Pinkbike in Taiwan

Looking for some bike porn to stoke out but don't want to wait until Sea Otter? You're in luck. Pinkbike will be at this year's Taipei International Bicycle Show to scope out what's new, what's exciting, and what's just plain weird. Haven't Heard of the Taipei show? Picture Interbike, except with odd dial turned to 11. Stay tuned for some very interesting updates...

Our plane flew directly over Japan's earthquake and tsunami ravaged East coast and reminded us just how trivial bikes are in the grand scheme of things. Our hearts go out to everyone in Japan.

Banshee mustache artist Rob Dunnet was waiting to collect the PB crew upon arrival in Taipei, complete with sign so that we wouldn't miss him. Thanks for picking us up, Rob! Its amazing how spacious a tiny Volkswagen Jetta hatchback can feel after spending nearly thirteen hours sitting in a plane next to your coworkers...

After flying into Taipei we drove the two hours South to Taichung, a city of about 2.6 million people. A walkabout of the city was in order as soon as possible, and with Rob as our guide we spent hours exploring the streets and alleyways. We quickly noticed how many people had dogs with them, usually small poodles or pugs. This three legged guy was hanging out on the sidewalk enjoying the attention from everyone, completely oblivious to the fact that he was missing an appendage. He was certainly the most popular canine in Taichung on this day!

We're not in Kansas anymore! Every last square inch of space is packed with either a building, a big colorful sign or a group of forty scooters doing twice the speed limit.

Scooter gang! I think that this particular group is known in local circles as the 'Asphalt Dragons'. Seriously though, there is an improbable amount of scooters buzzing about, many times more than cars that are on the roads. They make short work of the traffic in the city, shooting through impossible gaps in traffic and generally making the cars look foolish. It's not uncommon to see three people, a dog and a bag of groceries piled onto a single scooter.

Strength in numbers. The scooters travel in packs and have their own lanes. You would think that there would be carnage on a regular basis but they seem to be able to stay upright no matter what. Everyone from underage kids to the elderly gets about on a scooter not only because they are relatively inexpensive, but also much faster in the city than a car could ever hope to be.

We made a visit to one of the massive night markets in town in order to sample some cuisine that we may otherwise have not come across, including chicken feet and other delicacies. The most popular food? Probably the stinky tofu, who had massive lineups of people waiting to get their own block of smelly goodness. You can literally smell the stuff from fifty feet away, although it is supposed to be delicious.

Karl is a tall guy in North America, but he really is a freak of nature in Taiwan. There was a lot of finger pointing by the locals as Big K made his way through the night market, and although I couldn't understand what they were saying, I'm sure there were plenty of Godzilla and Mothra comparisons being thrown about.

The night market is part restaurant, part flea market, and part shooting range? Karl does his best to take out as many invading balloons as possible. The booth's proprietors casually walked between the pellet guns as they were being fired, oblivious to losing an eye due to Karl's poor aim.

Mike downing some chicken foot just prior to sampling some blood rice - rice that has been soaked in pig's blood and served on a stick. While it didn't taste quite as bad as expected, he won't be having another pig-sicle anytime soon...

Crammed into this tiny unit was a local bike shop, complete with sales floor and repair area... sort of. While there is a small but dedicated mountain bike scene in Taiwan, bikes are mostly used as transportation to get from one place to another.

A meat sampler from the night market. You can literally buy pretty much any animal part that you'd ever want to put in your mouth, as well as a lot of parts that you wouldn't want to put anywhere near your mouth! Rob didn't seem too stoked on the idea of animal stomach (top right) and took no risks by sporting his swine flu mask.

Hearing Pinkbike was coming to Taipei, we got invited to do some tours of factories in the area. Most of the things we checked out we promised to keep tight lipped about and can't be shown (patented processes and prototype parts), but here is an overview shot of an anodizing factory. The efficiency, attention to detail and massive emphasis on QC is something that we were all struck by

These anodizing vats, only three of about twenty in the facility, are used to color pretty much anything that you could imagine.

There is no secret to polishing your parts. Most pieces are buffed one by one

Spank's headquarters are located in Taiwan as well so it only made sense for us to stop in for a visit. Unlike the majority of other companies, Spank actually produces many of their own products, including this 777 bar with new graphics. Earlier in the day we followed a Spank handlebar through the production process to get a better idea of how products come to life. The process not only takes a lot longer than expected, but also is much more involved than we would have guessed, including multiple quality control checks at every point of production.

The Taipei Show gets started tomorrow, but we had a quick look at the setup process and to pick up our badges. More to come during the next four days!

Bear Bikes has a number of frames in their booth featuring interesting finishes. This BMX frame was actually covered in fabric!

Manitou joins the 15mm thru-axle gang - more info to come tomorrow.

Things are coming together from inside the show grounds