Just putting that out there. I’ve done a lot of exploring around Sanxia and have a lot of awesome road combinations to fill up a good 50-100km of weekend morning riding.
I’m not the fastest rider (I’m on a cheap CX bike with 35c tires!) but I can handle the hills and am good for a solid half day’s ride.
People who don’t like nasty hills need not apply!
Let me know if you’re interested and we can make a plan for sometime in the next coupla…
Was gonna go camping tonight but didnt end up going. That means I’m free to ride tomorrow morning. I’m gonna hit the 118/Luoma Road I think. Anyone (Haokaiyang? Steviebike?) wanna join? PM me if interested!
I’d go if it wasn’t going to be so damn hot. :fume: High of 35 in Taipei, says the weather forecast. I’ll probably go for an evening ride instead. Several weeks ago I did Gongliao at night and had an awesome time.
Have fun! The 118 is such an awesome road.
[quote=“haokaiyang”]I’d go if it wasn’t going to be so damn hot. :fume: High of 35 in Taipei, says the weather forecast. I’ll probably go for an evening ride instead. Several weeks ago I did Gongliao at night and had an awesome time.
Have fun! The 118 is such an awesome road.[/quote]
Ugh. 35. And it has felt so bloody humid the past few days. Speaking of hot, I ended up doing the whole ride after you split last weekend, Baiji and all. I was fine almost the whole way but my neck started killing me toward the end and the heat really got nasty around 11. Just that easy little bit from Zhulun back to my house seemed like 50k, especially that stretch of the 3! Man oh man do faceless Taiwan highways suck ass in the midday heat!
Maybe I’ll do an easier ride tomorrow…
Just saw this thread! Yea looking hot tomorrow and I’ve been given duties to do! Anyway I have most of the week to ride. Let us keep next weekend in mind for a ride?
Anyone who fancies a midweek morning ride (not too early) in the areas mentioned let me know.
Dude, you are so right. The ride home for me was the same way–I was really struggling on easy flat city road. I guess I used up all my energy reserves on my long ride the day before!
I ended up not doing Luoma Rd. I’ll wait for cooler weather as that one would likely require riding past 12. Either that or wait for some company for moral support/misery sharing.
Instead I went all Nick-at-Nite and started my ride at 3:30. I tried that Tucheng to Zhulun route (Longquan/Nantianmu Rd) that Feiren posted in another thread of mine. Surprisingly epic! A pretty long and tough climb with amazing views. A lot more than I expected from lowly old Tucheng. I’ll have to explore that ridge more. Then I hit Ziwei Rd to Baiji (not as hard going up that big hill as I thought, quite easy actually) then headed back to Sanxia to tackle my old Maopu Rd training hill. Only 52km but a damned hilly 52km!
Nice work! I’ll have to try that route with you sometime.
I ended up leaving a little bit after you and doing the pass from Pingxi to Xizhi. Poor visibility at the top meant I didn’t get as amazing a view as usual, but the cool weather was fantastic. Coming home through the graveyard extended the ride to 70 km. Probably not as tough as your ride, though.
Been scouting around today. I’m looking for loop rides, but you never know in Taiwan. Got near the top of the climb only to find the road getting narrow then ending in subsidence and landslide. Didn’t fancy me chances on that. Forgot my camera too, but here is the ride data app.strava.com/rides/21472627
I scouted that on my motorcycle a couple weeks ago. I know exactly the spot you are talking about. I didnt take my motorcycle in there but I’d be willing to walk my bike into it a ways to check it out, especially if I had some backup! I also tried it from the Wuliao side but the ascent is absolutely mental over there and I got low on fuel before I made it to the top.
That gravel trail at the top of the hill also looks interesting, with the right bike/tires. It looks like it comes out on the Taoyuan county road that goes to Dongyangshan. Looks like some very mellow singletrack. Definite loop potential there but who knows. That whole area really got fvcked up by Typhoon Saola.
I thought about it for a little while, but with carbon soled road shoes and 23c tyres on my bike – I didn’t fancy my chances alone or not!
Get a cycloX bike or a 29er up there it might be fun. Anyway worth a look and wouldn’t rule it out for a ‘out and back’ ride in the future. Going to keep scouting the roads out.
I’ve been up that road on a hike and the rough sections, unless they have extended, were only a 10-15 minute walk. According to Belgian Pie they were redoing the section two years ago so it seems landslides have halted the progress again. Good. There was a rich colony of butterflies in there.
[quote=“Steviebike”]I thought about it for a little while, but with carbon soled road shoes and 23c tyres on my bike – I didn’t fancy my chances alone or not!
Get a cycloX bike or a 29er up there it might be fun. Anyway worth a look and wouldn’t rule it out for a ‘out and back’ ride in the future. Going to keep scouting the roads out.[/quote]
Yeah, I’d like to give it a try. The Wuliao side is really beautiful, although it would be a really slow and hand-killing descent. My 35c’s do fine on the mixed bits and my shoes are SPD so no problem walking it through the nastier stuff.
Or you can take a gander at climbing up from the west if you want. It’s the bridge on the left just past Wuliao elementary school. Might want to chug some Paolyta at the little mom and pop shop before you head up that beast! :discodance:
If its not raining too hard I’ll definitely be riding this weekend. Gotta take advantage of the cooler weather. I don’t care if I go SW (Fuxing, Guanxi, Jianshi etc.) or SE (Pingxi, Shuangxi, Wulai, Pinglin etc.), I just want to go for a long ride! I can go either Saturday or Sunday. Anyone else up for a long (100km-ish) ride?
Also, I’d like to plan an all weekend ride for sometime before winter (maybe Yongning MRT-Smangus or Ilan Station-Wuling?) if anyone is interested.
[quote=“Mucha Man”]I’ve been up that road on a hike and the rough sections, unless they have extended, were only a 10-15 minute walk. According to Belgian Pie they were redoing the section two years ago so it seems landslides have halted the progress again. Good. There was a rich colony of butterflies in there.[/quote] It’s sliding back into the jungle but still about 80% rideable going up on a wet day. I crossed it last weekend. It’s a 15-20 minute walk if you are on a road bike.
[quote=“PaddyB”]If its not raining too hard I’ll definitely be riding this weekend. Gotta take advantage of the cooler weather. I don’t care if I go SW (Fuxing, Guanxi, Jianshi etc.) or SE (Pingxi, Shuangxi, Wulai, Pinglin etc.), I just want to go for a long ride! I can go either Saturday or Sunday. Anyone else up for a long (100km-ish) ride?
Also, I’d like to plan an all weekend ride for sometime before winter (maybe Yongning MRT-Smangus or Yilan Station-Wuling?) if anyone is interested.[/quote]
I have tutoring both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, so no long rides for me. I’m not complaining, though–I need all the extra cash I can get!
Have you cycled to Smangus before? That’s a crazy crazy hard ride. I tried it in 2007 and made it about halfway before I blew a tire and wasn’t able to patch it. (I’d forgotten to bring a spare.) So I hitched a ride home with a couple in an SUV whose dog got carsick and puked all over my lap. It sounds awful, but it was actually really funny, not to mention a great bonding experience. I just went down into the river and washed myself off.
[quote=“haokaiyang”][quote=“PaddyB”]If its not raining too hard I’ll definitely be riding this weekend. Gotta take advantage of the cooler weather. I don’t care if I go SW (Fuxing, Guanxi, Jianshi etc.) or SE (Pingxi, Shuangxi, Wulai, Pinglin etc.), I just want to go for a long ride! I can go either Saturday or Sunday. Anyone else up for a long (100km-ish) ride?
Also, I’d like to plan an all weekend ride for sometime before winter (maybe Yongning MRT-Smangus or Yilan Station-Wuling?) if anyone is interested.[/quote]
I have tutoring both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, so no long rides for me. I’m not complaining, though–I need all the extra cash I can get!
Have you cycled to Smangus before? That’s a crazy crazy hard ride. I tried it in 2007 and made it about halfway before I blew a tire and wasn’t able to patch it. (I’d forgotten to bring a spare.) So I hitched a ride home with a couple in an SUV whose dog got carsick and puked all over my lap. It sounds awful, but it was actually really funny, not to mention a great bonding experience. I just went down into the river and washed myself off.[/quote]
Classic! 
I haven’t cycled out that way yet but I’ve ridden my motorcycle there two or three times. It is even tiring on a motorcycle so I guess it would be pretty brutal on a bike. I’d definitely make a two trip of it and stay there overnight (I think that goes without saying?).
That’s a three day ride for most mortals.
I think I could do Neiwan to Smangus in a day, but that would be one hell of a long hard day. When I did it before, I took two wrong turns up different mountain roads before finally getting it right, and as a result, I didn’t get to the top of Yulao Shan until the sun was setting. But that actually worked out perfectly, because I was able to wash myself off at the faucet outside the police station there and set up my tent on an observation pavilion. Best night I’ve ever spent camping in Taiwan!
As an extra bonus, I happened to run into the cast and crew of Msgamil: Once Upon a Time (泰雅千年) on Yulao Shan as they were wrapping up a day of filming. This resulted in one of my favorite pictures of all time.
Here’s the pavilion where I camped.
And here’s why climbing the mountain was so hard. Camping gear is heavy!
