Big shout for Jiuquan 191, always always always helpful!
And your third one is owned by @ttwan, who posted above.
Yeah, initially I wasnāt sure if I liked the guy (and if he liked me, a foreigner with too many questions), but since he proved to deliver and be helpful I kept going back to him and Iām happy heās around.
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I know. And probably by another poster in this thread, dunno the details of their arrangement 
For full disclosure I was there with a friend who works in the industry so I might have gotten some discount.
Like 80% percent of the bike shops here 
For the full pedal itās really cheap, for the duo Shi still very cheap. If you order on CRC itās 493 euros plus import taxes so around 16800. Cheaper shops in Europe right now donāt ship to Taiwan or shipping makes it more expensive.
I will drop by, itās very close and ask about current pricing
I have a 2006 Santa Cruz Superlight in the U.K., fully refurbished brakes and suspension. Rebuilt rear wheel. when Taiwan eventuality letās me return Iāll with all the hassle bring with me.
Worth far more in Taiwan than England.
And a classic original parts from new, so bit of a poseur bike really.
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You know as far as bikes go, I find Taiwan bikes are cheaper. Maybe because Iām just looking at low end road bikes?
I can buy the same bike that Youbike uses for around 9000ntā¦
In the US that money buys you a used bikeā¦
yes low end is different - because you need to assemble in the EU to avoid high tariffs. So low end bikes are cheaper here. Anything over 60.000 ntd gets (significantly) cheaper in Europe. For MTB bigger differences or end of season sale (which for me is where I get all my bikes, or demos end of season)
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Actually I didnāt want to wait for imports from Europe so I got pedals (ultegra as they didnāt have the nearly identical 105) and the Duo Shi at the aforementioned Taichung shop for 22k. Thatās 2k cheaper than the cheapest shop on shopee. Yes importing is cheaper, but I didnāt wanna wait 2 weeks. They didnāt have the favero dual look version.
I do have some problems with the left right Balance however, which is obviously wrongā¦ But yeah thatās another problem.
Winter culotte for 1000NT https://m.decathlon.tw/mobile_zh/cycling-c305754.html
Same model in Europe costs 80ā¬: https://www.decathlon.es/es/p/culotte-largo-ciclismo-hombre-van-rysel-rcr-frio-extremo/_/R-p-305754?mc=8545578&c=NEGRO
Sometimes there are better deals in Taiwan. Maybe in this case itās because the culotte is overkill for Taiwan weather.
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Thatās on offer right now, just bought one. 2 weeks ago it was 2000
But even at 2000 it was 500NT/17ā¬ cheaper.
I also bought one to retire an ancient Santini.
Passing through a small town south Taiwan āhad the shifter replaced, brake pads replaced, labor, bought 2 spare tubes total NT$900.ā
Havenāt heard of half of these brands.
You should all go out and buy one of these, because everything else is inferior, and youāre disgusting. /sarcasm
I think people buy some of this stuff just for the bragging rights of ownership. There will be some who privately enjoy it for what it is but this is another level of nonsense. I mean, the same bike was Ā£1200 cheaper last year, whatās changed? Headset less likely to fail and kill you.
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Cheap bikes and stuff is cheaper. For decathlon some things are cheaper (very few, because the 2000 pants add another 15 percent vat and you end up at 80 euros when they made the price with 34-35 ntd/euro exchange rate, but most things at decathlon are more expensive.
The cheaper end stuff at decathlon is same quality or worse than what you get once a year at Aldi or LIDL for 2-3 times the price.
Cheapest bike shirt with pockets, 650 ntd, similar shirt once a year at Aldi in Germany is like 7-8 Euros (230ntd), after a week if leftover 5 Euros (150ntd)ā¦
The 999 instead of 1999 winter pants were more or less sold out already however. Guess next season itās a new model so need to be sold now. In Europe the sale will start in April, cause right now winter clothes are still in high demandā¦
But yeah, if you buy stuff from taobao itās cheaper here than in Europe. But sadly Ali express usually excludes taiwan for free shipping so those 60 ntd bicycle lights arenāt buyable in Taiwanā¦
With 5 percent vat actually everything should be 15 percent cheaper. Plus likely lower import taxes Vs EU.
Iām sometimes thinking it would be a great business opportunity to buy surplus stock of things like chocolate or olive oil in Europe, ship it here and sell it for the abusive local prices. I mean cocoa has a world market price, there should be similar prices for chocolate from Taiwan brands but yet Nadaā¦ In comparison bicycle stuff is priced okay. But yeah itās a shame if the made in Taiwan bike is more expensive here than in Europe.
And some things even though made in Taiwan you donāt get the same quality. E.g. at decathlon the top two van rysel road bikes arenāt sold, and the next two are downgraded with cheaper wheels and rim brakes instead of discs. Essentially the Taiwan top end van rysel bike costs 25 percent more before taxes in Taiwan, for a made in Taiwan bikeā¦ But yeah Taiwan people seem to love rim brakes, which I cannot understand anymore after cycling a lot here and really wanting 30 or 32 mm tires in my road bike to make up for the bad road quality if itās not a street that is super crowdedā¦ but yeah with rim brakes 28mm is the max, and on my frame even lousy 25mm. Actually Iām
fine with rim brakes, but not with 28mm max size tires. Right now paying a big premium for Vittoria Corsa tires cause they are at 25mm as comfortable as other tires at 28. Would prefer just buying the cheap 28 or better 32 mm Conti ultra Sport 3ā¦ Cause already now I kinda go through one rear tire per month. In May with hotter weather it will be worse.
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Where are you from and why you make the roads with silk there? I think the roads here are very good (the surface). Where Iām from, many roads feel like the tarmac (or what is left) is decades old.
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Austria or Switzerland. There is no comparison in smoothness of small/empty roads, heck even bigger difference for cycleways, but yeah in Austria besides the EV ones they arenāt really suitable for riding fast either, though better than Taiwan where I never use any cycleway cause they are dangerous as fā¦k - but same in Europe for many. Holland or Denmark is paradise for cycleways, the even got cycle freewaysā¦ The big roads are very good in Taiwan, but littered with cars. As soon as you take the white ones on Google maps around Taichung you want 30-35mm tires.
In Austria or Switzerland small mountain roads are usually pristine condition, same in northern Italy and very few cars.
Yes Germany has been saving a lot on road infrastructure the last 20 years since agenda 2010
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Thatās cheating.
Around Taipei even the smallest roads are in good condition. I December I rode a segment of old road. In February it was black and smooth again.
The worse roads here are gravel (or rocks) in other places. I canāt complain.
