31.5.2009 von Ines.

3 crazy foreigners thought it would be cool to ride up Xiang Shan on fixed gear. Xiang Shan is the Chinese for the Fragrant Hills West of Beijing.

James, Brad and me had a delayed start but that was okay as it was anyway a very hot day. We headed West for the mountains which we could see from the city as it was a nice clear day.

When we reached the foot of the hill we needed to ask various wise people on the road side where to continue. We got a lot of the “can’t ride up the hill” answers. We eventually found a nice road.

It was not for long at all when it suddenly turned out to be too steep to ride up on the fixed gear ratio each of us had.

After a long walk with our bikes, there was actually a 1km section which we were able to ride again. Reaching one of the summits we enjoyed the breathtaking view. For more pictures go to my webalbum

To our surprise the road was actually too steep to ride down. And that is even for us having a front brake on our fixed gear bikes. And even more, the bikes were pulling so much down the steep hill that it was actually less tiring to just carry them down. But is was fun!

Geschrieben in Cycling, Fixed Gear | Keine Kommentare »

30.5.2009 von Ines.

Our local theater director and producer as well as actress Anna had invited for her birthday to a vegetarian, or actually vegan restaurant. We had vegan fish, vegan sausages, vegan sweet and sour pork, vegan Beijing Duck amongst other dishes.

If you have a gathering of actors there is always some spontaneous acting. This night is was Anna and Kris performing some funny slow motion fight scenes. This one was Anna smacking a bottle on Kris’s head. But as our experiences Becs commented: “If you ever saw or had been in a London bar fight you would know that you first need to smack the beer bottle on the table so that the glass breaks. It has much more effect smacking the broken bottle then on somebody’s head”.

Geschrieben in Performers, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

30.5.2009 von Ines.

Friends had invited for a barbeque on there new rooftop terrace of their new apartment outside East 3rd ring road. And it was a superb day for great views due to the strong wind making the sky very clear and blue. But it was quite hard to get the fire starting with all the wind. And we did have minor sparks light up some cardboard outside the grill.

We could see the CCTV headquarter building with the burnt down building to its right side.

And the mountains were visible in the West and North. Here the view to the West:

And to the North West we could even see the top of the Dragon Building of the Olympic Village as well as the mountains I usually cycle in.

And this is their garden: The Chaoyang Park. And still here you see mountains in the background.

Many people brought nice wine as some work in the wine industry in Beijing. I was planning to go on a bike ride later so I unfortunately could hardly try any of those nice bottles. Too bad.

Geschrieben in Wine, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

26.5.2009 von Ines.

This is becoming a regular event: The Tuesday night “Meet in the Tunnel” night fixed gear tricks and ride. But maybe because it is summer there are so many more cyclists on the streets of Beijing. And even late night in this bike tunnel it was very busy. Today the amount of electric bikes and motorized tricycles was unbelieveabe and some of them were riding at very high speeds. It was hard to do tricks on our bikes. And yes, one guy did hit one of our guys doing his tricks. It was Xiao Shu. But he did not get hurt, just dirty from falling onto the ground. But he got washed off by his girlfriend. I only took some pictures and uploaded them to a webalbum.

Geschrieben in Fixed Gear, Beijing | 1 Kommentar »

20.5.2009 von Ines.

- Fixed Gear Get Together:
Friday June 12th
Start: 8:00pm
Location: Open Space between Drum and Bell Tower
Gather for a night of bike fun on a big open space with options for
drinks around

- Fixed Gear Bike Polo Training:
Saturday June 13th
Start: 1:30pm
Location: Basketball courts near the forbidden city
Tyler Bowa from Shanghai will be the main coach for this session. All
fixed gear riders are requested to attend to improve their bike polo
skills.

- Fixed Gear Alleycat:
Saturday June 13th
Start: 5pm
Location: Near Wangfujing
Only people on fixed gear bikes can participate and need to register latest before start of event
10 checkpoints around the city: Confirmed are Confirmed are Club Obiwan, Rickshaw Bar,
MESS Shop, Natooke Shop, Blinking Shop, NLGX Shop, Kuan Dian Restaurant, and Cafe Luce
Further: Windspeed bike shop, Trek Chaoyang Park bike shop, 798 District
Register (RSVP) on http://chinafixedgear.ning.com/events/beijing-fixed-gear
Event is free
Alleycat: Originally from the bike messenger scene in the USA and Japan it is a race designed to find the best bike messengers. The race does not have a route - there are only checkpoints at various places in the city. Each cyclist can go to the checkpoints in any order, he just has to come back to the finish point with his race card showing he has been to all checkpoints, otherwise he will get penalty points. The cyclist with the best knowledge of the city knowing which streets and alleys are the most convenient to ride on and having the least traffic is more likely to win.

View BEIJING ALLEYCAT CHECKPOINTS in a larger map

- Fixed Gear BikeParty:
Saturday June 13th
Start: 10pm
Location: Cafe Luce on Jiuguloudajie
Prize ceremony for alleycat participants and DJ
Party for bike lovers

- Fixed Gear Fun Bike Competitions:
Sunday June 14th
Start: 10:30am
Location: Outdoor basketball courts of the National Olympic Sports Center (South of Bird’s Nest, near Minzuyuan Road)
Skid competition, backward circle competition, track stand competition, best trick competition and prize ceremony
Track stand competition is open to anybody on any kind of bike, other competitions are limited to riders with fixed gear bike, everybody needs to register latest before start of event
Pre-Register (RSVP) on http://chinafixedgear.ning.com/events/beijing-fixed-gear
Event is free
Many spectators welcome!

- Fixed Gear Bike Polo Match:
Sunday June 14th
Start: 2:00pm
Location: Outdoor basketball courts of the National Olympic Sports Center (South of Bird’s Nest, near Minzuyuan Road)
People with any kind of bike can participate but need to register latest before start of event
Pre-Register (RSVP) on http://chinafixedgear.ning.com/events/beijing-fixed-gear
Event is free
Many spectators welcome!
Bike Polo: Team of 3 people on their bicycles play on a basketball size court against another team of 3 cyclists, each with a mallot (raquet). Bike polo mallots available for usuage. Teams from other Chinese cities will be participating. Event ends with prize ceremony

- International Bike Movies
Sunday June 14th
Start: 7:30pm
Location: CNEX Cafe
Event is free
International Bike Movies such as:
- “The Bike Lane” A documentary on LA bike culture 1h2min
- “Death Pedal” First screening in Asia! Skater inspired movie of fixed gear riders around the world including the Beijing cyclist Ines Brunn
by Kareem Shehab 35min
Plus some selected mountain bike, BMX and bike short films

Geschrieben in Cycling, China | 1 Kommentar »

14.5.2009 von Ines.

We will be organizing a China Fixed Gear event in Beijing. The event will be held Friday June 12thto Sunday June 14th. We are looking forward to especially seeing all the fixed gear riders of China come on up to the Capital. We are also welcoming any other fixed gear riders to come over.Let us have big fun together!

The draft schedule is the following:

Friday June 12th::
- Night: Party

Saturday June 13th:
- Lunch: Get together
- Afternoon: Bike Polo training
- Late afternoon/early evening: “BEIJING ALLEYCAT // 胡同大猫”: This is Beijing’s first fixed gear alleycat 北京第一个死飞ALLEYCAT
- Late evening prize ceremony and big party for Fixed Gear friends

Sunday June 14th:
- Morning: Skid competition, backward circle competition, track stand competition, best trick competition and prize ceremony
- Afternoon: Big Bike Polo match: Teams from different cities playing for the China Bike Polo Champion and prize ceremony
- Evening: Bike movies screening

Note: I will not participate in the trick competition, I will be a judge for that one. I am looking forward to seeing some crazy tricks

For details check the event site: chinafixedgear.ning.com

Geschrieben in Natooke, Cycling, Fixed Gear, China, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »