Archive for November, 2009

Beijing Jugglers Workshop

Montag, November 16th, 2009

As every Monday night the Beijing Jugglers group met at the bar called Yugong Yishan. Today probably due to the very icy cold weather not many people came.

European Jugglers

Fede was mainly juggling balls.

Fede Balancing a Ball on his Head

Fede Overhead Juggling

Fede Juggling Five Balls

And I tried some tricks on a static bike for a performance in Tokyo where I will only have 3 times 4 meters.

Static Trick Bike Performance

Two New Fixed Gear Bikes

Montag, November 16th, 2009

The beautiful orange Gitane track bike is finished! I like this French old vintage frame in this bright color. And the pretty 70s style decals were almost all still intact. What a nice bike to ride around Beijing. Even though the Soyo long grips gave us huge blisters on our hands trying to get it over the bullhorn handlebars.

NATOOKE Gitane Track Bike

NATOOKE Vintage Fixed Gear Bike

My friend came again to the Natooke shop to continue working on his frame and making it as pure as possible. He cut off the extra holes which were for mounting the rack. And then he converted it to fixed gear. It is great to see this nice Chinese frame look so good.

Last Adjustments on Converted Frame

Chinese White Fixed Gear Bike Conversion

Fixie Bike and his Proud Owner

Building up Bicycles

Sonntag, November 15th, 2009

Busy bike building weekend. There were 2 bikes in the make today in the Natooke bike shop. A friend chose this beautiful French vintage track bike frame from Gitane.

Gitane Vintage Track Bike Frame

Another friend had bought a second hand steel road bike second hand (it is at least third hand) and came to convert it to fixed gear. Here is a picture of the bike before conversion (the red carpet in my shop makes the frame look pink, but it is actually white).

Chinese Steel Road Bike

He worked the whole afternoon on the bare frame to cut off the cable holders and the parts for holding the break. He used our angle grinder, metal saw, file and sandpaper.

Cutting the Frame with the Angle Grinder

After all the work it looked like this:

Road Bike Frame

Steel Road Bike Frame

In the late afternoon I had to go to see my acupuncture doctor to continue my therapy especially for getting my smell come back. After that I went to a friend’s house for a long and very nice dinner. It was great to see them and their son.

Jess Meider Concert

Samstag, November 14th, 2009

The “DiVINE” CD Release Party of Jess was so great! Such a good concert, great performance and nice vibe in the venue with energetic afterparty. Here are some pictures of Jess with Sarah Vossler (background vocals) and Zac Courtney (drums) and other musicians:

Jess Meider “DiVINE” CD Release Concert

Jess Meider and Band

The Italian juggler Federico Moro did a ball juggling performance with up to 5 balls choreographed to a new song of Jess.

Federico Moro Juggling Performance

Federico Moro Juggling 4 Balls

Federico Moro Juggling 5 Balls

Federico Moro Juggling 3 Balls

Jess Meider and Band with Marie-Claude

After playing all the new songs that are on the Divine CD then Meiyouwenti Records brought some reggae music with the DJ Oscar who gave us a nice grove for dancing.

Meiyouwenti Records Reggae Music DJ Oscar

Concert Afterparty Dancing

There was a nice article about the concert published in the Global Times. Check it out!

Bike Conversion

Samstag, November 14th, 2009

A friend brought his Merida road racer bike into the Natooke shop. He wanted to convert it to fixed gear. Here is a picture of his bike before the conversion.

Merida Road Bike Before Fixie Conversion

We only changed the backwheel (completely new fixed gear back wheelset) and the cranks, chain and pedals, took off the gears and the back break. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture after the fixie conversion. He had to head back to Wudaokou quickly.

Jess Meider New CD Release Party Tonight!

Samstag, November 14th, 2009

I am so looking forward to this. Jess Meider has just finished her new album and is having a special CD-release concert tonight at Dos Kolegas starting at 10pm. The album is called DiVINE. Her new songs are so beautiful… If you are in Beijing come on out and listen and experience!

Jess Meider DiVINE CD Release Party Beijing

TED in Beijing

Freitag, November 13th, 2009

Do you know about TED? Well if not then you need to check out their website: www.ted.com

Today was the first TED event in Beijing. As it was an independently organized event but with the TED license it was called TEDxBeijing. And I was selected as a speaker! I was so excited when I heard that news on October 30th!!! Since then I was in an extreme speech preparation mode. I re-wrote my speech about 8 times. There were too many topics to talk about. It was hard for me to chose. In the end I chose the title: Changes of Perception. I was wanting people to change their perception about bicycles and re-consider to ride. Especially in Beijing.

Cars are the Current Status Symbol in China

Modern Building in Beijing Reject Bicycles and have no Bicycle Parking

And to inspire people that cycling is not just about pedaling I also did some tricks on my artistic bicycle. Of course… 🙂

Ines Brunn Tricks on a Bicycle at TEDxBeijing

There was some pictures of it on tech.sina.com of me speaking as well as doing tricks on my bicycle. Also I found some pictures of the event on flickr. And more pictures.

This was such a great event! So many great speakers and interesting topics. It showed the different perspectives of Beijing and China. We had live online screening of all the speeches. And the videos will be edited and hopefully soon uploaded. I am looking forward to that. Now I first need to get a good nights sleep!

Striving to re-vive the Bicycle Culture in China

sina.com:伊泉在TEDxBeijing发表演讲

Freitag, November 13th, 2009

There was an article on the sina.com website about my speech at TEDxBeijing conference. Click here for the original version.

图文:伊泉在TEDxBeijing发表演讲
http://www.sina.com.cn 2009年11月13日 18:44 新浪科技

sina.com:伊泉在TEDxBeijing发表演讲

新浪科技讯 北京时间11月13日下午消息,首届TEDxBeijing演讲活动今天在北京举行,本届的主题是“发现激情”。新浪科技独家直播本次会议。

以下为伊泉在TEDxBeijing发表演讲。

伊泉是一位充满激情的德国自行车选手,她在美国生活了六年。她曾是一位粒子加速器的研究员,之后转向了远程传输领域,并且搬到了北京。在超过 20年的时间内,她是一位有竞争力的运动员,效力于德国国家室内自行车队10年的时间,现在仍在世界各地表演。2007年,在内心激情的驱使下,伊泉和她的一个朋友在北京创建了一个仍然在不断扩大的组装自行车社区。伊泉还创建了Natooke,这是第一个组装自行车以及杂技商店。她是点废成绿 (Greening the Beige)活动的顾问,这是一个环保理念的艺术征集活动,以期为北京的环保组织和个人建立起联系。伊泉希望在中国树立一个观念:自行车是一种运动、爱好和每日出行工具,最关键的是,它可以降低温室气体的排放。她的骑行在各国电视上广为播放,包括德国、瑞士、比利时、新加坡,当然也包括中国 (CCTV3,CCTV9,天津电视台)。

There was also an article on the 236z.com website. And probably also on others…

Shanghai’s Alleycat

Donnerstag, November 12th, 2009

After the Beijing Fixed Gear Revolution Alleycat and fixed gear bike competitions this is the second event organized in China: The Shanghai Alleycat. It will be a big event with more that 100 sign-ups. There will be a fixed gear race, bike polo match and parties. If you are around then try to make it. Unfortunately I cannot go 🙁 I will have to wait for the next event…

Shanghai Alleycat

Again Snow in Beijing

Donnerstag, November 12th, 2009

Today we had again snow in Beijing, but the temperature was just above zero so the snow was slightly melting.

Snowy Beijing Avenue

But it was nice to cycle both on the big avenues as well as in the smaller streets.

Snowy Beijing Street