We live in a world largely disconnected from the sources of things we consume. Food is the consumable you hear most about in this regard. You hear less often about things like the bicycle frames and parts we all enjoy. We take it for granted that our parts are available and ready to ride, when we want. Who makes these things? For most of the month of March I traveled to Taiwan to check this land that manufactures so many bicycles.
Welding frames with character and style in Taichung
What I found were people with character making the cool bicycle stuff that we enjoy. It was a true joy to interact with these wonderful people and see them making quality bicycle frames.
Pride
It starts with raw materials.
The raw materials are prepared and eventually welded into complete frames.
This is the very beginning of the supply chain that we rarely have any contact with. There are real people, and real processes behind the careful manufacturing of these bicycle products. Some North American bicycle industry wonks will undoubtedly object to this, but Taiwan has some of the best welding and bicycle frame production in the world. These people weld thousands of frames per year and have perfected their skills.
Beyond bicycles, Taiwan is a vibrant Asian country with amazing food and landscapes.
The trip started in Taipei for several days of work. This was the view out the back of my hotel room.
We drove on and around the many elevated highways between Taipei and Hsinchu. The infrastructure was impressive.
At night we partied like rock stars and enjoyed the signature “Taiwan Beer.”
Taiwan Beer
In the midst of all the fun and excitement, we bumped into the legendary Ernesto Colnago who recently turned 80 years old. He was looking happy and in good health.
Mr. Colnago
The night markets in Taipei are also legendary. The challenge for every western traveler visiting Taiwan is to eat “stinky tofu.” You can smell it from blocks away as you’re walking up to the street vendor. The best way to describe the smell is rotting flesh. We mustered up the courage and had some.
Stinky tofu on the street at a night market in Taipei
In the background of the above photo you’ll see a grandma and her grandson. The little guy’s name was “Andy”, and he was very shy when we spoke English to him. The tofu tasted much better than it smelled. One food that I could never muster up the courage to eat was the numerous chicken and duck heads I saw at food stands on the street.
After the working week in Taipei, we hit the road east of Taichung and rode up into the fog filled mountains.
We passed some interesting statues along the way. This one spoke to the feelings I was having while battling the rain, cold and altitude. It encouraged me to solider on to the top.
Stopping to eat was a careful balance of staying warm and staying fueled. The fog kept thickening, and the rain got more persistent. The little that I could actually see was beautiful. Sharp rock faces with roads cut around them, shrouded in fog. It was impossible to resist stopping to take photographs.
When we passed the sign for Taroko National Park we knew we were nearing the top, and the hotel where we would spend the night. The shivering in our bones was worsening, and it was becoming a bit critical that we find hot tea very quickly.
Taroko National Park
Shortly after this photo we arrived at the hotel, shivering and shaking the moisture off our bodies like wet dogs. We felt awful. The clerk at the hotel asked if she could write for us. We couldn’t scribe our names on paper because our fingers were frozen. Finally we got situated in our room and cranked up the heat to dry our clothes. The sleeping was great that night, and we woke up to bright sunshine the next morning as we prepared to descend 55km to the eastern shore of Taiwan.
Our hotel at 3150 meters.
As we rode away from the hotel the view looking back at where we stayed was one of the most beautiful on the trip.
Our hotel on the far right, looking over the mountains below
The views of the mountains continued as the descent carried on towards the village of Taroko.
These are among some of the most beautiful roads I have ever ridden a bicycle. This was not something I expected to experience in Taiwan – an absolutely incredible mountain landscape. I have a soft spot for wide angle shots of switchbacks. Here is the one and only photo of one in this post, I promise!
Half-way down the descent we stopped for a quick break and met a group of 40 cyclists on a 9 day trip around Taiwan. They were very welcoming and insisted that I drink beer with them. So, I sat by them and wondered why this man preferred to drink beer out of a silver bowl – one of the great parts of traveling in a foreign country. Sometimes you’ll never know why people do things a certain way, and the mystery remains.
Drinking beer out of a bowl perched on top of another bottle
Shortly after we carried on down the road, twisting through tunnels in the bright sunshine, avoiding fallen rock debris that scatters here and there on the road.
The road was quickly approaching the famous Taroko gorge section of the trip, where marble rock faces tower above as you meander through the landscape. Imagine riding a bicycle through a landscape of striped toothpaste or chocolate-vanilla twisted ice cream cone. This was Taroko. Soon we were in Tienhsiang where I would be spending the night. Check out the landscape I would spend the night in.
Marble walls towering hundreds of feet high
A bridge 2km from my hotel
The history was built into the landscape in monuments and statues around Tienhsiang.
Oh, and there were suspension bridges that crossed the marble gorge. It was my first time walking across a suspension bridge this long, dangling hundreds of feet above the water and rocks below.
After spending lots of time checking out the sights around Tienhsiang it was time to hit the road down towards the town of Taroko again.
There was a cool memorial built into the mountain to celebrate the lives of workers who lost their lives building the road I was riding on. Very cool.
Eventually I reached town where I waited in the station for my train south to Taitung for the next chapter of my trip: the tropical southern area of Ken Ting.
Chairs in the train station
Outside a man was taking care of his motorcycle.
I hopped on the train to Taitung and a woman with a massive visor sat next to me. The warmer weather drew sweat out of my body and I started to smell. I could smell it myself. Not a good sign. Regardless, the nice lady with the visor made an attempt to strike up a conversation in Chinese. She kept asking questions. I kept smiling and saying “I don’t understand”, in English. It was a precious exchange between two people from completely different parts of the world. We had our moment on the train, then parted ways.
Sitting next to the woman with a massive visor
I love traveling. Next up: stories from Ken Ting.
