More Fashion...

So yes, this is a blog predominantly about my obsession with mountain bikes but I have been known to watch, and just recently, even play a bit of rugby...

I attended a Rugby dinner a few weeks ago where sporting paraphernalia was auctioned off for charity (To raise funds for a former Taiwan club Rugby player who was disfigured in the Bali bomb)

I coveted one item in particular, these....



My finger is touching not only Johnny Wilkinson's shorts, but (gasp) Johnny's signature.

I havn't washed it since...my finger's looking a bit manky too...

The shorts were auctioned to a drunk Australian stock broker for NT$150,000. Who after completing his successful bid went to the stage and tried to set light to them...

Fortunately he was stopped before the forty or so Englishmen in the audience could get out of their seats and waltz on his Matilda...

In the end the fellow Englishman modeling the shorts purchased them from the Australian for NT$120,000..

Which I guess proves that Ozzies are not very good at 1) losing and 2) maths...

Fashion.....

Cyclists are not known for their taste in clothes. In fact it's pretty hard for anyone to look good in skin tight lycra...

As a Mountain Biker though one has a myriad of options available when 'hitting radical singletrack dude'

One can wear baggy shorts to hide unsightly bulges, a helmet to conceal hair loss and protective armour to cover pale, skinny legs...

Here is our model Victor demonstrating this season's MTB look....



Notice the elegant lines when viewed from behind...



Sporting more convetional looks are, from left to right...Mike, Johnny and Peter.



Three guesses where Johhny is from...

Our final shot displays our models in their natural habitat, clearly indicating untapped talent in the art of looking simply fantastique!

Scooter-ville

Taiwan has 23 million people....and about 400 million scooters....

One of those scooters is mine....

This one in fact...


Yes I know..for an internationaly recognised mountain biker I don't exactly look very cool on this thing....

But Im not a sure if a Harley would make me look any better and its a much cheaper way to ride on the awesome mountain roads of northern Taipei..


Overall, being a skoota boy (TM) totally ROCKS!!


And it's a lot safer than driving...



He was lucky to walk away from this one. You can't see it in this picture but if that tree hadn't stopped him the car would have plunged a few hundred feet...

Speaking of dying, despite skootaring (TM) being great fun but ultimately not very cool....

You still wouldn't find me dead on this....



Or this....



No...THIS is what I am saving up for....

Yangminshan

I have finally managed to properly venture out and about into the mountains behind us...

And they are actually rather high! This is Cising at around 1500mts.

Notice the semi active volcano type thing....

....only a few kms from our apartment.

This certainly makes me sleep soundly at night...

Further out towards the coast the views are quite spectacular...

This valley is a short 30min drive from our apartment.

Notice the trail following the river that will just HAVE to be checked out on another trip...

However..not all is good.

The nearest beach to us is 45 mins away, has great surf and could be beautiful...

But it is so badly polluted it's embarasing....



After seeing such beauty in the mountains this really upset me and I can't understand why the local Taiwanese don't do something about it?

The good old bad old days....

I have just transferred all my photos onto Picasa which is quite a neat piece of free photo software from Google.

While going through my old photos I found some great shots of Malaysia that I believed to be lost. I have only posted photos of trails and machines recently so I thought it would be a good idea to provide a reminder of what mountain biking is all about....


I love berms...even small ones...


There arn't any wooden skinnies in Taiwan....I miss them....


What I don't miss though is crashing at regular intervals....


Looks like this is gonna hurt!


Yup...sure did!

Ooooh Machinery!

So the Taiwan Bike show has been and gone.....

Unfortunately I got the dates mixed up and was busy kickboxing so I didn't get to go.

Fortunately I know people who did and the general comment was that there wasn't many bikes but lots of nice machinery to see...

Such as this...


..and this....


Not really sure what these machines do but this bloke was getting excited about them....


What is it with Taiwanese and their toilets?

Apparently there were entire stands full of things like handlebar stems, and inner tube valves....

This wheel design looked interesting though...



..but best of all this bloke....



Who is current president of Taiwan (although there is a general election this weekend) said...

"We want to make Taiwan into a bicycle island with over 10,000 kilometers bike paths; a Bike Day and an Bike Museum"

So maybe there's some hope for dedicated for mountain bike trails.

Can't wait to see the museum full off spoke nipple machines though....

More trail building

Being gainfully unemployed has led to me working on the trail pretty much full time.

Well OK, maybe not FULL time...but I'm up to about four hours a day before I get too knackered to carry on.

So far I've built more than 1/2 km and reckon I have at least another 500-600 Mt's to go until I merge with an existing trail about 40-50 mtrs above my current position.


Things were pretty slow going for a while as I had to cut a lot of full bench into rock to make the trail follow the saddle up. I also had to put a switch back in and build no less than four retaining walls.

This section is all finished now. Although its steeper than I would have liked, it drains well and makes for good riding....



Now that I am at the top of the saddle the going is much easier and I'm making good progress. In fact, I have a well defined process.

First of all the trail is walked and marked (there are white ribbons tied to trees in this photo)



Then the trail is cleared...



Then the trail is cut...



Then after triming, compaction (using our dogs fat arse) and a few days to let the soil settle there is the final test....

....the dog run....



If our dog doesn't want to run it..then the trail isn't finished...

Tomorrow I have this lot to clear....



It sure beats working for a living.....

Trail Blarzin!

Well its been raining pretty much solidly for 10 days now....

The trail has been holding up well though and the wet weather has made cutting bench and carving sandstone a whole lot easier...



Of course the rather excelent condition of the trails is mostly down to the fact that I am religously following IMBA's 10% rule wherever I can...

So this is too steep...



and this is just right....

Crap Food!

Litteraly...



last week we went to a resturant where seats are old toilets and the tables are bath tubs...



I played it safe and went for the curry...



This lady loved it!



And for desert?

Georg....without an 'E'

This is Georg (without an E)



The poor fella can't even spell his name right and will do anything for one of these.....

He will do this...



And this.....



For a Mars bar I reckon I may even be able to convince him to drink this....