No biking yet
For several reasons, I haven't even been on my bike this year, except for a short ride to the street hockey session last week, and D hasn't even done that. A really slow start to the year, but we're pinning our hopes on next week. So for anyone else out there that might have problems getting on the bike, maybe this book is a good read to while away the time: Around the World on a Bicycle by Thomas Stevens. I haven't read it myself yet, I just found it the other day, but I'm hoping that it might be a fun read.
It is written in 1887 by the first man ever to circumbike (!) the world. And he did it on a penny-farthing, aka highwheeler (always wondered how you get on one of those). From San Francisco to the US East Coast, and then through Eruope, the Middle East, India, China, and Japan and back to the US West Coast. The book, for which the copyright has expired, can be downloaded in text format from the Gutenberg Project. It's divided in two volumes, where Volume 1 describes the ride from San Francisco to Teheran, and Volume 2 describes the ride from Teheran To Yokohama.
Others said:
Jeez, around the world? I'm just hoping to go around the island before I leave. Do you know of any English-language logistical resources for going around the island on the Web?
keauxgeigh | 03:20, 25 February, 2009
And on one of those machines, too. Pretty cool.
Sorry, don't have any info in English on going around the island. There's a Chinese link on the side to an organization that arranges group tours around the island, that's all I've got. If you're going on your own or with a couple of friends, I know that this organization does it in nine days (my wife was on one of their tours), averaging about 100-120 km/day (I think it's just above 1000k around the island), and they have people on those tours that have hardly even seen a bike on a post card before. With those distances, you could probably map out places where to look for accommodation along the route. On that site, they also have an elevation map of the route they take. And if you use forumosa.com, the sports forum might be a good place to ask for info from people that have done it.
Apart from that I can't think of anything else than scouring the web for blogs in English, sorry.
tbv | 12:38, 25 February, 2009
no, thanks! actually that's a good idea to try to get a forum up on forumosa or cycle taiwan. i can't believe I'm the only one wondering about this and that no one has good experience they can offer.
keauxgeigh | 03:31, 5 March, 2009
Didn't even think about Cycle Taiwan, that's of course a great idea. On Forumosa, just go to the Sports forum, people ask bicycle questions there all the time, and sometimes also in the Health and Fitness forum. But I'd try the Sports forum.
tbv | 09:49, 5 March, 2009