19.8.2010 von Ines.

A British friend of mine James Bayliss-Smith started working at the revamped CCTV news (formerly CCTV 9) as a producer/director/cameraman/editor since April. His first project was to help produce a ‘landmark’ documentary series about the Shanghai world Expo which was on television last week and is being repeated again, starting tonight.

The series is called ‘Expo’s meaning, Shanghai’s mission’ and is a five part ‘authored’ documentary series written and presented by Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn. Dr. Kuhn is an internationally respected China expert who has written books about the Chinese leadership. The series was the first international co-production that CCTV news has ever undertaken and we think it has proved to be a great success, perhaps a model for future productions. James did a bit of everything during the production and also worked on a couple of other projects. He is currently editing a film he shot and directed about the Chinese wine industry.

The times and dates are as follows. All times are for China (GMT + 8
hours). Below the dates and times I have provided a link to each
episode so you can watch them at your leisure.

Episode 1 - Better City, Better Life
Thursday 19th August 18:30 PM
http://english.cntv.cn/program/rediscoveringchina/20100810/104896.shtml

Episode 2 - The World Comes to Shanghai
Friday 20th August 2:30 AM 13:30 PM 18:30 PM
http://english.cntv.cn/program/rediscoveringchina/20100811/104674.shtml

Episode 3 - Shanghai’s Epic Story
Saturday 21st August 2:30 AM 13:30 PM 18:30 PM
http://english.cntv.cn/program/rediscoveringchina/20100812/104952.shtml

Episode 4 - China goes to the world
Thursday 26th August 2:30 AM 13:30 PM 18:30 PM
http://english.cntv.cn/program/rediscoveringchina/20100813/104643.shtml

Episode 5 - Shanghai, World City
Friday 27th August 2:30 AM 13:30 PM 18:30 PM
http://english.cntv.cn/program/rediscoveringchina/20100814/102667.shtml

CCTV have also produced a special website for the series. Have a look:
http://english.cntv.cn/english/special/explore_expo_with_kuhn/homepage/index.shtml

In June James had the great privilege of visiting the Tibetan county of Yushu, less than two months after they experienced a devastating earthquake. He was the Cameraman and they were making a film about the aftermath of the earthquake. The film ended up being about how the Tibetans are using their spirituality and Buddhist faith to overcome the grief of the disaster. It can be seen here:
http://english.cntv.cn/program/rediscoveringchina/20100814/101754.shtml

Geschrieben in China, Beijing | 1 Kommentar »

29.7.2010 von Ines.

Today a nice article about my person was printed in the China Daily newspaper. The interview had been done a few days ago by William Axford. The online version of the China Daily article is here. The pictures I gave them were taken by the photographer Simon Lim. On the cover of the metro Beijing section of the newspaper it says: Peddling her Love of Bikes - German cyclist wants to share her two-wheeled passion.

Here is a copy of the online article:

Freewheeling acrobat peddles love of bikes

By William Axford (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-29 07:48

Merely peddling her bike from A to B isn’t enough for Ines Brunn.

In addition to navigating her way through traffic, the German-born cyclist likes to perform gymnastic moves while zipping around on her bike.

She says for her, her bike is like a mobile balance beam. “I quit gymnastics when I was 13 because I wasn’t happy with the coach,” she said. “By chance, I came across trick biking and I’ve been doing it for 21 years.”

From performing a handstand on the seat to standing on the handlebars, the acrobat, who has impressed countless audience, has done things most people would think impossible on a moving bicycle.

With the fusion of her gymnastic talent, Brunn has even created new tricks and her rare skills have taken her all over the world.

“Once I cooked dumplings for a segment on CCTV while riding my bike. It took a lot of picking things up, putting them down, building up speed and then going back to cooking.”But such impressive feats come with a price.

Brunn says that an extensive amount of practice has to go into mastering the moves. A wrong mindset or the slightest mishap can be devastating.

“You have to be focused. During one performance in Beijing, I tried to tell people I needed space and taped off a circle. Someone didn’t listen and I crashed, chipping my tooth on my handlebars.”

She hasn’t let the experience ruin her passion.

“My tongue touches the chipped tooth every five minutes or so, reminding me to keep my cool.”

Brunn stretches herself and rides her bike constantly in order to practice her amazing feats. Even the weather can’t keep her from peddling around.

“I rode my bike from the Fifth Ring Road to the Second Ring Road in the rain for a meeting recently,” she said nonchalantly.

“My colleague was baffled but I didn’t mind. I love riding my bike.”

Brunn brought her enthusiasm for the fixed gear bike to Beijing by opening Natooke, China’s first fixed-gear bike and juggling shop. With the ability for customers to pick out every part of their bike and customize it to their liking.

Brunn predicts fixed-gear biking will become more popular in the coming years and she hopes that her shops and bike outings with other enthusiasts will rekindle an interest in bike riding.

“My friends and I just want to inspire others to ride bikes again,” she said.

“It’s so environmentally friendly and a real smart thing to ride.”

Q & A

Q: What makes fixed-gear bikes so special?

A: The back gear of the bike is fused to the wheel, so the bike is capable of pedaling forward and backward. The petals turn with the wheels. There’s no gearshifts or cables.

Q: Have you ever had an accident that made you think about quitting?

A: No. I think some things are addictive. People told me that I would quit after I got a job. If you have a passion for something, you’ll do it.

Q: What are some tricks that people commonly do?

A: One is called skidding, where you lean forward to stop the bike, causing the back wheel to come off the ground while riding. There are competitions to see who can skid the longest. There’s tricks too involving putting your legs over the handle bars, riding one handed and switching your feet on the pedals.

Q: Where do you get your parts for the bikes?

A: We order them from all over the world - America, Europe, Australia. Most of the parts have come from Taiwan but more are starting to be made on the Chinese mainland. I don’t like mass-produced bikes that are one color and just one style.

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

28.7.2010 von Ines.

2010 BEIJING FIXED GEAR REVOLUTION II

The Fixed Gear Revolution II will be held in Beijing on August 13th to 15th 2010. This is the second time that there is a domestic professional Fixed Gear competition held in the capital. The Fixed Gear Revolution II is divided into a SCRATCH race, an ALLEYCAT race, TRICK CONTEST-BUNNY HOP CONTEST, JISU PK (gold sprints) competition with party and BIKE POLO match. These major competitions mainly for Fixed Gear bicycle fans (only bike polo is open to any kind of bike) are interesting and huge prizes are waiting for you! The ALLEYCAT race includes a game at each of the eight unknown sites, each site will have different difficulty and cultural characteristics. The map and the address of the eight sites will be distributed 1 minute before the start of the alleycat. The other three competitions also have great prizes waiting for you. Or just come and watch the event.

On the Friday August 13th at night there will also be a 19km fixed gear scratch race where it is just a matter of cycling speed and no knowledge about Beijing is required to win it. The fastest will get prizes.

Fixed Gear Revolution II Event Schedule

Friday August 13th
Event: SCRATCH RACE around the Olympic Forest
Location: North 5th Ring Road Northeast Corner of Olympic Forest
Time: 10pm

Saturday August 14th
Event: ALLEYCAT RACE
Location: Start at Worker’s Stadium East gate, then 8 undisclosed stamp points in Dongcheng District and Chaoyang District
Time: Afternoon

Saturday August 14th
Activities: TRICK CONTEST-BUNNY HOP
Location: Workers Stadium Southwest gate, open space outside of MGM Garden bar
Time: Evening

Saturday August 14th
Event: JISU PK (goldsprints) & PARTY
Location: MGM Garden bar (Worker’s Stadium Southwest gate)
Time: Night

Sunday August 15th
Event: BIKE POLO Match & FAIR
Location: To be determined
Time: Early Afternoon

Note: All participating bicycles must be Fixed Gear (no bikes with gears or freewheel), except for the BIKE POLO. Any bike can be used for BIKE POLO. If you know who you want to play with please sign up for BIKE POLO as a team of 3-4 people.

If you would like to participate (for free) in the Fixed Gear Revolution II, please contact Maggie to register or send me an email.

Registration phone number: 010-64075030 (Maggie 12pm-8pm)
Information required for registration: name, phone number, city

Special thanks to: adidas, motorola, SAG, Mess, Natooke, Flying Banana, STC

大家期待的Fixed Gear Revolution 2将于2010年8月13日至15日在北京举行。这是在国内第二次举办Fixed Gear专业性比赛，比赛分为ALLEYCAT、TRICK CONTEST-BUNNY HOP、极速PK、BIKE POLO四个大项，其中ALLEYCAT作为参与性最强的一项比赛被很多Fixed Gear爱好者所期待，这同时也是最具有趣味性与难度的一项比赛，丰厚的奖品正在等着大家！比赛里我们安排了八个站点，每个站点都会有不同难度和具有北京文化特色的游戏需要你完成，为了公平起见比赛的路线图和各站点地址将在比赛前1分钟公布。其他三项技术性比赛同样也有丰富的奖品等着大家，希望各位喜爱Trick的骑手们踊跃报名。

2010年8月13日晚上还有Fixed Gear自行车19公里比赛.

Fixed Gear活动日程安排

活动日期：8月14日

活动内容：ALLEYCAT
地点：东城区，朝阳区内共8站

活动内容：TRICK CONTEST-BUNNY HOP (技术比赛)
地点：工人体育场西南门空地

活动内容：GOLDSPRINTS (极速PK) & PARTY
地点：MGM花园（工体西南门）

活动日期：8月15日
活动内容：BIKE POLO (自行车马球)
地点：待定

如果您想参见本次比赛，请速与我们联系报名（免费）

注意：所有参赛车辆必须是Fixed Gear,参见BIKE POLO可以使任何自行车，但尽量请大家在比赛前以3-4人一队的形式报名

报名电话: 010-64075030(Maggie 12:00-20:00)
提供资料：姓名，电话，城市

特别鸣谢：adidas、motorola、SAG、Mess、Natooke、Flying Banana、STC

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

10.7.2010 von Ines.

In our shop we have a jar to collect donation for the Magic Hospital organization. That is called “Fen For Fun” jar as the collected money helps the organization send clowns and performers to cheer up children with severe deseases that are stuck in hospitals in China.

Natooke has so far raised 183.15 RMB thanks to our customers. Keep dropping some change in the jar. It is right at the entrance of our shop

Geschrieben in Performers, China, Beijing | 1 Kommentar »

9.7.2010 von Ines.

A friend Zhang Xiang Dong invited me to perform at an event for the 3G industry to share the latest software developments. He was the MC of that event and he thought that my passion and love for bikes is similar to some of the developers passion for the 3G mobile applications they are developing.

It was the smallest stage that I have ever performed on. It was just 3×5meters with a big blob coming out of the wall and covered in fake plastic grass which limited the space to about 2.5 meters. Plus it was actually a stage, so it was elevated from the ground with one fragile light box on each side as well as a screen and a projector.

But luckily I did not fall off the stage, nor brake anything. Of course I could not do all of my bicycle stunts, but enough to fill the 5 minutes and impress the crowd.

More pictures are on my webalbum, just click here. They were done by the chef of the HLQ bar Frank Jiang.

Geschrieben in Performers, Cycling, China, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

9.7.2010 von Ines.

There is a nice article in the Global Times about the Beijing road bike group called “The Beijing Peloton“. The past 2 years I have been riding with the group. Just this year I did not yet go on a single road bike ride in the mountains as the weekend is busy in the shop. Maybe I can join again in winter when there is less going on in my shop.

Geschrieben in Cycling, China, Beijing | 1 Kommentar »

6.7.2010 von Ines.

IBM did a global study on motorists and how they feel about their communte. Here is an excerpt of their report:

IBM Global Commuter Pain Study Reveals Traffic Crisis in Key International Cities

- Overall, traffic has gotten worse in the past three years

The daily commute in some of the world’s most economically important international cities is longer and more grueling than before imagined, reflecting the failure of transportation infrastructure to keep pace with economic activity, according to IBM’s first global Commuter Pain study released today.

IBM surveyed 8,192 motorists in 20 cities on six continents, the majority of whom say that traffic has gotten worse in the past three years. The congestion in many of today’s developing cities is a relatively recent phenomenon, having paralleled the rapid economic growth of those cities during the past decade or two. By contrast, the traffic in places like New York, Los Angeles or London has developed gradually over many decades, giving officials more time and resources to address the problem.

For example, the middle class in China is growing rapidly, with the number of new cars registered in Beijing in the first four months of 2010 rising 23.8% to 248,000, according to the Beijing municipal taxation office. Beijing’s total investments in its subway system are projected to be more than 331.2 billion yuan by 2015 as the city expands the system to more than double its current size, according to Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co., Ltd. The city plans to invest 80 billion yuan in 2010 in building its transportation infrastructure.

Overall, though, the study paints a picture of metropolitan-area commuters in many cities struggling to get to and from work each day. For example, 57% of all respondents say that roadway traffic has negatively affected their health, but that percentage is 95% in Beijing.

Similarly, 29% overall say that roadway traffic has negatively affected work or school performance, but that percentage rises to 84% in Beijing.

IBM Commuter Pain Index: Beijing wins with the highest commuter pain index!!!

IBM compiled the results of the survey into an Index (called Commuter Pain Index) that ranks the emotional and economic toll of commuting in each city on a scale of one to 100, with 100 being the most onerous. The Index reveals a tremendous disparity in the pain of the daily commute from city to city. Stockholm had the least painful commute of the cities studied, followed by Melbourne and Houston (which tied) and New York City. [Beijing wins with the highest commuter pain index reaching the highest possible level of pain of 99 out of 100!!! Melbourne is one of the best cities with 17]

“Traditional solutions — building more roads — will not be enough to overcome the growth of traffic in these rapidly developing cities, so multiple solutions need to be deployed simultaneously to avoid a failure of the transportation networks,” said Naveen Lamba, IBM’s global industry lead for intelligent transportation. “New techniques are required that empower transportation officials to better understand and proactively manage the flow of traffic.”
31% of respondents said that during the past three years traffic has been so bad that they turned around and went home. The percentage in Beijing, however, is 69%, the high for the survey [Beijing wins again]

The Commuter Pain Survey was conducted by IBM to better understand consumer thinking toward traffic congestion as the issue reaches crisis proportions nationwide and higher levels of auto emissions stir environmental concerns. These events are impacting communities around the world, where governments, citizens and private sector organizations are looking beyond traditional remedies like additional roads and greater access to public transportation to reverse the negative impacts of increased road congestion.

This year marks the first global Commuter Pain survey. IBM previously conducted the Commuter Pain survey in the United States in 2008 and 2009.

IBM is actively working in the area of Smarter Transportation using a worldwide team of scientists, industry experts and IT services professionals to research, test and deploy new traffic information management capabilities in cities around the world. Findings from the Commuter Pain Survey will be used to assess citizen concerns about traffic and commuter issues; expand solutions like automated tolling, real-time traffic prediction, congestion charging, and intelligent route planning; and serve as a basis for pioneering innovative new approaches to traffic mitigation.

Geschrieben in China, Beijing | 1 Kommentar »

26.6.2010 von Ines.

Saturday in the store with 2 guys.

We got some bikes ready for the bike parts swap meet tomorrow. One was this pink girls bike.

The bike that was almost sold and the almost customer requested to have the horn added.

Or Quinn’s converted bike that he sold back to us when he left China.

And we also some special beautiful bikes like this red Flying Banana with Modolo wheels.

A group of young Chinese fixed gear riders came by and hung out at the shop for a while. The one kid is 15 years old and just won first place in the Chinese National drawing competition. Samantha is asking him to draw the shop for us. His friend has this bike.

And onother friend has this bike that we built up here at Natooke:

There they went.

In the evening we went to a rooftop party in Chaoyang district of Beijing. It was a great night to be outside.

From here you have a great view over the city and the central business district. And we could even see the moon that is on the top left corner of this picture.

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

25.6.2010 von Ines.

Unfortunately I missed the speech of Shannon Bufton last Sunday. It seemed there was an interesting mix of people that had many questions at the end how the bicycle can improve the living quality in Beijing and how those kind of changes can be achieved. Shannon’s presentation and talk can be found at this link. I like the following quotes he had used:

• Molly O’Meara, Reinventing Cities for People and the Planet:
  “In an urbanizing world there is an inherent conflict between the automobile and the city. After a point, as their numbers multiply, automobiles provide not mobility but immobility.”
• Enrique Penalosa  - Urban visionary and former Mayor of Bagota:
  “Anything you do to make a city more friendly to cars makes it less friendly to people.”
•  Dan Bruden -  US Urban Planner:
  “Cars are happiest when there are no other cars around. People are happiest when there are other people around.”
• “CYCLE CITY = HEALTHY CITY”

Just an anecdote from the shop today: I had a Chinese person riding a cheap road bike with upward turned drop handlebar come to the shop. He had heard about fixed gear bikes and was looking for a white bike with some golden parts. He did not mind the idea that you can pick and chose each part separately in my shop. At some point he said it might be better if he can just quickly buy a bike that is already built up. I unformatunately only had 3 of which he liked the yellow one best. I thought he would buy a bike, but then his girlfriend came. She was shocked that he was thinking of buying a bike for around 3000.-RMB. She kept saying that he can buy a bike in any shop for 500.-RMB. He still wanted this bike but she just kept on telling him that it will be stolen and he should buy the same bike in another shop. What does that mean? If you want a fixed gear bike, do not tell your girlfriend to drop by as she might not understand the difference between a shitty mass produced Chinese freewheel bike for 500.-RMB and a nice fixed gear bike from my store. On the positive side: At least I do not have to worry about him turning the drop bars upwards on one of my fixed gear bikes.

Mark came with his cool matt black Fyling Banana bike. I finally took some pictures of it.

Geschrieben in Cycling, China, Beijing | 2 Kommentare »

25.6.2010 von Ines.

Mark passed by the Natooke shop with his elegant matt black Flying Banana fixed gear bike.

I like the Oury lock on grips that he chose to have on his bike. Actually after taking this picture he decided for a new more classy Selle Italia seat.

Due to the upcoming bike parts swap meet on Sunday we decided not to do the monthly STC Friday Light Ride tonight. But next month we will have it again on the last Friday of the month.

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