Jonny had a crash. Wrist broken. Rather sad, since I am supposed to be diving next week, and my new bike arrives this Thursday.
And sitting in the hospital yesterday, I really felt a long way from home!
🙁
Tag: Mountain Biking
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The Legend of La La Shan
This was the big one. The ride we had all been talking about, and finally we were doing it. Peter provided the prod, the good weather reports the motivation, and two local dingbats with buses the transportation.
We are an international bunch – Peter from Ireland, Lee from Taiwan, Mike from Oz, Ludvig from Sweden, Mark from the USA, Martin from Switzerland, Me from Ingerland, and George from Germany. Sounds like the Eurovision. Peter would win.La La Shan by bike sounded like heaven. 2 hours by bus into the mountains south of Taipei followed by 16km of pristine singletrack, hot springs in Wulai and home in time for dinner.
Mmmmm… singletrack in the sunshine. 16 Km of it! Sort of.
It almost ended up like that. But then it also nearly ended up with several of us walking home. I have never been on a ride beset by so much catastrphic mechanical failure – in the space of about 200m we had 3 flat tyres (all on Peter’s bike, I would like to add…) a wobbly bottom bracket, 2 shredded tyres (Peter’s again), a rather worrying wobble from one of the rear suspension units, and then there was me.
Nik will not be pleased!
The record for flats goes to Peter Grogan of Ireland
My chain is in there somewhere…
The only warning I had that I would riding the remainder of the ride with one gear was a mild tinking sound from the rear of the bike. Stoping to inspect, I discovered that the derailleur had caught up in the spokes of my wheel, snapping the chain, taking out a spoke (and buckling the wheel) and both breaking the gear hanger and bending the derailleur itself. Hmmm. Houston, we have a problem.
Spot the deliberate mistake
Lee’s turn
“WHEN WILL THIS END?”
Luckily, one of the middling gears on the rear gave me reasonable chain tension, so I was able to make it along just fine – especially because the gradient meant that pedalling was rarely needed. It did, however, mean that the 19 K back to Wulai had me spinning my pedals like crazy, and no explanations that Lance Armstrong demonstrates a similar ‘supplesse’ escaped the fact that my feet were twirling away as fast as my rear wheel was bouncing around.
Mark is pleased to be motoring again – home for lunch? hmmm
Bike at rest – wheels, chain and rear sprocket less than 18 hours old!
Sadly, much of the riding… was more like clinging on for dear life
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Why does that always happen to me?! Don’t tell MumGeorge and I made the wise choice of staying in Wulai and sampling the hot springs. Marvellous. Tremendous. Just what I needed. Switching between natural hot spring, chatting with locals while sipping tea and jumping in the river, was really special – especially holding on to a rope and allowing the cool waters of the river to drift past me, with only my mouth and nose above the water. It really brought me home … or maybe that was just the endorphines kicking in.
Wrong way, Mark!
PS. I would like to state that the formatting on this blog is all over the place because Blogger decreed that this should be the final layout. Note to self – do not use the automatic image upload system again.
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Canned Heat
The humidity has arrived.
There is no escape.
… but a fantastic, brilliant mountin bike ride took me to a peak covered in clouds … and it was so cold we were shivering. The weather systems in Taipei are very strange. Indeed, we spent ten minutes shaking over our coffees and marvelling at the clouds forming over our heads as the cool air of the sea hit the bowl of soup – Taipei.
And an epic, awesome, brilliant descent – a perfect way to spend a bank holiday afternoon!
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Graveyard Sessions
The weather in Taiwan is perfect. What else to do except shred the rad!
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In the Bleak Mid Winter
The mountain biking in Taiwan this past year has been one of the major highlights, and a regular feature on schedule. I started riding at about 14, and my main riding buddy has always been my Dad. Many of our most memorable rides have been found in the gap between Christmas and New Year when the Peak District seems to deliver crisp, cold, clear weather.Somewhat contrasting the sub-tropical riding of Taiwan, today was one of the coldest mountain bike rides I have ever experienced. Starting at Chatsworth House, we ascended through fields of snow and frost, with the rock-hard mud punishing any mistakes. By the top of the first climb our extremeties were aflame with cold and both of us felt nauseous as our lungs attempted to return to the car. And you know it is really cold when your water bottles freeze, dishing up rather unwelcome Slush Puppies.
You have never tasted a more welcome pint of beer and pub fireplace, I assure you.
Dad Braves the elements
Old skool bikes – the lack of suspension was a real surprise
The boys on tour -
La La Shan
4 metres into the ride and all is well …The ride of the year … 2 weeks of planning and avoiding bad weather were very nearly ruined 100 metres off the first climb when, losing a touch of balance / direction / control I veered off a cliff, landing 15 foot from the path, downwards.
… then my world shifts by 15 ft. Checked all the bits were attached. Took a photo.
Blurry, in more ways than one : “I’m okay!”Luckily, the sound effects of splitting bamboo helped break my fall and I landed, frozen in motion with my bike suspended 7 foot in the air, caught on the branches. Luckily – very luckily – I escaped with little more than an hour of mild shock and a rational fear of going near the edge again. Several handfuls of peanut M&Ms; later, however, and I was feeling a bit better.
This improvement was sadly checked by three and a half hours of the hardest, most gruelling, demotivating hike-a-bike that I have ever endured, the slippery singletrack only broken by trees pushing into the queue in front of us.
To cut a long and cold story short, we made it up to 8 Km by 12:00 (our designated cut off point) and started on the tough walking descent … but how much psychology is important! Our spirits returned with our energy and we were hopping over the trees without looking back once.
Motivated by the bright sunshine and dancing girls, Team 7-11-7 discuss race tactics7 Km of epic singletrack descending through Bamboo forests, with the distinct feeling we were in land of the giants, and being watched by bands of lycra-clad ogres.
And with steam whisping off our disk brakes as we return to the final bridge, there was no question we will be back next year. But time with better weather, felled trees, and a nice parking spot at the top of the trail with 16Km of some of the best descending available snaking out in front of us.
Back at base (after a rather shaky bridge ride)
Our trained maintenance crew inspects the bikes for water ingress -
Stairway to Heaven
I had one of the best rides of the last few months on Saturday. Several sections have been intimidating me for some time, especially because some of the rest of the crew are a bit more daring than me when doing bigger stuff.
However, I was feeling strong and confident (all important) and the conditions were excellent. For the record, the weather in Taipei in November is truly wonderful – a light English summer day with clear skies and none of the usual horrendous humidity. A perfect set-up for mountain biking heroics!
My primary nemsis in the past few months has been a very demanding set of steps to climb up. A series of steps, placed about 2 metres apart get progressivly higher until the final step with is over a foot tall. Several of the more experienced riders demonstrate a technique of gently lifting the front wheel up the step and then bunny-hopping the rear up, without losing balance for the next one. I have attempted it in more times than I care to remember, usually ending up in swearing at the hill, which does not help, but certainly it feels good!
This, however, was my day. The technique, finally was correct, the speed slow but confident and I smoothly lifted the bike up step by step until I collapsed in a heap of glee, a wave of intense joy hitting me. Finally!
Jonny 1 – Hill 15This return to confidence continued in two further sections of hard, technical downhilling that I had previously walked down. So, all in all, a wonderful giant-killing day. Perfect for a balls out night on the town!
Bishan Camping Ground…
Information signs at the stairway
Taiwanese people are a bit neurotic about their little fluffy dogs!
George of the jungle
First attempt at the dreaded step drops ended in success (and a sore bum)
Team 7117 in effect! -
Worn Nobbies
Mark has set up a web site specifically for the mountain bikers in Taiwan … the old expats of Yang Ming Shan to write their tales from around the world…
Look out for more posts.
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World Cup Mountain Biking
Right at the end of the ride on Sunday we encountered a large group of walkers – an increasingly common sight in Taiwan. Unlike the UK, where you are greeted with at best a nod and at worst a dirty look, the walkers in Taipei are astonished to see anything on two wheels attempting their walking trails, no matter if it is flat earth or a hair-raising descent. Climbing is met with a loud “Jia Yo” which means “Add Fuel”, technical sections get a “Li Hai” (“great!”) and they will invariably greet you with a fumbled “Hallo!” and then stand in front of you smiling as you try to ride around them.
The group on this day, however, were at the bottom of the final section of downhill for ‘Helens’ – named after the coffee bar at the top. 25 birst into sustained applause at the sight of us, and we were not even sure if it was safe to attempt it! On previous weeks it was really touch and go. In my experience, walkers or spectators of any kind mean default crashing but we all got through to cheers and applause! A very nice end to a ride where I could not get a good rhythm going (indeed, I got in a childish bad mood half way through and kicked my wheel, buckling it … frustrations of Taiwan find their way out one way or another!).
Peter (Ireland), George (Germany), Mark (USA), Moi (UK) – the morning crew!I’ll be adding some video and more pics as soon as I get my new server arranged.
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Bike
I had another great ride today – this time with Mark (USA), George (Germany), Mattieu (France), Ludvig (Sweden) and Peter (Ireland)… what an international team! This time riding in the south of the city, the weather was swealtering… and sadly after hours (maybe days) of climbing, pushing and hoiking we realised they had levelled a mountain and filled in a valley. Flat. Damn! Back to Yang Ming next week I think.
The death toll of parts on my bike continues. I have broken more things in three months than in years on my trusty Orange back home. The list so far stands at:
1 x suspension fork – presently back to the factory to fix the rebound damping
1 x bent seat post
1 x wheel
1 x shoe … newest to the list – I managed to pull the sole plate that mounts to the pedal through the rubber lower. Totally screwedStill, it means I can sit and dream some more about buying components. They are pretty good value here. My new snazzyThomson seat post is about 90 quid back home and I got it for £35. I have been a bit surprised accasionally about the servicing. Back home, you can easily get new cables, patches, fork servicing… Here, getting a puncture repair is hard (just buy a new tube), bike shops have to think about if they have brake pads and, as you can see, forks get sent to the factory rather than have local servicing. All very interesting.
