Shipping Notice: Due to high order volume, shipping will take approximately 1 week after placing an order (excluding transit time). Please consider this timeframe before ordering. Thank you for your understanding. Contact customer service with any questions.
Back in late September FSA asked us if we wanted to visit a few factories in Taiwan. Of course we would! It’s always interesting to see where things are produced, for most people now production of all the stuff we buy is a far removed concept in the modern world. Taiwan is probably the centre of most quality bike related production in the world.
Full of large high-tech factories rolling tubes and welding frames and all the other things that go into bikes being produced here, it is a hot bed of the bike industry where many of the bike companies production managers spend a fair bit of time. It is very well removed from the mentality of the average bike consumer but very present in the mentality of a bike company as they look to produce quality products at the right price for consumers.
So we flew out to Taiwan to begin our adventure, taking note it was 6 hours ahead and we were only going to be there for a few days, it was probably going to be a very tiring adventure.
Due to the 20 hours of flying and delirium that set in as we took various planes trains and auto mobiles, we mostly reached for our camera phone on the first day of getting to Taiwan, but we though it worth keeping a Diary of the visit with a few notable images each day.
First Impressions Photo Story
Taiwan is a long way away, so we took 20 hours of this to get there.Using Dubai as a stop over we weren’t even half way there…Right here we passing over the foothills of the Himalayers. Yes it really is that far.After more flying we arrived in Taipei as the sun was going down.Yep we are not in Europe.We took this bus the 705 to get to the station, the level of organisation started to take over.After the bus we caught this, which travels at 300 km/h and cost only 15 Euro for a 1 hour journey.Did you know the doors open precisely here at this spot… imagine that in Europe?It wasnt all plain sailing someone forgot their bag on train ad had to try and explain it and fill in a form. Unbleivebaly after 4 hours the bag was sent back to the station and picked up! Efficiency of organisation was incredible. Lucky to combat our jet lag.We took a ride from the station with one of the very cheap taxi’s around and about. it costs around 2 Euro for a trip.We got to our hotel then headed straight to the bike dinner lined up by Welgo, the this Saint equipped bike then sat by the door, started to feel in friendly territory.Dinner was Taiwanese style, take your turn to serve yourself, then swing it around.Ironically we flew half way around the world and with no sleep and no idea where we were then sat down next to a share more than a few beers with the Vice President of Specialized, who was having fun recounting how hard the Trans Alps race he had done was.Before we had even a chance to think we were force fed 3 beers and had to use chop sticks. Luckily all those lessons as a child had paid off.Bleary eyed we headed back to the hotel where we couldn’t help notice the strange mix of western and Taiwanese things…This is where we made it back to…We were sure the jet-lag was screwing up our mind and eyes, or is the English really written that way?
More tomorrow on our trip as we post noted of what we see around and about as we undertake some factory visits.
