Adventure | Taiwan with FUNN and Richard Gasperotti
We all know that a lot of bike components and frames are produced in Taiwan but we don’t know a whole lot about the riding scene there. Richard Gasperotti and Adam Marshal traveled to Taipei in Taiwan to visit FUNN’s factory and test their latest handlebars offerings as well as experience the riding that can be found there. Adam describes what they found in the story below:
We arrived in Taiwan full of expectations. It’s a land with the biggest and most advanced bicycle industry, but it’s also an island we knew little about. The most important goal for Gaspi was to test some brand new FUNN products and to film a short commercial with the local crew. It meant getting into the mountains and to the trails for us. It turned to be one of the most exciting cycling experiences for me, however short our stay was. Directly from the capital city Taipei we got a shuttle to the start of the trail by a light truck for twenty bikes. The local bikers joined our film crew to show us the unfamiliar terrain. Surprisingly a couple of girls were involved and Gaspi had to sign some T-shirts. The weather was rather dull and foggy but it wasn’t cold at all. Within a very short time, we were surrounded by lush forest full of humidity.
I’ve only seen a place similar to this in the movie Platoon. But there’s no war and no enemies. Just a jungle with all the trees and its secrets lurking in the shadows. I found myself deep in the jungle with a lot of danger. Slippery roots on the ground, lianas hanging from the branches and bamboo stems very close to the trail. Everything was an obstacle which could lead to serious injury if not careful. Every cyclist has to be very careful not to crash into the bamboo with the handlebars. It happened often, so you have to bail from the bike into the bush. Literally you may meet Buddha then, because there are plenty of sacred statues scattered all over the forest. Thankfully I always landed on the ground which was heavily covered in leaves softening the fall somewhat. The most exotic part about riding in the jungle are the sounds. Unseen birds sing loud and constant. It’s the first experience of its kind in my life.
We were guided by Lee Trumpore, US citizen from Denver, who lives here for a couple of years and knows every stone of the trails. “The spiders in the jungle grow to the size of an adult’s palm”, Lee mentioned when we had a short break in the middle of the trail. It would have been better not to know! I was sweating like hell with all my photo gear in my bag. This trail was far from an easy level. It’s quite steep with lots of rocky steps and roots in the way. I wished I had woken in a much better shape for this day. To make things worse, I forgot my knee pads in my hotel room. Whoops.
The biking trip was arranged by Bobby Chen, sales manager of the FUNN Company based in Taichung, third biggest city in Taiwan. It took us about five hours to get to this point of our trip. During lunch in the small family restaurant we discussed the current mountain biking situation here on the island. “It’s quite an interesting story,” Bobby said. “About thirty years ago the government prohibited logging. That meant there was no need to maintain the forest roads and trails anymore. Most of them were still in a rideable condition for many years. However 12 years ago a massive earthquake hit the area. Many people lost their lives and it also destroyed the landscape of central Taiwan. Most of the trails almost disappeared.” Since then mounting biking is slowly dying out in Taiwan, which is pretty absurd because the island is considered to be on of the biggest producers and exporters of biking components in the world. Hopefully people like Bobby and his friends will keep the mountain biking spirit alive. Whenever they have time, they go out and build or repair biking trails in the forest.
Next day we set out to for a trail built on the secret spot very close to the military base with its own shooting range. If Gaspi was a panda bear, he’d be very pleased because there were fresh bamboo stems growing everywhere we looked. After heavy rains the soil of the local trails changed into muddy glue, but it didn’t matter to anyone. Most of the time we spent riding through some of the fresh berms shaped by the local trail builder nicknamed ’Flower’. Two things made cameraman Dantol Peng happy: nice shots and the fact, he didn’t crash his helicopter drone in the dense jungle. As soon as the work was done, we drank a toast at the FUNN headquarter using local cheering word “Hototo!”.
More information on FUNN components can be found on their website.
Words & Photos: Adam Marshal
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