“I cried tears of joy because I really did it.”
So says Riley Yen, a novice cyclist who completed a 625-mile (1,006-kilometer) bike ride, the equivalent of nearly 24 marathons, around Taiwan.
Even though he had never owned a bike before or cycled for more than 30 minutes at a time, it only took him 12 days in total, one of which was a “rest” day.
The 21-year-old, from California, USA, charted his journey with posts on his Instagram account. @rileyyentaking his 47,600 followers with him.
He told MailOnline Travel: “I went in with the mentality that whatever happens, I’ll figure it out.”
Riley Yen (above) completed a 625-mile (1,006 km) bike trip around Taiwan, without any preparation
Riley rode the bike for 11 days and only took one day off to rest. He had never owned a bicycle or ridden a bicycle for more than 30 minutes at a time before beginning his trip.
Before embarking on his two-wheeled adventure, Riley had just graduated from the University of Southern California, with At the end of the year I was planning a health consulting job in New York.
After graduating early, he decided to use the extra time (and the money he had left) to travel around Asia.
“I had completed everything I ‘should have done,’ from going to college to getting a job and getting my health back,” he said. ‘I wanted to do something not because I should, but because I’m curious. Satisfy children’s curiosity.’
Riley had arrived in Japan when the idea of cycling around Taiwan occurred to him.
He then traveled to the island, bought a bike for $130 (£103) and set off on Taiwan’s No. 1 cycle route in February.
The route begins and ends in the capital city of Taipei and circles the island, with some parts passing along the coast.
Riley completed it in an impressive 12 days, spending up to 12 hours cycling each day, taking only one day off on the ninth day of the trip and staying in hotels along the way.
When asked if he ever veered off course, he said, “Yes.” I followed him for the most part, but I went to Tainan, which is off the route.’
Riley said he wanted to complete the trip to “satisfy a childhood curiosity.”
Riley said, “I just went in with the mentality that whatever happens, I’ll figure it out.” Overcoming the physical pain was one of the hardest parts for the novice cyclist.
The 21-year-old, from California, charted his journey with posts on his Instagram account. @rileyyen, taking his 47,600 followers with him. Before embarking on his two-wheeled adventure, Riley had just graduated from the University of Southern California.
Riley said overcoming the “physical pain” was a difficult part of the journey.
“The most painful parts were my hands and my butt because my bike had no handlebar variations and was not mounted correctly,” he added. ‘He also carried a bag on his back instead of strapped to the bike.
“My hands were constantly numb and I couldn’t use chopsticks for a week.”
He also had a run-in with Mother Nature on the eighth day, which he described as the most difficult day.
“I ran into a storm with almost no power and four more hours to go as night approached,” he said.
And the hardest psychological part, he said, was posting “well-edited videos and interacting with my viewers, not just one day but every day.”
Riley revealed that during the trip her hands were “constantly numb” and that afterward she “couldn’t use chopsticks for a week.”
Have you ever been on the verge of giving up? “Every day,” she said. Why didn’t he do it? He explained: “I said I would complete it, so I must do it.”
And he stated that he does not regret anything.
For the most part, Riley said, Taiwan is very bike-friendly. But he explained that he had to skip two small sections in the east of the island and take a train because it was “illegal for bicycles or too dangerous because of the large trucks and falling rocks from the mountainside.”
Some of the best views he saw were the farmlands in eastern Taiwan, including Taichung and Hualien, and the beaches of Kaohsiung and Checheng in southern Taiwan.
LEFT: Riley’s bicycle appears next to the Xiluo Bridge in Changhua County. RIGHT: The cyclist said some of the best views he saw were the farmland on the east side of Taiwan.
What’s next for Riley? He said: “Now I’m running 30-mile races and scaling my clothing brand, Kaede Gardens.’
While he said he would “love” to continue cycling, Riley has no more long rides planned.
However, he said that “it would be very nice” to tour Japan by bicycle, as well as the Taiwanese mountains.
To learn more about Riley, visit him on Instagram at www.instagram.com/rileyyen/YouTube on www.youtube.com/@rileyyen and tiktok in www.tiktok.com/@rileyyen.