China, Asia, Climbing and Fixed Gear Bikes

Today there was another news article in the newspaper. This time it was in Global Times and about our STC ride that Shannon and I organized last Sunday. Here is the link to the original article on the Global Times website.

But I also copied the article so it can be read here directly.

Speeding pigeons
Source: Global Times [00:45 April 01 2010]

Ines Brunn, co-founder of Smarter Than Car, performs a bike trick show last Sunday. Photo: Wang Zi

STC (Smarter Than Car) is a Beijing based group which aims to promote cycling in the city as an enjoyable, healthy and sustainable activity and a much smarter alternative to driving a car or taking taxis.

It makes sense when Beijing’s car ownership exceeds four million. In STC co-founder Shannon Bufton’s words, we have more than enough reasons to go smarter and get more freedom to move around at least within the third ring road.

Congestion’s the first reason. Have you ever tried to get around on a Friday night or during the weekend and got stuck in the traffic? It is always stressful.

What STC has planned to do, as Bufton introduced, is to start to collect data by using GPS through an iPhone application on the average speeds of different transportation modes: bus, private car, taxi and bicycle, and publishing figures showing how much faster the bicycle is – and the time savings that can be achieved by switching back to the bike.

„That would involve our volunteers working for over a three-month period,“ said Bufton. „We will also aim to discover the most used cycling routes and allow users to rate the safety and efficiency of the routes they have just taken.“

Cycling-friendly

Bufton, an Australian urban designer, has ridden in many different cities in the world and thinks Beijing’s one of the safest [to ride in the inner city]. Why? Because cars run more slowly. „And secondly, every person who drives a car in China has ridden a bicycle before so they sort of have more awareness of the bikers, like when and how they are going to turn left or stop,“ he said.

Beijing is flat as a pancake, making it a fantastic place for urban cycling. The cycling infrastructure is still here according to Bufton. The bike lanes on some routes have been reduced but overall most roads have a bicycle lane.

There are not many other cities in the world that can boast this. Cities like Melbourne and London are bending over backwards and spending millions to improve infrastructure in their respective cities and they are still no where near to Beijing’s level of cycling lane infrastructure.

STC just formed in January and the followers rose from a few to about 50 people. The idea chimes easily with some of the local popular cycling clubs like Beijing Si Fei (Si means deadly; Fei means fly, aka Beijing Fixed Gear Club).

Breathing air

Ines Brunn, another co-founder of STC, former member of German national indoor cycling team, has been living in Beijing for five and a half years. She just opened a small fixed gear bike store in Wudaoying Hutong near the Lama Temple.

She admits that she commutes by bike and „goes everywhere by bike“. She’s not a cycling activist but helps the new-in-town „roadsters“ like Michael Johnson, an American medical device company’s executive who just relocated from Malaysia to Beijing.

The night before the STC’s spring ride, Johnson received a call from Brunn telling him his new custom made fixed gear bike had arrived. „So here I am. I can’t believe that I am already in a community event even before I found a proper apartment. My other two bikes are still in the container and on the way to China,“ Johnson said. He is may be too new to hear about the air conditions in Beijing.

Regarding the air that the cyclists breathe in, Bufton explained that actually staying in a closed car in a heavy traffic is even more dangerous because the car’s ventilation system keeps blowing in the fumes spewed by the car in front of you. To add double security, wear a cyclist’s mask.

STC has started to attach blinking lights to their bicycles so they are a moving „blinged up“ bunch, also demonstrating to motorists they pass how much faster through the peak period of the week. Currently they are looking for a corporate sponsor to provide free lights to each rider.

Back on the Sunday spring ride: just before the group of 30 bikers of STC started off, Ines Brunn performed a short bike trick show upon request and within seconds pulled a larger crowd. A local pedicab guy, Lao Li, when told that these people are promoting using bikes to commute in city [instead of car], said: „Nice. Like us. It’s in China.“

Four tourists, young girls from England, happened to start their bicycle ride (recommended by a guide book) at Gulou plaza too and were amazed by Beijing’s community events involving both expats and local Chinese cyclists.

With their less smart-looking rental bikes parked by their side they said: „Of course. It’s a beautiful day to ride. But we want to have bikes like that,“ pointing at the colorful wheels.

STC meet in front of the Drum Tower and ride to a different destination each time on the last Friday of each month at 7 pm. More details see STC’s website: www.stcbj.com.

shengtaotao@globaltimes.com.cn

While I was in Taiwan 2 weeks ago a writer from the Global Times newspaper came to interview Samantha and random customers that came to my bike shop. Today the article was published on the Global Times website. Here is a copy of their article:

Fixed-gear fixation
Source: Global Times
By Paul Morris

Cycling appears to be devolving. Remember when you were young and needed training wheels to stabilize your first bike? Styles have not gone that far back but they’re not far off. „They’re very cool now. All the hipsters back in Japan have fixed-gear bikes,“ said Chinese fixed-gear enthusiast Liu Lin. „I often ride mine for 100 miles into the hills, but I’m in the minority. Most people hang out in cities trying and look cool.“

The fixed-gear – also referred to as fixed-wheel or single-speed – bike, unlike its geared counterparts, don’t allow the cyclist to freewheel or coast, i.e. you can only move forwards (or backwards) if you are peddling, as the sprocket is attached to the wheel’s hub. Although some still opt for them, this essentially alleviates the need for brakes; if you want to stop, you simply stop peddling.

I met Liu at Beijing (and China’s) only fixed-gear bike shop (which also doubles as juggling store), Natooke, in Wudaoying Hutong. German Ines Brunn opened the shop last year (though the official opening was early March this year). After over five years working for a telecommunications company in Beijing, she wanted to combine her knowledge of business with her true passion. „I had represented the German national team in artistic cycling and have been doing it for over 21 years,“ she said. „It is hard work going through all the paperwork to open a business in China but we finally have our shop.“

After founding a club in 2007, Brunn quickly realized there was a demand not being met amongst Beijing’s cycling community. „People couldn’t get fixed-gear bikes or equipment in Beijing, even though they are made in China, so I saw an opportunity.“

A growth business

Business is slowly taking off. „We’ve sold around 20 bikes since we launched, but we knew it would take time to build interest,“ said Samantha Song, general assistant at Natooke. „It is the same with many things, but as people in China get richer, they spend more on luxuries, like good bikes. And fixed-gear bikes are still a little too expensive for the average Chinese.“

Prices to purchase and assemble a complete bike range from 2,700 to 10,000 yuan, higher than the average standard bike in shops less than a stone’s throw from Natooke, though, as Brunn points out, no more expensive than a good quality road bike. And with the Beijing government’s new bike rental scheme (see page 9), it is difficult to see where fixed-gears will pick-up a market share.

So who is buying them in Beijing? The obvious answer is those who have money; it comes as no surprise that half of Natooke’s clients are foreigners. However, as with many subcultures, fixed-gear cycling is much more than simply riding a bike. „I saved for 6 months to get my first,“ said Kan Jiaming, a math teacher at a local high school. „It’s not simply about the cycling, but all the things that come with it.“

Custom simplicity

Each bike at Natooke is custom-made in the shop, with the customer choosing the parts and the colors; Natooke also converts regular bikes to fixed-gears. The shop is decked with couches and cupboards with peddles, spokes and other cycling paraphernalia. It has the feel of your grandfather’s workshop-cum-coffee shop, and is obviously intended to be a place for the community, rather than the sole purpose of selling things. The parts are imported from Europe predominantly, where fixed-gear bikes are already popular with hipsters and bike messengers, but Natooke also designs and produces its own brand in China: the Flying Banana.

One of the attractions seems to be their simplicity and their reversion from bikes cluttered with gears, brake cables, cogs and reflectors. A fixed-gear bike need not be much more than two wheels, a frame and a chain. When Qing is asked how many people use them in Beijing, she replies „100,“ matter-of-factly. She knows this because there is a club of sorts (with a Facebook site and everything) for Beijing’s fixed-gear bikers who like to get together once or twice a week and ride or practice tricks together. „The community will grow this year,“ said Brunn. „Fixed-gear cycling is getting bigger and once the weather warms, I’d say we’ll have a over 150 members, which represents a big growth.“

The increasingly fashionable bikes are beginning to show signs of straying from the territory of enthusiasts to the realm of the layman, „They’re better for city riding than normal bikes, as you have much more control,“ offered Andrew Cavanagh, the most recent of the 20 who have ever purchased from Natooke. „Beijing is a flat city, so you can move pretty quickly with more confidence about avoiding the city’s cab drivers.“

Cycle theft remains high and „if they want to take it, there is still nothing you can do,“ said Liu. Yet the big challenge will be getting Beijingers to move from seeing cycling as a means of transport to something that can be savored and enjoyed. „Life needs to be about having fun, and that comes once you’ve got enough money to feed your family and you aren’t worrying about rent,“ Liu said. „And there is nothing more fun than cycling.“

There was also another related article published regarding the Beijing government’s efforts to increase the number of cyclists. Read more here.