Australian Victor Major learned how to ride a bicycle when he was young, but it was in Taiwan that he really found the joy of biking.
“In Taiwan, I started riding for no reason,” he said. “There is no purpose to it. It’s just fun exercise.”
But that was not his impression when he first moved to Taiwan two years ago. The Taipei he saw was filled with scooters and cars and did not look like an ideal place for cyclists.
What changed his mind was a bunch of friends he met who were into biking around Taipei. In his words, he “got hooked” and started looking for places to ride.
“I couldn’t find any information. There was nothing in English,” he said. “While there were some blogs on particular aspects of the trails … there was no clear information on where someone can go and ride, or where to meet people to ride with.”
The scarcity of detailed information for bikers compelled him to create “Cycle Taiwan,” an online forum dedicated to biking in Taiwan.
“I started it with the idea of bringing all the different communities of riders in Taiwan together in one place, both Chinese and English speakers,” he said.
In addition to serving as an online forum for bikers, Major also reviewed cycling parts made by some of the second-tier manufacturers in Taiwan.
As the site’s administrator and chief editor, Major said that Cycle Taiwan is owned by the biking community. Anyone can become a member by simply signing onto the Web site, and each member is free to post articles and photos.
In the meantime, members organize different activities themselves — whether it is a day trip to Taoyuan or a cross-country race.
Today, the site has about 200 registered members, with 50 percent of them foreigners.
Major said members are mainly composed of three groups: the industry personnel who came to Taiwan for a short time to oversee the production process of new bicycles, the expatriates and Taiwanese.
And it is not difficult to tell if someone is a Cycle Taiwan member.
“It’s always the same people pretty much wherever you go,” he said.
Major’s favorite route is from Da-an (大安) in Taipei City to Wuzhishan (五指山) via Jiannan (劍南) and Zhishan (至善) roads. He said that the route involved steep uphill climbing, and a round-trip ride took around six hours.
“Riders like to ride because of the mountains, and Taiwan is full of them,” he said. “You see beautiful scenery, green plains, flowers, frogs; it’s an escape.”
His most exhilarating riding experiences involve biking on off-road trails, such as on a boulder field.
“[When the wheels hit the rock at a fast speed ] you tend to fly off in the air,” he said. “And since your body can’t turn, you start praying to whatever god you believe in to not fall off a cliff or hit a tree.”
Off-road biking is a “good kind of scary” that keeps you young and energetic, he said.
But he said that no experience is scarier than riding a bicycle in the city, particularly when you have to deal with bus drivers.
“For me, the sure sign to know that we now have a green light is too see a bus shooting across the intersection full speed through a red light,” Major said. “Want to think about scary? That’s actually truly scary.”
He said that more needs to be done if the government wants to encourage people to commute by bicycle. Apart from dedicated bike lanes, he said, the Taipei MRT and the Taiwan Railway Administration system need to allow people to carry their bicycles with them when they board the trains every day.
In addition, Major said the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) needed to increase the space in luggage rooms where it allows passengers to place bicycles. The service would make the THSRC an attractive option for tourists, he said.
More offices around the nation should also be equipped with shower facilities for employees, he said.
And to make Taiwan one of the first-rate choices for bikers from overseas, Major said that the nation needed to have chartered courses for mountain bikers.
“The hiking trails and biking trails need to be separated, but we also want to make sure that we maintain harmony between hiking communities and biking communities,” he said.
Aside from being a tourist destination for overseas bikers, Major also said that Taiwan had the potential to host more cycling races recognized by the International Cycling Union.
“Taiwan has some of the best riding roads, most challenging climbs and descents in the world. There are also low-lying areas for different stage races. I believe Taiwan is more than ready when it comes to road racing,” Major said.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS