Cycling in Taiwan: Bikepacking on e-Bike!

As soon as the rain stopped, I checked the cloud forecast and decided to plan a weekend bikepacking trip with my telescope for some stargazing. I contacted Giant Taipei Nanjing Branch to book an e-bike and reached out to several campsites near Taipei. My colleague helped me connect with a campground in Daxi – a perfect spot for riverside cycling made easy with an e-bike!

In this post:

• Planning the Journey
• Setup and Gears
• Rentals, Reservations and Logistics
• Camping Experience
• eBike On the Road Experience
• Conclusion

Planning the Journey

My October vacation, catching cold and the rainy season, made me miss my cycling kilometers, but I still wanted to do some stargazing, so I decided to give riding an e-bike a shot especially since my gravel bike was on its way to Manila. I talked to Jimmy from Giant Taipei Nanjing Branch about what I could rent and what I could bring. Based on our previous stargazing trip in Taitung, I had an idea for a setup that might work for this adventure.

I checked the cloud forecast around Daxi because I remembered seeing campsites in the area, and it’s Bortle 5 which is much better than the Bortle 6/7 in Xindian. Using Google Maps, I found around three accessible campsites, but they were all full, couldn’t accommodate a single camper, or didn’t reply at all. Finally, I found one without social media presence, so I had to ask my colleague to contact them. When they said yes! I contacted Giant again to confirm my reservation. That’s pretty much it, as Gerald calls it, “conceptually done.”

Setup and Gears

• Bike: Liv Amiti E+
• Rack: Topeak Tetra Rack R2
• Bikepacking Bags: Topeak MTX Trunkbag EX QuickTrack, Tubular Handlebar Bag 3.8L
• Body bags: Decathlon Mountain Hiking Backpack MH500 22L, Uniqlo Round Shoulder Bag
• Tent: Decathlon MH100 Fresh & Black 3-Person Camping Tent and a 200×200 mat
• Telescope: Seestar S30 with Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Latitude EQ Base
• Tripod: K&F Concept 210

The telescope, tent, sleeping mat, and electronics went in the trunk bag. The rack could only accommodate 7-8kg, so I pushed it to the limit. I had to separate the tent body and poles for better weight distribution and had to leave the tent cover behind (more on this experience later). In my backpack were my clothes, toiletries, tripod, tent poles, and water bottles. The e-bike charger went in the handlebar bag. My phone, wallet, and salt candies stayed in the shoulder bag.

Rentals, Reservations and Logistics

• Where to rent an e-Bike: Giant Online Reservation, choose Giant Taipei Nanjing
• Campsite: 綠境農場
• Cycling Route: Taipei – Daxi Riverside!

Since the trail runs along the riverside, there are plenty of restroom stops and vending machines to buy Supau or Pocari Sweat. It’s also just a 50km ride, so I didn’t need to bring much food. There are two bike rental shops along the way where you can grab energy bars and charge batteries.

The campsite is close to the road and a 7-Eleven, so as soon as I set up my tent, I went to eat dinner and grab some snacks. The site also has very clean toilet and showers, plus charging ports. However, there were a lot of mosquitoes. I should’ve sprayed repellent as soon as it got dark, but I was busy figuring out where the gate was, contacting my colleague, and finding a spot to set up my tent.

Camping Experience

Besides the mosquito bites and occasional campers arriving and flooding the site with car lights, my stargazing went pretty well. My colleague visited for a couple of hours, and then I was alone under the sky. Well, on a call with Gerald, as we usually do when I’m stargazing.

Around 1 AM, the mist became too heavy, so I decided to call it a night. That’s when a problem I hadn’t anticipated began. Since I’d left the tent cover behind, I was exposed to the cold. At least the mist wasn’t seeping in, but nothing blocked the cold air. First, I folded the sleeping mat in half, which bought me an hour of sleep. Then around 4 AM, the wind started howling! Even half asleep, my mind instinctively searched for a solution – I wrapped myself like a burrito, and it worked! I hadn’t brought warm clothes to save space and weight, but I did have a light jacket with a hood from the Sun Moon Lake marathon. This kept me warm enough to sleep for a couple more hours until it was time to pack up.

eBike On the Road Experience

This wasn’t my first time riding an e-bike, so I knew how to control the pedaling. If it’s your first time, pedal lightly—the motor amplifies everything. The ride from Taipei to the campsite took me 2 hours and 25 minutes, which I think is pretty fast for a 50km journey with all my camping and stargazing gear. My legs were still quite tired from the pedaling, though. The trip consumed 25% of the e-bike’s battery, so I decided not to charge it overnight.

The next day brought strong headwinds! I was exhausted even with pedal assist. I kept switching modes to get more power from the bike, but it drained the battery quickly. By the time I arrived at Huajiang Bridge Bike Rental 華江橋自行車租借站, the battery was down to 39%. I took a break there and charged it to 50% so I could drop my stuff at home before returning the bike to Giant. What a fun experience riding it without luggage!

Conclusion

I was discussing with Jimmy what my next bike purchase should be and told him that if I enjoyed this trip, I might consider getting an e-bike. But since this setup didn’t allow me to bring complete camping gear, owning one wouldn’t really be practical for my needs. He told me about another e-bike model available for rent that can carry up to 25kg of gear! I’ll definitely be trying that next time.

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That’s it for now! Stay tuned for more adventures and tips on balancing work and travel! 

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