Kaohsiung Giant/Liv Bike Shops Visit

For our holiday rides in Kaohsiung, we have not bought along our road bikes. Instead, I have made and advanced booking with local Giant bike shop in Kaohsiung via their Facebook Fans page.

The one I have chosen is the Kaohsiung Oya Bike shop (歐亞單車行) which is the one nearest to our hotel. Just give them the rental period, types and the number of bikes required plus the size of each of the bikes, they will confirm you the availability and the rental price. In addition, you will also need to pay the deposit (They called this “押金”) when you get the bike on site. The deposit will be refunded when you return the bike. For oversea riders, remember to bring along your passport for their checking as well.

Just a few simple steps and save you the burden to pack, ship and unpack your bike.

This is the 2016 Giant Escape 1 that I rented. A well maintained City Bike that comes with a bike rack installed.

In Taiwan, there are two types of bike shops selling Giant cycling products. The first type is the Giant Direct Store (捷安特直營店) and the other one is the Giant Franchise Store (捷安特加盟店).

So what is the difference? The table below will give you some ideas.

	Giant Direct Store	Giant Franchise Store
Store ownership	Owned by Giant	Owned by individuals
Scope of cycling products	Selling only Giant related products	Selling Giant related products plus others having no conflict with Giant
Product pricing	Standard listed price	May offer discount on the standard listed price (subject to the shop)
Service quality	Shop technicians are trained by Giant and possess know-how on latest Giant product technologies.	May not have formal training from Giant on latest product technologies. Knowledges and service quality may vary but does not necessarily imply poor quality
Other add-on services		May offer services like customised cycling tour not available from Giant.

How to differentiate whether the shop is a Giant Direct Store or Franchise Store?

A very simple rule: If shop name is in the form of “Giant <location> | <landmark>“, then it is a Giant Direct Store.

Other than Oya, I have also visited some other Giant Bike Shops in Kaohsiung city area.

Let’s take a look at some of them.

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Oya (歐亞單車行) Bike Shop

Using the above rule, you know that this is a Giant Franchise Shop. It is located in Sanmin District near Hebei 1st Road.

In addition to Giant bike rental on hourly or daily basis, this shop also offers customised bike ride package covering route planning, bike and support car rental as well as the necessary accommodation arrangement.

They also offered me a short trial on the latest Giant e-bike. That beast is really wonderful and you can run for around 75 Kilometers under power-assist mode before a recharge is required.

Giant Jiuru (㨗安特九如店) Store

A Giant Direct Store located near Jiuru 2nd Road and provides the full range of Giant cycling products. In addition, it also offers bike rental for cycling around Taiwan.

Here my buddy got his new MTB baggy pant and the Kabuto Zenard road helmet.

Giant Love River (㨗安特高雄愛河店) Store

Similar to the Giant Jiuru Store, the Love River Store located in Wufu 4th road also provides the full range of Giant cycling products. In addition, it also offers bike rental for hourly/daily usage as well as for cycling around Taiwan.

The Love River Store also holds group cycling events that are opened for registration.

Giant Ersheng (㨗安特二聖店) Store

The Ersheng Store is located in Yingming Road and provides the full range of Giant cycling products as usual. In addition, it also offers bike rental for cycling around Taiwan.

The Ersheng Store also holds group cycling events that are opened for registration.

Giant Liv Cycling Kaohsiung (㨗安特高雄旗艦店) Flagship Store

If rental of high-end / premium bikes are what you looking for, this is the shop for you.

This flagship store is very spacious and a lot of the latest product offerings are shown here.

Other cycling accessories:

In addition, they also hold a lot of seminars and regular training sessions here.

If you have a chance to visit Kaohsiung, I highly recommend you to come here for a look.