18.6.2010 von Ines.

My friend Brad from Boston, that I had met in Beijing, came down for the festival. We met in the bar where another friend of mine from Beijing now works. Then we went back to the art exhibition as I wanted to actually see some of the bike art.

Here is the art work done by Jessica Findley called “Aura’s of People Who Love Their Bike”. It was watercolor on 10 x 7″.

It has film maker Benny Zenga loves making tall bikes even on a race through Africa.

Film maker and fast urban cyclist Lucas Brunelle

Wild and crazy director of the BFF Brendt Barbur

As well as me What a nice surprise! This is my bike aura inspired by my bike tricks.

Then I wanted to watch the first movie screening but that was reserved for people that buy a movie ticket and not the people that bought the complete weekend pass. So some of my friends could not go to this screening, we had to wait for the second one with the same movies.

After the movies we took a picture as we were all people that knew each other from Beijing.

Of course there were nice colorful urban bikes parked everywhere.

The afterparty was with goldsprint races. I was eager to take part and also to see what kind of system they use. There was a good crowd there when we arrived.

They were actually using exactly the same software system we use in Beijing. The rollers are metal but somehow the fixed gear bikes had to be held by people. That was a bit strange but they took it for granted. Also one bike was losing and when you released pressure from the back tire - like getting out of the saddle - the roller at the sensor did not turn anymore.

Brad had taken his wallet and phone out of his pocket for the race. Afterwards they were both gone. Jen made an announcement that whoever found a wallet and phone shoudl bring it to Brad and the guy that found it claimed “he was only holding it”. Unfortunately all teh cash was gone, but at least the rest was still there.

I was astonished to notice that the goldsprints software allows you to start the race before 0 seconds. So after a few seconds your time appears to be just zero which gives you an advantage of the amount of seconds before zero. That is what they did in the finals (last 4 girls) when Jen was racing a slow girl. Suddenly they both were 2 seconds faster than any of the NYC fit and tough messenger guys. I was amazed to find that nobody found it strange that the girls were suddenly faster. Maybe that is why Jen did not want to race against me like it was originally set up because we had been the 2 fastest of teeh girls, still being about 2 seconds behind the guys. Good lesson learned. Now if I would want to cheat during teh goldsprint races in Beijing I know that I can use the same goldsprints software to do like that and have whoever I want win the races.

Geschrieben in Art, Cycling, USA, Fixed Gear | 1 Kommentar »

18.6.2010 von Ines.

Another nice day in NYC. Cycling around is fun on such a blue sky day.

Even though there was quite some traffic with the typical yellow cabs.

I went to meet my friend from first grade. We said I would come to her office building on 5th Avenue and call her when I arrive. I thought I had her number on my phone, but when I arrived I realized I actually did not. So I asked one of the building officers if they could somehow call my friend. They asked in which company she was working. I did not know the name but I was sure it was a law firm. The officer laughed and said almost all companies in this building were law firms (wow, a lot of Americans seem to need lawers…). Then he said if I knew her name I could maybe find her in teh interactive directory. I tried but I could not find her. I was almost giving up when it suddenly occured to me that after her marriage in 2000 she had a nwe last name. So I found her. The officer just sent me straight up to her office of which there is a view of Central Park.

It was nice to see Laura again after 3 years. She looks almost the same even though she now has her third child.

Then I went to the BFF head office for a meeting.

All the bicycle film festival producers from various US cities as well as other places around the world shared their thoughts, experiences and ideas.

I have the joke that when I want chocolate and want to convince my boyfriend it is time to have chocolate I ask if he hears the rattling in the kitchen. That is the chocolate making a fuss. When we go shopping we are sometimes attacked by packets of chocolate donuts that we did not want to buy, but they are the ones attacking us. Well at the BFF meeting while I was sitting on the ground listening to the discussions I got attacked by the paper of a bar of Russian chocolate. And that even twice! And the worst was that I could not eat it as there was nothing inside. Here is a picture of the aggressive chocolate wrapping.

Lucas Brunelle is often in the BFF head office. He has a helmet camera and films a lot the local cyclists whizzing through traffic, especially during alleycat races. He has produced quite a lot of movies and had a trailer for his new one “Line of Sight” in the program of the NYC BFF. I did it the Chinese way after the meeting and asked Lucas if we could take a picture together. So here it is:

Geschrieben in Cycling, USA | 1 Kommentar »

17.6.2010 von Ines.

Today was also the opening of the Joyride art exhibition organized by the bicycle film festival (BFF). It was extremely crowded.

It was so full that I could not see the art work. But maybe it was not the art but actually the free beers that attracted so many people.

It was great to see my friend Anna Grace Carter from Beijing.

Outside of the exhibition was some portable pole dancing going on.A guy had a tricycle with 2 hot girls dancing on the back.

Then I went to the BFF 10th Anniversary Dinner.

Everybody came from the art exhibition and was already drunk with all the free beers. When we arrived at the dinner venue we were not allowed to go to the main area and sit down, we had to wait and have more free drinks like wine and beer. Then finally an hour later we could sit down. The starter was already standing on the tables and it was welk lettuce with some beans on top. There was also some viscose soup that we poured into the tea cups but it was not delicious.

Then the BFF NYC organizers did a small speech and toast.

Then they asked the organizers of all the other places in USA and around the world to come up on stage.

The whole time the free drinks continued and even champagne (well sparkling wine) was added. But it took forever for the “main course”to arrive. This what we got at about 11:30pm.

It was dried polenta with some peas. Maybe I should have told them that I can eat also non-vegan. The invite had said you should notify them if you need vegan food but this tiny amount of food was all vegan and not the right thing for hungry and drunk cyclists. I could not believe that there was no more food. When people started knocking over wine bottles, lifting up chairs and making ape like screams, jumping on the tables and then insulting each other I decided it was time to go and have some food somewhere else. From my Chinese perspective this was a very horrible dinner as there was hardly any food. But I think the Americans were all very happy to get completely wasted for free. In China there would have been an excellent dinner with all the food being on the tables latest by 9:45pm also with free beer and rice schnapps. People would stand up and go to the different tables and cheer with those friends and make each other finish the tiny glasses in one sip, but all happy together rather than against each other. I probably have lived too long in China making me be really shocked by this American way.

Geschrieben in Art, Cycling, USA | 1 Kommentar »

17.6.2010 von Ines.

Again a beautiful day. I am so happy I have a bike and can cycle through Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The bicycle paths are nicely marked.

It is great that they have installed bicycle paths on all the bridges to Brooklyn. I took the Manhattan bridge and this is the view towards northern Brooklyn and Queens.

I am so amazed to see so many people on bikes. And I do not mean like professional cyclists. No it seems that a lot of people in New York use the bicycle in daily life. Also I was happy to see the amount of girls and woman cycling.

I was also happy to see a huge amount of people wear a helmet. It is not mandatory in New York (but it is in New Jersey where my friend got a ticket for cycling without a helmet).

And many bikes have these huge baskets on the front. That makes it really practical for carryingstuff or groceries.

I met the actor and director Kris Chung who I know from Beijing in Brooklyn for lunch. It is nice how many of my Beijing friends now live in NYC. Also Elisa is now in New York. And funny enough she was taking care of a bicycle painting exhibition from Taliah Lempert called “The Right Bike for the Right Situation”

“Taliah Lempert paints bikes and transforms something so prevalent as to be almost totally unremarkable – there are an estimated 1.1 billion in the world –into sumptuous and forthright yet veiled portraits of these ubiquitous two-wheeled mechanisms. Of the object itself, the bike, and by extension, its owner. The bicycle is everywhere, the readymade that inspired the readymade. It is a tool, a work of art, a gratifying and enjoyable rolling machine depicted in two-dimensions, lushly, lovingly rendered and suffused with vibrant reds, oranges, greens, pinks, and blues. A beast of burden, an omnipresent contraption ridden in every country in the world by all walks of life, the bike equalizes. These paintings lure the viewer into looking at bicycles in a way they never have before while simultaneously bringing home the crucial importance and widespread influence of these widespread things in our lives. A machine, standardized, but with an infinite variety of delineations: big, small, tall, fast, slow, double, kid’s, fixed, gears, cruiser, and so on and so on. Brakes, tiers, spokes, headsets, seats. Lempert’s thoughts on her favored subject are both straightforward and worth quoting: “Bicycles are important, beautiful, and worth a close look. Most bikes I paint are, or have been, used daily for transportation, recreation, messenger work and/or for racing. I paint bikes that are part of someone’s life, or have been, or are intended to be. The bike they ride around, race, present themselves with. How they chose it, how they use it and how they care for it. How each bike looks, develops because of a person, says a lot.”

“The world opens up. Moving through the neighborhoods, the sites and people on the way. Fast, often faster, than any other way around town and always more fun. Watching the city lights while rolling over the bridge. The right bike for the right situation. Worn when ridden, locked, or crashed. Grimy, sometimes cleaned, sometimes not. Finding the frame in a basement, fixing it, some brazing, a new tube, stripped and painted. Do it up with style and parts gathered. In Lempert’s paintings the vessel of motion is paradoxically shown at rest, the dormant features of a kinetic machine painted from observation caught at standstill. Blending saturated Bay Area-hued lyrical abstraction in her backgrounds with acute attention to detail in the foreground representation, Lempert channels Manet, Hopper, Hockney, and Warhol on the way to charting her own singular course. That is, intimations of Diebenkorn’s “Ocean Park” series in the abstract setting and George Stubbs sans steeds and Thiebuad without pies in the front with a dollop of pop while completely transcending those lodestars to achieve anatomically correct, poetical, and ravishing portraits of pedal-powered workhorses.”

This exhibition was presented with the cooperation and support of the Tinneny family and Macro-Sea and it was held in the Elk Gallery in Brooklyn. I really loved the idea that it was a”ride-in”gallery, so youcould cycle up to each painting. It is the bicycle version of a drive-in.

Then I continued to cycle through Brooklyn.

I stopped by to an institute for pop-action and aerial disciplines (that Kris showed me a flier of) to sign up for a class, but the next one was only on Sunday.

Then i went back to Manhattan using the Williamsburg bridge.

Geschrieben in Art, Cycling, USA | 1 Kommentar »

16.6.2010 von Ines.

The New York City BFF opening party called “Bikes Rock” was on tonight.

Quite some people came by bike. I took some pictures of the bikes at the vallet parking.

Some bikes had fat tires and BMX pedals and straps.

Others had BFF (Bicycle Film Festival) stickers

I am so happy that Jacob is giving me his fixed gear bike to use. It is fun riding around Manhattan despite the traffic. Even at night there is still quite a lot of traffic but you just have to stay out of the way of the speeding taxis.

Geschrieben in USA, Fixed Gear | 1 Kommentar »

16.6.2010 von Ines.

请参加我们本周四（6月17日）为点废为绿举办的筹款活动。

我们将组织极速PK, 在Acupuncture的DJ的音乐伴随下你可以尽情蹬车。

门票20元， 直接捐给点废成绿。 每场比赛10元，也捐给点废成绿，最终胜者将得
到一杯伏特加红牛鸡尾酒。

极速PK 活动 时间 晚 9点－ 11点。
地点： Lantern 三里屯3.3地下
关于点废成绿的信息可上网站那儿见。

Join us on this Thursday June 17th at Lantern in Sunlitun Beijing for a fundraiser event for Greening The Beige.

We will be running the Jisu PK goldsprints bike race system for anyone interested in pedalling to the tunes of DJ’s from Acupuncture Records.

Entry fee is 20 rmb which goes directly to GtB to help fund its activities for 2010. Each race is 10 rmb and the winner receives 1 free ice cold Redbull soda cocktail !

The Jisu Pk will run between 9.00 and 11.00 pm.
Location : Lantern Sunlitun 3.3 Basement, More details on GtB’s website

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

15.6.2010 von Ines.

Today was the press party with a sneak preview of some selected bicycle movies at the New York City bicycle film festival (BFF). It was at the Rogan design store.

Designer Rogan Gregory has made the former Bouwerie Lane Theatre that was built in 1874 into the new flagship store for his label. There were quite a lot of people in this small shop. Some were people that I know from the past years in NY and Tokyo.

This is the 10th year that Brendt Barbur is putting on this festival in New York. And of course he held a short speech.

Geschrieben in Cycling, USA | 1 Kommentar »

15.6.2010 von Ines.

What a beautiful day! I took the subway up to West Harlem to meet my friend Jacob.

He gave me his Mission Bicycle fixed gear bike to use during my entire stay.

We rode towards the Hudson river to have lunch together at the river shore.

We could see the George Washington Bridge and New Jersey on the other side of the Hudson.

Then I started cycling South along the nice Hudson bicycle greenway cycling path.

Then I went to the new museum of arts and design (MAD) on the South West corner of Central Park.

They were currently curating a bicycle exhibition. They had hand built bicycles displayed.

But as it is a museum of design I was expecting some very creative designs like at see at the bicycle trade shows that get design awards. But in the museum they had regular bicycles that were beautifully made.

After that I cycled through Manhattan to the BFF headquarter.

New York city has improved its cycling infrastructure. There are special bicycle lanes painted in green color on many avenues and streets. Like even on Broadway heading down to Times Square.

But Brendt and the others from BFF were quite busy with last minute preparations. So I went to a meet an artistic cycling friend at her design studio karlssonwilker. We probably had last seen and spoken over 12 years ago because that is when she had stopped cycling. I did not even know she was living in New York. That is the great thing about social media like facebook.

Geschrieben in Cycling, USA, Fixed Gear | 2 Kommentare »

14.6.2010 von Ines.

I am heading out the bicycle film festival in New York. As I am taking my trick bike along to perform I knew I cannot take the subway in Beijing. So I decided to take a taxi. That was not a good idea. There was again so much traffic jam in Beijing due to the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival and most peopel being off work for 3 days.The signs said that the airport expressway was completely jammed until outside 5th ring road. So my driver decided to first drive South and then head East to the 2nd airport expressway. That was what m any other were also thinking of doing. So were again just standing in traffic. But my driver was quite good. he knew some illegal short cuts and I actually made it to teh airport just on time for check in. When I got to the gate I realized that the flight was 1.5 hours delayed. But when teh airline started handing out free lunch and drinks I was getting worried it could be a longer delay.  It was only 2 hours and we could board the plane. And I had great luck: I was upgraded to business class which si terrific for a 13 hour flight. I had great food and a long comfortable sleep. Just our plane did some artistic loops before landing in New York.

I took the subway to downtown and was happy to see a poster for promoting cycling in NYC.

I am staying in lower Manhattan between Greenwich Village and West Village.

The first thing I saw coming out of teh subway with all my luggage was 3 cyclists of which the last one was Brendt Barbur (the director of the BFF) on his BMX pass by. I was too surprised to say anything, what a coincidence.

My friend has a nice old apartment with some antique furniture.

Geschrieben in USA | Keine Kommentare »

13.6.2010 von Ines.

This is the last day before my trip to New York and of course it was very busy. We had to take some bike parts to the international post office and because that included rims we decided to take the taxi. What a stupid way to get around in Beijing. Because it is mostly traffic jams. It took the taxi 20 minutes to get from my shop to where I live. By bike it only takes me 8 minutes. And then we found out that the customs office was already closed because tomorrow is the start of the 3 day holiday. So we had to take the taxi back too.

And I had some fixed gear friends drop by the shop to change a saddle and cog. Will had bought an Aerospoke front wheel for his Natooke bike.

This is a beautiful Flying Banana track bike with chrome front fork.

And this Flying Banana has a nice color.

And with 2 customer ordering very special Flying Banana’s at Natooke store I hardly had time to finish the bike for Thomas. So he had to help me put it together. I like his choice of the lugged steel Flying Banana in black with a BMX style front fork and fixed gear.

The special Natooke brand “Flying Banana” track bicycle.

At night there were huge thunderstorms that seemed to never end. So Fede who was trying to fly back from Inner Mongolia got delayed until very late. And when it stopped raining there were huge puddles everywhere.

Geschrieben in Natooke, Fixed Gear, China, Beijing | 1 Kommentar »