Taipei 2012 Bike Show: Day One

It’s the first hour of the first day of the Taiwan International Cycle show.   I have stood ten feet from the nation’s president and been gently reprimanded. Luckily these occurrences were not related.

The reprimand came after an ill-advised ride through the convention center. I couldn't help myself, and at least a small part of the blame must go to the kindness of Hi Bike LTD, who let me ride on their unique balloon-tired mountain bike called The Monster after only a slight bit of begging.  

It was love at first sight, and as sure to result in mayhem as a Three Stooges plot.  As soon as I saw the The Monster's curvaceous tires, easily 2-3 x as fat as even the fattest of mountain bike tires, I knew I had to ride her. 

She was big, she was beautiful, nay...Rubenesque...and though our time together was brief, I will always remember her.

I took it slow, a mere two loops around a short section of the convention center hall, because I am a professional journalist.  She handled smoothly, and her mutant tires allowed me to bunny hop her like a svelte  BMX. How differently my regular unscheduled meetings with jaywalking yuppies back in the days when I rode the streets of NYC as a courier would have ended had The Monster been beneath me instead of a slender track bike.

Ah, the memories! Good times, dangerous times!

My revelry was short-lived as uniformed convention center women waved their hands in my direction. There is no bicycle riding allowed inside the bicycle show, they said in clipped English, so I sadly bunny-hopped her back to the HI BIKE booth, where Cora Lin was good enough to pose with her without the slightest hint of jealousy.

Cora Lin and THE MONSTER

It was all good though, as I had to head to the fourth floor to attend the opening ceremonies, a gala performance in which many of great import were in attendance. Bigwig heads of bicycle companies, ministers of trader and industry, and yes, even the president of Taiwan, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou. 

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou

I managed to snap this photo of the president before his security entourage asked me to return to my seat. That they did so with the same gentle restraint and kindness as the security detail who asked me not to ride The Monster around the convention center is a testament to the overall laid-back vibe that pervades Taiwan society at nearly every level

President Ma spoke briefly about Taiwan's position in the bicycle industry, and there was other speechifying by various industry heads. The highlight for me of the brief event was the ten-minute floor show incorporating interpretive dance.

After the opening ceremony I was free to wander the halls, though not ride, which frankly would have been a lot more convenient. Among the never before seen (by me, at least) products and companies I may chose to review in the coming days for Bicycle Times and Dirt Rag are:

* An alarm system that causes your bike to emit a high-pitched whine whenever someone touches it.  At last, a product that will allow parked bicycles to be as despised as parked cars!

* A company that makes a magnetic pedal - shoe combination that allows you to wear fine dress shoes on your commute without having them scuffed by toe-clips.

*Back-eye, bicycle gloves with an adjustable velcro mirror that gives you a pop-up functioning eyeball on the back of your traffic hand.

*Charge Up Bars - a bike-ready power bar made from live foods.

And so much more. 

Before I log off to digest this fine meal provided to me and about a million other eager bicycle conventioneers by Tatra, a photo of a very pretty track bike made by an Indonesian company: (The man working the booth, who's English was perfect, swore to me that the retail price for this carbon fiber beauty was $127 dollars. Despite this being absolutely impossible, and my clarifying the price with him several times, going as far as to write the number 127 down), he told me that he was sure that was what the price was, in Greenbacks. But it wasn't for sale. I'm going to go back on the last day with $150 and let him pocket the extra $13.