Archive for April, 2009

Beautiful Colorful Fixed Gear Bikes

Sonntag, April 26th, 2009

The BJ fixed gear guys had set up a ride for today. I met with them, but did not ride with them as I had fallen off my bike just a few hours earlier.

Beijing Fixed Gear Meetup

Beijing Fixie Meetup

The bikes of our ever growing Beijing fixed gear group are really pretty. Here is the link to more pictures

Beautiful Fixed Gear Bikes in Beijing

Later we met Matthieu and Yanny for dinner in a quiet Beijing hutong alley.

Relaxed Beijing Hutong Life

Face Mask Protects Face Against Road Rash

Sonntag, April 26th, 2009

While ghost riding my trick bike and trying to swirl around a car that decided to park on the bike lane along the 2nd ring road expressway making me have to swirl out into fast traffic hoping I would not get hit from behind by the approaching cars did make me have to yell at that stupid driver and not pay attention to the road for a second and oversee the unexpected pot hole making my trickbike suddenly jump around and then get caught with the bike I was riding resulted in me going over the handlebars and landing face first on the asphalt. But I was lucky: I was wearing my anti-pollution mask. That prevented my whole left side of my face skin to be scraped off.

Anti-Pollution Mask Prevents Road Rash

So for all of you who want to look pretty and do not want to risk huge face road rash: Wear anti-pollution masks! I am so happy – My face only has minor road rash.

Anti-Pollution Masks for Pretty Faces

NIKE Space and Stunt Roll off my Fixie

Freitag, April 24th, 2009

NIKE has a space in the Beijing 798 Art District. I went there to have a look today. It is the energy hall.

NIKE Space in 798 Beijing

Currently it is used as an exhibition hall and for playing basketball. It could be a cool place to do some trick cycling. Maybe I can find some guys to train there with me. Or maybe we could even play bike polo there if any of the Beijing fixed gear guys are interested.

NIKE Basketball Court

On my way back home I flew over the handlebars of my blue track bike for the first time. I was riding on the bike lane and had a green light when a cyclist (riding over the red light) came from the right. I thought he wanted to fully cross the street so I kept my line of riding and wanted to let him pass in front of me. He unexpectedly did a full stop right in front of me. So I tried to brake and just went flying right over the handlebars as well as flying over his back wheel and then landing with a nice roll. I started scolding him that if he wants to run over a red light he should just do it. If not, then he should just stop like all the civilized people at the bike stopping line and wait for the lights to turn green. He said he was so sorry and said he will never do that again. The whole bunch of cyclists waiting at that stopping line were all staring at me with their eyes wide open. I afterwards realized that my flight and stunt roll must have looked really impressive.

That reminded me of my friend who had a tricycle guy (that was riding in the wrong direction) almost crash into him. In the process of trying to brake the whole tricycle fell over. Unfortunately his load was beer, so that meant then that around 200 glass bottles with beer were spilled over the whole street. What a mess! Some people think riding in San Francisco with the steep hills is dangerous. But riding in flat Beijing has other sources of danger. And they are usually very unexpected.

Fixed Gear Parts

Donnerstag, April 23rd, 2009

Some nice colored fixie parts

Fixed Gear 1Fixed Gear 2Fixed Gear 3JugglingFixed Gear 5

Earth Day Performance and GREENing the BEIGE Party

Mittwoch, April 22nd, 2009

The Green Lady of Beijing and director of Greening the Beige (GtB) Carissa Welton went to hold a presentation at the Canadian International School of Beijing (CIS) for the middle school and high school Earth Day assembly. To show them that being part of Greening the Beige can be fun I brought my trick bike and did a trick bike performance. They loved the stunts that I did. I just hope that none of the students will try the bike tricks on their own bikes in Beijing traffic.

Greening the Beige was celebrating the greenest day of the year – Earth Day with a party! Carissa had organized an Earth Day BBQ on the roof of Obiwan near JiShuiTan subway. There was be cinema and BBQ on the roof terrace of Club Obiwan, overlooking XiHai, with lots of old and new green friends. We enjoyed a selection of grilled organic-fed meats with plenty of fresh veggie options (includes 1 glass of punch) and watched a special green film screening. There was also the Earth Day raffle with cool prizes from our green-hearted sponsors. New members to GtB are always welcome!

 点废成绿(GtB)是一个富有创意的注重环保的艺术群体。从成立之日起到现在的三年期间,我们作为一个草根环保团体一直致力于对我们周围的环境起到 积极的作用。借今年地球日之际,我们真诚的邀请我们所有的支持者参加我们组织的户外烧烤自助和电影放映。100元可以享受到我们为大家精心准备的各种有机 蔬菜和一杯水果酒。如果对自助烧烤不感兴趣,也希望大家参加我们的抽奖活动,有很多慷慨的赞助方提供的绿色丰厚奖品。同时,点废成绿永远欢迎新的成员加 入。更多信息,请浏览 http://www.greeningthebeige.org

GREENING THE BEIGE EARTH DAY MENU included
点废成绿晚餐会菜单
Arab Chick Pea, Fennel & Tomato Salad – 阿拉伯鹰嘴豆,茴香和番茄沙拉 seasoned with lemon juice, coriander & olive oil
Lettuce Salad – 生菜沙拉 with yoghurt & mustard sauce
German Style Potato Salad – 德式土豆沙拉 with dill, sour cucumber & parsley
Canapés – 小点 bread & wraps 面包及卷饼
Beef & Veggies – 欧洲式牛肉串 European style flavour
Satay Skewers – 马来式鸡肉川 in spicy peanut sauce
Fresh Veggies - 各式蔬菜川 eggplant, zucchini, cherry tomato, mushrooms, …
Sweet and Sour tofu 酸甜古老豆腐 with pineapple & peppers
Green Curry – 泰式绿咖喱 with coconut milk, vegetables and tofu
Seasonal fruit plate – 水果盘
Chocolate & Banana Pancake Rolls- 巧克力及香蕉甜饼

That was perfect to have such huge buffet after the spinning class (and cycling there and back). My friends and I stayed long at Obiwan – actually we were the last ones.

Fede’s Party

Montag, April 20th, 2009

Fede had just come back from Uganda where he had been teaching teenagers and children how to juggle and do acrobatics as well as putting a show together for them so that they could earn money. That is a project done by an Italian non-profit organization. And now he is off to Italy and Europe, leaving tomorrow. We will miss him.

So we had a party for him. Oli was DJ-ing some nice tunes, a lot of jugglers and friends came and Kris came and brought his new carbon track bike (credits to Risteard for the picture).

New Bike

Orphans Theater Play

Sonntag, April 19th, 2009

Today was the last day of the theater play „Orphans“ presented by the Beijing Actors Workshop (BAW) & Beijing International Theater Experience (BITE) produced by Anna Grace, directed by Peter Walters and staring Kris Chung, Ian Reed and Nick Ma. WOW. That was great acting! It was amazing. A very entertaining play that was professionally presented. I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to their next performances like the Spring Workshop Finale Festival May 14th to 17th (7:30 in Penghao Theater) and Shakespeare’s famous comedy „A Midsummer Night’s Dream“ held June 11-14 and 18-21

The Bike Fairy on Tianjin TV „China Right Here“

Samstag, April 18th, 2009

Last year a crew from Tianjin TV filmed me over a course of a few months documenting my life in China and my love for bikes as well as the starting of a fixed gear bike club in Beijing. They also filmed my participation and performance at Greening the Beige (GtB) 2008 and my green reason for cycling and taking care of environment.

This 30 minute documentary about the „Bike Fairy“ (Ines Brunn) was broad casted on Tianjin TV  today at 17:55 to 18:30 (as well as at 23:00 to 23:35).
去年天津TV拍过我喜欢自行车和我们开在北京骑fixed gear的俱乐部。
天津电视台 卫视频道 <泊客中国>

4月18日晚上5点55分钟到6点30分钟(也11点钟到11点35分钟)

Cycling in the Mountains

Samstag, April 18th, 2009

Today again we took a bus out North to the mountains for some supreme road cycling. We had a bit of late start due to the confusion of the departure times. The bus dropped us off near Lui Cun.

Here is Tom Lanhove’s (Cyclo Sports China) description of the ride planned for the A riders:

From the GaoYaKou village (near the Stone Lions) we go the normal way over Gao Tai. At the train tracks overhead, we turn left (east) towards Beijing. We go through the “Dong Fang Hong” tunnel climb and ride over the flat valley floor to Shang Wei Dian village. Here we turn abruptly left and start a 20km (!) climb at 4-5% to the intermediate summit. We descent into Jian Gou Village where we tackle the dreaded (and most spectacular) Yang Tai Shan. (7km at 7%) In my humble opinion, this is Beijing’s premiere road bike climb – the most Alp-like for sure. It takes us up to 1180m above sea level and offers awesome views of the city below. Then we descent via the same way back to Jian Gou Village and go up 5km to Miao Feng Shan. We descend back 2-3km and go up the “Alpe D’Huez” of Beijing, an alternative route up to Yang Tai Shan.

This is my note from after the ride: The beginning was nice as we started cycling as for the Bai Yang Gou loop. But when we turned left (East) we had to cycle on a busy road with stupid drivers overtaking the opposite traffic and coming really close to us at high speed. The river was huge, it even had rappids at some points. The 20km climb is not a steady one. In between there are flatter parts, and even downhills. But there is a beautifull very long stretch just below the ridge of the mountains. It is a very narrow but nicely paved road and it seemed to last for almost 10 km slowly winding higher and higher. But then after a small village after 17km of uphill it suddenly get steep as hell. One part of me was saying get off and just push, you can’t make it. But the other side succeeded saying do whatever you can but stay on the bike at all times. Then from teh Jian gou Village the guys went up to Yang Tai Shan and the A-girls went up to Miao Feng Shan. The A-guys actually did not do the 2 other climbs „for time reasons“. But I think many of them were very exhausted already.

How small the world is: At the parking lot toilet of the temple Miao Feng I bumped into the wife of Ge Yajun. Ge Yajun and a friend were there too. What a nice coincidence! They took some pictures.

Courtyard Party

Freitag, April 17th, 2009

Today was quite nice weather. But as it is so dry there is so much dust everywhere. I cleaned my rooms a bit but was then happy to go to a friend’s courtyard for a small BBQ party. Well actually, it was a yang rou chuanr party. And the guy providing those lamb skewers was grilling them. That was perfect – nobody had to take responsibility for the grill, everybody could enjoy the BBQ.