tero

Hi everyone. Introducing yourself seems to be de rigueur in these here forums.

I'm a permanent expat living in south-east of Seoul, Korea. I started actively biking here less than two years ago because I wanted to lose weight and get in shape. My first kid was turning two, and I didn't want him growing up learning all those bad habits from me (watching TV, eating junk food, drinking coke and beer).

I was living in Suwon at the time (~20 miles south from Seoul), so I bought a cheapo Korean mountain bike to ride around the hills and rice fields close by. Little by little my distances started growing, and after 6 months I was doing 20-30 miles rounds 5 times a week (which is a lot as I only have a couple of hours to ride in the mornings before my kids wake up).

I got an entry-level road bike (Merida 901) some time ago because after moving to Seoul, I noticed I never rode on unpaved roads anymore. Also, I wanted to ride further and faster to see new places; riding the same roads every day gets old fast. I've been very happy with the bike. I never used a road bike before, but I'm getting the hang of it pretty quickly.

Seoul has nowadays pretty good network of bicycle paths along all the major rivers and parks, so it's not difficult to go dozens and dozens of miles without needing to avoid cars or getting stuck in traffic lights.

If there's any other riders from Seoul or the suburbs in these forums, you can always pm me to exchange good cycling route info.



tl;dr version: New road biker around Jamsil in Seoul, happy to be here.

old and new

Welcome , can't help you with the riding partnering. Curious as to what bikes are over there. You stated Merida, heard of that Co., a big one, no knowledge of the current bikes. I only know that Co. by name having read that they made bikes in Japan & Taiwan. Anyway, good luck riding and finding someone to ride with.

kimchi_fuel

I'm envious of your location! Do you ride near Han-gang?

tero

Merida is a Taiwanese manufacturer, I believe they sell under different brand names in the U.S. and Europe (they own 19% of Specialized). I have been looking at entry- and medium-level bikes here, apart from the local manufacturers you see a lot of Scott bikes. One thing about Koreans, when they start a new hobby, they really like to get the full gear, so you see a lot of older women (50s and upwards) riding 2-3 thousand dollar bikes with complete set of clothing, shoes, sunglasses, the lot.

I go at least once a week on Han-gang. The roads have been really upgraded in the last couple of years, they even have bicycle-only roads. Actually, this morning I used a "bicycle elevator", which lets you get down to the bike road from one of the high bridges. Never seen one before, the sign literally said "자전거 엘리베이터" in Korean. Using it made me feel special.