Taichung Taiwan - Bicycle Factories

Miss Megi rerouted our group to the middle of the island.
Throughout our travel, I had been pursuing cycling industry connections for help to extend the trip, to visit bicycle frame and accessory factories after our set itinerary. Unfortunately we could not find any seats on China Airlines for us to return any other day than originally planned. Just when a few of us were giving up hope to see where our lovely bikes are built, the "mandatory Typhoon Megi reroute" brought us to the west side of the island, very near the factory laden, industrial city of Taichung! Heading out of Taipei our guide wanted our wish of factory visits to come true, so of course, started making phone calls. Quickly he set up visits via Giant, and then SASO contacts, (thanks to my friend and colleague Kevin Wren of The Bicycle Cooperative).  Since we had only a couple hours, we were very lucky to walk through two very different factories. Nothing like instant wish granting! Again, John our guide and the Tourism Bureau, continued to feed our growing VIP persona's. 

Shortly after the phone calls, and barely off  the direct route to Sun Moon Lake, we were at the Giant factory. Giant is the world's largest bicycle manufacturer, making the majority of  their bikes on mainland China. However, they produce high-end bikes in their headquarters of Taiwan. Further, multiple brands that many of us own and ride, use Giant for their manufacturing as well. There is nothing like seeing an operation of assembly lines!  It's an infrastructure made up of a labyrinth of conveyor belts, grey-green colors mixed with steel and cement, with sky lights providing natural lighting to balance the fluorescents. The monochrome and dated feel were accented by bright splashes of yellow painted directions for compartmentalizing, and for safety, on the floors. Having grown up with a family business of a machine shop and manufacturing, it smelled and looked familiar, despite it being an exponentially larger scale of building, and automated machines. I could have spent all day there! 


Employees were in comfortable uniforms; pink for women, blue for men. The showroom and design office headquarters was staged like a typical business: products showcased, pro-team PR back drops for photo-ops, and even a small store (that didn't seem open while we were there). We were assigned a PR tour guide, Zack.  He had a headset so we could hear him in the louder areas, and a well-practiced tour ready for us. Only certain locations were acceptable for us to photograph, understandable in the competitive world of products. 

Areas where we couldn't snap some shots were near the painting and decal area.  There we saw a dry-cleaning style track with every bike frame and brand you can imagine slowly sliding by like your favorite vice - say candy - for us bicycle geeks and gadget collectors. I saw Scott, Trek, and Giant next to each other on the meat hook-style rack sliding by. How sweet I thought, look how they come from the same building, and get along so well before they end up in the marketing dog-eat-dog world or, better yet, side-by-side in a race.


We were taken to a wheel building and frame finishing area. Here ladies and gentlemen quickly drilled water bottle cage fasteners on, or zip-tied wheels onto the frames for packing. We watched employees snap spokes into place and tires and tubes on wheels in a zippy,  enthusiastic - and clearly timed and quota'd - speed. Impressive is just a word, but seeing this, efficiency made you gasp. If you could safely steal their attention you'd get a beautiful smile like most, if not all, Taiwanese we encountered. My mind wandered; "were these folks worked to the bone, unhappy in a sweat shop"?  It didn't appear so. Then again, they were showing us their high-end factory, via a tour guide. 

As we exited, a bell rang. Slowly and methodically, each and every employee put away their tools and migrated outside for break time. Similar to industrial areas here in Silicon Valley, some went to "roach coaches", while brown-baggers gathered their lunch break food items in the picnic areas. Others left on scooters. Seemed fairly normal but hard work, blue collar, but hey, they were building bikes... so we thought it was beyond cool!

SASO Factory - Taichung

Pressing carbon into die for bicycle bottle cages

Our gracious host Tony Wang, explaining details of carbon fibers

The next factory we visited was SASO (of Mekkem Industrial) - who build carbon accessories. Expensive bottle cages, carbon forks, mini-tools, to other products like bags and purses. Here they produce beautiful high-end products. It was a much smaller operation, more like what I was used to as a kid in local industrial parks. SASO operated in two different warehouse / factory buildings, as they had outgrown the single original building. Small groups of women sat at tables carefully stuffing carbon fiber straw-looking pieces into dies shaped for water bottle ribs. Hubs, forks, all being molded to fit in their metal counterparts. Tony Wang and David Chang gave us an intimate tour of their facilities. They were so hospitable; I thought we'd end up at their homes for dinner!

Actual carbon fibers before becoming sheets, then as building material.

Thought I'd model a stunning feather light silver number. I didn't ask how much it sells for.

After touring the newer facility, we were offered espresso in their conference room that seconded as a show room. Enamored with the shiny objects of carbon forks, cages and bike frames lent to a giddy group of cycling geeks and tourism media. Snapping pictures right and left, posing with carbon purses, we could only imagine if this were a store in the U.S., the value of the merchandise we were surrounded by, would be quite high. After some charades and laughs with our language barriers, we were invited to see the old facility. It was much more dark and stereotypical factory building, yet clean like the previous building.  Again, small groups of assemblers mixed with large areas of ovens for the carbon, and huge pieces of equipment we knew next to nothing about.

We all have a new appreciation for what goes into, and who is assembling our  toys. 

Like all our experiences in Taiwan, we wanted more. We wanted to meet more manufacturers, see more cities, and see what the west side of Taiwan had to offer. However our bus was ready to take us to our next hotel, our next adventure, and soon we'd see something we'd seen nowhere else in Taiwan.
Next entry; our road trip from Taipei to Sun-Moon, including lunch between factory visits near a temple, and the bustle of a busy working town.  (I want to thank X-Fusion Shox for making the effort to try and line up a day tour, if I had stayed, but we couldn't get scheduled. I promise to be back and spend some time there!)

BIKE SHOPS & PALACE'S - Day 7 continued

"New Orca: Breath deeply, it's just a bike"

Put a bunch of bike geeks in bike shops, good luck getting them out!

Several flagship bike shops in a row shined like jewelry stores in a high-end shopping district. Merchandising was so well thought out in most with well lit displays, including floors decals with bike path symbols not just decorate, but for testing a bike indoors, taking it for a spin. Giant, Aster, Orbea, and Merida were the shops we spent time in. Super friendly staff's were a little uncomfortable with why a group of 5 English speaking American's descended upon their quiet shops. They spoke nearly no English at all and appreciated it when I approached them with my business card, and would ask for theirs. I asked if I could take photos, and checked out beautiful bikes, bike graphics, and clothing and accessories.

I'd try to point out interesting things to our novice cyclist Canadian Niamh, and then make sure that Mark Villegas would see the crank arms in gold anodized bliss. Mark Blacknell and I tried to make small purchases at each, a magazine, a flashing "Scully" handlebar light, something to show a gesture of thanks to them, and get a souvenir. They often gave us a 10% discount in return for our efforts, I'm guessing because we were in the same industry. To my surprise of being in the Country that most the products were made, I couldn't find gloves in my size, in the women's section. All XS or Large. An inventory mistake in my mind, but I imagine they had bikes in all sizes instead, and some accessories were 2nd priority.

A new favorite. The beautiful Orbea Diva.This seat post clamp had me impressed even before I lifted her off the ground knowing she'd be sub 16lbs.

I loved the women's lines of clothing, often marrying everyday wear

with high performance, decent looks to boot!

We are so used to the look of our Giro Helmets,

that this exotic honeycomb helmet had us mesmerized for a bit.

Took this for my friends in Marketing at both Cat Eye and Topeak,

their walls were looking familiar and clean and well planned and stocked!

Couldn't help but be drawn to this Giant matte pink bike on the end, the

raised box display with striping in lights was effective and beautiful.

With only hand gestures and smiles, the Merida staff installed the battery

and indicated my discount for purchasing, and were very happy to be in the picture. Most anybody we met in Taiwan was friendly and all smiles.

To this day, I never got used to men and women covering their mouths with protective gear. Seeing the mannequin is fashioned this way simply made me smile, they knew their target market!

Somebody please explain to me how multiple stem spacers for this Giraffe of a head tube and bizarre geometry is a benefit? Many of the bikes were not the classic triangle, but lower stand-over height, smaller wheels, and awkward looking stems and head tubes. I can only assume it's for fitting onto the train, your house, or easy nimble entry and and exit over a lower top tube. Too ugly for my tastes, but function should lead form I suppose.

_________________________

HOTEL SWITCH

Turns out a small scheduling problem that could have been huge for ourselves, was solved when John worked his magic, and got us into an even better hotel after we learned original was not booked for the correct day. The alternative he found, happened to be the one where most the Pro Cyclists were staying, and whom we'd meet at the Press Conference the next day.

Mark Blacknell looks for wireless access as we wait for check-in.

We arrived at our new destination. Yes, disappointed we wouldn't get our 1 of potential 2 times we'd stay at the same hotel more than one night, as this "every night a different hotel" was wearing on one's ability to organize and repack a suitcase, but any negativity left after we landed at the The Palais de Chine. In a tall building with an Apple store at it's base, it already gained points with all of us "Apple Heads" at first glance. We weren't prepared for the sophistication of this luxurious, less than a year old hotel. French, artistic and classy with plush features like libraries in alcoves along the hallways, paneled ceilings, even curved ceilings. Lobby with large rough cut stone as a backdrop, couches and seats that looked of a high-end brothel or smoking room that only the finest in Europe could be imagined to be sporting a glass of brandy or port on. Yet... once again, getting alcohol to match the tempting scene, deemed a large challenge, nearing impossible. *sigh*, the only touch missing to us, were nice hotel bars. I was starting to feel self conscious that I desired a good drink other than cheap 7-11 bought beer. And I was starting to feel like this culture was making the effort to fit in and gather tourism momentum, but only with surface and appearance level of knowledge. Where were the hospitality managers that understood travel, vacation, luxury and a good high-end drink go together?

Check-in was on the 4th floor, maybe the 6th, it all blurred together at this point. It was also useless to try and remember your room numbers. Luckily we'd all try to write them down when we were handed our keys, and often could remember everybody's but our own. Meeting times were agree'd to, and off we each went to try and not unpack so much as to make the early morning a chore to re-pack, and try to go wash the travel and tired eyes off w/ a quick shower and change. Often we'd gather in somebody's room to chat pre dinner, and this time it ended up mine. A quick catch up and comparing room amenities with each other, sometimes sharing a Taiwan Beer. Laughing together at the complicated lighting systems, and enlightening another as to what we learned. "Oh... that's how you connected to the internet", or "how do you flush the toilet", "How did you get your lights to turn off?" were common discussions. This pattern formed early on, and grew, as the group liked to share everything, and liked to be together. Luckily, we were usually roomed on the same floor.

This is a lounge area screaming to enjoy spirits, we did finally get some

wine to sit in this space and soak it in a bit.

Kate, Mark and Naimh hang in my room and try to connect with our worlds at home before dinner.

PARTY OF 6 FOR DINNER PLEASE

We were readying for a walk to a famous "night market" that I had heard about before the trip, and to get a "traditional meal". John found a restaurant after whisking us through a quieter than normal night market... as the rain was on and off and drizzling at this point. The local cuisine was a large flat grill that they cooked in front of you and you practically ate off of. As usual, Mark Blacknell and I were the outcasts on the end with our ever burdening request for a vegetarian meal, but I was always glad for the decision. I would nibble on fish when I felt like it, but didn't take to the mystery meat. Mark Villegas was an expert chopstick handler, and in the caring fashion that we all started to have for each other, sometimes would help me if I couldn't separate something out, and manage to serve anything onto my plate. I had always thought I was not so bad at chopsticks, but put a wet greasy noodle or shiny bean in front of me, and I might accidentally catapult it into your eye. Separating fish from skin was my most ungraceful, so usually I just didn't try.

This meal was fun, the cooks very local and between their cell phone calls and lack of interaction, I think they added more oil to the process. My belly was not happy as we walked back, as the grease was landing in my belly, we each retired to our glamorous rooms, to digest in our privacy, and get ready for the big "Press Conference" day in the morning. Bags packed and down to the check out by 8 or something like that. So breakfast at 7 or 7:30. They all blend together, but all of the morning calls seemed too early - especially with bags packed.

Taiwan Cycling Festival Opening Ceremony!

(photo by Mark Blacknell -blacknell.net)

Ceremonial ride with the Transportation Minister of Taiwan and other Government and Cycling promoting dignitaries.

Mark Blacknell -Blacknell.net, Beverly Garrity -bevcycle.blogspot

spot, Mark Villegas Bikehugger.com, Kate LaCroix -Global Soul Adventures, Mr. Mao -Minster of Transportation, Chieh-Ting -Magistrate of Taitung, Janice She-Jen Lai -Director Taiwan Tourism Bureau, Niamh Kavanaugh -Adventures-abroad, King Liu -Cycling Lifestyle Foundation and Chairman of Giant (Bicycles) Manufacturing.

Kate has everybody's undivided attention explaining she is trying to put together an expedition on Taiwan for her touring company, along with her dual purpose of being here for cycling, and media PR for tourism.

Mark Blacknell knows how to interview - and dove right in asking about their ambitious plans to become a destination not just for manufacturing bikes, but for cycling the beautiful island as well.

The ceremony was full of photo ops and positive energy. They are so proud of their mission - as Taiwan should be. From what I've seen in 3 short - jammed packed days - they are setting the Country up with amazing lanes and bike paths and "Cycling Stations" to assist the tourist on bicycle.

Beverly Garrity and Taiwan Transportation Minister - Mr. Mao. Avid cyclist and fantastic mission for increasing tourism and sustainable living!

We were treated like VIP's in every way this day, acknowledged as the "English Speaking" media from Los Angeles - front row seats, and photographers everywhere.