Archive for the ‘Fixed Gear’ Category

Bike Festival in Yanqing 自行车市民骑行活动在八达岭

Samstag, Juni 14th, 2008

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.

Farmer House with Hotel

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.)

Map of Farmer Hotels

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:

Police Woman

Chairman Mao Zedong Poster

Happy Naked Children playing with a Vegetable

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.

Bike Riders attending the Green Ceremony

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.

Four or one Cyclist

Hutong Cycle Ralley

Sonntag, Juni 8th, 2008

„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

Cycling through Beijing in a Pyjama

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

Bike Repair Shop Beijing

Idyllic Life in a Hutong

Electric Power in Hutongs

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

Cyclist with wind shield

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)

UFE Velo Ralley Beijing 2008

Green Cycling TV Show with Bike Performance 伊泉 室内自行车表演

Donnerstag, Juni 5th, 2008

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.

Qinhuangdao Cycling Team

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

Ines Headstand on BikeInes Standing on Bicycle

Ines Backwheel Riding

Ines Extreme Backwheel RidingInes Extreme Wheely

Ines Straddle Trick on Fixed Gear

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:

Friends from a Hospital

TV Show Production Team and Radio Beijing

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.

Shenyang Paper Ripping Artist

Cycling 170km on Fixed Gear from Fengrun to Beijing

Dienstag, Juni 3rd, 2008

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.

Cycling Despite the Pollution

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.

Trucks and Pollution

Dirt Road as National Road

We took some pictures to show the “motion”:

Cycling Motion

Cycling through Towns

Fast Cycling

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

Ines and the CoachInes and the Director

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.

Track Stands at Traffic Light

Free Handed Track Stand

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.

Our Old Guys

Cool 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.

Qinhuangdao Team Arrived Beijing

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.

Dinner

Pictures after a few drinks

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

The only two Foreigners in this event

Cycling 142km on Fixed Gear from Qinhuangdao to Fengrun

Montag, Juni 2nd, 2008

Before starting cycling we had to visit a local elementary school. That was “to have a look”. It felt like we were going to the zoo. The kids posed for us and then we attended a class. As time was not enough we did not ride the bikes there – we drove there in brand new cars…

Qinhuangdao Elementary School

It was beautiful weather with blue sky and sunshine. We cycled 142km from Qinhuangdao to Fengrun. At the end of the day almost all of us had a slight sun burn on the left arm and left leg (because we were cycling towards the west all day). Click here to see all the pictures.

Cycling Fun

Looking for a Restaurant

They were a bit astonished to see that I had no gears and had to constantly pedal on my track bike. Most of them have never seen such a fixed gear bike before. It was so much fun to ride my fixie! Four guys had race bikes – seven others mountain bikes.

 Long Distance Riding on Fixed Gear Bike

Along the way Qinghuangdao team leader stopped to repair a motorbike of a farmer.

Repairing a Farmer’s Motorbike

And also – because this green bike event is arranged by the Radio Beijing and Radio Qinghuangdao – we got interviewed during breaks:

 Radio Qinghuangdao Interview

and filmed along the ride.

 Cycing in one line for filming

And sometimes we could listen what was broadcast about us and this bicycling event on the car radio:

 Listening to the Radio

Radio Qinhuangdao Ceremony

Sonntag, Juni 1st, 2008

For this “green” bike event we had a ceremony in Qinhuangdao. It was early morning on the People’s Square. The executives of Radio Beijing as well as Radio Qinhuangdao were present and also people from Moen Milk. The Moen Milk is one of the main sponsors of this “ride bicycle for environment” event (as well as Skoda ironically).

Radio Qinhuangdao and Radio Beijing Executives

There were less bicycle enthusiasts attending than in Beijing, but again I performed with my fixed gear trick bike in front of the stage. The Qinhuangdao cyclists (all Chinese) that were selected to ride bike with me to Beijing posed for pictures with the organizers. All the pictures to be seen here.

The Selected Qinhuangdao Cyclists adn Organizers

In the evening there was a beautiful sunset. It was nice to see that most houses had the solar water heaters on the roofs. And you could see the mountain range in the west – the direction that we will be heading tomorrow by bicycle.

 Sunset over Qinhuangdao

Pink Fixie Bike for Tricks

Mittwoch, Mai 28th, 2008

First time to take some pictures of my real fixie bike: Old steel 43cm track frame with raiser handlebar and without a handbrake. Handlebar can spin if I have a 24″ front wheel installed, back wheel is a 650c DeepV. Gear ratio of 20/45 which is about 60 gear inch is great for wheelies and catwalk. Pedal arms are still a bit too long (especially for the small front wheel), I will have to change them.

Pink Fixie Bike for Tricks

And I now have smaller pegs. In the beginning I used the typical very long pipe style BMX pegs. They were too massive and long and in the way for doing some tricks. The ones I now have are vintage BMX style frame standers. Thanks to Marcus for pointing them out to me. And they are even the same color as my frame. These kind of pegs are still a bit too big as I get my heel caught between them and the pedal but much better than the first ones. I am looking for any other suggestions…

Vintage BMX Frame Standers

Zhou and Ines Doing Tricks on Bicycles

Montag, Mai 26th, 2008

Yesterday I met with the Chinese bike performer Zhou. He showed me his tricks (Click here to see the video of his performance) and I showed him mine on my artistic bike and then we did some tricks together (Click here to see the video of us doing the Saddle Handlebar stand together).

Saddle Handlebar Stand Together

Saddle Handlebar Stand

Playing around with Bicycles

A Beijing Evening Newspaper reporter and a photographer came and asked Zhou some questions. Today there was this article in the Beijing Evening News

Beijing Evening News

Article in Beijing Evening News

His friends had self built bikes. This was the first time I meet Chinese that have interest in making these kind of cool bicycles. I have heard of some foreigners who visited Beijing with tall bikes and other strange bicycle. But it is great to know that there is a bicycle cult scene starting to grow in Beijing.

The Cool Bike Gang

Cool Self Made Bikes

Zou and Ines and Cool Guys

Cycling through Beijing

Samstag, Mai 24th, 2008

After rock climbing I was cycling through Beijing. As the weather was really nice. I took just some snap shots along the way (click here for some pictures). The sun was shining so many people were using umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun.

Bicycling with Umbrella in Beijing

I finally met Zhou Chang Chun who is a Chinese stunt bicycle performer. I have heard about him for the past 2 years but today I finally met him. We rode a bit together on the streets of Beijing:

Bike performer

Zhou and Ines on our Bikes

Radio Beijing „Presentation of Colors Ceremony“

Samstag, Mai 17th, 2008

As mentioned Radio Beijing is arranging an event for promoting bicycling. As I have been chosen to ride from the Olympic City Qinhuangdao to Beijing I was invited to participate in a ceremony at the Deshengmen Tower in Beijing.

Deshengmen and Bicyclists

The below picture shows part of the group of people that will ride form the 5 different Olympic cities to Beijing (7 of us on this picture wearing the blue and white cycling clothes)

2008 Beijing Olympic City Bicyclists

Just before the „Presentation of Colors“ ceremony began it started raining so everybody had to take shelter. Luckily it was over in 30min. I was supposed to perform trick on my trick bike but as everything was wet it was not so easy. I just did some tricks on the stage till my tires started slipping. In the end various bike enthusiasts had their pictures taken with me. I only took a few pictures there.

Bicycle Enthusiasts