KICK CAFE - Taipei

Every once in a while I'll get a free weekend during a work trip to do some exploring. I've been coming to Taiwan for quite some time now working on shiny metal mountain bike things that connect you to your bicycle, but I'm usually staying in the middle of the country in the city of Taichung.

This past weekend and the weekend before I had the chance to head up to Taipei and met some great people and got explore a coffee/bike shop that I had seen in a great local Taiwan mag called Free Biker.

I'm definitely not going to go into a career in photography, especially after viewing these pics I took. I swear this place is way cooler than I made it look. Imagine your favorite coffee shop from back in the day, except every magazine is motorcycle related, usually of the Japanese type of beautiful, simple, custom type stuff and awesome custom parts for sale all around you. Yes, this is the Kick Cafe.

It's great to see that the motorcycle scene is booming in Taiwan with awesome custom builds/mods like the ones below. 125cc engines and just perfect.

bicycles and design and bicycles

I've had some crazy days followed by pretty chill and relaxing nights. Good catching up with good friends in the bicycle world and meeting new people here as well. I've had the opportunity of spending alot of great quality time with someone I have a ton of respect for in the design world, Rob Forbes. He is most known as the founder of Design Within Reach, but overall has great design taste for the world and society. His blog, while not updated regularly enough often has great insight into city life and traveling through his perspective.

He's a smart guy and shares a lot of the philosophies that I have for the bicycle and what it can do to help save us all and not just be a consumer product, but a major part of ones life in terms of form, function, utility and fashion.

I met him a few times in the Laguna Beach area over the last 6 months, but I've had more time to sit and chat with him over drinks and even some Ruths Chris this time around.

I have to admit, though, its been fun poking and prodding info about DWR in general and furniture tid bits here and there, talking about the obsession that traveling for work can give you and how the little things like getting an upgrade or using the lounge at the airport can make or break a trip.....we're all human.

On a side note, I can definitely tell you that hotel room living isn't the best sometimes, but that the Grand Hyatt in Taipei is a dump and while there are good restaurants it is crazy overpriced AND that Hotel One in Taichung is amazing with great rooms, great work zone, surround sound in the rooms with ipod hookups and a nice clean modern feel.