24.9.2008 von Ines.

What a nice surprise! Toshihiko Tomita contacts me. He is the visible promoter of Keirin track racing outside Japan known as Tomity. He has been a professional Keirin racer for over 25 years. He now acts like a Keirin ambassador.  The Keirin sport in Japan is popular as it is a legal form of gambling. It is similar to horse racing. You can bet money on any of the 9 cyclists. The Japanese athletes have to go to a special school and then be selected to be able to ride in Keirin races. The average money that is bet on one rider can go up to 84000US$.

So the famous Tomity made me a Senjafuda and uploaded it to flickr. I am so honored!

伊泉=Ines
いねす=Ines
ぶるん=Brunn
富亭=Tomity

Senjafuda (千社札, literally “thousand shrine tags”) are stickers or scraps of paper posted on the gates of shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. The stickers bear the name of the worshipper. Today they are often used somewhat as a business card or to mark something personal.

Geschrieben in Japan, Fixed Gear | 1 Kommentar »

2.7.2008 von Ines.

We were just 2 fixies but we had fun. The weather was quite okay. Only problem is that you get more air pollution at night in Beijing than in the day time. So I was riding with my mask.
Here is the link to the webalbum.

Geschrieben in Fixed Gear, Beijing | 1 Kommentar »

1.7.2008 von Ines.

Tianjin TV crew came to Beijing and filmed me riding from office to home on this rainy day. They wanted to film my face while riding and tried to mount the camera on the front of the bike. Unfortunately the camera was too heavy for the mounting arm and it always went down till it touched the front wheel.

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29.6.2008 von Ines.

For a visit to Tianjin I took the currently fastest train which takes 1 hour and 15 minutes. For the Olympics there will be the really fast train in operation which will take only 30 minutes for this route. At train stations in China you cannot just walk in and go to the platform. You need to wait in the waiting hall or at the entrance to the platform and only get admitted about 15 minutes before take-off and only with a valid ticket. It was quite crowded in Beijing so I do understand that it probably is safer this way.

I took my trick bike and met the crew from Tianjin TV who filmed me riding my trick bike in Tianjin for their program Right Here.

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22.6.2008 von Ines.

Yes! We finally had our first fixie night ride. 5 riders and 4 beautiful bikes. I would now official call this the Beijing Fixed Gear Group. We started in Jianwai SOHO and went up to the Olympic park. The Watercube was nicely lit up in blue color and the Birds Nest looked great next to it.

We found a great place to skid and play around on our single speed bikes. I hope that we can go there again after the Olympic Games. You can find more pictures here

There was a huge thunderstorm that night, but we seemed to have been in the right location not to get wet, even though we saw the lightening and heard the thunder for a very long time.

Geschrieben in Fixed Gear, Beijing | 2 Kommentare »

15.6.2008 von Ines.

What a coincidence. I was riding past my favorite bike shop when I saw a fixed gear bike standing outside with almost all the staff looking at it. This is the second time a meet a fixed gear rider at my favorite bike shop. But the staff say they only know the two that I had met.

This cool fixie is called Jason. He has a shop called CHEESE with clothes, shoes and cool accessories at Jianwai SOHO. So I rode there to have a look.

Here is his shop with his two vintage fixed gear bikes. He was studying design in the England, so he was riding with the London Fixed Gear Group. He bought these beautiful bikes in the UK.

And here is Jason who just came back to Beijing. His shop has been open for more about 2 years and he will be getting more and more fixed gear accessories. He already sells messenger bags, pink, green and white 700c outer tubes and saddles. He wants to also sell vintage fixed gear bikes in China.

Jason and his friend had to ride to the west of the city so a rode a bit with them all of us on fixed gear. Here are more pictures. I took a picture of my bike wheels with my wide angle lens while riding. I find the distortion funny, almost looks like some funny glasses…

In the evening I was playing around on my pink fixed gear and we took some short video clips. As I have problems with the formatting of this blog when I embed the the videos, so I will have to request you to click on the following links to see the video clips I uploaded to youtube:

1. Video: Riding on a Fixie in Beijing’s Traffic

2. Video: Doing Tricks on a Track Bike at Night

3. Video: Trying some Reverse Seated Tricks on a Track Bike

4. Video: Riding Around Beijing doing a Catwalk Wheely for more than 1:40 min

伊泉的自行车特技表演

Geschrieben in Fixed Gear, Beijing | 4 Kommentare »

14.6.2008 von Ines.

I was requested to perform at a “bicycle city resident bike ride activity” North of Beijing near the Badaling Great Wall in a small town called Yanqing. This event was a GREEN event to promote bike riding as good for health and to emphasize Green Olympics (environmentally friendly Beijing Olympic Games 2008). As the bike festival started early we had to get there already on Friday (the 13th - the day my boss told me that he leave) and stay at a farmer’s place.

There was a nice map of all the farmers places (note the English translation on the left side: “The view area flat surface indicates diagram”. Not sure what that means.)

Foreigners have to be registered at the local police station for every night they stay in China. So the local police man came to the farmer’s house to check our passport and visa. I really liked the posters on the door of our room as well as on the walls:

The ceremony for the green bike event was the next morning. There were some speeches, flatland BMX guys did a short show and then I did a trick bike performance on the wet ground. But at least there was no rain when I was performing. After my performance it started to drizzle again and the bike ride with about 400 riders from Beijing and Yanqing started. Here is a link to all the pictures.

The big wall for the ceremony had a nice picture of four cyclists. And all four look the same and are in the same position and wear identical clothes (well except the helmet color). And the words “Giant” on the pants are written in reverse. As well as the number which is on the handlebar which again is the same (and in reverse) for all cyclists. And the street looks so real.

Geschrieben in Fixed Gear, China | 1 Kommentar »

8.6.2008 von Ines.

“Hutong” actually comes from fire alley. It stands for the traditional housing of Beijing. Unfortunately more and more are torn down in order to modernize the city. I love the hutongs. Life seems still laid back and quiet. You can even cycle around wearing your pyjama and smoking

Here is a bike repair shop having his laundry hanging in his street side shop

We were participating in a bicycle ralley (Schnitzeljagd) through the hutongs. Click here to see more pictures of the hutongs we passed. I was riding my pink fixed gear bike. We did see many other cyclists wearing the cap with wind shield to protect the face from the sun so that it stays nice and white

Our bike ralley team wearing the nice t-shirts (great to have car companies sponsor bike events… The last one I did was sponsored by Skoda)

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5.6.2008 von Ines.

The cycling event of Radio Beijing (RBC) ended with a recording of a 90 min TV show. Each cycling group came on stage and had somebody do something special, like sing or play an instrument. In between they had various singers and a Kungfu group.

For our group I performed with my trick bike. It was a little bit tricky on the glass floor. 绿色的伊泉的自行车特技表演

The show will be broadcasted in China on CCTV6 in about 3 to 4 weeks. For more pictures of my bicycle performance click here. After the recording we took some pictures again:

Then we again had a dinner and took more pictures. And again I had to drink more baijiu than expected - but at least much better one than the common Erguotou.

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3.6.2008 von Ines.

We knew this is going to be tough day with long cycling (170km) and very high chance of rain. So we started very early to get as far as possible before the rain started. There was quite some air pollution and I was very happy that I was cycling with my anti-pollution mask.

The road quality of this national road connecting the two Olympic cities – Beijing and Qinghuangdao – was a bit worse than the first day. And that was just about 150km away from Beijiing. Click here to see all the pictures.

We took some pictures to show the “motion”:

There was always enough time for some posing for pictures during the breaks just on the road.

When we got to the suburbs of Beijing and traffic lights turned red we all tried track stands. One of the Chinese girls on her mountain bike had really good balance despite the fact that (like most of the others) she just started cycling as a hobby less than a year ago.

Our oldest cycling team members were over 60 years old. They were really fit, had nice bikes and were always joking around. One had really cool stylish bike shoes.

The whole group was really nice. Especailly with our bike coach who was guiding us. We actually did not encounter any rain. We were all very happy to arrive at the hotel in Beijing after 170km.

The complete event had groups riding from 4 other Olympic cities: Shanghai, Shenyang, Qingdao and Tianjin. Each group consisted of 2 people from Beijing and 10 people from that city. After we arrived Beijing we had dinner all together with baijiu (Schnapps) and beer and many many pictures taken. See here for more pictures.

There were about 5 other women participating in the event as well as one other foreigner: An American living in Qingdao.

Geschrieben in Fixed Gear, China | 1 Kommentar »