What is the best bike ?

There was a question on Linked in: What is the best bike ? Well to me, those which you can get spare parts for. For example my 10 yo thousands of US$ bike need a 10 cents plastic parts which wan't available. without I coould not use the gear shifter anymore. Luckily someone in China had some left.

Dutch workshop at Taiwan Cycle 2026 - Beyond Route No. 1

Yesterday I went to Taipei Cycle. Why ? Not because I need a new bike but just to know more about new bike technology. In the past 10 years I had no chance to visit due to work and obligations. Things now have so much changed. Everything is about electrical bikes, road bikes with electrical shifters and breaking rings instead of the old rubber pads. Legacy bikes are an exception. I remember in the past Dutch booths with old fashioned "locomotief" kind of bikes that are now so popular in the Netherlands. That is gone.

Just almost stepping out of the hall 2, near the exit if Hall 2 I saw the Neherlands Ofice in Taipei stand hosting an event by Viola and Eric's book about cycling in Taiwan. They now live in Ireland but were here for a visit.

Initially I just wanted to go home, Tired of 8 hours of walking and discussing with suppliers and also because well I for once, I had biked so much in Taiwan already. Two, that Taiwan people are very open and friendly (often a contrast with Westerners, which often blocks me to make friends with people who are not sincere or lack openess). Three, all the frustrating experiences on the bike. It all gave me a strong objection to join. But then I thought, well why not sit down, have a break and just listen, who knows, I could still learn something before jumping into the MRT.

The workshop was attended by a bunch of Dutch folks who seems to have been living for quite a while in Taiwan, even some longer than myself. The topic was about their cycling experiences in Taiwan but changed into a group discussion about how to improve Taiwan cycling. People were asked for their suggestions and their opinions. Many topics and suggestions were raised and some were unfortunately considered not possible due to politics or just well, this is Taiwan....

I felt the frustrations in my stomach. Old news, like a pie chewed on for a hundered times. I hardly had any motivation to provide suggestions seen all the overload of fustrations documented in this blog of 17 years, cycling in Taiwan for 20 years, teaching Indoor Spinning classes to some people over 4 years, sometimes resulting in them to start riding a bike.

But well, gained a bit of courage to open my old and short mouth to say at least something by highlighting one of the problems with the legacy infrastructure that never seemed to change which is COMMUTING. The interconnection between Taipei and outside areas, such as like tunnels , bridges and that never got modernized for bicycles or pedestrians that makes the only alternative to use, the king of the road in Taiwan, a scooter. And if you want to get a good chunk of exhaust smoke in your lungs, biking in the city on the big roads is the way to go.

By surprise I got a copy of their book which you can buy in a Taiwan bookstore. THANKS ! Luckily I got to grab them for a second to let them know about this extremely popular blog with 11 subscribers, just having the chance to relay my passion about biking in Taiwan, having a little bit of hope that there could be a tiny bit of valuable information in it for the next Taiwan gnerations not to make the same mistakes as many country and city governments had done before. (Like the seperate lanes on Tun Hua which were a good idea but abused by Taxi drivers to nap and eat lunch on, the complaints and lobby of car drivers to the city government to remove the lanes.

Yes, I may have not been correct in some posts, but I just did the best I could to voice the experiences about thinking outside the box and how things are done in other countries. Just a bike lane beside a zebra crossing and U-bikes are nice but are not final solution for make the countru more sustainable and environmental friendly. An electrical car and bike still get their power from coal and imported gas and oil.

The only reason the Netherlands converted into a bike country in the 70's was because the large spike of deaths of bikers in traffic. Perhaps the fustrations of cycling u-bikes on the sidewalk, scooter parked everywhere on side walks, not or very slow building infrastructure for Bring Your Own Bike (BYOB) parking areas may ultimately result in better solutions. It was not long ago that Taiwan was blasted for their poor infrastructure by the EU (See this blog). Indeed recreational biking is improved, roads are better, there are painted walking lanes in small alleys and there are some bike lanes, most hard to identify as they are just a paint and so small you can't ride it with a 3-wheeler, let not think about when its only on one side of the road and used 2 ways. Actually, and off topic, have you have tried to use a wheelchair to move from A to B on the sidewalks ? good luck !

But, bike commuting has made hardly any gains in 30 years. The Netherlands still makes changes to bike laws, For example, the elemination of fat bikes interfering with pedestrians, laws on electrical bikes, all which some agree and with and others not. In Taiwan legislation and action seems to have been stalled. last week, in front of my eyes, I saw a lady on shopping bike being crashed under a delivery truck, both came out of a small alley, the truck made a turn without watching, How awful things can turn into.

Unfortunately I noticed that many links in this blogs don't function anymore and jump to 404's. For example, the English China post website was eliminated, likely for political reasons by governemtns that did not like an opposite point of view. Many linked website have disappeared as well. That this one still is there is a miracle.

It was a long day, skipped the offer for a Heiniken and other stuff because I am gluten sensitive. Jumped into the MRT and thought about writing this.