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
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.
Around Taiwan in 48 hours? http://randotips.com/cycling-challenge-around-taiwan-in-48-hours/
Two ideas for the average speed option. One is get some short high intensity interval training in. This will give you higher top end power, but also a couple more watts of base power, which means higher average speed at the same energy level. Secondly, meet up with friends and ride together on the route. I’m sure there are a bunch of people who don’t mind joining you for a few km around their home town. If it’s not against your personal rules, sitting on a wheel sometimes will help a lot. If it is, they can at least watch the pace more closely so you can relax mentally a bit, and the company will help the km pass.
Thanks for the tips BergFly.
Interval training is actually the only real “training” I do nowadays. Just once a week, building up intensity over four weeks, then cutting back. The rest of my riding is just “a lot” of time on the bike, but at a mild pace.
Riding with others makes sense. I don’t tend to ride on their wheels in this case anyway, mostly side-by-side chatting. But I’ll likely end up being on my own most of the way.
And I will keep a much closer eye on the average speed. Generally on the west coast I can go at 25-27km/h for hours on end. I do need to watch out for the effect of hills on the east coast though, and keep those breaks to a minimum. Little things like having an Easycard and planned menus (just choosing what to eat before I step into the store) for the 7-11s can cut a little time. Every minute counts, 10 stops cut by just 2 minutes save 20 minutes over the duration.
In terms of packing, I will take less (or no) items for severe mechanical problems. No change of clothing either. But I’ll take 4 water bottles, and enough food for a few hours so I don’t stop as often.
Cheers,
Peter
Not taking an extra pair of cycling shorts is a bad idea, just the amount of gunk build up could make it nasty, so to stop at a 7 dry off and change would probably increase your chances of succeeding. Once you have confirmed dates will try to join you for some of the ride to get you though the Kaohsiung area with minimum fuss, but city cannot be avoided down here unless you go inland circuitous route.
Thanks Mark. I took a change of shorts on my last trip, but didn’t change, it’s a good idea, but I only have one set of decent shorts (actually, one set that sucks and another that is so-so). Your advice is taken, thanks. The only upside to this time of year is that it is much cooler, so much less sweat to deal with.
I went through Kaohsiung 2 or 3 months ago by bike, it was a little confusing then, but I will likely take the same route again, which mostly sticks to the 17. Avoiding the city would add a lot of distance and time. I actually found the traffic flow of Kaohsiung to be pretty good, so not a huge issue.
Last time I got messed with directions because bicycles can’t follow the bridge over the tracks on the 17 (Google Maps doesn’t know that), and I just need to remember to hook a left after I pass Costco.