David on Formosa

My Sunday morning bike ride took me up the Route 9 from Xindian to Xiaogetou (小格頭). The photo above shows a group of cyclists gathered a Helen’s Coffee, a popular stop on this road with great views over the valley below. There is no doubt that Taiwan‘s cycling revolution is showing no signs of slowing. There seemed to be more cyclists than ever out on the road this morning.

Bike Hugger is currently visiting Taipei and writes about the Taipei’s bike boom.

During Interbike, we talked at length with Dahon about Taipei’s Bike Boom and saw it today. A year ago, when we rode the the river bike paths, we saw handful of cyclist, including us. Today, there were bike traffic jams, bike pit stops, and a steady stream of bikes in both directions.

I prefer riding on the mountain roads to the riverside bike paths. Now that most traffic to Yilan travels on through the Hsuehshan Tunnel there are not many cars on Route 9 anymore. However, on Sunday morning the peace was interrupted by the many motorcyclists riding big bikes.

A few weeks ago I noticed a new cafe which had opened up near the top of the hill. Curve Coffee (卡普咖啡) is tucked in by the side of the road. It was buzzing with activity this morning. Plenty of cyclists were stopped there for a coffee or a snack.

Curve Coffee is a great bicycle friendly business. Here’s a map if you need help finding the place.The map also shows the popular cycling routes south of Taipei from Xindian to Pinglin and Shiding. (If you can’t read Chinese on the map check the photo at flickr which has the place names annotated in Pinyin).