyer”]You might be right, but let me explain my train of thought…
Hmm, at least from riding other 150cc bikes, the performance gain is not that marginal at all… It’s the critcal torque when going up long mountain stretches…
With two passengers a 125 needs to be held on low gear high rpm, its ok for Yangming Shan or something, but I am not so comfortable with long distance uphill.

Or to put it differently, I just want to try something new and different… Seems like fun… Last time I borrowed a T1 in Jiayi and had quite a day…[/quote]

OK, fair enough.

I can relate to your second point, but until very recently I hadn’t realised that sub-250cc motorcycle hire was available, though I’ve hired scooters often here in Tainan. I’ll have to ask around. Thanks for the heads-up.

7

For me, a no-brainer, rent a T-Max. They are terrific touring 2-up.

8

Might be… But 500cc are a bit above my licence, need to wait until summer until I could upgrade…

[quote=“Ducked”]
OK, fair enough.

I can relate to your second point, but until very recently I hadn’t realised that sub-250cc motorcycle hire was available, though I’ve hired scooters often here in Tainan. I’ll have to ask around. Thanks for the heads-up.[/quote]

In Tainan there were some available at the back train station… At that time I was travelling with my mom though, so I borrowed a big scooter with comfortable seats…
Every type of travel has its own preferred means of transportation^^