Sunday

October 27, 2024

Last night we had bought breakfast food from the local supermarket, yogurt, muesli and bananas. We also decided we would stop and eat and drink more often.

Today was a grey day, we had a bit of a tail wind and the heat and humidity were not too bad. I am not sure if the grey skies were due to the weather or the pollution.

We headed out to the temple and spent about 20 to 30 minutes looking at this temple.  It would appear that there isn’t an actual Sunday service, you can go and pray at any time. It was very peaceful and a good start to the day.

Today was another good ride. We followed google maps again. On leaving Yuanli we figured that Taiwan got an excellent deal on traffic lights. There seemed to be a traffic light every 100 metres, stopping and starting what a pain in the backside that was. Literally, every time I stopped the bike it wanted to keep moving a little bit and my seat would hit me in the butt. I have another bruise forming on my bum.

We had a short ride on Hwy 1 through Dajia and then followed the Da’An River, along a huge flood plain area.

For the first 20 kms I seemed to struggle even though it was a flat ride. I felt as if my bike was dragging. In Taiwan you can go to any police station and ask for water and assistance. Our route took us through small villages where there were limited or no facilities. Eventually I spotted a police station and went towards. A police officer came out I mimed that I needed a pump. Unfortunately not all police stations have bike tools. Oh well, carry on.

When we got into Houli District I spotted a bike store and asked if he could put some air in my tires. He said they were good, but I said I liked my tires to be firmer. They were reading about 60 psi and I like them around 80 psi. It made a difference. We got some lunch and carried on. I had Bubble Tea, (with coconut) and Ralf had a sandwich from the 7/11.

In Nanyang New Residential Quarter we joined a bike path that ran underneath the high-speed rail line. Once again away from any traffic and a straight line to our hotel.

We arrived at our hotel early and managed to get an early check-in. From our hotel window we can see the old train station and there was a demonstration of Japanese dance and music which we could see, hear and watch.

We discussed our options for the ride to Sun Moon Lake. It is a 79 km ride and the last 17 kms up hill with an 8 to 12 % grade. I was concerned about the hills, of course, and Ralf didn’t want to walk up hill for 17 kms!! We checked the price of hotels, which are expensive and after much discussion we decided to take a tour. Easy way out, but more enjoyable for me at least. We get picked up at the hotel at 8:00 and arrive back at about 6:00, lunch is included and a boat cruise. Lots of time for some walking and site seeing.

We decided we need to get some washing done. We found a laundromat near our hotel and then walked a couple of blocks to find something to eat. We found a Beer Fest happening Yeah. We tried a couple of beers and then got some food which I thought was fried chicken, but it wasn’t not sure what it was but it didn’t make us sick so everything is fine.

A great end to a good day on the road.

Friday 25 October 2024

This day was in three parts: The Ugly, The Bad and the Good. I know it should be the other way around, but this is how the day was.

Part One it was raining when we got up and continued upon leaving. Not just mizzle a steady rain.  We cycled approximately 5kms in the wrong direction (my fault). I was convinced I knew which way was south. I was wrong and it was also Garmin’s fault. The Garmin doesn’t have Taiwan base mapping, it was only showing a blank screen and a line indicating the route. It also couldn’t work out which way was south. We eventually got on the right path. Ralf had wanted to follow the route/map I had created using Ride with GPS and had downloaded on to his Garmin. but I knew we needed to get to the Sanxia Old Street, as this was the Official Start of the Ride Around Taiwan. When we got into the area of Sanxia we followed the road signs to Old Street.

It took us about 1.5 hours to go 10 kms! The roads were busy, and the rain didn’t help. Also, our bikes didn’t appear to be very happy with us. Ralf’s bit him and mine tried to throw me off. We hadn’t quite got used to having all the weight on the back of the bikes. When we stopped suddenly the bikes would twist, hence Ralf’s pedal hitting the back of his leg and me trying to control a back heavy bike and I almost fell over with the weight of it. I have a good bruise forming on my calf.

Part Two was when we eventually arrived at Sanxia Old Street. This is one of the oldest streets in Taiwan and has many connections to the Japanese. Nowadays, only the red brick buildings with arched hallways and Baroque styled architecture remain to tell of their past glory. The characters carved upon the ancient buildings in the street show the first and last names of the occupants, or their occupations, or the names of the store.

It was a beautiful street, and the sun came out.

Part Two of the ride was looking up, until we hit the hills of Daxi and Guanxi, and we were going up and up and up. 

It had taken us so long to get out of Taoyuan, the rain had stopped, and the heat and humidity began to climb, at the same time as we were climbing.  We climbed two hills at the top of the first hill there was a small temple. We stopped as there was a washroom sign and discovered a lovely little temple a massive marble rock and stunning views.

The last hill going up to Guanxi, according to the Garmin was 3.5% climb over 7 kms, easy peasy. Until we got to the bottom of the climb and the road sign indicated that it was a 7% climb. The heat and humidity were getting to me, and I couldn’t get my heart rate down. I had to stop several times, eventually we made it to the top. We were hoping for a 7/11 convenience store, they are supposed to have everything you need. Unfortunately, it was a Hi-Life Mart, the only thing they had that was any good for a cyclist were bananas. I took the last four and bought a 2-litre bottle of cold water. We refilled our water bottles. At this point we definitely hadn’t hydrated well, and we needed to rectify that and quickly. There was still water left in the bottle, so I poured it on my little towel, which I bought for just this occasion and wrapped it around my neck. That cooled me down and we were ready to start again.

At this point we had been working on three different mapping programs. Ride with GPS, Maps.me and Google. A German fella who stopped as we were taking a break on the Guanxi hill told us that google had taken him 15 kms in the wrong direction when he was leaving Taipei. He wasn’t having a good first day of cycling in Taiwan.

We had told our warmshowers host (Garlon) that we would be at his place at about 4:00 p.m. It was already 3:30 when we texted him to let him know we would be another couple of hours.  We had 30 kilometres to go form Guanxi.

The information I had read about the route was that it was downhill all the way from Guanxi. We made our right turn and headed downhill, yeah. Ralf had changed the mapping to google maps and was using his phone and the data.

A beautiful quiet ride from Guanxi. The google route took us through back roads that followed the rice paddy fields and avoided Hwy 1, almost completely.

We had to come away from the rural route and onto Highway one through Zhubei. It was rush hour and bedlam, motor scooters everywhere and cars trying to get through. We saw our first fender bender.

At this point it was getting dark. I never thought we would be arriving at a warmshowers house in the dark. We arrived at 5:30 p.m. Garlon wasn’t home from work and his girlfriend (Jean) was at a music lesson. We had to wait for him to come home and he was stuck in traffic. Fortunately, one of his neighbours allowed us into the garage area of his building, we were out of the way of mosquitos.

Part Three: Our warmshowers hosts. What a joy. Garlon arrived home, we showered and relaxed a little while. When Jean came home they took us out for dinner.  Garlon had asked if we had any traditional Taiwanese food since arriving in Taiwan and we sheepishly admitted that we hadn’t. He took us to a good, traditional Taiwanese restaurant. We told them that I was allergic to shellfish, but apart from that we ate anything so long as it wasn’t moving.

Jean explained that traditionally they would order rice, vegetables and two or three other dishes and everyone would share. She asked if we did this in Canada. We said no unless it was at a Thai or Indian restaurant. The dishes kept coming: noodles with beef, noodles with veges, noodles with mushrooms, it seemed to never end, and we all dug in with our chop sticks. We asked for a lesson on how to use the chopsticks and they tried to show us, but I stuck with the way my Dad showed me, as Jean put it the traditional way. Ralf managed quite well but for a couple of the dishes he needed a fork. We chatted throughout the meal. It was a wonderful evening. They also ordered a couple of bubble teas (famous Taiwan tea with milk and tapioca) and a Guava slushie. Garlon told us that this restaurant claimed that it had invented Bubble Tea. He seemed very skeptical about this claim.  The food was really, really good and we could have stayed longer but the restaurant was closing.

When we got back to their flat, we carried on talking about our trips, Garlon’s ride along the silk road and Jean walking the Compostela in Spain, last year. They had recently returned from New Zealand, and we all agreed how special New Zealand was. Eventually we went to bed at about 11:30. A very late night.

As we often say about our warmshowers guests you meet as strangers and leave as friends. I know we have made new friends.

Thursday 24 October, 2024

Another quick breakfast at McD, it is only 200 metres from the hotel. That is our excuse anyway.  We had booked into a hostel for Saturday night and realized they do not provide towels.  We didn’t bring our camping towels, I never liked them. However, we did decide we needed new lightweight towels. After breakfast we headed out to Green Card Outdoor store. With the data on the phone, we were able to get their quickly. However, when we were passing the Jing Fu Temple, we decided to take a quick look inside.  We asked at the desk if there is anything we shouldn’t do. The lady said we could take photos and enjoy the temple.

This was built in 1745 and expanded in 1813. It was built for worshippers of Kai Chang Sheng Wang. We spent about an hour looking at the amazing architecture.

There were quite a few worshippers while we were there, burning incense sticks and buying “money” to burn in the outside oven.

About an hour later we were on the way to outdoor shop.

We found the outdoor shop and bought two lightweight towels. The owner of the store was very helpful and gave us a 10% discount for first time shoppers. On our way back we spotted a market area. The Nahmen Market was awesome. We both love seeing these markets and wandering up and down the aisles. A fella spoke to us in very good English and indicated that he had kimchi. We chatted to him for a while, he had studied in Winnipeg for four years and was pleased to speak to us. He was surprised we had found the market. We were the only non-Asian people there.

Another rainy day. However most of the sidewalks are covered, they are definitely not accessible for people with physical disabilities.  The material used on the sidewalk outside of the shops varies from tile to concrete and vinyl. It looks as though the shop owner picks the material, he/she likes and installs it. There are steps that are steep or just high enough for you to not notice but trip up. Then of course there is the motorbike parking. It is interesting to walk anywhere here.

We headed back to the hotel to put our bikes together. That is when disaster struck. My bike had been damaged. Well, the wheel at least. The spindle which goes through the front wheel was snapped. Ralf stopped putting the bikes together and we headed to the Giant Bike shop to see if they had a spindle.  Fortunately, he had a spindle, it is slightly different from the one that was damaged. The one I had was a quick release specific to these Montague bikes. The new spindle fits and I don’t intend on taking the front wheel of until we pack the bikes to go home. Important to note, always remove the spindles from the wheel so that it doesn’t get damaged.

The bikes are put together and tomorrow we head out to Hsinchu.

October 23, 2024

Not a very exciting day today.  It was mizzling all day. This word (mizzle) I learnt last time I was in the U.K. (the Lake District) it is a cross between misty and drizzling rain. Not quite enough to get you wet but damp enough to feel uncomfortable.

In fact the day started off so exciting I thought I would show you a photo of the electrical outlets in the hotel room. These are designed so that you can plug any style of plug into the socket. From Australia to the U.K. your electrical plugs will fit into these sockets, no adapters required.

We needed to get a SIM card for Ralf’s phone so that he can connect to Data and get us from place to place. We thought it would be easy, but, most stores do not open until 10:00 or 11:00.  We were both awake early at 6:00 ish. After I posted yesterday’s blog, we decided to have breakfast and venture on the quest for a SIM. We do have wi-fi in the room and Ralf found us a very un-Taiwanese breakfast – McDonalds. It was only 200 metres away, although the big yellow arches were not displayed outside. A very subtle sign on the door indicated we were in the right place. We stayed there until 10:00 and then headed out to get a Sim card, we walked miles, 9.5 kms. We thought we could get one from any phone store, but it had to have Taiwan Mobile on the outside. The first store we went into the lady had limited English but wrote down in Chinese characters where the stores were and told us she thought they opened at 11:30.

We noticed that one of the stores was open at 11:00 and we went in, this assistant told us that we had to get it from the Taiwan Telecommunications store, and directed us down the street about 200 metres. We walked much further than 200 metres and no Taiwan Telecommunications building. We headed back up the street towards the first store spotting a few interesting temples along the way.

Eventually we asked two young men and showed them the piece of paper. They pointed us to a phone shop, two stores down from where we were standing.

We were helped by a very helpful young woman, filling in all the forms and passport information, taking an extra mugshot of Ralf, she got a little confused about Ralf’s date of birth. Ralf had to sign his name, exactly how it is in the passport – Winter Ralf Johann, it took him three attempts. First was his normal signature, second he signed it Ralf Johann Winter and finally he got it right. Winter Ralf Johann. Eventually we got it all sorted and Ralf was happy. She also showed us how to tether the two phones so that I can piggy-back on Ralf’s phone for wi-fi. When everything was done she asked us where we “played” together.  We were a little confused and shocked that she would ask such a personal question. Then realized because we are wearing our matching yellow cycling jackets she thought we were in a team. We told her that we were cycling around Taiwan.

We found our way back to the hotel and planned our route out of here. We do have another day here tomorrow just to get us acclimatized and then we will be on the road. We will put the bikes together tomorrow and check them out. We have a warmshowers on Friday night and a hostel booked for Saturday.

Although there are a lot of scooters on the road, it is not as crazy as Vietnam.  I think we will survive the traffic.

We did spend some time in the shopping mall across the road and decided to have Pizza for dinner. I had a Taiwanese beer “For Women” our waiter told us. Blugh it was a fruit beer, Ralf had a Belgian Beer. The pizza was good.

Fading a little now, an early night is in store.

22 October, 2024

We have arrived safe and sound in Taiwan, with bikes and bag.

The taxi from Howard’s was 15 minutes early – it was his first time doing an airport run. As we chatted to Dennis he said that he had only flown once and that was to Cancun for their 25^th wedding anniversary (29 years earlier). That was the first and last time for him. They bought an RV and were going to become snowbirds when he retired. They took one trip to Florida and after two weeks decided it wasn’t for them and came home. I am a bit of a home body he said. Ralf and I are definitely not home bodies. We love to travel, to meet new people, see and experience different countries and cultures. I could not imagine being a homebody.

Although I plan everything down to the nth degree I, was very stressed last week. What Ifs. What if the taxi doesn’t show up, what if the first flight is delayed, what if the bikes don’t get to Taipei, what if, what if, what if. In my defense it has been a while since we have flown anywhere or that I have had to plan a major trip. My sisters were laughing at me on the week-end. They were all very excited to be following the Blog again.

Ralf, of course, had an answer for all my What Ifs: I will drive, we have insurance for delayed flights, we will rent bikes or change the trip to be trains. Then he put his arms around me and said thank you for planning our trips.  Breath out and thank God I have my wonderful hubby to keep me calm.

I hadn’t checked in on line, because of the oversized bike bags. Yes, they are still oversized even with folding bikes but smaller than before! We arrived at the airport at 5:30 a.m. and walked straight to a sleepy young man at a United Airlines check-in. Everyone else appeared to either have checked in on-line or were doing self-check-ins at the various terminals. The sleepy young man presented us with boarding passes and told us to take the bikes to the over-sized check-in and our other bag to the regular check-in.

Amazing you pay all this money for a flight but you have to carry your own bags to the luggage place!! We usually have to with our bikes but regular luggage, times have changed.

Then we went through security or at least we lined up to go through security. That took about 30 minutes. Once through security we had to check in at U.S. passport control. 1.5 hours. I felt as if I was at Disney waiting to go on space mountain – just as you thought you were ready to get on the ride there was another switchback and you were back to where you started.  What a night mare.

People were trying to push ahead because they hadn’t left themselves enough time.  I guess they figured because they had checked-in online it would be easy to get through all the other lines. Nope.  We eventually got through and headed straight for our gate. We stopped and got a breakfast sandwich and a coffee. My god it was ridiculously expensive for a couple of slices of white toast and an egg and plastic cheese.

The flight to SFO went smoothly and we were able to head straight for our connector, after looking at some of the artwork.

The sleepy young man at Montreal told us the bikes would be checked all the way through to Taipei.  I was so excited when I saw them by our plane, ready to be loaded.

A young Taiwanese fella asked what we were looking at and we then had a lovely chat with him and on older lady, who was younger than us but would never dream of cycling around Taiwan. They asked us where we had cycled before and was astounded. The lady said it is so good that you like to do this together. The joys of travelling and being open to meeting new people. The young man was visiting his Grandparents in Taipei. The lady was going home.

Onto our next flight and lots of turbulence as we came across the Pacific Ocean. It is always a little scary when the Captain orders the attendants to take to their jump-seats, which he did several times. We tried to sleep and managed to get a few hours in between feedings.

The food was o.k. the attendant was very cheerful and would sing the choices: chicken & rice or 7 Veg with noodles. I think it was the only way he could get through his day.

On arrival at Taoyuan Airport everything went like clockwork. So organized, quickly through passport control – welcome to Taiwan said the border officer. Then through the doors to baggage claim and wait for our bags. Not much of a wait the blue bag was already making its way around the carousal and somebody showed up with our two bikes on a luggage cart.  I was taking a photo of Ralf, when an airport worker asked if we liked a photo together. I am beginning to like Taiwan. There were lots of signs indicating no importation of meats, etc and as we left the arrivals area there was a little dog having a sniff at all the bags.

We checked to see if the regular taxis could accommodate the bike bags, we opted for limousine service. We were taken straight outside and there was a large Mercedes Benz Van to bring us to our hotel.

The hotel entrance was hidden but our taxi driver found it and helped us to the (elevator) lift with our bags. Ralf was about to give him a tip, but he ran away. Tipping is not customary in Taiwan and could be considered offensive. Taxi drivers will accept a tip, but not this fella he was away like the wind as soon as we were in the lift.

The room is clean and very nice. We had a shower and I wrote the first draft of the blog, then off to sleep. Hopefully we won’t have too much difficulty adjusting to Taiwan time as it was 10:00 p.m. when we hit the hay.

September 27, 2024

I was a little disappointed with this Best Western. The service was average, the taps in the bathroom were loose and I am sure that the “Queen” sized bed was only a double bed, I asked at reception and she assured me that it was a Queen sized bed. The breakfast was really good, lots to choose from: sausage, eggs, home fries and beans! Yogurt, cereal and fruit. Good coffee. I can’t complain too much as we used points and didn’t have to pay for the stay.

An interesting ride home. I had planned a route with RidewithGPS and downloaded it onto my Garmin.  The start was almost at our hotel so we set off to connect with the Cataraqui Trail. Just a short ride of 4 kms on the trail and then down a quiet road towards Toledo. I was a little concerned when a fella asked us where we were going and why were we going this way as it was way out of our way. Way too many Ways in that sentence !  He told us we will eventually have to ride on Hwy 29 which is a death trap and we would certainly be killed or worse.

According to my memory we weren’t going onto Hwy 29.  So we set of down the gravel track which is the Cataraqui Trail.  Now, Ralf and I aren’t particularly fond of gravel and will avoid it at all costs, when we are riding our road bikes. We got to the next intersection at Golf Club Road and yes it spat us out on Hwy 29 and we would have had to cycle 19 kms on the death trap.

I got out my phone and asked google maps to take me home. Surprisingly it did an amazing job. However we did spend quite a bit of time on gravel roads and even more surprisingly we enjoyed the gravel roads. The traffic was minimal and the roads were hard packed.

We had one short section of Hwy 29 from south of Tincap to home only about 6 kms. We didn’t die (obviously).

Day two of training ride survived. Quite a few changes to what we are going to take with us on this trip to Taiwan. Less clothes and sandals instead of running shoes. Also no kitchen – stove, plates etc. I am sure we will not go hungry as we love eating street food when we can.

September 26, 2024

Our first fully loaded ride on our new folding touring bikes. It was only a short ride, but we were battling 18 km headwind most of the way. We also had gusts of 26 km. It was a tough ride, but at least we now know what we should be taking and leaving behind. The kitchen sink is staying at home. Actually, all of the cooking stuff is staying at home. We will be staying in hotels and eating out for all of our future cycling adventures. Ralf has decided to take my Arkel Dolphin panniers and I am taking the smaller ‘front’ panniers.

The bikes feel very weird, as all of the weight is on the back whereas before we had equal weight on front and back.

The route was nice with quiet back roads for the most part. There were some heavy trucks on a couple of roads, but they were very good and gave us lots of room.

We passed a cemetery for lawn tractors, there must have been over 100 old, rusty lawn tractors all lined up in rows. Very strange people in Elizabethtown Kitley. We have to get back into the habit of stopping and taking photos of interesting and weird things on our journey. Like this massive solar panel on a house.

After we arrived at our Best Western Hotel, showered and had a nasty cup of coffee we headed into downtown Smith Falls. The municipality have done a lovely job in beautifying the downtown. The planters were stunning, especially for the end of September.

Dinner was at the Lock Masters Taphouse, a bit expensive for a pub dinner, food was o.k. service was good.

Another walk back to our hotel and a relaxing evening watching the TV. We should sleep well after the hard ride.

Tomorrow we head back to Brockville on a different route and according to the weather network a tailwind.

I received the Lonely Planet Guide for Taiwan as a Christmas gift. This must mean Ralf is ready for us to go on another Bike Trip.

Our last big bike trip was in 2018 to Europe. During that trip we decided that camping was no longer fun and our next bike trips would be without camping gear. Almost as soon as we got back we sold our tent and some cooking gear. The next trip was definitely going to be without camping gear.

In 2019 I took a trip with a friend to the United Kingdom and Ralf planned to go on an organized  bike trip in the U.S. Unfortunately, his trip was cancelled due to lack of interest. Then Covid hit and we didn’t plan any trips that involved flying for a couple of years.

As things began to open up in 2021 we booked a week on Prince Edward County.

2022 we cycled to Quebec and cycled the Petit Train du Nord.

2023 we ventured further afield and went to New York state, specifically the Lake Placid Area.

Finally 2024, we are ready to get on a plane again and cycle somewhere new.  The options were South Korea and Japan or Taiwan. The Christmas Gift made the choice easy.

One of the concerns Ralf has when travelling with a bike is the packing of the bikes for travel. It stresses him prior to the flights and also worrying about finding boxes to return with, especially if we are returning from another airport.

One of the solutions was to travel with folding bikes. After our return from Italy I had been researching folding bikes. I did a lot of research. Do we go with 20 inch or smaller wheels – Bromptons, Dahons or Bike Fridays. Bike Fridays are custom made and therefore more expensive. Bromptons are best for commuter travel and not necessarily touring.

I remember chatting to a British fella in Germany who loved folding bikes and was riding a Brompton. He also had a Bike Friday and a Dahon. He said the best bike for touring longer days and distances in his opinion was the Bike Friday. It had regular components that you could get anywhere in the world (more or less), it was custom made for your measurements and could fold into a suitcase. Whereas the Brompton was great for shorter day trips, was very quick to fold, but the components were proprietary for Bromptons. The Dahon was a cheaper version of the Bike Friday with regular components, but in his opinion not designed for anyone of my small stature.

Another problem I was finding, was Distributors in Canada where we could test ride the bikes. The closest Brompton dealership was in Montreal (220 kms from home) and they did not encourage test rides, or renting one for a week-end.

While conducting a lot of research in the three main brands I came across a bike called the Change Bike Company in Taiwan. This was a full sized folding bike (700 cc wheel). I contacted them to get more information and sizing. I chatted to our Trek dealership regarding the geometry of the bike and the sizing. They thought the bike might me a touch too big, but would depend on the slope of the top tube. Damn, there go my short legs again. It would appear their smallest frame may be a touch too big for me. The idea was for us to buy them in Taiwan and bring them home with us. However, I didn’t want to risk having an uncomfortable bike for a month long trip. Of course, I could always rent a regular Giant bike for the duration and Ralf could have his folding bike.

Back to the drawing board and further research. I eventually came across the Montague folding bikes. I had seen these at a bike show many years ago and thought it was a neat concept, but not sure at that time when we would use a full-sized folding bike.  The bikes were designed in the U.S, by Montague bikes and they had extended their range of bikes to about 4 or 5 different models. Again, the questions: where were the Distributors and could we test ride them, did they have a small enough model for me?

Earlier  this year I discovered there was a Montague Distributor in Ottawa, only 90 kms from home. I contacted him and we were able to meet him and test ride the bikes. The smallest frame fit me and the fold is really easy. We bought the Montague Navigator model and bought them home. What do we call these bikes – Montague bike we could go with Monty and Rommel – English and German. Ralf didn’t think that was a good idea. Famous Navigators  – My bike is called Marco and Ralf’s is not Polo he went with Navigator!!

Since April we have been riding them occasionally. Our panniers fit on these bikes and we will do a week-end test ride at some stage before our big trip to Taiwan in October.

The bikes, back racks fold down to become a stand. Of course this doesn’t work it you have panniers on the rack, but it is quite a nifty thing to use when you are storing them in the garage. To complete the package we have bought bags that they fit in, the bags roll up so that we can carry the bags on the back of the bikes and we don’t have to worry about finding boxes etc. for travel.  The advantage of these bikes is that we can quickly fold them, and put them in the bags and put them on any train in Asia or Europe. They are not the lightest bike, but the weight is comparable to any of the other 20 inch folding bikes and surprisingly their folded dimensions are only a couple of inches bigger than Bike Fridays.