My New Chapter In Life @UK

Sharing of Cycling, Travel, Baking, DIY and personal feelings

Category: Cycling

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Coffee / Random Things I Did / Riding in Taiwan / Taiwan / Travel

Status Update • Flash Visit to Taipei 狀態更新 • 快閃台北

It’s been quite a long time since I published my last blog post, 318 days to be exact.

2019 has been a busy and wonderful year to me where I have the chance to explore and learn so many things that I have never dreamt before. I am so lucky to have fully recovered, much stronger than before my cardiac operation. In addition, I also have the luxury to setup and run my own small cafe.

已經很久沒有更新過我的網誌，細數一下也有318天，究竟發生了甚麽事呢？

對我來説剛過去的2019可算是豊盛的一年。身體康復得非常之快，狀態可算是比心臓手術前更佳。另一方面，亦有幸可以擁有我的小型食店。

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Cycling / Riding in Taiwan / Taiwan / Travel

First Encounter of YouBike 微笑單車的初邂逅

You may be surprised that I have not ridden any YouBike before despite that I have been to Taipei a number of times. The main reason is that I don’t have Easycard nor local phone number. For security reason, I also don’t want to use my credit card for one-time bike rental as well.

去過台北好幾次，但從來也未騎過微笑單車(YouBike)。主要原因是我沒有悠遊卡和台灣當地的電話號碼，無法作會員登記。另一方面，基於保安理由，我又不想使用信用卡作單次租車。

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Cycling

Fixing the Wahoo ELEMNT Route Mode Support?

Early this year, I have kick-started cycle training with my newly installed CycleOps Magnus smart trainer. One of the simplest and cost-effective setups that I had discussed was using the built-in Planned Workout feature of my Wahoo ELEMNT bike computer.

At that time, I had observed that the “Route” mode of trainer control provided by the Wahoo ELEMNT was not functioning. The trainer resistance did not reflect the actual elevation profile of the loaded route.

The case was reported to Wahoo and I finally received their reply in mid-July on fixing the error.

Sounded great !

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Cycling

My Buddy’s New Road Bike

I went to FoTan yesterday with my cycling buddy to have the bike fitting for his new bike, a 2019 Giant TCR Advanced 1-KOM model preconfigured with the latest Shimano Ultegra R8000 Groupset.

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Japan / Riding in Japan / Travel

Bike Shops Tour in Osaka

Doing window shopping is one of my favourite activities when having overseas visits. In my latest Osaka / Biwako tour in end August, I had included optional visit to some of the bike shops in my plan.

Right before the day I returned to Hong Kong, I have spared some time to visit these shops.

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Challenges / Cycling / Family / Japan / Riding in Japan / Travel

Shimanami Kaido – Wonderful Ride with Trace of Regrets

Today’s journey started at the Tatara Shimanami Park in Omishima. Major reasons are availability of bus service from Imabari and the Rent-a-cycle Terminal. Moreover, it is close to Setoda Sunset Beach where we would have our lunch. The only downside is that we have to ride the Tatara Bridge twice just like what we had for the Kurushima Kaikyo Bridge in yesterday’s ride.

It took around one hour to arrive at the Omishima BS. Quickly we picked up our bikes at the Rent-a-cycle Terminal and started our ride towards the Tatara Bridge.

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Challenges / Cycling / Family / Japan / Riding in Japan / Travel

Shimanami Kaido – Goodbye to Noru

When I looked out from the hotel window early in the morning, I just couldn’t believe what I had seen. Blue sky, bright sunny day and flock of seagulls. That’s completely different from what we had the day before!

Weather report stated that typhoon Noru had moved across Honshu, the main island of Japan, towards the Sea of Japan. What an excellent forecast work by JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency)!

To allow more time for the ride, we planned to take the 9am local bus to Innoshima/Setoda.

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Challenges / Cycling / Family / Japan / Riding in Japan / Travel

Shimanami Kaido – When planned trip turned into an unplanned one

Woke up in the morning after having a good sleep, my wife and I were busy checking the weather report on TV and from the Internet.

It was mentioned that typhoon Noru was moving over Shikoku and towards the main island of Japan during the day. Due to the slow pace of Noru that might result in extended periods of heavy rain, evacuation advisories in Shikoku and warning for river flooding, landslides, strong winds and high waves in other affected areas had been issued. 

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Challenges / Cycling / Family / Japan / Riding in Japan / Travel

Shimanami Kaido – My Family Challenge

During my Lunar New Year holidays in Hiroshima in early 2017, we had an one-day trip in the city of Onomichi. Fascinated by one of the top cycling courses in the world, Shimanami Kaido, my family and I had an ad-hoc short ride from Onomichi, crossing Mukaishima (向島) and arrived in Innoshima (因島) via the famous Innoshima Bridge (因島大橋).

On the return trip, my boy asked if we could come back again and ride along the Shimanami Kaido from Onomichi to Imabari.

Why not! I said.

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Cycling

A Glimpse of the VirtuGO Beta

After months of waiting, I finally received the welcome email on the VirtuGO Beta Testing Program in early April 2018.

For those not aware of VirtuGO, it is a virtual training platform that has been opened for beta during the Tour Down Under 2018.

Given this software platform is still in its development cycle, issues encountered during trial are inevitable.

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Cycling

Cycling for Fitness

When looking for ways to get ride of one’s fats and reclaim the once slim body figure, people usually consider having some vigorous exercise like running, swimming, going to gym plus taking up one of those energy conscious diets.

In fact, fat burning does not necessary required vigorous exercise. Cycling for longer distance at a suitable intensity can also help to get the same result.

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Cycling / Information Technology

Getting Your Old iMac to Speak ANT+ and BLE

Tired of running your bike training and virtual cycling system on your smartphone, tablet with tiny screens?

Constrained by the limited connectivity options and/or processing power of those smart devices?

If yes,  how about using your good old desktop platform or notebook to drive the bike trainer and connect to virtual cycling systems like Zwift or Golden Cheetah?

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Cycling / Riding in Taiwan / Taiwan / Travel

Kaohsiung Metro Train Services

During my stay in Kaohsiung, the Rapid Transit System (RTS) or “高雄都會區大眾捷運系統” is the major means of transportation in the Metro area.

Despite the history of the Kaohsiung Metro train services is relatively short, there are some interesting facts that I can share with you.

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Cycling / Riding in Taiwan / Travel

Easter Holiday Ride – Journey to Revitalisation

Revitalisation of historical buildings as a means of preserving cultural and historical heritage is getting more significant nowadays. By injecting new usages to these buildings, it is expected that its life activities can be sustained.

Our second ride in Kaohsiung has been focused on one of the highly recognised revitalisation projects, the Pier 2 Art Center. We have also boarded the ferry at GuShan to the Cijin District (旗津半島）and have a wonderful sprint along the Cijin Cycling Promenade (旗津踩風大道).

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Cycling / Riding in Taiwan / Travel

Easter Holiday Ride – Riding in “Love”

When two people are in love, we will say “they are 沐浴愛河中” in Chinese (ie. bathing in the love river). However, one of the sweet ladies of my cycling team has her own interpretation:

愛河除了用來沐浴外，還可以跟友好一起沿途踩車
Meaning that “Love River” is not only just for falling in love, but also a wonderful place to enjoy riding with good friends.

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Cycling

Build Your Own Bicycle Rack

I carried two bikes in my car taking up half of the seats. This looks good to me as I can ride whenever I want and save valuable space at home. The downside is some inconvenience in case I need to carry more passengers …