pumpkinslayer | RandoTips

Ride Report – 365km Taichung and Sun Moon Lake

On Double Tenth Day I rode up to Taichung to join a group of local riders for a ride up to Sun Moon Lake and back again.

Early Start

The kids were booked in for mommy’s care for the day so I was ready to get an early start.

Google Maps estimated my trip to around 130km for the ride from my house to the meeting spot in Wufeng. I estimated that I could average 25km/h for that whole stretch.

Just to be on the safe side I intended to start at 1:00, but that didn’t work out and I left at 2:00 on the dot after going to 7-11 to pick up food for the trip. This turned out to be only just enough time, and most of the riders were already there waiting as I pulled up at 7:20.

Eating on the Road

Part of the early morning was to test my ability to eat while on the bike. My aim was to stay on the bike for the entire trip to Taichung and eat the goodies I had bought to keep me nourished along the way.

As this was just a test I had, a few days earlier, set up a plastic bucket for holding food at the front of the bike. I took a plastic container, cut the front section to a slightly more aerodynamic (non-square) shape and zip-tied it to the underside of my aerobars.

The result is a very ugly contraption for carrying stuff. It works extremely well though.

I filled it with 4 seaweed wrapped rice triangles and a sandwich from 7-11. That was enough for one on the hour, every hour. Note that I’m also playing with the quantity of food I need to ingest while riding too.

Two issues came up during the ride.

Firstly, I hadn’t put any padding in the basket. This was okay as the things I was putting in were soft. If anything harder needs to be placed in there it makes a knocking sound the whole time. This happened with a roll of Frutips later in the ride.

Secondly, and more seriously, I didn’t have a cover.

I knew that the roads I was riding were in good condition, but it doesn’t take a big bump for things to fall out a shallow basket. I placed my arm warmers in the basket, and placed my rice triangles inside those to try and keep things together. They fell out twice. I’ll make a cover for the next time. Although it doesn’t look slick, there’s something quite satisfying solving a problem for only NTD45.

The Ride There

Was uneventful. Took some new roads, was pleasantly surprised, and might be tempted to take them again in the future.

I thought it was a little strange how good the roads were. It’s actually a bit misleading to look at the category of road to decide what it’s surface will be like. The roads of this category on the way to Alishan were quite messed up, but the coastal road of a slightly higher category is not better kept and in many places worse.

Arrival

Outside the 7-11 there was a small crowd of people waiting to get started.

They had gotten there early, some at 6:50, so had already been waiting half an hour when I got there. I had to eat so I scoffed down a quick meal before setting off.

The ride set off quickly, with some of the riders heading off before I was quite finished eating. Just after the first bridge, as I caught up, the majority of the pack set off on a slightly different route to what had been arranged before.

But Mike, who was eating when I set off and said he’d catch up was not with us yet. So we waited by the turnoff. He didn’t see us and went off on the original route, so Domenic and I chased him down and headed to the spot where we’d meet the others.

I quickly figured out that Mike would be my riding companion for this ride. As the others set off to conquer each climb, we’d tag along and play catch-up. I was quite grateful for the company, as I prefer to stick with at least one other person for conversation on social rides. Mike is also quite new to cycling and I know from when I started riding years ago, I always appreciated someone sticking with me while I was at the back.

Lots of Climbing

Mike, The Other Half Of Our Two-Man Team

The route along the 14 was a gentle climb, and then a lot of the group decided to just follow that road up to the lake. But seven of us took to the smaller roads for the very pleasant and steep back roads to the top of the hill.

The route was No. 14 -> right onto 147 -> left onto 131 -> right onto No. 21 -> eastward around lake until ItaThao village -> 63 over the hills -> No. 16 westward.

The hills were all a challenge, but the really great payoff was the final decent down the 63.

Roads in great shape, perfect corners for speed, mirrors on every bend (to check for oncoming traffic), with a final straight section taking the speed up into the 60s. Nice.

Bicycle Repair Man

As Mike and I started the long, lonely stretch along the No. 16 back towards Taichung we spotted a rider pushing his bike.

As is my custom I pulled over to check on his situation.

He told me his tire had burst and he was pushing until he could call for a ride. He told me his tire was completely busted.

I accepted his answer and went on for a bit, but hesitated, so I stopped and asked him for more details. He showed me his wheel and as it turns out, he just had a nail in his tire.

He had all the necessary tools with him, so I just grabbed his stuff and started doing my thing.

Off with the back wheel, tube out, tire check, new tube in, pump up the tire. Done. Couldn’t have been more than 5 minutes.

He expressed lots of concern that his tire had been destroyed and wasn’t usable. I told him he could have a glimpse at my rear tire if he wants to see just how much abuse a tire can take. My rear slick has a large flat spot in the middle and multiple holes. The tubes with clusters of patches have their own story to tell too.

I’d forgotten just how much I’ve really learnt about how to fix my own bike. I consider taking tires off without tire levers to be quite a simple affair, whilst many people gawk in amazement at the feat. Fixing a puncture takes me 10 minutes using a patch, that also accounts for re-tightening the cones with my hands before putting the wheel back in.

Heading Home

Shortly after the tire repair, Mike and I parted ways. He was heading back towards where we started the ride on the day. But I thought I’d just head straight home, seeing as I had over 5 hours of riding ahead of me.

The ride home was much like the ride out, a little busier, and I still needed to consult Google Maps on my phone to avoid wrong turns. Mostly through the small towns, where the roads would take unexpected turns.

At Dounan I hunted down a McDonalds and filled myself with a huge number of oily calories for rest of the ride. After this, saddle pain started to set in and 34 hours without sleep started to take its toll.

At around 20:30 I rolled up at my inlaws place, scoffed down everything on the table, then headed home for a quick shower and then bed. A 6:30 morning was waiting the next day.

Lessons Learnt

Don’t eat too much rice.

As much as rice does well for my stomach compared to noodles, I need to get calories without the bulk. I was too full from all the rice, but still needed more calories.

I’m wary of “energy” foods because of their high sugar contents. I need to investigate this more, but here are some ideas for next time.

Sandwiches with peanut butter and honey (both high in calories, less bread, more spread)
Some sports drink (I only had water this time round, but this is also simple sugar)
Other 7-11 foods (main source of sustenance on rides, I had some chips last time)

Adjust handlebars

Stem needs to be shorter. Aerobar position is too far forward. Without a shorter frame, a shorter stem is the only choice. My neck gets too sore in the current position. Especially for any ride that’s going to last longer than 10 hours.

Riding Glasses

When on the aerobars I’m looking over the tops of my lenses. In the day it’s not essential that I have clear vision. I can ride without my glasses just fine. But at night I need the glasses so I have to rise my head to look through the lenses, this is too tough on the neck. Contact lenses perhaps?

For now I need to make these changes and get focused on my round-the-island trip.

—–

Tired and happy,
Peter

Cycling Challenge – Around Taiwan in 48 hours

Going around the island is a pretty popular choice for a full weeks cycling trip in Taiwan.

Whole families, young folks, old folks, you name it, many have tried.

I’d say an average trip goes for 10 days or so.

So how about completing the whole thing in just 48 hours?

Route Planning

In terms of ease, taking the outermost roads the whole way around the island is the most sensible.

These roads are the flattest and the straightest. Roads that head off into the hills involve longer distances and more climbing.

The trip needs to start on the outermost roads. When the timing is tight, it’s necessary to cut out any excess travel to and from the coastal road. Timing of the route must start on the actual route and exclude time from home to the route. My house is really close to the route so only 15 minutes to the starting point.

Here’s the distances I worked out for a counterclockwise trip:

Start in Jiali – 0km
Jiali to Oulanbi – 195km
Oulanbi to Suao – 411km
Suao to Guandu bridge – 179km
Guandu bridge to Jiali – 310km
GRAND TOTAL – 1095km

So I’ll use 1100km as the reference point. Google Maps is fairly accurate with distances, so that’s it.

Average Speed

So, you get 48 hours to complete 1100km.

1100km divided by 48 hours = 23km/h (rounded up) average

My last ride to Taipei and back was 667km, completed in 33 hours (including breaks), which works out to about…

20km/h…

Too slow to circumnavigate the island in 48 hours.

But, 3 hours were spent off the bike eating, taking photos, etc. So 667km in 30 hours gives…

23km/h…

But that’s doing without any breaks from the bike and doesn’t include hills.

So what can I do to get my speed up?

Increasing Average Speed

So without any time for excessive training, how do I get my speed up without me actually being fitter and stronger?

There will be more hills in a full circumnavigation, and those will work against me. Fortunately, the hills are not mountains, so the speeds going down will not be hindered by tight bends and excessive braking.

Here are the tactics for increasing my average speed.

Eat on the bike & take food on the bike
Plan fuelling stops
Monitor average speed more closely
Avoid big cities and traffic lights
Use a navigation system

Now let’s look at them in more detail.

Eat On The Bike

Eating on the bike is okay, just have to eat finger food. The seaweed covered rice triangles from 7-11 are cool for that. They are filling, and rice is safe on the stomach and high in carbs.

Need a container for the front of the bike to hold the food. A randonneur style handlebar bag is necessary so I can get to the food without stopping to get something out of the panniers. Also, the saved time from not stopping far outweighs having the extra weight on the bike.

Planned Fueling Stops

Typically I just stop when I need food. But that’s pretty random, and sometimes it will mean waiting too long after I need a refill of either food or water. There are plenty of convenience stores, but I’ll need to actually plan ahead where I want to fill up, avoiding looking and searching. The more certainty to the plan, the less wasted time there will be.

Monitor Average Speed

I believe I can keep the average speed up without any extra “effort”. This will simply take focus, especially away from any pain building up. With a controlled speed I won’t “hit the wall” but I need to monitor my food and drink intake carefully too.

The 667km ride I was able to pull off a similar average speed in the last 4 hours as I had in the first 4 hours, I simply had to dig deep and ignore the pains, mostly sitting pains, that were bothering me so much.

Avoid Traffic and Traffic Lights

Big cities make riding slow. Traffic lights and traffic all work against average speeds. Fast riding speed that comes from fitness helps, but good route planning and reduced stops are essential for making higher speeds pay off well.

Navigation System (Don’t Get Lost)

Using a navigation system is just about not getting lost (wasted time). I’ll need to investigate this more, and I’d have to sort out how to power any such devices for such a long period of time. Most electronics will last up to 12 hours, doing what they’re supposed to do. That’s not long enough.

A dynamo hub, with a usb charger looks like the best option, but is pretty costly for such a simple device. However, they are light and efficient, and will not run out of power at the speeds I’ll be going.

The Plan

I want to do this before the year is out. That gives me three months.

Get essential equipment like seat and handlebar bag sorted out. Navigation system is not essential, just a luxury.

Then there’s probably one other long ride, of perhaps 800km to make sure my equipment is all okay.

Now I just need to get these done.

Any ideas, suggestions, route tips or otherwise? Leave a comment below.

Ride Report – 600km Tainan to Taipei and Back

Last Saturday saw the beginning of the longest ride I have done to date.

The plan was to just go very far.

I’ve been all the way south before, so this time I went the other way. Tainan to Taipei was a simple and fairly predictable route, making it a good choice for my first 600km.

Planning

Unlike almost all of my other long rides, this one has been in the planning stages for a week or two. Typically I just happen to get a weekend free and then jump on the chance to go for a huge ride. The downside with a lack of planning is also the limitation on the time it places on me.

Less planning, less time available.

So for this one I set a date and confirmed it with Ava. She would see to the kids and I’d go off and do my thing. This was a weekend when she was free, with the preceding and following weekends booked up with other stuff for her. So it was either this day or wait two more weeks.

Equipment

This ride also saw another first for me, a full night ride. I have done rides at night before, but never all the way from sunset to sunrise. It was also a chance to try new gear. And a chance to test how long my body goes before going poof.

So I needed to carry extra stuff, prepare for the night and test new stuff. These were:

Lights – for all the night riding. I borrowed these from Corne, rather than buying some that I would only use once.
Bags – something lower profile than my big panniers. Also from Corne, a Topeak bag that fitted the rails on my rear rack.
Aerobars – for sleeping on the move, hand relief and aerodynamics. These really helped ease hand-related tiredness, and I estimate improved my speed by 5% to 8% when I used them.
Comfy grips – for better hand relief. These possibly helped, but being able to rest my hands when using the aerobars was possible enough.

The Start – Saturday, 12:00

My morning classes ended at 11:00 on Saturday morning and I had stayed up late with double-checking my stuff before the ride. But I was ready to go.

The weather was looking good, even though the weatherman was predicting possible rain, so I threw on some fenders just in case.

So at 12:00 I got to the meeting point where I met Tom. He was going to join me until he wanted to turn around. Having company was fantastic and we chatted about his recent month and a half trip to Europe to tour by bicycle.

I was wrapped up in arm warmers and MTB gloves to keep my arms and hands from getting burnt. I also put on my helmet for a change, although that came off when the sun went down.

Parting Ways – 40km

Tom was a welcome partner for the first 40km of the ride.

At 40km Tom set off back to Tainan, having already covered around 25km more than that after riding in from Tainan City.

It was back to the lonely trek, which has become a very familiar part of my riding. It’s great to ride with others when I can, but there is also something great about riding alone. Paul expressed his sentiments on this in a summary post on his ride around Taiwan.

So all was well, and I just set myself into cruising mode.

There was a very small tailwind helping me along, which would come along to bite me in the butt (face, actually), on the way back.

I had been very consistent in using the aerobars, getting in to a tucked position as often as possible, somewhere around 75% of the time by me estimation. But my neck was getting tired.

The visor on my helmet, which works wonders for keeping the sun off my face and negating the need for sunscreen, meant that I had to keep my head propped up quite a bit higher than usual and after 100km my neck was sore.

After that I would spend a lot more time in the comfy upright position, until much later in my ride when my neck was recovered and my helmet was off.

Puncture Time – 135 km

Puncture at the 135km mark. Fixed with a patch kit.

I was just doing my thing when that squishy feeling started.

My rear tire was losing air, but not extremely quickly, so I quickly looked for a place to pullover and make the repairs.

As the air was coming out slowly, it was likely that the damage was small, so I already had it in mind to just patch up the hole. I would save the spare tube for a complete catastrophe, where the tube might be unusable. On second thoughts, I could have just changed it and patched up this one later if needed, but I also liked the idea of a sit down break to watch glue dry.

This was when I put new equipment to the test. It’s usually recommended to do testing beforehand, but this ain’t life or death, so just do it whatever way.

Two things…

Amazing minipump lent to me by Corne
Great bag also lent by Corne

The bag was great because it could just slip off in a second, making it much easier to take off the wheel and change the tube. It was also big enough to hold the not-so-minipump.

But that minipump was the bomb. With a foldout foot hold, handle that rotated by 90 degrees and a pressure guage, I was able to make short work of pumping the tire back up to full pressure. It ends up like a mini-floorpump. I am quite happy to drag that little extra weight for the convenience of how easy it is to complete a tube repair.

With the tube patched, wheel back on, and tire pumped up, it was time to press on. And into the night.

The Night

Taichung city at night. Around the 150km mark or so.

I have to confess that I have a particular fondness for night riding. Like most other people, I don’t particularly like busy streets at night, or the danger of inattentive drivers. It’s the other aspects that attract me to it.

The isolation, silence and peace of riding in secluded areas is deeply relaxing. The wind in your hair (or on my skin at least), the stars in the sky, the flicker of lights in the distance, and sometimes the only thing you can see is the small, faint glow of the bike light on the ground.

It’s also that focus of having your attention on the spot directly ahead of you.

Objects of all sorts go almost ignored at the sides of the road (but I am still attentive), but my main focus is right on that spot directly ahead. Focus that puts all other things out of my mind. It’s just me and the road.

The night provided little opportunity for picture taking, although now that I know my phone’s camera can take decent night shots, I’ll likely take the time to do a few more the next time around.

Familiar Territory – 220 km done (approx.)

Zhubei saw me heading back to a route that I have covered before.

When I was first got bit by the long distance bug a few years ago I was living in Xizhi in Taipei County. At that time a lot of my riding was focused on the bike paths in Taipei. Those were a good choice and got me started on reaching farther and farther distances.

But after a few riverside rides it became clear that for real distance I would need to start venturing onto the roads.

The roads tend to be straighter and lend themselves much better to faster speeds. They also have convenience stores to provide my caloric requirements along the longer rides.

My first attempt at a 200km was a failed attempt due to time restraints. That ride started at midnight and by the time I got to the tunnel shown above it was time to turn around or I would not make it to work. I believe it was 187km that time, but I did make it back to work on time.

I put my head down a bit and focused on getting a little more speed into the ride, having slowed down for quite a while due to various pains and aches besides my legs.

Finally, it was time for the last peaceful stretch into Taipei.

The Riverside – 320km

After going through an unexpected amount of traffic for these wee hours of the morning, I was happy to jump onto the riverside path for the final burst to Taipei 101. It was like a trip down memory lane, taking in the same sights and sounds as I had experienced all those times before.

It was a short stretch and I rode up onto the bridge to Keelung Rd, and went directly to Taipei 101.

The Anti-Climax – 332km

Outside Taipei 101 with drunken youngsters. Now 332km.

At 332km I propped my bike against a pole outside Taipei 101.

In my own mind I had images of being alone, and taking a nice shot with the building in the background and taking in the beauty of the massively phallic symbol that has become the image of Taipei.

What I got instead was… drunken youths. Some throwing up, and others excitedly discussing which nightclub they were going to next. I think I’m showing my age, but that isn’t what I was hoping for.

Next time I’ll make the destination the top of Yangming Mountain or something like that.

So, I got to cuss at a Taxi driver who tried to run the red as I was coming through an intersection, take a photo, then go to 7-11 for some nourishment.

Danshui – 358km

Danshui was showing all it’s beauty in the early morning.

There were cyclists out for riding and the sun was rising peacefully over the mountains.

The also marked the beginning of the end of the Taipei City stretch, something which I was very happy to be done with for the most part.

From here it was out along the coastal road until the alternative route along number 15 that would take me past the airport and all the way back to Zhubei.

Hsinchu – 430km

Bike paths in Hsinchu. There were plenty of them and they looked really nice. But I didn’t partake. 430km done.

By this stage I was really feeling tired.

I had taken a 20 minute nap earlier in the day, somewhere along the number 15 and was doing fine sleepwise, but the aches and pains were getting quite intolerable.

Besides my average speed dropping due to a slight headwind, I was spending a lot of time standing up to relieve the pressure on my sitting bits.

I will be investigating new saddles as this one is just totally unsuitable for rides of this distance. For shorter, faster rides, when the hard effort by the legs forces the body upward away from the seat, this one would be fine. But with the all day ride, there is a lot more sitting in place, which requires a much different design to be comfortable. It may be a great saddle, but not for me.

The standing up further slowed my efforts as every moment standing slowed my forward movement. The aerodynamics of being on the aerobars is essential for getting the most speed for your power input.

In Hsinchu I also noticed how many bike paths there were, they were very tempting, but my goal was in sight, and these paths would have slowed my already slow forward progress.

Rivermouth with the wonderful sounds on water lapping on the shore. 485km done.

The sunny skies continued and there was some relief in the shade of the elevated expressway when it restarted after a stretch on the No. 1. It also included the rivermouth view above.

Sheer Exhaustion

568km done. Pretty much how I was feeling. 100km left.

It might sound a little silly, but this is the part of the ride that I like the most.

It’s at this point that I really have very little left.

Thoughts of calling ahead for a lift home, or flagging down a blue truck to take me somewhere down the road, fill my head. I’ve never actually done that, but it does go through my head.

And it’s at that same point where I had to decide to just take the last 100km one step at a time.

I put myself out of my body as if I was two people. It was a tad surreal. One was the rider, pushing to make it to the finish. The other was the coach, who would help the rider to count out the intervals and keep him on track.

My legs were strong enough to keep going, so I started my counting.

Riding By The Numbers – A Coping Technique

My counting technique goes like this…

Decide on a number of turns of the cranks (ie. add one every time my right foot was at the bottom of it’s stroke). In my case I chose 400, which at a cadence of 80RPM would be a 5-minute interval. I choose turns of the cranks because they are very natural to count, being a physical count, rather than following the time on a clock, which would move focus away from the turning of the cranks. Each push puts my total closer to the end, rather than some time.

I then put myself down on the aerobars and kept turning the cranks until I came to that number. I would count every number right until the 400. Then I’d shift 2 or 3 gears harder, and stand for some slow relaxing 50 to 100 turns of the cranks.

And so, for the final 70km or go, it was just 400, 50, 400, 50, 400, 50, until I got home. Sometimes the 50 was more like 100, but focusing exclusively on the counting, on a goal immediately at hand, I was able to mentally split the daunting task into a whole lot of very simple mini-tasks.

Just a field. Was vivid green in real life.

And finally, just a smidgen after 21:00 I was back in my little town. Body aching and ready to soak my tired body, I went straight for the fridge, gobbled down a whole lot of stuff I can’t remember, had a scrub in the shower (amazing how dirty you get from 33 hours on the road), then went straight to bed.

Cloud 9

As I write this I still living on the fumes of that ride. Everytime I notice my still-aching legs, memories of my trip come to mind and I’m filled with a euphoria that I don’t quite know how to put into words.

I received a call from Queenie in Taipei today and she asked me, “What’s next, 800km?”

And that might just be it, as my distances increase, the old rides seem so easy.

Once I’ve knocked one off the list, there is no way to go but up. I think I need some big hills to knock me down to size.

For now, I hope you enjoyed this ride report.

———-

Still tired, but happy,
Peter

PS. I always appreciate a share on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pintrest, etc, Thanks