December 15, 2024 | RandoTips

Taipei Bike Show 2010

This years show was pretty awesome with a wide scattering of bike and bike parts from big name brands down to much lesser unknown brands, and those without brands.

Although my primary focus is bikes, what I was aiming at with this show is to see just how well local companies manage to represent themselves to a worldwide audience. Not just to see what the big guys like Merida, Giant and Dahon are doing, but smaller guys who have carved out good niches for themselves.

Here’s the lowdown.

Amoeba Bikes

Amoeba make a whole host of bike stuff including handlebars, stems, bar ends, frames and other bits and pieces.

Amoeba are an example of a parts company that have really poured their efforts into their brand. I recognize this brand from years ago and even here at the show, the use of the manufacturing company’s name only appeared in some small places.

This emphasis on brand has, I think, given them a decent and permanent spot on the parts choice list of many riders.

This is their road bike model.

Bear’s Bikes

Bear’s Bikes is a local company making single speed bikes. These guys were sharing a portion of a booth with another company, but Bear’s were getting the vast majority of the attention.

Their stand was really well done. In a tiny space they managed to pack in just the right amount of bikes. They also have videos on the go of them and their buddies riding these bikes and doing all kinds of tricks and stuff. And the two guys manning the stand had intimate knowledge of their products, how they work and what they are good for.

This is a shining example of what can be done with a few contacts, enthusiasm and hard work. I’m not sure how well these bikes are selling, but they are riding on the wave of fixies and single speeds that seem to be doing the rounds at the moment. The main guy is also involved with Giant in some way, I can’t quite remember how.

They also have a bunch of videos on the Bear’s Bikes YouTube channel. Here’s my favorite one of the main dude doing some stuff that I would assume would break the bike.

Dodsun Bikes

The Dodson shown above features a Shimano Nexus hub and some pretty good looking, but probably extremely non-functional fenders. The more interesting bike was the one below.

The bike shown above is their classic road bike frame. This was mated to what the sales guy called the Campagnolo ’59 commerative groupset, made in the likeness of their 1959 groupset.

It had a really retro feel to it, especially with those downtube shifters.

Pictured above is a flat handlebar road bike from Dodson.

Favor Bikes

Favor Bikes are a local frame and fork manufacturer, the bike pictured above is based around their Spun single speed frameset.

HydraKnight

HydraKnight make bags, hydration kits and panniers. Although I don’t use a drinking bladder much anymore I used to use them all the time.

One of the primary things I like about local stuff is the price. I know the Camelbak was always a big investment of money, so I ended up using it for way longer than it was intended to be. My current Camelbak is over 10 years old.

The bladders are very solid and they incorporate some interesting designs. There is a bladder with two compartments inside so you can store an energy drink in one and water in the other, or any combination you can think of. The tubes from the two compartments are fed to a switch that selects which bladder to get liquid from, then goes to the section of pipe with the drinking thingy on the end.

The other cool thing was a range of very waterproof bags for commuting and touring. They come in different sizes and also include a handlebar bag that’s also waterproof.

Nankon Bikes

This long tailed cargo bike from Nankon was one of the highlights for me.

I have had my eyes on this style of bike for a long time now. With two kids it’s a bit of a mission to do any riding with them and I don’t have a bike setup quite right to take them both at the moment. Also the pricing on these is pretty expensive, with the well-known Surley Big Dummy cargo bike going for over US$2,495 as a full bike. This one would appear to be in a better price range and it’s made with aluminum rather than chromoly.

I’m hoping to get to try this one out sometime after I get in contact with them again.

The cyclocross offering from Nankon.

Girly Single Speed

This was propped up against a wall, I have no idea what company makes it but it looks pretty flash. The mix of the red aerospoke on the front, deep section white rim on the rear and gold cranks and handlebars are really stylish.

Free Parable

“Smart Low-Tech” is the moto of the folks at Free Parable. Based in Kaohsiung they design stuff for bikes.

Pictured above is the T1, which is a suitcase/trailer. When the wheels are folded up they are just like the little wheels on a normal suitcase. When they’re folded down they are read to act as a trailer that easily clips to an attachment on the quick release.

They also have what I’d like to call an inverted waterbottle holder. Instead of putting the bottle into a cage, you put an attachment onto the bottle itself, that attachment then clips to the parts on the bike. This allows any standard bottle to be clipped onto the bike.

Lastly was the Monkii, which is a folding tool carrier.

Polar

Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

Of course no show in Taiwan is complete without the scantily clad girls. Unlike Computex though, they were few and far between, and most of them were for slightly less heard of local or Chinese brands (it’s a local thing).

The lady above was a bit surprising as she was modelling for Polar, but it looks like all their stuff is made here. Polar are best known for their range of hear rate monitors.

Lian Hang New Product

These two were dressed just like the computex ladies, those shiny, plastic skirts and tops. Okay, okay these are my only pics of girls.

A Great Show Overall

After seven hours at the show I still only managed to get a good look at and talk to about 20% of the exhibitors, another 15% were just quick looks without talking to anyone.

Next time I hope to get more time to check everything out better. I was really impressed with the whole layout of the show and was amazed at how great it is go on a trade day as opposed to the weekend where it’s just a madhouse.

My First Impressions of the Dahon Speed Comp

Well over the weekend I managed to get hold of my first real folding bike. The impression so far has been good, but many of my concerns about these small bikes are still there.

My only experience with folding bikes in the past was a sub-NTD2000 ($60) bike which was kinda fun, but so flexy and small that it was no good for any distance further than the end of the block. That gave me the impression that they’re all like that.

I was wrong. Here’s why.

First Impression

The first thing I noticed is that the bike is pretty light, with everything smaller than a normal bike it ends up being on the light side. It’s not as light as a well-specced road bike, but for a small frame made from 4130 chromoly and a seatpost to match, there is a good balance.

I was going to talk about body position and setup on such a small bike, but will save that for a later post.

All that I need to say for now is that for commuting it is a comfy position. I’ve set the handlebars to the same height as the saddle, which is a little more relaxed than my main bike.

Overview

The bike features the following bits and pieces:

folding frame (made of Chromoly 4130)
foldable pedals
double chainring (39/56)
eight speed rear cassette (with MTB ratio)
grip shift (three speed front shifter for only two chainrings? odd.)
16″ wheels
front and rear fenders
straight-pull brakes
dia-compe levers
ergonomic grips
curvy downhill-style handlebars (with less width)
massive, long seatpost
saddle with beam
rear rack
front/rear reflectors

Gearing

With two chainrings up front and an 8-speed MTB cassette at the rear, you get 16 gears to choose from. Plenty for city riding and commuting. These give a lot of range for climbing some smallish hills and moving along at cruising pace of up to 40km/h.

But I have a gripe. Of course I do.

Through the city I usually maintain a 20-25km/h pace, which is a balance between not going too slowly and not breaking into a torrential downpour of sweat. At this speed I am firmly in the bigger chainring and shifting amongst the middle cogs at the back.

But the mountain bike cassette has too much range. The lowest combination on this bike would be suitable climbing very steep hills, and I mean spinning the cranks while going at 5km/h sort of hills.

Just not necessary.

I’d rather have a road cassette with much closer gears for a lot of variety in the 13-28km/h range. The gaps between gears at the moment are just a bit too big.

With that said, the gearing all works as advertised. The front shifting is very stiff and takes a heavy twist to get to the big chainring. The rear shifting is smooth and precise.

Handling

There is inherently less stability when using smaller wheels. That’s one of those scientific things that teams of people in lab coats have spent years analyzing and found to be true.

Larger wheels roll better, roll over bumps better, give slightly better power output and are more stable at speed. Smaller wheels are lighter and more maneuverable.

I was actually expecting the steering and handling to be worse than it turned out to be.

My unscientific test (I should get a lab coat for authority) of stability is riding hands free. That balancing turned out to be very difficult, but doable. On an MTB or road bike you can keep riding without hands until you run out of road or trail. The effort to stay upright was almost not worth it as the constant counter balancing was very tiring. It is still doable however.

It should also be noted that one side effect of the small wheels is that although the overall size can okay after adjustment you are still perched very high the wheel hubs, which might be a contributing factor in the lowered stability. But that is inherent in the design, so I can’t really fault it for that.

Bumps are not fun and the super long stem and seatpost amplify the effect of stutter bumps on roads. Even at a measly 25km/h I felt something would break or I’d lose control. The leverage makes those bumps very much bigger and I’d warn you to ride them carefully, something akin to the lightweight riding style for cross-country mountain biking would do fine.

Braking

Well, I stopped. Good enough?

Not quite. The little wheels are not perfectly round which is not unusual for many wheels. They take a pounding over time, they’re not built quite right and they just end up slightly unround or not straight.

Unfortunately the same leverage that comes through when hitting bumps also comes through when braking. Just a small imperfection in the rims makes the braking very stuttery. This is mostly solved with a good wheel truing. If you can do that yourself, great, if not, it might be worth having a decent wheelbuilder tension the spokes correctly and work out any slight imperfections in the wheels before putting the bike into heavy use.

Having become accustomed to the feel and power of disk brakes, these do feel a little less powerful, but great for the slower speeds the bike is intended for.

Folding

I still haven’t figured it out.

I tried without the manual and was a little confused. “It’s not really that small,” was my first thought.

Well, as it turns out I’ve only had to fold it twice so far. Claimed folding time is less than two minutes.

I still have a soft spot for the Strida folding bike simply because of its super foldability. This doesn’t fold up as easily as the Strida’s 15 seconds, nor as small, but does give a range of gears that the Strida doesn’t.

Comfort

The ergonomic grips were good on my hands, giving support where needed.

The saddle is soft enough and well designed. Softer than a race seat, but not a big cushion. I’d say it’s a racing-shaped seat with cushion-like padding. Comfortable after and hour of riding.

The riding position is relaxed. If it doesn’t feel relaxed, get your local bike shop to help you out with that.

Who is this bike for?

Considering the makeup of the components and the price and quality of the bike, it would be ideal for a regular commuter who covers up to 10km on their daily commute.

It’s not a cheap bike, which puts it out of the bargain bike range, but it won’t be suitable for longer riding like touring. Big bikes are always more comfortable for longer rides, but if regular folding and transporting on public transport is required, this bike would do the trick and do it comfortably.

Step Into the Light – A Short Guide to Bike Lights

photo credit: richardmasoner

After two rides that ended up in total darkness it’s about time I took a look at lights.

Lights have become an accessory for bikes. Years ago it wasn’t like that.

When you buy a car or motorbike no-one says, “Would you like lights with that?” Somehow it has fallen out of fashion to have lights on bikes, when in fact they are very useful and a very important part of night-riding safety.

Why no lights?

The reason there are no lights most likely comes down to fashion.

As bikes became more and more hi-tech and racers migrated from being great all-round athletes who would go huge distances without support so the bikes adapted to meet that purpose. People would inevitably want a bike like their favorite rider, so slowly the “cool” bikes were made without adequate clearance for fenders (or even slightly wider tires), without eyelets for racks and without lights as standard.

So the vast majority started to do without them and now they have become an add-on part, not considered as part of a standard bike.

Which is a bit of a pity.

It keeps people from riding at night because you have to get something else to make it safe. That then means more expense which most people don’t really need.

So if you want to ride at night anywhere outside the city, where that inescapable glow starts to disappear, then you better get some. Although the options are not huge, there is a lot of quality stuff around, for the best you’d have to do some searching though.

Which lights?

The answer seemed pretty obvious to me before: whatever they sell at the bike shop.

But this does not start to cover the vast range of lights for those who spend more than just a few hours riding their bikes at night each year.

My typical setup in the past has been (usually Cateye brand)…

Front light – usually with 3 or 4 batteries, previously halogen bulbs, more recent years it’s LED
Rear flashing light – 3 to 5 LED lights, usually powered by 2 batteries

A full charge will give quite a few bright hours on the front light and many more hours of “just enough”. The rear one will flash for a lot longer before needing replacement.

Beyond these I have had a dual-light with big rechargeable battery before which gave a decent amount of light for a pitch-black 5km tunnel ride before the tunnel was officially opened. Being of the older Halogen-bulb sort, the battery would not even last two hours with both lights on.

Enter the dynamo

In Germany, every bike sold is required to have a dynamo (front hub that generates electricity) and front and rear lights. And that is by law. And enforced.

So that’s a good place to start.

Having to install these things on every bike for such a long time, a huge number of high-quality front hub dynamos are produced in Germany.

The first thing that came to mind was exploding lightbulbs. But thanks to much improved technology and electronics the better dynamos will not destroy any lights as they are limited by electrical circuits and the power produced is smoothed off too.

They’ve also become more efficient. Almost to the point where it would not be noticeable. I mean like less then 5 minutes lost through inefficiency for every ten hours of riding, and for the amount of light they can produce it beats carrying a big, fat, heavy battery for the whole trip. You’re also saving the environment by saving batteries and you get that tingly feeling of self-sufficiency.

Lights

Along with everything else, the lights have taken a few big steps in their efficiency and maximum output potential. The most notable difference is the introduction of LEDs. With up to 50,000 hours of use compared to a few hundred hours for halogen bulbs, there is a lot to like. They also use less power than halogens.

They also come in a huge range of shapes and sizes too most of my information comes from Peter White Cycles headlight page where he covers the spill of the lights and a lot of information for anyone looking to compare lights.

For the moment

I am still to pour any big amount of money into lights. That was my intention, but I’ve been less drawn to investigating recently.

The main drawback has been the price. Most of these products are from smaller companies who specialize in these parts, which makes them expensive, or at least out of touch with the currency of Taiwan. For some items the price is only suitable for an enthusiast with money to spare.

So if you’re doing any night riding, make sure you’re kitted out with the right lights for your rig.