Simple, but not
“Taiwan doesn’t have the world’s largest cycling population, but we manufacture components that the world’s ten largest high-end cycling brands use on their bikes. How did Taiwan manage that?” asks Howard Wang, operations director of the Giant Group’s Cycling Culture Museum, hoping to pique our curiosity.
Wang walks us through the history gallery on the first floor, explaining the global development of the bicycle. Invented in Europe more than 200 years ago, the bicycle’s steady improvement through the adoption of innovations such as pedals, brakes, chains, and diamond-shaped frames enabled it to transform human transportation.
When the 1970s oil crisis triggered a surge in the popularity of cycling in the US, Taiwanese businesses leapt at the opportunity. Present-day heavyweights Giant and Merida were founded in quick succession during this period, and component suppliers quickly grew up around them. Nowadays, Taiwan is home to more than 900 bicycle-industry companies clustered in the Taichung, Changhua, and Tainan areas.
As we wander through the museum’s exhibits, Wang shares cycling-industry milestones including Giant’s introduction of the “Red Samurai” BMX bike, the dream of many a young child in Taiwan and the US, and the company’s development of the much-emulated compact TCR frames, the lightness and stiffness of which gave riders a boost at the Tour de France. He also tells us about the materials innovations, from aluminum alloys to monocoque carbon-fiber frames, that have rewritten cycling history, and even goes into Taiwan’s world-renowned YouBike bikeshare program.
While bicycles may be simple devices, they utilize some less-than-simple technology. Once the world’s largest exporter of bicycles, Taiwan has transitioned from quantity to quality. With locally manufactured bikes now selling to international brands for an average of US$813 apiece, the value of our bicycle exports has grown exponentially.
Giant’s TCR carbon-fiber road bike sparked a revolution in racing bikes.
Howard Wang explains how Giant combined new frame technologies and materials to advance aluminum-alloy bike frames.