Bike Tour Preparation

In retrospect, there are a lot of lessons I took away from touring. There are a few things which I felt that was essential to my bike tour. For one, I found that certain resources on the net were pretty useful, here's one.

Packing: http://bicycletouringpro.com/blog/jim-dirlams-complete-bicycle-touring-gear-checklist/

This liast has helped me immensely when packing. You can also download the PDF which allows you to tick off what you need, have and have packed. Of course, this list here is meant for people going to truly remote places or for people intending to live a nomadic life. In certain places, like Taiwan which I rode, you don't need to prepare so much for your bike tour. I skipped the camping kit and a few other things within categories.

My e-book on my tour

 

I just wrote an e-book of my tour. If you've been keeping up with what I wrote while I was there and you are interested in knowing more, please visit this link to get the e-book.

It's a short but highly detailled write up about my various experiences coming from a first-time tourer. In it I talk about various topics from Taichung Nights to Taian too-hot springs and not forgetting Hsinchu drivers. In it are also some photos and information on how I got the route.

With any luck, this e-book will help me recoup the cost of this trip. Get the PDF version!

Get the e-book!

The More or Less Route

I just drew the route I took. As mentioned, I followed the original route for a while, but had to do some modifications to find housing or just because I didn't want to double back. In total I did approximately 553km for the tour alone, which is quite a personal achievement.

http://www.bikemap.net/route/953777

Taipei, the End of the Line

Leaving Hsinchu, I felt like I just couldn't be bothered to think about it. The drivers are terrible, the city isn't very pretty and neither is there anything interesting there. The headwind is truly one of a kind. It's the windy city.

I didn't want to go on the Provincial Highway 3 as I was supposed to because I've been there on motorcycle and it was a bit too hilly for my taste. I was in a rush to hit Taipei because that's where the good stuff is at.

Rain, rain, GO AWAY

So I decided to find my own route. I did the 15, and then 108. I thought the 15 would take me to a nice scenic coastal route, but all it did was take me through more shitty traffic and the number of lights there were in that area was comparable to the 1. Which means the road is shit and intolerable. And it rained throughout the whole trip. The worst part was that along this route, everybody who supposedly served food was closed, so I had to starve and finally gave up and ate instant noodles.

Where I'm heading in a few days

I passed by the perimeter of Taoyuan Intl Airport and you know when you were getting close because the planes were closer and closer to the ground.
But once I turned on the 108, it was so different. The road was relaxed, had less annoying lights, and it was more frequented by cyclists, which is a good thing. And the rain temporarily stopped. Then I turned back into the number 1 most hateful road - the Provincial Highway 1. But at this point of time, it was so beautiful. Because it was the road that I had to take to get into Taipei. It was a joyous occassion.

Taipei, baby?

On this day I pedaled through three counties - Hsinchu County, Taoyuan County and into Taipei County. It was so surreal to do this in a mere 100km, when, in the last few days, I usually went through a single county.

Canadian, American and Singaporean eating smelly tofu

So what to do at night? Go out with laowai!

Hsinchu via a 760m mountain

I would never have fathom that I would have to climb another near near 1000-metre mountain as I did on this day itself. The reason was simple, but it was also stupid. Read on.


I miss Tenglong. Great hospitality.

 Leaving Tenglong Hot Spring Resort, I felt a tinge of sadness because the people there were extremely helpful and nice. They were concerned for my trip, and the lady gave me cream for my chapped lips, as did the guy, Guorong, who saw my peeling sunburnt skin and gave me arm warmers, which were some long black sleeves. Great!




Nice bike, IKR!

 I left Tenglong and was supposed to go back the same way I came in, but me being me, I don't like to go back the same way I came from. Instead, I checked out the map and it says that there's another way which I can use. The most interesting thing is this, it heads diagonally up until I hit the Provincial Highway 3.

What I didn't expect is to meet up with some truly shitty grades that make me feel like an idiot. Should have gone by the easier way. The route takes me up to Baguali Mountain, whose peak is 1000m, but luckily, I didn't have to reach that high a distance. I (mostly) pushed my bike up the 760m incline. It was shit.

Then it rained. Shit.

Not that bad, because rain is tolerable, but what made it truly dangerous is the equally steep downhill portion. The downhill portion was super steep, and what made it worse was that the road was wet and slippery. My brakes - they took around 50m to get me from 40 to zero. It was that dangerous. I did lose it once - my rear wheel locked and I was sliding into a ditch - but nothing too nasty, which was a good thing.




Met this uncle on the PH3. Gave me directions.

 I rejoined the PH3 and it was a truly great road. Love the 3. I have been on it for so long, no other road compares to it in terms of quality.

My ambition was to hit Taipei, but after wasting an hour on the mountain, it was already 3pm, wet, cold and cloudy. Unlikely, but I thought I could hit Taipei by 3am.

Not likely, it seems. By 5pm I was shagged out TTM. I was in Sanwan and I thought, sian... I think I better just find a hostel. So I decided to go to Hsinchu, because there was supposedly a hostel.

I reached Hsinchu and I found the hostel. No space. So I went to agoda to find a cheap hotel. Turns out there's one in the middle of the hottest place in the city - Zhongzheng Road. So I went there, only to find out that there were only the four-person rooms were available. They cost 1600NTD (SGD70). It was freaking expensive, but I was... whatever! I'm tired!

We drop it like it's hot

But at the reception, I met Alaric. Alaric is Filipino and he works in Tainan. He's here because he's finding his wife who works in Hsinchu. At the counter, he had the same problem - four person room for one person. So I asked him if he wanted to share the room with me, splitting it half-half. And the rest was history.

Taian

Right. I left my little quiant but quite expensive hostel at around 12pm. because after all the clubbing which I truly have no clue how to enjoy, I fell asleep at 5am and woke up at 10.30pm. There's always this 1.5h of lag time for breakfast, slacking, packing and shagging out

Provincial Highway 13... not too bad actually

Went out and I was supposed to follow Kerslake's route. I did, but I missed a few places, because my GPS wasn't on and some signs are not immediately obvious. Ended up going on the Provincial Highway 13 when I was supposed to go by the PH3, but it worked anyway, so it's OK.

Long, windy, hilly, cold, but I gotta hit Taian

I stopped to eat meat buns (roubao), and out of no where, I decided to open up my Lonely Planet guidebook. My initial destination was to head to Miaoli, but this place was no where to be found on the guidebook. Then, I thought, maybe I could go to Sanyi, but it was a place full of wooden carvings, which didn't really interest me. Finally, I saw something that interested me.

Taian.

Taian is a hot spring area, and I have never been to a hot spring, so it was a good time to do so. More importantly, it's an essential Taiwanese experience. I reached this place just when it was getting dark, which was a good thing because I hate to ride in the darkness.



Nice!


There are quite a few hotels/resorts/hostels in this area. It apparently ranges from 1200NTD to 7000NTD. Not too sure, but I checked in in a resort - a bit like the government chalets in Singapore - that cost me 1500NTD. This place is called the... Tenglong Hot Springs Resort and it is quite good actually.
Maybe it's because it's a weekday (Friday?), but for around $70, I get a full room to myself with a bathtub, amenities such as complementary toothbrush, breakfast and an entrance to their hot spring, it's not too bad, although I'm quite used to 600NTD max. This is an exception... because they allowed me to pay by Visa. Or maybe it's because I have little other choice.

I haven't soaked in a bathtub for quite a while, so it was awesome. What's more the water comes directly from the hot spring, so it's even more awesome, although it has an odour. Apparently, too, the water is supposed to help heal skin issues, and I seriously have some bad sunburnt skin that's peeling.

Looks fugly. Srsly.

The next day, I went to paotang which is their way of saying soak in the hot spring water pool. I didn't like it, perhaps because it was of my breakfast, but the hot water felt too hot and my stomach was bloating. Oh well... wasted. But at least I finished one of the biggest to-dos in the Taiwan must-dos.

Effective Torture and a Japanese Roomate

My last day in Taichung was simple and easy. I wanted to go downtown, but bah... decided that my feet hurt too much to have that kind of luxury. So I decided to go for a push-take (tui-na) which is basically a very garang massage.
Massage is a misnomer. It's not the kind of shiok shiok massage. Rather, it's almost one hour of unrelenting torture as the Hakka therapist gave me the worst "massage" of my life. She put extremely unnatural pressure on areas such as my neck, shoulders, thigh and other parts that cannot inflate vertically.

I went out feeling achy in a few areas, but to my surprise, she got rid of the soreness in my thighs and perhaps on my lower back too. So I conclude that it was worth the pain, price (700NTD) and punishment.

(L to R) Toshi, Taxi driver, Guy, Hot chick, Guy, Hotter Chick.

Then I went back to the hostel and met this guy - Toshi. He's a Japanese guy who lived in the same room as I did. We talked a bit and he suggested we go grab a few beers. So we asked the taxi driver - where's a good bar? He took us to a club. The club was quite rubbish. The ladies-to-guys ratio was fail, the DJ was fail, and the beer was fail. But Toshi, man, that guy can really work shit up.

He was trying to get into bed with this 22-year old uni lady. Throughout the night, he was hitting, kissing, and trying to fend her friend off, who objected to it implicitly. In the end, Toshi compromised by getting her number, which he wrote on the entrance ticket.

Leaving the bar, he saw a taxi driver and immediately wanted to borrow his phone to call Lady X. But the problem is that Toshi wrote three sets of numbers, and none of them made sense - one was halfway done, the other had 11 numbers and the last one was plain WTF.

No luck. His inflatable part stood flaccid.

Taichung, Taipei and Back

I'm cheating again. In Taichung, I found a place that would rent scooters to foreigners, and the best thing is that I got a 100cc scooter, not a green-plated 50cc which would be shit if I were to do 400km. The ride was awesomely long - I went from Taichung to Taipei, then back. Setting off from Taichung at about 1.30pm, I reached Taipei at 6.30pm, via the Provicial Highway 3.

Met up with Lady Charchar in her ulu house at Baoyi road, in the Southwestern limits of Taipei, along the 110. The PH3 was pretty nice, with a reasonable amount of traffic lights at important places. Unlike the f***ing PH1, which I should talk about later.

The view was great, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. The land basked in gold, but it was hot. Taichung was Singapore hot.



On the Provincial Highway 3

Because of time constrains - I was slated to meet Lady Charchar at 5pm, I was twisting the throttle TTM most of the time. But the 100cc engine was quite weak. It could do 70km/h max. Well, better than doing 15km/h average.



MGA-956 has a spoilt speedo

 When I reached Taipei, it got really much colder. Actually, outside the city, it was already becoming cold. It was almost like back in March when I came to Taipei.

No, I wasn't arrested for wearing a bicycle helmet.

So I reached Lady Charchar's house at around 6.30 to see her abangs, Char told me that I could crash at her house if I wanted to. Initially I wanted to go directly back to Taichung, but decided to hang around and went to my favourite Ximending. My belief is becoming increasingly solid - the more north you head, the better the ladies look. Even here in Taichung, ladies don't really look so awesome, but the Ximending people... better hit-to-miss ratio.

That's 3 hours of riding in the COLD

My route back was through the PH1. Initially, I wanted to do the eastern and mountainous region. Glad I didn't. Riding a motorcycle at high speeds and having inadequate clothing is truly tortourous. It was 20 - 24C, but it felt like 10C or so with the windchill. Sometimes I felt myself shivering.

Nobody was on this stretch for miles and miles.

Left Taipei at 1.30am, reached Taichung at around 8.30am. It was freaky. It was so cold and I was so shagged out. I stopped at a bus stop, lied down, and fell asleep, but was awoken by the increasing number of vehicles on the road. But I'm glad I finished my 24 Hours of Taiwan.

I was almost set to tears when I saw this. After 6+ hours of freaking cold, tiring and unpleasant riding, I finally saw the silver lining when I saw this sign pointing to Taichung. The PH1 was a truly fu--ed up road whereby no man should ever go. It is a highly inefficient road with too many traffic lights and scenically it is as good as the stuff that goes into your toilet bowl.

The draw, initially, was that it would provide me a compromise the long mountainous way through the east and central Taiwan and allow me to see whether "the west is grime".

On the 3 and Into Taichung

Yesterday's post was a bit lacklustre, but I'm here to make up for it since I'm now in Taichung and this city is big. With the convenience of having a wanker (cybercafe, wangka) near me, I can now freely type out the truth about Taiwanese mountains on the Provincial Highway 3.

7 is a small number but not 7%. 7% is shit.

Imagine yourself - 60km of mountains, mostly up, but some down, then at the peak of 960m, comes a 15km downhill stretch. That's what I did on Monday, 25 April. The hills were long, stretchy and screwed up. I climbed up, mostly 7% grades, and that was enough to kill me. My bike wasn't really made to go up hills, nor was it adequate for touring ease. With gearing starting at 34 gear inches and going up to 91", it was truly made to do nothing but do the flats and downhill.

My Dahon Speed D7 became an English 3-speed. I was on gear 1, 2 and 3 95% of the time. 5% on the fourth gear. 5, 6, 7 was rendered absolutely useless. Yes, I tried to change my crankset to a Deore with 44t, but it didn't work out as it would derail all the time without a front dee or chainguard protecting it. That's why I stuck with the 52t stock crankset. I was truly pumping iron up the hills.

Not even close to 960m

I reached the cold 960m peak at around 5.30pm, and that means I only had one hour to get to civilsation before it got dark. But at the peak of all climbs is a great descend. So I was doing 41km/h (around terminal velocity). But at the foot of the hill, it was already dark and and I hit Zhongbu, which was in the same uluness league as Yujin, and they didn't have any place for me to stay. Had to go to Chiayi...



WTF is this? Mountains can be this high meh?

 I called my friend, Charmaine, to ask how's Chiayi. She noted that Chiayi was more of a historical city, nothing much but history. So I was like, wtf? Imma call Andrew Kerslake and set a time up with him in Taichung. It was a bit scary because Taichung seemed very far - around 160km from Chiayi.

I hugged No 3 for the whole of yesterday, but yesterday I quit


Didn't expect to make it, but I made it. 104km worth of... well... flat roads mostly. The ride from Chiayi was pretty hilly until I got out of the city, then it got very much flatter. I like flatness. Without doubt, my average speed didn't hang around in the low 10's or even single-digits, which was a good thing, because yesterday was quite a rush to Taichung. 

Oh hateful mountains, stay faraway


I set off from Chiayi at about 9.30am and reached my hostel at around 7.30pm. That's ten hours on the road, eating sometimes, buying water and mostly riding. I was quite frisky about the trip because on the map it seemed like it wa going to be 160km, since Google Maps told me the fastest route would be 136km, and I was taking an alternate route. Glad I didn't have to do a century, that would be shit.

Crossing the bridge on the Provincial Highway 1B (1yi) gave me a buzz as going downhill on the 74A (74jia). The 1B was full of cars and traffic was truly crazy, which was probably why nobody recommended me to do the Provincial Highway 1. However, it represented the crossing of the bridge that separates civilisation from... errr... the countryside.

AK and I visiting the fields of barley

After settling down, I went directly to call a cool guy called Andrew Kerslake of Taiwanincycles fame. We were slated to meet in Taichung yesterday, and we did. First on the list was a beer. A large, one-litre beer. I'm not a good drinker, but I downed that big glass of Taiwan beer like I was dehydrated. It was a good. Then we walked down to a place called Early Bird, which is a laowai hangout spot - you'll know because the waitresses speak English and there are more angmohs than tng nang.

My dinner was late, and it was average, but the Corona I had accentuated my inability to walk in straight line. It was that awesome. Met a few other people, Americans and one other Taiwanese. All of them made in America, including the Taiwanese. They all had American accents and most of them came from the South except Kerslake. All of them worked in the bike industry, except Kerslake, again.

It was a f***ing awesome adhoc birthday party.

The long chat I had with Kerslake illuminated how Taiwan functions. Apparently organised crime runs the small-to-middle end businesses. There's a self-sufficient loop where their money goes and it goes round and round. Kerslake talks about how someone could open up a KTV/motels/hotels, make loads, then channel most of the money made to the school, thus avoiding tax as educational institutions are not subject to tax. Then this school can be one that specialises in hospitality, and thus students get internship in the same person's KTVs/motels/hotels, or work there. Something like that. It's complicated. I haven't lived here for 13 years.

Chiayi, 100km after Yujin

My computer is screwed and I can't find a wangka so I'm typing this on my phone. Seems like the hardest day is over, I climbed to the 960m peak along the Provincial Highway 3. It was truly coooooold.

I reached Chiayi after dark, hate riding at night but its no more dangerous... just annoying. I started at 930am today that's why. Reached here at 730 - 8pm

There's a lot more to this but doing it on the phone is difficult. Let alone trying to upload pictures...

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Kaohsiung to Yujin

Where the f*** is Yujin, you wonder. It's damn ulu, and ulu is a synonym for siong. I climbed many Mount Fabers on my way here. 8% gradient, I think. And 8% is not the steepest. Tomorrow, my route will take me to a place that will bring me 3000ft up and up an 18% grade. WTF, 18%? Gotta walk already. Sian...





The bike, fully loaded.


The route was truly tiring. I started at 6, did 87km and reached Yujin at around 1.30pm. So that's 7.5 hours, and I averaged a speed of 14 or so. That's super slow, but if you'd ask me, I can't go any faster. The load, mountains and other shit truly take a toll.

The Taiwanese answer to Cristo Redentor

On the way I saw some truly beautiful sights. Miles of empty land, a big Buddha perched on a hill, visible from kilometres away and other nice stuff.

My route took me from Kaohsiung to Cishan, then to Meinong and Neimen then to Yujin. All these places are damn ulu. It got uluer and uluer as I got nearer to Neihu and it got more and more Hokkien as well. Walau eh...


Horlan to road works... sian.


I hor lanned somewhere in Neimen which caused me to go up an unnecessary mountain, and then ride another extra 10-15km more. The best thing was that I lost my way and didn't realise it until I hit the peak. Well, no going back, since the downhill had to be enjoyed. But immediately after the summit, there were road works. No roads - only gravel. On the way down, the heavy machinery was spewing out sand and I had to pass by there.

The final stretch was the most agonising. I kept seeing signs that say Yujin, Yujin, Yujin. It was 12km away when I first saw the sign, but these 12km felt like doing 40km on the Coastal route. It was truly Mount Faber again and again. By the time I reached Yujin, I totally felt so shagged I went directly to the police station to find directions to a hostel.

500TWD and I got a room. The room didn't have WiFi, which was screwy. What's worse was that when I took my computer out, the hard drive didn't work. That truly put my in a truly difficult spot as I had to find a cybercafe (wang ka)... which is where I am typing this now. This also means that all the photos of Kaohsiung are lost.

Sian man...

The WTF Moment

In the Sinic domain, Taiwan is known for being one of the most WTF countries - with parliaments that are atypical of parliaments and mentalities that are rare in this part of the world.

The most WTF thing for me is what I saw tonight. There were explosions outside while I was sitting nice and quietly in the hostel. It's not the Boom Boom Pow, it's the sound of grenades and cannons. Big Roaders are invading Taiwan!!!



But I forgot I was in Taiwan. In Singapore if such a thing happened, something really big was going on - NDP, Malaysia chu stunt, etc. Over here, it's merely a daily affair.

Apparently the Taoist temple on this street was celebrating some ancient soldier's birthday. So they lined the streets with fireworks and blew them up all along the path which the tranced up female devotee was heading.

Now I know how Katy Perry had explosive boobs in her video

I wonder can those fireworks shoot horizontally? Hahahahaha.

BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEEEEP

This is my route. Cool right - going round the same place and riding on water!

A General View of Kaohsiung

Nice view... IKR!

I'm spent another day in Kaohsiung because I have to. To just do the miles would equal not fully enjoying my time here in Taiwan. More critically, Kaohsiung has somethings to offer and it was truly worth it.

And as dualcircles requested, I shall post some pictures of Kaohsiung food. Inevitably I'd have to, since Taiwan is inextricable from food. And basically that's the draw of Taiwan, unless you're male - then there's something else. Shhh....

"Hot DOG"

Yes, the Taiwanese eat dog. Like this one,

This dog is being auctioned off... awww what a waste

And dogs like this become this, this is Original Flavour Hot Dog

 

30TWD of yum yum

The Ripe Dog is basically a hot dog with a penis looking shape crust stuck on a bamboo stick. It has a fried bread crust that has sugar on it and some sauce inside. Quite good actually.

65TWD, cheap cheap!!!

I had my 65TWD ($3) dinner at some road which I forgot the name. It was century egg with slim meat (whatever shourou means to you). That drink was 10TWD (40c!) but the girl serving me was a bunk that was sibei guailan who kaopehed me. So Singaporean like.

BTW, just a little side note, Kaohsiung is the first place out of an army camp or coffee shop I heard people speak Hokkien (or if you are a patriotic nut, Taiwan-yu) as a primary means of communication.

Because I owe it to someone to buy her cuttlefish, I was given the impetus to go to an island called Cijin (which in pingying is qijin). To go there I needed to take a 15 yuan ferry that allowed my bike in for free. Over there I pussied out and rented a motorcycle. A 50cc-or-so CVT/Centrifugal clutch/Single speed scooter that needs more power and more gears (can't be picky, no driving licence and I'm on a scooter, although in TW it's legal).

My rented chick magnet

Took my bike around Kaohsiung and first things first. Traffic in Kaohsiung is truly one of a kind. Abiding traffic laws is secondary to convenience - red lights are there as a warning sign, you can beat them especially if you are on a scooter. You can keep left if you are a scooter, you can also ride the wrong way if you are a scooter. In a Singaporean's eyes, it's Little India multiplied by five. Thereabouts.

This is the only rule that is enforced, as far as I have seen.

Cool artwork!

The weather in Kaohsiung isn't that good as I hoped it will be - it's either OKish or quite shitty if the cold wind blows. Better than in SG, nonetheless.

I'm in Kaohsiung...

I'm in the city/country of optional-to-heed red lights

Kaohsiung is a nice place to land for a bike tourist. The airport is located quite close to the city, and the road is accessible by bike, much unlike Changi aiport, and it has one of the best cycling culture that beats Taipei hands down.

I reached around 7, had my rear bottle cage mounts breakdown, went into a Giant store to get a Topeak bottle cage clamp, then went on my way to the hostel, where I lost my way on the same road, not understanding that in Taiwan roads are splitted into "lanes", which are not immediately obvious.

I'm too tired to write. The 9h plane ride was not that bad, but I had to get off the plane thrice, and the most annoying thing was that I paid $1,039 and I got no in-flight entertainment and I had to pay $161 for 5kg's worth of excess baggage. Malaysia Airlines... tak boleh lah. I'm taking SQ, Vietnam or Air China if I ever intend to come to Kaohsiung again.

Before I leave...

Before I leave I must write. I must write about how I paid $161 for the excess baggage - 27.2kg worth of baggage, with 5kg being charged. That's $32 per kilo. F---!

Imma wear my raincoat, take both my panniers and stuff it TTM on the return flight.

Boarding time, see you!

Here We Go, Come With Me...

My bikes and bags are packed, seems like I didn't even fill up two panniers to the brim, which is truly shocking to me. I feared having too much to take and that my panniers weren't big enough. Well, it is of adequate size for both the trip there and back, when I get gifts that I "owe" to people.

Nonetheless, packing a bike is no trivial thing. It took me 4.5h in total, plus a bit more yesterday, to get things down to a state which they are organised, packed and running well. I still have to touch wood and have my fingers crossed that everything arrives in a good state, though. Since cargo isn't known to be handled like a baby, and what more I have a transfer at Kuala Lumpur. That means twice the amount of baggage handling... walau eh!

I am stoked. I can't wait to start this trip, immediately after I get off the plane, I'm gonna assemble the bike and ride to the hostel that I have booked.

And I've just been notified that one of my old friends is now in Taiwan, along the route which I am following. She's in Taoyuan County, but I don't know exactly where, though a little detour wouldn't hurt even if it's not on the route I'm supposed to follow.

Then, I also have a meeting scheduled with Andrew Kerslake of Taiwan in Cycles fame in Taichung. He told me that if it's over the weekend, he can join me. But Taichung is midway on my journey, so it might just be a Tuesday when I reach Taiwan's main bike manufacturing city.

But the ultimate meeting which I will have is the lady I'm meeting in Taipei. Now that's something I'm looking forward to, but the details aren't confirmed, so it can go south while I head north. Damn. No matter, if it goes south, I'll go to Danshui. Maybe Keelung. Sure would like to meet her, though

 9 hours to flight, 18 hours to Kaohsiung. Fingers crossed, palm on wood.

Covered in leather and gold

25% done. Basically I just did a trial fit of how the box would look like with everything inside - panniers, helmet, bags, rack, etc. Tomorrow I'll be packing the rest of my necessities, including computer, clothes and other stuff. Now... I need to find some way of ensuring that the stuff doesn't fly around.

2 days to Taiwan

Crank Arm Buay Steady

It would seem like I am out of luck when it comes to changing a crankset. I was truly hoping to get my Dahon down to 44t but it seems that isn't possible, even if I were willing to spend quite a bit. I went all out and tried to get myself a new MTB crankset - the Shimano Deore with 44,32 and 22t. But once it was fitted on, there was a problem because, since my bike doesn't have a derailleur and because the crankset won't take a chainguard, derailed chains became a very big problem for me. Every five minutes the chain would drop off, unfortunately.

Yea, right.

So the stock chainring is going back in. 52t - complete madness up hills. SHIT.

Got the waterbottle cage done up. Now I have three bottlecages, but apparently, it isn't that necessary as anyone can get water even in the countryside. How true is that I will soon know.

What’s the Strategy?

At all times you have to ask yourself, “what is the strategy”? This is the most important question for me right now as so far I have been hovering around not really having a concrete plan on what I need to pack until I hit upon the Complete Bicycle Touring Gear v5 off bicycletouringpro.com

The easy to use checklist gave me some ideas of what I don’t have, what I have and WTF. Seems like in addition to the chainring which needs to be changed, I also have to get

-          Mirror (I have one on the right, but Chiang Kai Shek decided to make the Republic of China drive on the right in 1945)

-          Pepper spray (Hmm, can get locally?)

-          MREs (Basically, energy bars)

-          Gatorate powder (overkill?)

-          Photocopies of documents

-          Emergency contact info (roadID style)

-          Travel insurance

-          Sunglasses (hmm, hard for a four-eyed person)

-          Insect repellent

-          CAMERA BATTERIES (This is impt!)

-          Physical maps, guidebooks

-          Small padlock (will my cable lock suffice?)

-          SPOKES (omg, how do I replace spokes?!)

-          Chaintool and links (the other hard part, not sure about this repair)

-          Batteries for other stuff – GPS, lights, etc.

-          Ziploc bags

-          Medical – zinc tablets, anti-diarrhoea, foot powder (shit! ORDed long ago)

-          Survival items – whistle, personal locator beacon

Not really a long list, but I should budget around 2 days to get all these items in store. Plus the packing the day before, so  I should start latest on Tuesday next week.