Online I found this nice poster done with a picture taken by the photographer Phillip Maisel when I was performing for the Bicycle Film Festival (BFF) 2008 in San Francisco. Such a cool poster. And I agree: BFF forever! And never forget: BIKES ROCK!!!
It is not a good idea to leave your bike every night in the same spot and just locked with a cable kind of lock. My friend Anthony Paglino, whom I had just given a U-lock for his birthday 2 days ago, had his bike stolen last night. And it was his mountain bike that he was getting ready for his long distance bike ride through South China. But he also has a second hand Raleigh road bike that he was once thinking of converting.
So he came to the shop today and started working again on the stripped down frame and building it up as a fixed gear bike. It is really a very nice British Raleigh road bike frame. Here is how it looked after we converted it in my Natooke shop.
And here is Anthony with his new bike:
After we finished his bike we went to the Beijing Juggling workshop. It was nice to see many people. And I particularly enjoyed that a lot of them were in to acrobatics or handstanding 🙂
Finally I could join my first cyclo cross race of the 2009/2010 season in Beijing. TREK had already organized 2 cyclo cross races and this one was the last of the series for this winter.
Last season I was racing on loaner bikes from TREK. Last summer I bought the TREK entry level cyclo cross bicycle hoping for many races. But today was the first time I raced on it.
The race was organized well. There was an A group, a B group, the women and the children. The A group started first and the B and women started 1 minute afterwards. So we were all racing at the same time which made it more interesting.
The course was shorter than last season and there was only a very short part on the road, the rest was on the extremely dry (dry Beijing) and hard fields. Of course there was no mud anywhere. I am not sure it was good to be on a road bike with cyclo cross tires as it was really uneven in most parts of the lap. A suspension fork like on some of the mountain bikes would have helped to absorb the shocks. Actually most of the contestants were riding mountain bikes this year. With the barriers and the jumping on and off the bike you really feel your heart working. Half way through it started getting really tough, I felt my legs get softer and my hands having hard time to keep a firm grip with all the shaking of the bike vibrating over the corn field. It was a big relief to hear the bell for the last lap.
Jenny from Canada was fast and fit as always so she won and finished way ahead of me (2nd place). The Chinese girl that won 3rd place was actually quite fast. But unfortunately I lapped all the other girls – that means there had been more than an entire lap slower. Why are there not more fast Chinese girls participating? For the A riders our French friend Tony came in first place and Piers had a problem with his pedal so he only came in 3rd place.
The bus on the way home was stuck in massive afternoon traffic jams. I should have just ridden my bike home as that would have been much faster. But I do not know where I could have ridden my bike. In many places the cars (traffic jam) was blocking the bike lane. On the one stretch there were two car lanes in one direction and on each side a bike lane. But all 4 lanes were filled with cars.
One car that was incorrectly driving in the bike lane hit an electric bike. Instead of saying sorry the car driver got out and started hitting the electric bike rider. But he did not foresee that the electric bike rider was more fit (as he does not drive cars) and was soon in the superior position.
I just remembered when I did the test for the Chinese driver’s license in 2005 we first had to listen to a 20 minute video instructing us that any disobedience of the Chinese traffic rules and laws will be followed with punishment. They showed how they have cameras every where in the city tracking drivers that do not follow the rules. I complete forgot about that because living here you experience so many people breaking the traffic law all the time. Maybe it is just too often to actually be tracked. But I really would hope that the cars would stay out of the Beijing bicycle lanes. That would make it less dangerous.
My ankle that I twisted in Taiwan which doing some tricks on somebody’s bike is still not fully healed. But now after the race I might take the tape off.
The motto of this „Smarter Than Car“ (STC) bike ride today was: We are taking the audacious step of announcing that spring is here! Despite the sandstorms and late snow the temperature is rising quickly and the weekend is forecast to hit 18 degrees. About time! So dust off your bike and get ready for a leisurely Sunday morning ride through the city. We will meet between the drum and bell tower at 11am and ride a scenic 1 hour route through the city and arrive at Chaoyang Park for a picnic lunch. Please bring your own blanket, food and drinks.
春天骑行: 我们斗胆宣布一下春天到了. 抛开沙尘暴和春雪不说, 气温正快速回升,预计周末能达到18度. 好不容易熬出来了. 所以把你的自行车擦干净, 准备好周日下午的快乐骑行吧. 我们上午11点在鼓楼和钟楼中间的空地集合, 然后骑1个小时, 享受城中美景, 最后到达朝阳公园野餐. 请带上毯子,吃的喝的.
It was nice to see my fixed gear bike friends come meet us at the Beijing drum and bell tower. That was particularly good as we had a woman and a camera man from Beijing TV station come to take footage of the event. I thought they would film this spring bike ride which has the idea to encourage people to ride their bikes in Beijing as a low carbon emission and fun transportation method. But no, Beijing TV was more interested in me doing a trick bike performance. I had come to this ride with my cyclo cross bike and outdoor shoes as after the ride I was heading to the TREK cyclo cross race. As I did not bring any one of my fixed gear bikes I said that they should film someone else of the Beijing fixed gear group. So we first asked Liang Xing aka Ryo to do some skidding on his fixie.
That was okay until he skid into a barrier. But he bent it back and it actually still worked afterwards so the guards were not too upset. Well then I grabbed a 56cm Natooke fixed gear bike (which was way too tall for me) off one of the guys and did some tricks for Beijing TV. And after some more photos for Global Times we could finally set out for our STC spring bike ride.
In the beginning of the ride there were a lot of people on the streets in this beautiful weather. As we cycles along the side of one of Beijing’s canals we came past a group of people watching 3 people pulling a guy that probably could not swim out of the canal. I have no idea how he could have fallen in the canal, maybe he was already drunk. But it was good to see that he was still alive.
I love this route along the canal, you have almost the whole road for cyclists. Once in a while there is a car but it is amazing how empty it is despite in being in the center of the city.
More of my pictures are in this webalbum of our Smarter Than Car ride. The group arrived at the Chaoyang Park. But as we could not bring our bicycles inside (only kids are allowed to do that and we were considered too old) the majority of thd fixed gear guys headed off. I unfortunately had to go to board the bus to head out for the cyclo cross race. And the others locked their bikes and went inside the park for a spring picnic. Shannon Bufton and I are looking forward to more people joining us for the next STC bike rides.
I actually wanted to go on a nice road bike ride but I had to finish building up 2 bikes in the shop. Cristina and Philippe came to my shop to get the black stems that finally arrived today. But after looking at Cristina’s bike we all agreed that it actually looked better with the silver stem. So we only switched her brake from the right to the left hand side.
Philippe wanted more exchanged, not just the stem and the brake from the left to the right hand side. He changed his style form the drop bar to the aggressively short straight handlebar. I like this style better.
Then a new Beijing fixed gear rider dropped by. I installed carbon looking bar tape on his fixed gear bike. He said that he had donated an old Flying Pigeon bike a few days ago by leaving it unlocked in front of our entrance. I remembered that bike but I had moved it to our neighbors because I thought it might be one of their bikes. Too bad: now it is gone.
Another friend of mine came by on his very interesting vintage Colnago road bike. It has a very strange extra neck extension on the fork. And unfortunately the down tube was broken so it had been welded.
And it is amazing, just 10 days after installing the new shop signs the main one is broken. For another 10 days the company that made the sign had been refusing to drop by. Finally the manager came today and claimed I would need to pay for the repair. I was really upset with him so in the end he said okay he will do it for free. But he did not say when he will do it…
We had dinner with friends at a nice Sichuan restaurant. And then we headed over to the 30th birthday party of Peter as well as the 24th birthday party of Anthony. It seems we missed the great dinner that Peter had cooked but we did not miss the birthday cake.
Some weeks ago Nico fell in love with the one frame we had in our Natooke shop. It is this beautiful Flying Banana track bicycle frame with full chrome plated vintage style front fork.
The rear drop outs are nicely done.
And these old school lugs of this chromoly steel frame are classy with the chrome plating. It just gives the frame a vintage look.
And the logo is only done in glossy finish on the matt frame.
So it was not just Nico, other people coming in the shop really liked this frame. But today was the day, Nico came to change out his current frame to this beautiful one. He kept all his former parts, except for the head set and the stem. So this is how his Flying Banana bike now looks:
And just for the records, this was the second day of the year that we had lunch outside. It is slowly getting warmer and I hope it will not snow again this spring.
I also found a video of the end of my speech at TEDxBeijing on the Chinese site v.ku6.com. It shows the tricks that I did on my bike. Unfortunately the video is distorted which makes me look ultra slim.
A few years ago I was in the China Central Television (CCTV) show called „Wanna Challenge“ and had the bet that I could make 10 Chinese dumplings while standing on a moving bike within 180 seconds. And I won!
This show is the Chinese version of the ZDF „Wetten Dass“ show which I had a bet in 1998. Here is the link to the CCTV site.
德国姑娘伊泉(Ines Brunn)自信满满 挑战现场飞车上包饺子
央视国际 www.cctv.com 2006年09月29日 19:05 来源:
您见过双脚站在自行车双把上，边骑边在空中包饺子吗？这位来自德国的漂亮女孩就是今晚《国际挑战群英会》的第一个挑战者，伊泉。她的挑战项目叫做“飞车包饺子”。所谓的飞车包饺子，就是要在短短的180秒内站在自行车上包满10个饺子。
骑自行车，我相信这对任何一个正常人来说都不是问题，但一般骑车大家都是用双脚来骑，双手扶车把掌握方向。而伊泉的骑车方式就不是随便可以模仿的了。首先必须要一只脚站在自行车的横杠上，另一只脚猛蹬几圈，然后双脚迅速站在双把上。舞台两边各有一个放饺子皮，饺馅的台子，高度与伊泉站在车上的高度平行。她在路过台子的同时迅速拿起饺皮，随后骑到另一头取饺馅，这样一个饺子才算包好了。如此繁复的过程，伊泉能完成吗？
当伊泉听到我的疑问的时候，她笑了，她的笑容看起来没有任何的负担和压力。
原来，伊泉在98年的时候就在德国参加过德国版“想挑战吗”节目并取得成功，当时挑战的项目是“飞车烙饼”，和今天的“飞车包饺子”异曲同工。伊泉从小还是德国国家体操队的队员，所以身体的协调性和掌握平衡的能力更是超出一般人。
节目中，挑战者挑战成功！
责编：赵敬
Today I met with Shannon to discuss our route for the upcoming STC Friday Night bike ride. As we were looking for a suitable Chinese restaurant to have a dinner after that ride we opened „the Beijinger“ website to look through their restaurant listings. And guess what: A picture of me is on their blog. I had to smile 🙂 It is about the TEDxBeijing and they linked to my TED talk on bicycle culture in China.
They wrote: Early this month we did a post on the TEDx Beijing talks appearing as videos online. TED – Technology, Entertainment, Design – is an annual gathering of the world’s leading thinkers that has been described as “the ultimate brain spa.” TEDx is a series of local programs in various cities, and last November saw the first TEDx gathering in Beijing. Since our original post another three new talks have appeared and are now available for viewing.
In the latest videos, “artistic cyclist” Ines Brunn speaks about the perception of bicycles in Beijing, CNN news anchor Kristie Lu Stout talks about her passion for story telling, and Ben Tsiang speaks about his experience at SINA and the motivation and inspiration behind the founding of CNEX cafe and screening centre.
Today there were two articles in the China Daily newspaper. The first one was about our visiting friend Anthony Siracusa that is traveling the world. Here is the link to the original article on the online version of the paper.
Global cyclist records capital’s lost culture
By Todd Balazovic (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-17 07:56
Pedal power no longer a moving force in city
Beijing’s bicycling culture is on its way to extinction. This is the stark appraisal of cycling expert Anthony Siracusa, who has spent the last eight months studying different bicycling cultures around the world.
„It’s not extinct here, but I would say the bicycle culture is an endangered species in the Chinese urban environment,“ Siracusa told METRO.
The 25-year-old American is one of 40 people to have been given a one-year fellowship in 2009 by the Thomas J Watson Foundation, a US organization started by the son and daughter of Thomas J. Watson who founded computer giant IBM.
The fellowship provided 196,000 yuan ($28,000) to help him pursue his one-year documentation of bicycle cultures on four continents. He has so far spent $23,000.
He has already visited Copenhagen – a place he describes as one of the most advanced in terms of bike culture – Amsterdam, Melbourne, London and Berlin.
„These are all places in various areas of development in their Bicycle culture,“ Siracusa said.
Beijing was once known as the „Bicycle kingdom“ of the world, but after he arrived in Beijing on March 1, Siracusa realized the situation was grim.
Global cyclist records capital’s lost culture
Anthony Siracusa wins a grant to cycle on a year-long trip around the world. Guan xin / China Daily
„As my taxi drove farther and farther into the city I kept on saying to myself, certainly there will be more bikes once we are in the city center, but they just weren’t there,“he said. He said seeing Beijing’s declining bicycle culture was difficult to take.
„I’ve come here to see this declining bicycle culture, but to see it first hand and to know it in your mind intellectually are two different things.“
Though Beijing may not have as high a percentage of cyclists as other developing biking communities, this city does have its strengths, he said.
Beijing’s bike infrastructure is quite easily one of the best compared to almost all of the cities he’s been to. The number of bike lanes, bike racks outside of businesses, and bicycle traffic lights are comparable to Copenhagen, Siracusa says.
Not surprisingly he attributes Beijing’s declining cycling culture to the city’s rapid adoption of the car as its favorite means of transport.
„Just riding here today, there were cars lined up almost as long as street, all stuck in traffic, meanwhile the bike lanes were almost empty,“ he said. „It’s interesting to see how the development of car culture can limit and inhibit, or in this case, stunt, the growth of bike culture,“ he said.
Most his research, he said, takes place simply by hopping on a bike and cruising around the city, even if that means braving the cold.
In Beijing he has spent more than three hours a day for the last eight days cruising the city on his current bike, a Giant XC770 lent to him by the Natooke bike shop in Beijing, observing traffic flows, infrastructure and other bikers.
Siracusa said everywhere he goes he able to quickly tap into the local biking community and either build his own bike from spare parts – he has built five on his journey so far – or find someone willing to lend him a bike.
„I will usually just walk into a shop and start chatting with the owners. Once they see that I’m keen, they will usually be more than happy to help out,“ he said.
In addition to first hand observation and examining policy documentation, Siracusa said he also talked with bike enthusiasts in each area to understand the local culture.
„I hope to inspire them with my dedication to learning about the way that bicycles can transform lives and transform cities in positive ways, because that’s really what I’m about,“ he said.
After Beijing, Siracusa’s next stop is Guatamala where he intends to work with a small Guatamalan company helping produce bicycle-powered farming machines.
China Daily (In the China Daily newspaper of 03/17/2010 printed on page 36)