Biking Taiwan: Ride over Shiping-汐平 Road

Wednesday morning I awoke at 5 AM to finish getting ready for a ride down 106 over to Jingtong. Jingtong is near Pingshi with the lantern festival around Chinese New Year.

I met up with a local group of weekend workers who enjoy getting together for much lolly gagging and photo taking on their mid-week rides. It’s also a great chance for me to practice my Chinese.

Wednesday’s weather was simply sunny and hot. Just getting into Taipei took a bottle of water and getting to Taipei Zoo for the final meetup took another. In between those two points though, I had one flat when a valve stem decided to let go and another when the inner tube literally burst like a gun shot as it was being filled.

I must say that I’m no longer going to use Giant inner tubes. Even the Giant tubes I’ve paid a little extra for don’t last very long. I have more problems with inner tube failures than actual holes in my tires.

On the ride itself, heading out 106甲 from Taipei Zoo is pretty relaxing. You roll along the foot of the hills till getting into some slight climbing territory. In no place is the road really steep, maybe 8 percent at most over 5 kilometers before the quick drop in Jingtong.

After water and ice bars in Jingtong, we headed up 北31 which I think is also called Shiping-汐平 road for it goes between Shizhi and Pingxi. The road here is like most Taiwan numbered county roads, it gets a little steep at times, a few 10 percenters, but very short when you meet them. Still, with the sun beating down, it was a hot and tiring climb to almost 600 meters.

Since the group was spread out near the top, we waited up for all to rejoin us before flying down the hill and to take another break at a swimming hole. With the two groups on either side of us while we were in the water having a BBQ, lunch was getting to be much bigger on my mind.

Eventually, we dried off and finished our decent into Shizhi and Nangang for lunch at a Vietnamese place. Here we decided that we’ll change plans a bit, some of us would hit the river paths and others take highway 5 into Taipei for home.

I and Mark C wanted to get over to Neihu-內湖 for bike shopping. However, I got too far ahead of him and didn’t realize I missed the Keelung river bike path. I backtracked to find Mark without luck. Since, I was really wanting to get on home and buy new tire supplies I kept with the Neihu plans.

In Neihu, I stopped at the Orbea shop off of Ruiguang-瑞光 road. The were very kind to me in helping me refill my water bottles and providing and ice cold Coca-cola. Something I haven’t had in quite awhile. With Orbea’s air conditioning working well, I took advantage of it and slowly browsed the shop. In the end, I bought a new patch kit, two inner tubes and another CO2 cartridge.

After Neihu, I simply had my mind focused on getting to the #9 stall in Guandu’s food quart. I knew that there I could refill water and eat old fashioned ice with syrup. The ice didn’t let me down and I followed it up with a much needed nap.

After the nap, I realized why the pigeons around Guandu are so fat, they’re practically hand fed by all the locals that come around.

In coming home, I kept trying to figure out how I wanted to get back. I didn’t want to climb up 108. While 108 is quite gentle, it feels long. Next, I could’ve done some cut-outs on 108 but they’re pretty steep. I also didn’t want to keep riding all the way over to 106.

In the end, I climbed up 北31, which in the end is the shortest route from Wugu-五股 to Linkou. However, it’s the steepest and a few times in the past, one of the very few hills I’ve ever had to pause on. This time though, despite the drain, I pushed through, up hill, just slowly.

Once home, 128 kilometers and a bit over 1,100 meters of climbing passed underneath me. A nice ride, but the sun could’ve been cooler.

Drew over at Taiwan in Cycles wrote a bit about riding in the heat. It’s excellent advice.

Group Ride Plans

~~~~~ +{7/7(三)106、汐平，我們來去玩水吃美食}+~~~~~
+{騎行路線}+
木柵動物園—深坑文山路到石碇小7(9k)—106—菁桐老街(21K)—北31汐平公路最高點(28K)
—汐平公路小溪玩水處(36K)—-(新台五到汐止忠孝東路) 越南美食午餐(43K)—基隆河自行車道—大直、大稻埕—
GoHome.(全程約80公里)

~~~~~ + (7 / 7 (3) 106, Xi-Ping, we come and play in the water to eat food }+~~~
+ () + Cycling routes
— Pit Wen Shan Taipei Zoo to Shihting small 7 (9k) — 106 — Jingtong Street (21K) — North Highway 31, the highest point of Xi-Ping (28K)
— Xi-Ping Road, the stream splashing Office (36K )—-( five new units to Hsichih Chung Hsiao East Road) Vietnamese food lunch (43K) — — through-the Keelung River bike path, Tataocheng – -
GoHome. (Full of about 80 km)

Route Map

Ride Shiping-汐平 Photos

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