Earlier this month, Asia’s largest bike exhibition, the Taipei Cycle Show took place in Taipei, Taiwan. Montague made the trip over to exhibit our full size folding bikes to the world, and we want to give you an inside look at our trip. After almost 24 hours of travel and a stopover in Tokyo, we arrived on Monday evening. (It should be noted that the airport lounges in Tokyo International are top notch. Be sure to visit the beer dispensing machines). Thanks to the time zones, we also jumped ahead an additional 12 hours from Montague HQ in Boston.

Tuesday was spent making sure our booth was looking perfect, preparing our marketing materials and handouts, and confirming meetings. We knew we were in for a busy few days. That evening we had a bit of time to explore the streets and take in the nightlife while we wandered in search of some good food (which is by no means hard to come by in this town). The Lungshan Temple in the Manka district looked particularly stunning when illuminated by the nearby lanterns.

Day 1 of the show started off quickly as the Nangang Exhibition hall filled with bike industry professionals from all over the world. While this is Asia’s premiere bike show, there are manufacturers, designers, distributors, dealers, and cycle media attending from every part of the earth. Our booth was lined with folded bikes being displayed on each wall:

Attendees came to the Montague booth to take a look at our bike line, have questions answered, and test out our folding feature. In the back of our booth was a conference room where he held meetings with our suppliers, as well current and prospective distributors. At this show we had a couple exciting new designs and products hiding in that back room. I can’t show them to you here just yet, but I can tell you we got an excellent response at the show. Keep your eye on our website at www.montaguebikes.com, as well as this blog to see them as soon as they premiere.

As I mentioned, good food is everywhere in Taipei. After meeting with our Japanese distributors, Shido Cycle, we went out for a Teppanyaki dinner. An incredible meal with great company, and it certainly didn’t hurt that they were very generous with the wine pours.

Taipei Cycle Show 2014 was definitely a success in our book, and as always the people of Taiwan welcomed us with open arms. Before heading back to the US, we stopped in to check on our latest production.

Sneak peak: Paratrooper Pro frames before assembly.