Brian's Day 0 Randoms - Taipei Cycle Show 2024
Dario looking at KT's "Dinosaur Machine" which Joey Solomon told us was his favourite machine in Taiwan. It's absolutely insane, and Dario will pull together a full tour piece later this week.
Longtime readers are likely tired of how much we love The Taipei Cycle Show, but it's that time of year again and we're excited to be here. The show is trade focused rather than media or consumer focused, and it's a great opportunity to see new product in a more direct and honest way. The show opens properly tomorrow, but we've been in Taiwan for a few days to catch up with some industry contacts and check out some under-the-radar factories. Along the way we've found some interesting products, met some great people, and eaten some absolutely incredible food.
We kick off our show coverage in earnest tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
Presta.
Shrader.
711L's clever locking air chucks
Taichung has a store that specializes in high end Japanese, Taiwanese, and German tools called Deen Style Factory Gear. It is also a bar, and a hair salon, and runs a golf sim in the basement. Needless to say, the combination of very nice negronis and a boatload of tools I want did not go easy on my wallet.
Dario found an incredibly interesting tool from a Taiwanese design studio called 711L, and we both had to buy them instantly. I won't give away what we bought, because Dario is going to write about it as a standlone article, and we're going to meet up with them at the show to get some more info.
The next day we visited 711L's small design studio in downtown Taichung, and they showed us a bunch of other clever things they're working on. These locking air chucks work great—the Presta one is especially intuitive, locking on as you push it into place, and then releasing when you push a button on the back. No more accidentally unthreading a twist-on pump head, and way easier to use than a flip lever. Honestly they're pretty impressive.
3-way torque driver
You can load up your drive with whatever torque presets you'd like.
Another interesting product from them was a partnership with Sloky, integrating their Taiwan-made torque bit drivers into a three-way wrench. As much as I don't personally love the ubiquitous three-way wrench form factor, I love being able to set your wrench to exactly the torque values you need. We are told that Sloky has insanely precise readings for their size—they offer some of their lower torque values in 0.1nm increments.
I don't have pricing info on these yet. They sell some of their products on Amazon in the USA, and hope to have a new website and direct sales channel set up soon. Visit their Facebook page for more info.
Tool time.
Hannah and Dario with Leo from 711L.
Hannah and Dario with Allan and Derek from Kun Teng (KT) Taiwan, an industrial hub manufacturer. We'll pull together a factory tour soon.
We started off south of Taipei in Taichung, the epicenter of Taiwanese bike manufacturing. We also enoyjed wandering through its National Museum of Fine Arts.
Emily from Ora Engineering, makers of high end titanium frames. Factory tour soon as well.
Calvin from Genio. After this we went karting and Calvin smashed me. My ego needs time to recover.
This massive machine at KT used to stamp a LOT of steel sprockets. Hannah for scale.
Stevie from Dadu Trail House chose his english name for Stevie Ray Vaughan and helps maintain a great trail network in Taichung.
Shop talk.
We've had some amazing meals on this trip, but so far our favourite has been this unassuming outdoor seafood place that the Dadu Trail House folks brought us to. I promise no more food shots, but we've been absolutely spoiled.
An affront to god.
I liked this little guy.
Okay we're going to end this thing with an informal quiz. What parts do you recognize from well-known bike industry brands?
It's a toptube, but whose? Hint: it's robot-welded by Genio.
Figure this one out and you'll be king of the hill.
Hmmmm.
C'mon you've got this one.
I don't actually remember this one.
This one is tricky.
I'll be very impressed.
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Either way, Dario is just being himself, let him be.
I respect the fit, not trying to give off any hatery vibes, sorry if I did
As parents of two genZ girls in college, we comment on how this generation is missing out on a lot of fun and latitude given during those formidable years.
Old guy rant off
Remember what happens when you point a finger
Remember what happens when you dont read thoroughly, and let your biases run the show.
If you want to talk about first nations history, an American doesn't have a leg to stand on, we all treated them like shit. But at least our leadership recognizes their plight & at least we spend big $$ to help improve their situation. Can't remember the last time racial slurs (Pocahontas) were used to defame other politicians (E Warren) in Canada.
GTFO.
Regardless of skin tone or whatever ancestors have been through though, for most in Europe at least, the 90s had quite a positive vibe. The Berlin wall came down and the cold war ended (though the war in former Yugoslavia was still a mess though with ethnic cleansing and concentration camps). Popular culture seemed to be more about being yourself rather than fitting in (or at least that's what it felt like to me). And most important compared to today, there were no cellphones so it was easy to chat to whoever was around you. So yeah, the vibe was great, open and positive and I think that's what @ATXZJ was aiming at.
As for discrimination etc, sorry I hear politicians say crap these days they wouldn't have gotten away with back in the nineties. But I have to agree with you that back then lots of homophobic jokes have been made which luckily are deemed unacceptable today. Then again from what I understand, homosexuals felt safer on the streets back then than they do now.
The pursuit of social justice in our society today has changed certain standards significantly compared to then (for better or worse), which highlights how ridiculous it is to hold people accountable and tear down statues for so called crimes committed many decades earlier.
@vinay: Yes, for the love of dog thank you!
My comment about your first nations people was directed at you because NO country is perfect and each and every one of them was born in blood. I for the life of me don't understand while people like you feel compelled to project whatever is buzzing around your head on everyone else. My original post was completely benign and didn't need your negativity.
Your comment about who I'd vote for in our election shows your true arrogance. That's part of everything that's wrong with society today. Much like your PM virtue signaling morality while having a history of wearing blackface. Tribalism is for the narrow minded.
I'd suggest going some place warm and sunny for a bit
You make good points but then you deflate everything by buying into the culture warriors’ buzz words.
I was just in the wayback machine thinking about having a good time listening to great music, chasing women, racing cars and doing drugs in the 90s.
My apologies
Canada's Bill C-63, Online Harms Act comes to mind.
In fact, your comment about indigenous people reinforces my point. It most definitely was worse for indigenous people in Canada in the 90's than it is today.
TLDR: Original comment was about how it was worse for minorities in the 90's but well-to-do white folks only remember the good times. ATXZJ jumps to conclusions and goes off thinking this is a critique of the USA.
If you think you're going to hurt my feeling by disparaging the USA you're very wrong. This is a very flawed nation, as is yours and every other one. Nobody is crushing it in 2024. That is why I brought up the hypocrisy of you pointing a finger when three more are pointing back at you. Should Canadians in their 50s feel perpetually guilty for having a happy childhood when the FLQ were killing mofos? Get real.
This thread was supposed to be fun banter on Dario's unique taste in clothing and you've tried to turn it into an identity politics hellscape. If you want to continue to engage in this nonsense, then take it to email.
Blarf
Seems to me that "you feel compelled to project whatever is buzzing around your head on everyone else."
Now read this part carefully>
I'm not sure how I can make this any more clear - my comment had nothing to do with disparaging the USA (you took it there) It had everything to do with young folks fetishizing & idealizing the 90's , not realizing that it was not such a rosy time for some folks.
I find it amazing how just mentioning that some groups of people had it worse than we like to remember triggers you so strongly and sends you off the rails into unrelated territory.
Speaking of unrelated territory - On the topic of the FLQ , Quebecers that supported the FLQ should definitely feel guilty for the outcome of the crisis (kidnapping & murder) lol.
@boozed: www.dailydot.com/unclick/banana-for-scale-meme-history
Also, missed opportunity for a Rick Roll
I knew it was familiar
Damn it!
I tried to get that purchase past the CFO, who broadly gestured to the garage full of "necessities" and said
Hard No!
jacosuperiorproducts.com/products/lightning-xp-series-presta-tire-air-chuck-for-bike-tires-1-4-f-npt
They work like a charm!
From what I understand, a Taiwanese company invented the chuck system and owns the patent. They license it to Jaco. The owner of that company is friends with Kenny Yan from 711L tools, and they've collaborated on a few upgraded variants of the same thing for 711L.
Very excited for the next few days, and factory tours are also something to look forwards to.
Thank you for your continued effort, PB, to make this kind of content (even if it doesn't come often enough for me, I'm glad it does come)
www.pinkbike.com/news/review-6-months-on-the-trust-message-linkage-fork.html
Wondering if a) link fork is coming back or b) they are re-purposing this cartridge to be inside a frame maybe?
That’s absolutely a Trust fork damper cartridge!
I have the Message fork, and I never thought I’d see parts being featured anywhere ever again.
Is there a glimmer of hope for aftermarket support?
Good to hear they’re still rocking the Trust!
I found a rebound setting that made my Message more plush than my Ohlins shock.
That would be 16 turns out from full closed, and fork pressure 8psi below my riding weight @174Lbs. The window for fork pressure is +/- 1 psi.
I recently lost weight, and will use ratio proportion to establish the new psi, but I’m afraid it’s back to the drawing board.
..right
I was surprised the Shout didn’t address the issues of the Message.
As an ex motorcycle racer, I find my Message positives outweigh the negatives. Now that I have it riding high in the travel without being harsh, braking through rock gardens is unbelievable..!
But if I needed more than 130mm of travel, I’d probably end up going telescopic.
..right!
Which raises the question, why are we seeing this now..?
I hope it’s a good thing moving forward for us Trust diehards.
MOAR food shots! I bet the street food scene down there is bomb.
#sendnoods
I didn't say it was bad. Have you been and tried it?
When I was in Taiwan almost 15 years ago the food was great, but in street markets the smell of "stinky tofu" was pretty overpowering! Ora factory seems to have changed a fair bit...
^^^
Katz’s burner account
Nice stuff now.
I can see what that look may attract!?
Maaaaaaybe you remember US made Trek frames (and their giving up on that does bum me out) but the best bicycle manufacturing has been in Asia since the 1980’s.