That's a solid climb!

I am kind of getting irritated by the explanations of Taipei given by the locals

they are very nice to take their time and explain things nicely, but the problem is that if you ask "how to ride a bus" you will get a lengthy narrative on how nice buses are and that there are no English translations on the stations yet, but not even a hint on how to actually use them - payments and so on

well, it is not very different to Japan, anyway. The all-familiar Asian chaos.

I think I'll take taxi instead

@Rilakkuma In such situations I just get money ready and ask the driver. If the driver doesn't understand, just watch what others do. If you speak English (without an American accent), often people will come to help, just to practice their English.

Well, Peteh posted =)

@PeteH - does this highlight you?

@andy256 I loved that "without an American accent" comment. In the end this is what I did - just looked what everyone else was doing.

@Rilakkuma - there are a ton of 650b frames on the market now. Major manufacturers (e.g. Trek) are finally starting to spec 650b for smaller riders.

I don't know about 650c though, given that its primary use state side is for tri bikes and stuff

oh lordy - another minor variation in nomlecature :-\