Rides In/Around Taipei and TienMu

With respect to maps, good maps of Taipei can be obtained at Page One, the bookstore on the 4th floor of the Taipei 101 Mall.

Not sure where you live, but there are lots of riding opportunities in Taipei, and here are some suggestions:

1). Downtown - there are at least two bike shops which run weekend rides. One is Boutique de Velo, which is in the Hsin Yi District on the lane which runs behind Agora Garden. They have a list of their Saturday rides available and will ride as scheduled unless it is raining.

The other is Howard's Bikes, which is harder to find. It is between Ba Teh Road and Civic Boulevard on an east-west lane which runs near Yan Chi Street (I can provide more detailed directions if you need them). Howard's group rides on Saturdays at about 0730. They sometimes have Sunday rides, too. This is also a hydrophobic group.

Both these shops ride all over the Taipei area. Sometimes they head north, sometimes they head south. Pretty mixed groups in terms of speed and experience. The ride leaders make sure nobody gets left behind. Both groups are co-ed.

You can also hook up with Andrew Collins, who has already responded to your message and who also lives downtown. Peter Baiamonte also lives downtown.

2). Between downtown and Tien Mou: if you want to ride level, there are bike paths that run along the three major rivers in Taipei Indeed, it is possible to ride all the way from the Mucha Zoo to Tam Shui (which is where the Tam Shui River meets the Taiwan Strait), a distance of about 75k, and never leave a bike path. The most popular paths are the ones that run through the Kwantu Bird Preserve, and the ones that run on either side of the Keelung River near the Grand Hotel. Not recommended for an afternoon ride on weekends, however, as they can be quite crowded at that time.

There are bike rental kiosks along the paths and you can get a bike path map at any of those kiosks.

3). Tien Mou/northern Taipei: lots of options here, and almost all start from the Taipei American School. The group I ride with rides at 0500 on T/Th/Sa. 32k on weekdays, 90-100k on Saturdays. Speed and intensity varies with who shows up and whether or not there is a race coming up. There are sufficient numbers of rally stops, however, to make sure newbies do not get lost. We also collect cell phone numbers so we can check on people who do not appear at the rally stops.

There is another group that favors an 0600 start time, and there are groups that ride on other days of the week. People who are on the above list and are familiar with the rides can give you details about those rides.

There is also a Boutique de Velo in Tien Mou (on Cheung Chen Road, just east of the BMW dealership), and they also ride on weekends. Have not ridden with them for a while and it helps if you speak Chinese, but they ride all over northern Taipei. The last time I rode with them, they rode to Taichung.

All of the above groups are co-ed. There is, however, a group of women riders who ride at 0500 on Tuesday and Thursday. They start from the Welcome store on Tien Mou West Road. This is just slightly north of the American School.

Another group of women ride at 0815 on Wednesdays. They start at the American School.

Well, that is pretty much what I know. Hope to see you out there sometime.

Best regards,

Bill Bryson