Good heavens - Graham! Thanks for the tip. We hope there will be another time alright, if your adopted country will ever let Yanks in again.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1pn&page_id=592999&v=BN

There's a map on the above link along with my snaps.

I was cycling around the lake a couple of years ago, but rode in the other direction - from Jiji . The smaller road west of the 21 is really nice. Next time!

No, I hadn’t heard of Xootr before now. Looks a bit odd and top heavy - I wonder how it would be for balance. I do know about rinko bags, although I didn’t know they were part of a system. We biked half the length of Japan years ago, from Narita to Fukuoka, and there are a few stretches we might have taken the train on if we could have bagged our bikes. If we ever go back, which we keep talking about, I’m sure we’d throw the train into the mix.

That's a good tip Scott. Thanks. I'm just starting to think more about specific places of interest so I'll plan around stations.

I'm also going to experiment with the folding bikes' set-up, and bike packing on this trip. When I have some photos of the bikes, I'll add a page to my journal about the bikes. I might also start a Forum thread on the folding bike/train challenges too when I test out the dolly wheels and soft bags.

We had a lot of folding bike and trains experience on our Japan trip in 2016, but I didn't do a journal as most of the travel was by train. We only used the folding bikes to get around the cities and towns. After this experience I did a lot of thinking about better ways to manage the soft bagging of bikes for trains. The Japanese use a system they call "rinko". It's a combination of bike design, bags and packing they use to combine train and bicycle travel. Very clever.

Have you heard of XOOTR bike bag racks and bags? I've bought a couple of these to test out. An initial try out last weekend was promising. It's quite a different set-up to a traditional pannier and rack system, but I think it might work well on the Taiwan trip.

Also, in case you missed it earlier, compare this to our experience taking the train from Yolanda City to Hainchu, which was very easy. In my opinion it’s worth finding out which train stations and trains you can take an unloaded bike on because it is so much easier, and plan your tour around it. I imagine the other Graham could help you with the research here.

I’m glad you commented on this, Graham, because it caused me to reread this page. Remarkably, I’d forgotten all about it, and got a good laugh being reminded of it. That’s really the main argument for taking the time to keep a journal.

Hi Scott,
My wife and I had similar experiences with trains/bags and our Bike Fridays in Japan. It can be even more difficult in Japan because they won’t even allow unbagged bikes on platforms or through the ticket checkpoint. This meant a lot of lugging heavy bags long distances especially on the bigger stations.

We did have good size bike bags, and tote bags to bundle all the panniers together.

A possible solution which I will try when my son and I take folding bikes to Taiwan, is to take small sets of dolly wheels which can be strapped temporarily to the packed bags.

I’ve bought these wheels at our local DIY store, but am yet to test them out.

They are a bit like removable suitcase wheels.

Good trip! Really enjoyed it. Thanks for the special efforts to take nature photos and post them!

Thanks, Jen; and thanks so much for your encouragement. I hope the GBO made it safely home, but to be honest I haven’t checked. I’m a bit concerned though - the last I saw him, he was flirting with one of the flight attendants. So fickle!

Thanks, Jen. I was really pleased with it too. I took it as an afterthought, almost on our way out of town. I was really surprised when I looked at it later.

Thanks to you both for all of the work that you put into all of your journals! Your detailed and entertaining descriptions, thoughtful insights, and beautiful photos and videos have been (and will continue to be) a great gift to your readers!

There .. is the GBO back on safe ground now?

Enjoy your time in Portland!!

Cool shot!

Talk nice, or you’ll never see your precious GBO again.

Jen and I are jealous!!