The fifth stage of the Tour de Taiwan raced through Taichung today. The 111 kilometre stage began at Taichung Park in the morning. It then made a clockwise loop through Shalu, Dajia and Dongshi followed by a mountain hill top finish at the Taichung Metropolitan Park. Shinichi Fukushima of Japan won the stage. Park Sung Baek of Korea won the bunch sprint for second place.

Japanese rider Shinichi Fukushima broke away at the 30 kilometre mark of the stage and maintained the lead to finish one minute and 26 seconds ahead of the main bunch. It was an impressive effort to win the stage after a long solo break away. During the presentation Fukushima said that he wanted to do something special for the people of Japan after the tsunami and earthquake.

There were no major changes in the general classification with Markus Eibegger of Austria holding on to the yellow jersey. Mart Ojavee of Estonia was awarded the green jersey for best sprinter. Mehdi Sohrabi of Iraq was awarded the King of the Mountains jersey and also the blue jersey for best Asian rider. Adam Phelan of Australia was awarded the white jersey for best young rider.

The Tour de Taiwan continues with a stage in Changhua County tomorrow. The race will then head to the south and east of Taiwan before concluding on 28 March in Taipei. Detailed race results are available at Cyclingnews.com.

*More photos in the Tour de Taiwan 2011 set at flickr and at Demotix.

• Tour de Taiwan in Taipei County
• Merida team dominates Tour de Taiwan
• Tour de Taiwan final stage
• Tour de Taiwan at Nangang
• Cycling events in March

A cycling carnival (生活單車市集嘉年華) organised by the Thousand Mile Island Trail group (千里步道籌畫中心) was held in Taipei yesterday. It began with a bike ride starting at NTU and then going around Da’an Park. The ride finished at Yongkang Park where there was a variety of activities.

There was a line up of U-bikes available for hire. I hired one for the ride and it was my first time to ride one of these bikes. They are very comfortable for slow-paced easy riding around the city.

At the corner of Xinyi and Jianguo Roads a group of primary school students put on a performance riding unicycles. Human-powered vehicles with one, two, three and four wheels all participated in the ride.

The ride then went along part of the Dunhua Road bike path. The Taipei City Government recently announced that the bike path would be open to cars and motorcycles on weekdays and only reserved for cyclists on weekends. It is disappointing that this project has not been a success. There are many factors involved, however it shows that government must take a more integrated approach to making safer spaces for cycling in the city. In addition to creating bike lanes there need to be measures taken to actively reduce the number of cars on the road. There also needs to be better law enforcement and education of all road users.

The ride came to an end at Yongkang Park and there were a number of events and activities going on there. The Big Apple Cycling Team (大蘋果車隊) set up a bicycle repair station.

Giant had two electric bikes on display. This electric scooter is called the e-Lem and retails for NT$25,800. I had a short test ride. It is very smooth and easy to ride. The top speed is limited at 30 km/h.

There were also a number of musical and dancing performances on the stage in the park. One group of dancers included several people in wheelchairs. It was great to see and shows that being in wheelchair doesn’t mean being disabled.

And a group of belly dancers also put on a very impressive performance. Some of the other activities included a bicycle-powered energy system and solar cooker set up by Earth Passengers (大地旅人) to educate people about energy.

*More photos in the cycling carnival set at flickr.

• Cycling in Taiwan video
• Photo in Sky Couch magazine
• New cycling website
• Cycling along the Tonghou River
• Sunday morning cycling

The 2010 Taipei International Cycle Show opened yesterday at the TWTC Nangang Exhibition Centre. I visited the show today. This year Taipei Cycle has a record number of exhibitors and it seemed like every available space in the exhibition centre was being used.

As usual the big brand names like Giant, Merida, Dahon and Shimano occupied the prime positions in the middle of the main exhibition hall. Apart from the big names there is a huge array of bicycles and accessories on display. It is always interesting to discover some new and innovative products and designs.

Outside the exhibition hall there is a test riding area. This is a great chance to get your hands on a wide range of bikes. I test rode a few different models of folding bike from Dahon and Pacific Cycles including the Dahon Bullhead in the photo above.

The Dutch ID bike in the photo above was one of several cargo bike models being displayed by MM Bicycles Co. These bikes are made in Taiwan and  exported to Europe. If cycling is to really become an important form of transport then there need to be more bikes like this on the roads doing small delivery jobs within cities.

This Nankon bike is made in Taiwan. The staff described it as a touring bike, but I think utility bike is a better description. It is similar to the Xtracycle, but the extension is built into the frame rather than added on. Like the Dutch ID cargo bikes this would be very useful for carrying heavy loads around town.

A very interesting bike (actually a trike) that I saw was the Tarasov rowcycle. The bike is propelled by a rowing action. It can apparently reach speeds of up to 80km/h or more on the road. There is also a two-wheeled version. I was able to test it on a stand and it would be interesting to see how it handles on the road.

Tw-Bents had their new tandem recumbent bike on display. It is a two-wheel drive bike with the person sitting at the front driving the front wheel and the person at the back driving the rear wheel. Having two separate drive trains make the bike easy to separate via couplings in the middle of the frame for easy transportation.

I also found a Taiwanese company making helmets with lights integrated into them. They are sold under the Aegis brand. This is such a simple idea, but it has never become popular in the marketplace. I wasn’t allowed to take a photo, but you can see the helmet on the company’s website here. They will be selling the helmets on Saturday for NT$3,600. You can find them at stand K1329.

Another interesting design was the bike trailers by Free Parable Design. The two-wheeled trailer can be easily hitched onto almost any type of bike. When detached from the bike the trailer can be put in an upright position and functions much like a suitcase with wheels.

Taipei Cycle is open to the public from 9:00am to 5:00pm on Saturday 20 March. The final stage of the Tour de Taiwan is also on Saturday in Taipei. The stage is a 60 lap criterium around Taipei City Hall. It starts and 9:30am and is scheduled to finish at 10:53am.

*More photos in the Taipei Cycle 2010 set at flickr.

• Bikes on show in Taipei
• Bikes galore at Taipei Cycle
• Bamboo bikes and recumbent trikes at Taipei Cycle
• Cycling events in March
• New cycling website

Paris, Taipei: Bicycles Forever (巴黎.台北 單車萬歲) is a documentary directed by Jean-Robert Thomann (尚若白). It looks at the experience of bicycle commuters in Paris and Taipei. I went to the premiere screening at Eslite Dunnan Bookstore today and it will screen on PTS (公視) tomorrow.

The documentary explores the attitudes of those who have chosen to use a bicycle as their primary form of transport. It looks at both the positives and negatives of this lifestyle choice. The people featured are quite a diverse group. I thought the most interesting one was a woman who uses a bicycle to send her two children to school. If only more people in Taipei would follow her example.

The documentary also considers the development of bicycle paths and bike sharing systems. Taipei’s U-bike system obviously lags a long way behind Paris’s Velib system. It shows that while there have been some improvements in Taipei, the city still has a long way to go before it provides a friendly environment for bicycle commuters.

The photo above shows Jean-Robert filming Bike Smiling in Taipei in March 2009. There is a funny story related to this photo. Before being interviewed the man said they should interview the foreigner to make it more international (國際化). I replied that it was better to film him to make it more local (本土化). I make several brief appearances in the documentary.

Paris, Taipei: Bicycles Forever premieres on PTS at 10pm on Tuesday 9 March 2010. There are repeats at 3am on 10 March and 3pm on 13 March. The documentary is in French and Mandarin with Chinese subtitles.

【巴黎.台北 單車萬歲】
公共電視13頻道
3/9   週二 晚間十點
3/10  週三 凌晨兩點半
3/13  周六 下午三點
法、華語發音，中文字幕

• Cycling in Taiwan video
• Photo in Sky Couch magazine
• Smangus documentary to screen on PTS
• New cycling website
• Cycling along the Tonghou River

The 2009 Taipei Deaflympics began with the opening ceremony held at the new Taipei Stadium last night. Today the sporting events began and I went to see the cycling held at Taipei City Hall. The men’s 1,000 metre sprint cycling race began with heats in the morning and then finals in the afternoon. This event is usually held on a velodrome, however Taipei obviously lacks a suitable facility so competitors raced on the road in front of Taipei City Hall.

After all the heats it was down to four riders to compete in the best-of-three finals. It was a battle between representatives of two Francophone countries for the bronze medal. Steeve Touboul of France competed against Simon Gagnon-Brassard of Canada with the French rider victorious.

Paul Wood of the USA and Kirill Ivanovich Pestov of the Russian Federation raced for gold and silver. Victory went to the USA.

The three medalists enjoy their success on the podium. They were the first athletes to be awarded medals at the Taipei Deaflympics.

This young lady was responsible for carrying the medals during the medal awards ceremony.

Gold medalist Paul Wood is pictured above giving a post race interview. The interview was conducted in sign language with interpretation into English. The Taipei Deaflympics is the sixth time 41 year old Wood has competed in the Deaflympics. He carried the flag for the US team at the opening ceremony. In previous Deaflympics Wood has collected a total of four gold medals along with four silvers and one bronze. He will compete in more cycling events at in Taipei and could well add to his medal tally.

Results of the men’s 1,000 metre sprint cycling race

1. Paul Wood (USA)
2. Kirill Ivanovich Pestov (RUS)
3. Steeve Touboul (FRA)
4. Simon Gagnon-Brassard (CAN)

*More photos in the Deaflympics set at flickr.

Update: Daniel Carruthers, a Deaflympics competitor from New Zealand, adds the following information (via Brian Webb’s blog).

• 2009 Taipei Lantern Festival
• Cycling in Taiwan video
• Photo in Sky Couch magazine
• New cycling website
• Cycling along the Tonghou River

On Friday I took a bus down to Chiayi along with my friend Ian who was visiting from Australia. I took my own bike down on the bus, while Ian hired a touring bike from the Giant store. The hire service offered by Giant is very good with quality bikes at a reasonable price (more details  here). The only problem was the CRX-1 model Ian hired didn’t have a good selection of gears for hill climbing. In the afternoon we went on easy ride out to the Solar Exploration Center (北回歸線太陽館) in Chiayi County, which sits on the Tropic of Cancer.

We headed out of town on Saturday morning and once we got outside the city the roads were pretty free of traffic. The original plan was to cycle up to the Zengwen Reservoir, however this was changed to a shorter and easier route to the hot springs town of Guanziling (關子嶺).

After arriving in Guanziling it didn’t take long to find a place to soak in the hot springs. It was a very nice way to relax after a climb up some steep hills. The water in the hot springs in Guanziling is grey and muddy unlike other places in Taiwan where it is clear. Anyway I am pictured above in the cold pool with clear water.

Just outside Guanziling is an interesting geological phenomenon, the Fire Water Cave (火水洞). Here a large flame burns continuously on the rocks. It is a result of methane being released from the water.

After leaving Guanziling we cycled down to the plains again and reached the town of Baihe (白河). It soon started pouring rain and we took shelter in a tea shop. The ladies there were very friendly. Their new business selling traditional style tea and tofu dessert (古早味紅茶與豆花) was set to officially open the next day. If you ever visit the town make sure you visit the shop.

After a few hours the rain eased and we cycled on to Xinying (新營) where we found a place to stay for the night. The television news showed that the downpour had caused floods in parts of Tainan County. We had been lucky to avoid the worst of it.

The next day we set out to cycle through the farmlands of Tainan County. We discovered a man with his buffalo working on a paddy field. It was quite a wonderful sight. The roads took us through flat country with small towns and lots of agricultural activity. It wasn’t the most beautiful country in Taiwan to cycle through, but easy going without any hills. The weather was pretty hot and I got a bit of sunburn, although not too serious.

As we got closer to Tainan we reached Qigu (七股), which has a salt mountain.

Next we went to visit the Black-faced Spoonbill Research Centre. The spoonbills only visit Taiwan in the winter time, so we didn’t see any. The center has quite an extensive display and interpretive information about the birds and the wetland ecology.

When we reached Tainan City we stopped at this place for some good Australian beef in Taiwan style beef noodles. We spent a bit more time in Tainan visiting various places before heading back to Taipei via the HSR on Monday.

*More photos in the Chiayi and Tainan cycling tour set at flickr.

• Photos from Tainan
• Cycling in Taiwan video
• Photo in Sky Couch magazine
• New cycling website
• Cycling along the Tonghou River

Another interesting article, from Reuters correspondent Ralph Jennings, reports on the promotion of bicycle tourism on the east coast. It is a good example of the things Kelly writes about being put into action.

Kelly concludes his article by noting that there is still room for improvement in promoting Taiwan to Westerners.

the 2008-09 report states that international travel bloggers will be invited to Taiwan to write about its attractions. Yet Taiwan already has many dedicated and highly informed foreign bloggers. On their own, these people are getting the word out about Taiwan’s appeal to thousands. Harnessing their enthusiasm, and giving them a little official boost, can only help to spread the message even further.

It is an important point because the English language websites and web based promotion of the tourist industry is often poorly done. As far as I know there have never been any attempt by the Tourism Bureau to engage with local English-language bloggers. Kelly’s own blog, Pashan, does a far better job than any government website for promoting hiking in Taiwan. The same could be said for a number of other Taiwan bloggers who communicate their passion for the island through writing and photos on their blogs.

• Free holiday in Taiwan
• Taiwan becomes ‘the heart of Asia’
• Free trips in Taiwan
• Clare Wang is a winner!
• Letter in Johnny Neihu’s mailbag

Taipei Cycle 2009 is now on at the Nangang Exhibition Centre. In the middle of the exhibition hall on the fourth floor were all the big names in cycling: Giant, Merida, Dahon, Campagnolo, Shimano and SRAM. Elsewhere there were all sorts of bicycles, accessories and activities. I visited the show yesterday and my report and photos follow.

Amongst the multitude of bikes on display the bamboo bike caught my attention. Several manufacturers had them on display. The frame seems to integrate bamboo and carbon fibre.

I have often wondered why helmet makers don’t incorporate lights into helmets. This year I saw Prowell had adopted this simple idea. I also saw Lazer had done something similar.

I couldn’t help but pay attention to the sign on this stand which read “Testicles relaxing”. They were promoting a new bicycle seat design which is designed to take the pressure off that sensitive area of the male anatomy.

Here is a photo showing the seat design. Interesting concept…

Outside there was an exhibition of extreme BMX riding. The above photo shows BMX World Champion Daniel Dhers getting some air time.

And displaying some of his acrobatic talents.

Look Mum, no hands! Daniel pulled off some amazing maneuvers and made them look easy. There were also some riders from Taiwan showing off their talents and they were also very skilled.

In the afternoon I met up with MJ Klein and Hui-chen. They took me to the Tw-Bents stand to check out the recumbent tricycle. MJ is the owner of one of these amazing vehicles and he snapped the above photo of me reclining on the recumbent.

After checking out some of the displays we went outside to the test riding area. I test rode the Onipax M1 folding bike. Earlier in the day I had tried out a few Dahon folding bikes and I thought the Onipax was much more comfortable. This was in a large part due to the geometry which sets the handlebars forward and the seat back compared to the Dahon. The frame and folding mechanism of the Onipax is also much more robust. Its retail price is NT$28,500. I also rode a couple of recumbent tricycles that were on display, but they didn’t allow any photos to be taken.

Taipei Cycle continues until 20 March. There is a shuttle bus to the exhibition centre from Nangang MRT Station. TaiSPO, the sporting goods exhibition, starts at the Taipei World Trade Centre (Xinyi District) today and continues until 22 March.

*More photos in the Taipei Cycle 2009 set at flickr.

• Bikes on show in Taipei
• Bikes galore at Taipei Cycle
• Cycling events in March
• New cycling website
• One year in Taiwan

The Tour de Taiwan finished with a criterium around the Taipei City Hall today. The race was ridden in chilly conditions with the mercury hovering around 11°C. Polish rider Jezowski Krzysztof of the Merida Europe Team was the overall winner  after snatching the lead on the final stage.

Australian Peter McDonald of Drapac Porsche held the yellow jersey with a five second lead at the start of the final stage. McDonald is the current Australian road cycling champion.

The stage was something of a tactical battle between the Drapac Porsche and Merida teams. At the half way mark a group of four riders, including Krzysztof of Merida, broke away.  Three riders bridged the gap to catch them with five laps to go, but as they caught the leading group Kiendys Tomasz, also riding for Merida, broke away to solo to the line for victory. His team mate Krzysztof came in second to snatch the overall lead and also hold on the green jersey for the best sprinter.

The Merida Europe Team had a very successful race. Krzysztof earlier won stage 6 in Taipei County and stage 3 in Taichung. Merida also won the teams classification .

Lai Kuan-hua (賴冠華) of the Giant Asia Racing Team took the white jersey for the best Taiwanese rider. He also won the same classification last year. Roman Zhiyentayev riding for the Kazakhstan National Team won the blue jersey for best Asian rider and was third overall. Zhiyentayev also won stage 2 in Chiayi. Korean rider Seon Ho Park riding for the Seoul Cycling Team also had a good race winning the first stage in Kaohsiung and stage 5 in Hsinchu.

*For a full list of results check cyclingnews. com. More photos in the Tour de Taiwan 2009 set at flickr.

• Tour de Taiwan final stage
• Tour de Taiwan in Taipei County
• Tour de Taiwan 2007
• Tour de Taiwan finishes in Taipei
• The dragon lion team

Today I went to check out Taipei City’s new public bike rental system which is marketed under the name U-bike. The system is currently operating at five stations in the Xinyi Special District (信義特區). Six more stations will open on 11 April and there are plans to extend the system further after that.

Taipei is not the first city in Taiwan to have such a system. Kaohsiung started its own system at the beginning of this month. Bike sharing schemes are becoming more common in cities around the world. Paris’s Velib system is probably the most well known. I recommend The Bike-Sharing Blog if you want to learn more about them. The basic idea of the systems is that bicycles are made available for hire at zero or minimal cost at multiple locations around the city. This encourages people to use to bikes for short trips rather than cars or, in Taipei’s case, motorcycles.

The hiring stations look easy to use. You just wave your card over the sensor and then you can remove the bike. I wish I could report on how easy it is to use in practice, but I discovered that at present the system can only be used if you have a credit card with an IC chip. After 11 April it will be possible to register and pay a NT$3,000 deposit in cash.

The largest hiring station is near Exit 3 of Taipei City Hall MRT Station. There are parking spots for 192 bikes here and a staffed service centre. Other stations are fully automated, although they did have attendants there today to assist people and answer questions.

The design of the bike both looks good and incorporates a lot of useful features. Although users are only required to make a deposit of NT$3,000 I suspect the value of the bike would be higher than this. The bikes are made by Taiwan’s own Giant.

The moulded rear mud guard incorporates a red tail light. There is also a light on the front and they are powered by a dynamo. The bikes have front and rear drum brakes. There is a three-speed Shimano Nexus hub gear. The step through frame makes for easy use by all.

There is also a cable lock integrated under the front basket. While it is certainly a handy feature I am not sure if it is a good idea. Ideally the system should encourage people to use the bikes for a short time before they return them to the stations which have special locking mechanisms. Having a separate lock on the bike will mean that people park the bikes in other locations and expose them to greater risk of theft.

The distinctive shapes and colors are also an important part of the design. They make the bikes both noticeable and distinctive. This helps to protect against theft and vandalism.

The system appears very well designed, but the requirement for a credit card or NT$3,000 cash deposit creates an obstacle to adoption by the general public. Also the hire stations are all within a limited area and it would be just as easy to walk over the short distances. I hope the system can be successful, but whether it wins the support of the public is something we will have to wait to see.

*More photos in the U-bike set at flickr.

• Bike Smiling in Taipei
• Green Party bike ride
• Taipei bike paths
• Taiwan bikes for the elite
• Bike Smiling May 2008