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National Fitness Day Performance

Samstag, August 8th, 2009

Today is the National Fitness Day in China. And that is just on the 1 year anniversary for the Opening of the Beijing Olympics. So there was a „Fitness of the Nation Carnival 2009“ at the National Olympic Sports Center in Beijing. I was asked to come and do my trick bike performance. Unfortunately in the morning just on the way there it stared to have a major thunderstorm. The whole area was soaked.

National Olympic Sports Center in Beijing

Cyclists at the National Olympic Sports Center

It did stop raining but I still had no hope that it would ever dry for me to be able to safely perform my bike tricks.

Fitness of the Nation Carnival 2009

My friends from the Haidian bicycling group were there. We took some pictures while waiting for the place to get drier. They had brought a bike trainer as well as a bike roller. The bike roller was quite dangerous as everything was wet.

Wet Bike Roller

Eventually it did get drier and the performances started. I liked the dragon diabolos. After them it was my turn to perform with my trick bike. I uploaded many pictures to a webalbum.

Ines Brunn Trick Bike Performance

Headstand on Bicycle by Ines Brunn

Dragon Diabolo

Posted in Beijing, Media, Performers | 1 Comment »

Dinner with Indian Friend

Freitag, August 7th, 2009

An Indian friend of mine is in town so we decided to meet for dinner. I made the mistake to chose the huge multi story Dimsum restaurant just at the Ditan South Gate. First we had to wait forever for a table despite it being already 9:30pm, service was bad and they were not able to tell me which dishes were vegetarian. I had to ask 5 times for them to finally bring the bottle of water that my friend ordered. Then the vegetarian dishes had accidentally shrimps and after asking to redo the dish it came with ham. The surroundings were loud and smoky. I do not recomend anybody to come here in the evening.

Ines and Indian Friend

Another place that I DO NOT recommed going anymore is the Ritan Park Stone boat cafe. The owners that had been running this cafe/bar had been kicked out.

Posted in Beijing, China | Comments Closed

Fixed Gear Hub is a Brake

Donnerstag, August 6th, 2009

I have heard about these discussions in many places. Is it safe to ride a fixed gear bike with no hand brake? Well in Germany you have to have 2 brakes on your bike to be allowed to ride on the streets. According to this article a fixed gear rider had won in court. He was accused to have been riding with only a front hand brake and missing back brake. But according to German description a brake is defined as a permanently installed device to reduce the speed of the vehicle. And sure if you have a fixed gear hub you can use that to reduce your speed – therefore it is a brake. But the guy still had to pay money for not having reflectors nor cateyes and was also riding without a bell. I did not know that it was required by law in Germany to have a bell on your bike…

I liked these bikes near my home that seemed to not have been ridden for a long time.

Bike Overgrown by Plants

Plants Covering Chinese Bike

Posted in Fixed Gear, Germany | Comments Closed

2nd Criterium Race 2009

Mittwoch, August 5th, 2009

The second road bike criterium race on the Goldenport International Circuit car race track was scheduled 2 weeks ago. But it had been postponed to the following due to the heavy storm approaching. 1 week ago the race got postponed again as we found out very late that BMW had rented the car track also for that evening. So finally today the race took place even though it did look like it would start raining anytime soon. Thanks to a friend I have some pictures of me. I have taken the first 3 pictures from him. Thanks 🙂

Preparing for the Bike Race

The track is really nice to cycle on. It si so much fun to ride around all the turns at high speed. Especially as I was again riding my fixed gear bike. That means I cannot coast in the turn. It is really a nice feeling when you almost scrape the ground with your pedal.

The female and male B riders had 45 minutes plus 1 final lap. The 4th lap was counted additionally as a sprint lap to make the race more interesting. The male A riders started 30 seconds before the others. But after half a lap we caught up as nobody wanted to lead in the A group. My friend decided to lead the pack and break the wind for them. So I just stuck myself an inch behind his back wheel for the first 3 rounds.

Ines Second in the Pack

Then the B riders went into the sprint lap. I was ahead of the other girl in that lap. The 6th lap was the sprint lap for the A riders. They took off and I lost the connection to the group. From then on till the end of the race I was riding alone on my fast fixed gear bike.

Riding Fixed Gear at the Bike Race

My friend said afterward that he had an average speed of 37.5 km/h during the race. So my speed was slightly slower but I did not get lapped by anybody. And I won the race in the female group.

Tom was almost lucky. He was leading the A riders for the last 3rd of the last lap and got overtaken by about 15 cm just at the finish line. He almost won! But great job against those young strong Chinese riders.

Tom Lanhove finished 2nd Place in Elite Group

There were just a few riders from our Beijing Peloton participating. Let us see on which Wednesday the next criterium race will be.

The Beijing Peloton Bike Race Participants

Later I had actually wanted to have dinner with a friend from Korea. But the taxi he had taken had had an accident and the police had then brought him back to his hotel which was very far outside the city.

Posted in Cycling, Fixed Gear | 1 Comment »

Fixed Gear in China

Dienstag, August 4th, 2009

The enoVatechina site claims that fixed gear bikes have hit large Chinese cities. I think so too! Especially in Beijing. They put the poster (that was designed by James Pearson designed) of our China Fixed Gear Bike Event that we held in June in Beijing into their blog post. It is great to see it floating around the world on so many sites.

The brainstorming map of Beijing that James, Brad and I drew before that fixed gear event is still on the white board. It shows Beijing with some major streets and then crosses of places that we suggested as the check points for the first Beijing Alleycat. Fede thinks it shows locations of banks that we could dig tunnels to. So here I find Fede investigating a hole in the wall behind the air conditioner. But it is still quite far to any bank ;-P

Investigating a hole in the Wall

Posted in China, Fixed Gear | 1 Comment »

Tianjin to Beijing

Montag, August 3rd, 2009

Today I had friends from Tianjin show up at the shop. And you know what? They cycled here. That is a 130km distance. They posted some pictures that Xu took on their way on a Chinese website. I took those photos for this blog entry.

Mike and Baihua seemed to have been very energetic at the beginning of the ride.

Tianjin to Beijing Bike Ride

My friend Baihua was on the Radio Beijing and Mengniu Green Cycling event last year together with me. It was nice to see him again after such a long time. He was cycling on an old nice road bike frame with single speed.

Baihua on the Way from Tianjin to Beijing

Mike and Xu were riding their fixed gear bikes with no brakes: The white one and the nice orange & blue one.

Fixed Gear Bikes in Beijing

Mike was quite exhausted when he arrived at my shop. This was his longest ride. He later packed his bike into his travel bag and took the super fast train back that only takes 30 minutes. But Baihua and Xu cycled back to Tianjin and arrived after midnight.

Mike after the Long Ride

That evening Fede took care of the wooden floor that had moved and made big waves already some weeks ago. The water we had inside did not make the floor better. It is amazing that a company that sells only wooden floors and comes and installs it does not leave any gap towards the walls. We sure decided not to call that company to fix it (if they cannot do it right when they do the floor the first time we had no confidence they will get it right now). So Fede started cutting the floor panels and making a lot of smoke. It was so stinky that I had to wear my anti-pollution mask to prevent me from suffocating.

Ines Wearing Anti-Pollution Mask Indoor

Posted in Beijing, Fixed Gear | Comments Closed

Cycling Huairou to Yanqing

Samstag, August 1st, 2009

The Beijing Peloton had a nice long ride for today. Specifics of the Huairou – Yanqing Passage Ride for the fast group (A riders):
Total distance: 113km
Total climbing: 4 climbs

We started in Huairou just north of Beijing. We rode north towards Queenstown (note: the name was given by Tom Lanhove a long time ago) and over the Queenstown Pass. That first climb was tough because the whole group was going at full speed and was really exhausted at the summit.

Cycling from Huairou up to Queenstown

The second pass we all took it more easy and most people riding at their own pace. There were hardly any cars on this beautiful mountain road. But we did need to stop to buy water in a front yard in a village we rode through on the way down.

Road Bike in Village Front Yard

Mountains in the Background

In the above picture you see the mountains that were were heading for. The best picture of this front yard is the following one with our club leader Tom Lanhove and his road bike:

Tom Lanhove and his Road Bike

We then turned towards the West at the main junction and rode over Dongbei Kou Pass. This was the toughest climb of the day. It was agreat feeling to arrive at the top at about 1050m above sea level.

Beijing Peloton Arrives at the Dongbei Kou Pass

Then we kept following the main road towards Yanqing as we gradually ride downwards past Yongnin. That was over 40km with a slight climb and otherwise making the impression of a false flat. But as most of the roads in Beijing province there are always trees on both sides of the road. Like here.

Beijing Countryside Alley

Really Dark Beijing Countryside Alley

At the finish point about 5km outside of Yanqing Town we had to wait for all our cyclists to get back. We had riders doing the shorter B and C rides. And one of the mini vans had problems finding the meeting point.

The Beijing Peloton Waiting for the last Cyclists

Posted in Beijing, Cycling | 1 Comment »

Day After Strong Rain

Freitag, Juli 31st, 2009

Well, some houses have some leaks like this hutong building. When I came in the morning I found a big puddle.

Puddle in Hutong

The wooden floor is all wavey now 🙁 It took quite a while to get all the water into a bucket. And the bucket was quite full in the end.

Water Bucket

Posted in Beijing, China | 1 Comment »

Strong Rain

Donnerstag, Juli 30th, 2009

Today I was at the Toastmasters meeting and afterwards realized the streets were a bit wet. And I realized something that I had never noticed this intensely: The busy street where many cars were driving was already dry, the smaller street was still slightly wet and the bike lanes were completely soaked. That must be due to the temperature of the engines of the cars as well as the air conditioning. The cars are actually drying and heating up the streets! So I was cycling on the car lanes as I do not have any fenders on my fixed gear bike.

Later I went to a restaurant about 150 meters away from my home. It started raining when we started eating. And it just got heavier and heavier. The drops were really huge and there were soon big puddles on the streets.

Beijing Rain Storm

The cars driving by were almost floating in the water. And we had to cycle home! We waited for quite a while after finishing the dinner but the rain did not get any lighter. So at a certain point I put on my rain gear and took off my shoes and got completely drenched on those 150 meters with me feet on my pedals going under water with every revolution.

Car in Beijing Rain

Posted in Beijing, China | 1 Comment »

Lulu & Ludwig

Dienstag, Juli 28th, 2009

Today Lulu & Ludwig dropped their luggage off before they went to visit the Summer Palace. Afterwards we had a delicious lunch together at a good guotianr restaurant before they had to leave to fly back to Shenzhen.

Lulu and Ludwig in Beijing

Later fixed gear bike friends came and tried out the tall bike. It still amazes especially the Chinese people how you can get on and off. But it is just like a bicycle only the seat is a little bit higher.

Tall Bike of Fede