Like I said. Stormtrooper on a bicycle. Yes, it’s the Deaflympics closing ceremony.
Tag: Mountain Biking
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Stormtrooper on a Bicycle
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Fixed Gear Taiwan 2.0
2 wheels good. 4 wheels better. 6 wheels best.
… my third bike in Taiwan, courtesy of Ken, it’s already been modded with white grips and new saddle. I still need to put some proper KM on it, but isn’t it pretty?!
Checking the scene at PS Tapas in Taipei -
Down With the Kids – Mountain Biking in Taipei
SchooledWe struck it lucky with the yesterday, and penned in an afternoon ride to make room for the previous night’s activities (Japanese Rockabilly Punk, anyone?). As ever, Mark and I winched up for the climb and met the taxi crew at the top. Just before we got there, we passed a group of really rather young mountain bikers riding alone, and on quite decent wheels. This, quite simply, does not happen in Taiwan, so we were delighted to meet some young ones getting out into the hills, and jumped at the chance to guide them down some of our trails. These, dearest industrialists, are the future of Taiwan’s chance of becoming a real force in sport and culture, and the best way it can maintain a lead in Bicycle technology. Take note.
It was quite clear that the kids were going to comprehensively smoke us on the descents after about five minutes of practice – indeed, they grabbed Georg’s new super rig and schooled him in wheelies and bunny hops to his dismay / delight. We descended for over an hour together, managed to avoid getting any of them killed, but left them with Mark to take the easy route home after seeing them begin to get exhausted before the final section.
I have to show super respect to them – we were especially impressed with their flip-flop / body armour combo, and the non-stop hair-combing of one them when we stopped. I hope – really hope – that is is a trend. Really great day of riding again, and hopefully we bump into those kids again soon.
Latest aprés-slope style
Irony, in shoe form… thanks for the photos Georg! -
Goodbye Year of the Pig
It’s a little bit late to celebrate Chinese New Year, but these pictures have been sitting on my hard drive yearning to be posted. After living in Taipei for so long, it’s rare these days that I get a ‘holy shit!’ moment. But happen they do, and in this case, we had three of us with our jaws on the floor screaming a mixture of expletives, ‘gnarrrly duuude’ (Moshe), ‘crazy scheisse eh! (Georg) and ‘goodness gracious me!’ (yours truly).
It seems at one of the temples we ride past on our ‘Gas Plant’ ride to the south of the city bids farewell to the year of the Pig with a rather special … what’s the word … not quite sure what it is. It’s one of the craziest things that I have ever seen anyway, and I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
Sorry for the crap quality – cam phone.
Yum
Completely spherical!
Check out the Mohalk hairdo … I still can’t believe they managed to stretch the skin out like that. And I don’t want to ask how they keep it so perfectly spherical. -
Mud, Glorious Mud
Dad and I braved the incredible (almost) sub-zero temperatures to attempt to ride along the new-fangled Guided Busway route from St. Ives to Cambridge, using the old railway lines. Running was smooth for much of the way, but we hot trouble where the construction ran out, and the mud arrived in typical self-adhesive fashion, entirely locking our wheels up, and leaving Dad dragging his bike the rest of the way (to the pub, at least).
All very amusing – this time next year we should be able to whistle up there in no time.
Trooper.
Suspension not working optimally, perhaps.
This never happens in Taiwan
Just in time – cheers! -
Danshui Run
Considering I am a pretty keen cyclist, I am surprised how long it took me to get out on the cycle paths to Danshui. A good hour away at speed, we were somewhat compromised by the incredible numbers of bleeding folding bikes everywhere. Not to worry – I applaud the government for building it, and double applaud the people for actually using it.
And it was all worth it to round the corner at Guandu with the sun setting through the famous temple, and rattling back home after watching Tropic Thunder with the crew happily racing scooters and paying little heed to traffic law.
Sam grinning at Guandu
The bikes, happily locked up in Ximending … with a key that was elsewhere in Taipei. Luckily Yamin’s brother is a lock smith and had it in pieces in about 30s. Which made me happy, but rather questioned the quality of the lock. -
Lads Bike Ride
Nick prompted me last Sunday to head out with Justin for a pure fixie riding escapade off into the sunset. It’s another twist on the ‘getting together with friends’ Sundays, that seem to be blending in so well into my life … looking forward to more klicks in future.
Head of the peleton
Break away
Wind in our hair
Chase
On the boardwalk -
Cycle Lanes in Taipei
Cycle Lanes in TaipeiThe incredible increasing interest in cycling in the last year is encouraging the city government to install cycle lanes along some of the major streets in the city. It’s a great initiative, and I appreciate the spirit, but next time, how about guiding them away from fire hydrants, up steps less than 20 cm and out of the way of oncoming traffic? One step at a time, chaps.
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Fixie
The wheels of steelOne of my unguilty pleasures in the last two months has been the move to cycling to work. My estimation that the DEM office was the same distance from my house as Dell was slightly off, and a 30 minute walk in the Taipei morning heat is not an awful lot of fun.
It didn’t take too much persuasion from ‘New Yorker in Taipei’ Nick to persuade me to part with 3500 NT$ (about 60 quid) for a brand new fixed gear bike. Yes, it’s a bit of a clunker and needs tightening weekly. Yes 60 quid means it must be very dodgy. But who cares? There is a certain nobility in riding a bike that costs about the same as my seat post on my mountain bike … and if it’s raining? I just leave it outside and don’t worry about it too much.
The fixed gearing without freewheel means I don’t need a brake on the back, and instead braking is now harder work than accelerating. Sounds stupid, eh, but it makes for a wonderfully involved ride, judging the traffic, maintaining momentum, staying smooth and in general staying out of trouble. Taipei is Taipei, so I did pussy out and stick a brake on the front – sorry Nick and the courier purists, but I don’t want to die.
It’s a trend from the streets of NY, London and Berlin that I am happy to import here, but I hope, or at least expect they will not be as popular as the folding bike craze sweeping the island at the moment.
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Bali Mountain Biking
It’s been a while coming while I start work and get back into things, but I am finally sorting some photos from Bali. One of the highlights of the trip was three days mountain biking in the volcanoes in the centre of the island – an island that is much larger than I ever would have expected.
Bikes locked and loaded.The guys at Bali Trailblazers had a pretty thorough set-up with good staff and equipment, in stark contrast to my adventures in Thailand where pretty much everything that could go wrong very much did so. The guide over the three days was Bali champion, and previous Indonesia #1, and boy did he give me a workout. Indeed, for the whole time I felt like he was in training, which may not have been too far away from the truth.
Pointing towards volcanoes.
Altitude.
The green, green fields of home.
Paddy’s Day
Road to Dell
Fields. No more comment.
Looking pretty pleased with myself!
Gratuitous bike photos at the end of the day.And finally, a map of some of the riding and places that I was staying in on the island.