My trip to Taiwan has been a fun one. Kenda being one of my premiere sponsors, invited me over to Taiwan for the bike show to give a little presentation on what goes into the design and development of our signature tires. 28 distributors from around the world attended the presentation in which the owners of Kenda also gave some presentations.
The next couple days were spent at the show meeting people, taking pictures, signing autographs, doing interviews and visiting some of my other sponsors. On Thur. night we had a 2.5 hour drive down to the Kenda factory, where on Friday I spent a couple hours there learning how tires are made and seeing the production process. Very interesting and eye opening to see how much man power goes into each tire and how many steps it actually takes to produce a tire. Simply amazing...
Saturday I went to watch the final stage of the Tour of Taiwan. It was a crit downtown right next to the 101 building which is now the second tallest building in the world. Later that night Kenda had a huge dinner celebration for everyone involved with the company in some way shape or form which was really nice.
Sunday morning I had a 6:15a pick up time to go meet up with the Kenda road team and some general public for a ride. By 7:30 we were riding with a group of 50 and up a climb that was about 10km long. A easy ride because of the pace, but perfect since I am getting on a plane in a few hours.
It's been a great experience and I have to say thanks to everyone at Kenda for treating me so well. It's a great company to be associated with and am honored they've given me the chance to come see their country.