China, Asia, Climbing and Fixed Gear Bikes

The BJ fixed gear guys had set up a ride for today. I met with them, but did not ride with them as I had fallen off my bike just a few hours earlier.

The bikes of our ever growing Beijing fixed gear group are really pretty. Here is the link to more pictures

Later we met Matthieu and Yanny for dinner in a quiet Beijing hutong alley.

NIKE has a space in the Beijing 798 Art District. I went there to have a look today. It is the energy hall.

Currently it is used as an exhibition hall and for playing basketball. It could be a cool place to do some trick cycling. Maybe I can find some guys to train there with me. Or maybe we could even play bike polo there if any of the Beijing fixed gear guys are interested.

On my way back home I flew over the handlebars of my blue track bike for the first time. I was riding on the bike lane and had a green light when a cyclist (riding over the red light) came from the right. I thought he wanted to fully cross the street so I kept my line of riding and wanted to let him pass in front of me. He unexpectedly did a full stop right in front of me. So I tried to brake and just went flying right over the handlebars as well as flying over his back wheel and then landing with a nice roll. I started scolding him that if he wants to run over a red light he should just do it. If not, then he should just stop like all the civilized people at the bike stopping line and wait for the lights to turn green. He said he was so sorry and said he will never do that again. The whole bunch of cyclists waiting at that stopping line were all staring at me with their eyes wide open. I afterwards realized that my flight and stunt roll must have looked really impressive.

That reminded me of my friend who had a tricycle guy (that was riding in the wrong direction) almost crash into him. In the process of trying to brake the whole tricycle fell over. Unfortunately his load was beer, so that meant then that around 200 glass bottles with beer were spilled over the whole street. What a mess! Some people think riding in San Francisco with the steep hills is dangerous. But riding in flat Beijing has other sources of danger. And they are usually very unexpected.

Tonight we had again our weekly tunnel Beijing fixed gear get together. I had never tried standing on the raiser handlebars of my pink Cinelli track bike, that seems just very scary. Tonight I put bullhorn handlebars onto my pink bike. These bullhorn ones that I have are huge and aluminum. I do not like them as the aluminum is very soft and does not give that stable impression as full steel handlebars do. But nevertheless, I did try standing on them and it was fine. They did not break. I think I should get beautiful steel ones.

I also worked on my one legged wheely which now seems much easier than I thought. But I still did not try the shoulder stand on my pink bike. Somehow it seems more slippery than the bike Clancy had put together for me in SF. Unfortunately I have no camera so I could not take any pictures.

The Beijing Fixed gear guys met up at MESS shop in Dongsi to ride out towards the Olympic park. As it was a Sunday daytime the Olympic Green was filled with many tourists so we stayed outside – just slightly South.

While some were standing around

others were doing tricks like free handed skidding: