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Adam and I are currently in transit on our way home from Taiwan.  We were there for two weeks, enjoying all that is a product development trip for Surly.  We kicked off some brand new projects and greased the wheels on some existing ones.

Taiwan is pretty rad.  Good people, bizzare food, and a country filled with manufacturers that make bike parts for the world.

Here are some random pictures I snapped during the trip.  Enjoy...

 

 

Squat Toilet

Squat toilets... Pretty tough to waist time on your cell phone while using on of these.

 

 

Front view of a green Surly Krampus bike with a sales tag hanging from the handlebar, inside of a bike shop

Checking in on Krampus production.  I do love the look of a raw welded frame.

 

 

Side view of bare manufactured dropouts for a Surly Long Haul Trucker bike, lined up side by side, in a row

A whole rack of LHT Disc non-drive side triangles waiting to be welded into frames.

 

 

A glass tray with packages of candy in it, on a wood table, with a cup and bottles of water behind it

At nearly every supplier there is a quality assortment of candy, coffee, tea, and water.  Seeing as I don't read Chinese, eating candy from the bowl is a little like Russian roulette.

 

 

Side view of a row of Surly unpolished, stainless steel, bike seat collars, sitting on a table

I think an unpolished stainless seat collar would be bad ass.  What do you think?  Also, some top secret 2014 stuff on the table in the background.  You are going to like it.

 

 

Three people sitting around a table, with notepads and beverages on it, in an office with bike tires in the background

This is our good friend Willy hanging out at the tire supplier.  Willy is basically Surly's Taiwan engineer.  He keeps tabs on our manufacturers and makes sure everything is going smoothly for us.

 

 

Downward view of 3 bare Surly bikes O.D crank arm forgings, sitting on a table

Some OD crank arm forgings.  It is wierd to think that one day the exact forgings in this picture will be machined, painted, boxed, shipped, shelved, purchased, installed, and then ridden by a Surly fan.  This could be a picture of the cranks you buy in the future.

 

 

Side, detail view of a Surly bike O.D crank spindle, attached to the drive side crank

OD crank, check.

 

 

Front view of a fish with sharp teeth, cooked and laying on a white plate, on a table with a person sitting behind it

I think I saw Jeremy Wade catch this fish on River Monsters.

 

 

A magazine page with pictures of food and Taiwanese text

Chicken feet taste exactly how you would guess, skin and bones.  Nummy.

 

 

Side view of an unpainted Surly Krampus bike fork, laying on a table, with people sitting around in the background

Raw Krampus fork looking good.

 

 

Downward view of manufactured Surly Krampus bike forks, in rows on a rack

That's a whole lot of Krampus forks.

 

 

Side, ground level view of a large spider walking on leaf covered ground, with a person's shoe in the background

During our trip we had the chance to do some work on a local Taiwan mountain bike trail.  Crazy enough, these massive spiders (Golden Orb spiders I think) were everywhere.  They had huge webs strung out across the trail waiting for bikers to get tangled up in them.  Apparently their poison will only cause some local irritation if bitten, but damn, I was not a fan.  Fortunately, we walked the whole trail and cleared out all the webs before riding.

 

 

Downward view of a large earthworm, stretched across a person's palms, who is standing of leafy ground

We also found this MASSIVE earth worm out on the trail.  When it stretched out it was easily over two feet long.  More snake than worm in my opinion.

 

 

Front, right side view of Surly Long Haul Trucker bike forks, in a row, over a horizontal wood, post

Whole slew of LHT forks waiting for some paint.

 

 

Rear view of people riding motor scooters on a city street, with people under building canopies, ahead of them

Leeche's advice for driving in Taiwan.... "The rule is, there is no rule."

About ThorHammer

Thor Shellum a.k.a. ThorHammer

Thor designs frames, tires, and lots of other parts for Surly. He has trouble fitting into most hats, as his head is surprisingly rotund, and he wears flip-flops as soon as it’s warm enough. On a bike, Thor rides like normal people can’t, which he always does on platform pedals in Vans with no socks because, and I’m quoting here, “I like to feel everything.” In short, Thor gets rad on a regular basis.