Archive for the ‘Fixed Gear’ Category

BFF Art and Goldsprints

Freitag, Juni 18th, 2010

My friend Brad from Boston, that I had met in Beijing, came down for the festival. We met in the bar where another friend of mine from Beijing now works. Then we went back to the art exhibition as I wanted to actually see some of the bike art.

Bicycle Art Installation

Bicycle Painting at Joyride

Here is the art work done by Jessica Findley called “Aura’s of People Who Love Their Bike”. It was watercolor on 10 x 7″.

Jessica Findley “Aura’s of People Who Love Their Bike”

It has film maker Benny Zenga loves making tall bikes even on a race through Africa.

Benny Zenga’s Bike Aura by Jessica Findley

Film maker and fast urban cyclist Lucas Brunelle

Lucas Brunelle’s Bike Aura by Jessica Findley

Wild and crazy director of the BFF Brendt Barbur

Brendt Barbur’s Bike Aura by Jessica Findley

As well as me 🙂 What a nice surprise! This is my bike aura inspired by my bike tricks.

Ines Brunn’s Bike Aura by Jessica Findley

Then I wanted to watch the first movie screening but that was reserved for people that buy a movie ticket and not the people that bought the complete weekend pass. So some of my friends could not go to this screening, we had to wait for the second one with the same movies.

After the movies we took a picture as we were all people that knew each other from Beijing.

The Friends from Beijing at BFF

Of course there were nice colorful urban bikes parked everywhere.

Single Speed and Fixed Gear Bikes

Colorful Bikes of NYC

The afterparty was with goldsprint races. I was eager to take part and also to see what kind of system they use. There was a good crowd there when we arrived.

Goldsprints Event Crowd

They were actually using exactly the same software system we use in Beijing. The rollers are metal but somehow the fixed gear bikes had to be held by people. That was a bit strange but they took it for granted. Also one bike was losing and when you released pressure from the back tire – like getting out of the saddle – the roller at the sensor did not turn anymore.

Holding the Bikes of the Goldsprints

Brad had taken his wallet and phone out of his pocket for the race. Afterwards they were both gone. Jen made an announcement that whoever found a wallet and phone shoudl bring it to Brad and the guy that found it claimed „he was only holding it“. Unfortunately all teh cash was gone, but at least the rest was still there.

Jacob during the Goldsprints

I was astonished to notice that the goldsprints software allows you to start the race before 0 seconds. So after a few seconds your time appears to be just zero which gives you an advantage of the amount of seconds before zero. That is what they did in the finals (last 4 girls) when Jen was racing a slow girl. Suddenly they both were 2 seconds faster than any of the NYC fit and tough messenger guys. I was amazed to find that nobody found it strange that the girls were suddenly faster. Maybe that is why Jen did not want to race against me like it was originally set up because we had been the 2 fastest of teeh girls, still being about 2 seconds behind the guys. Good lesson learned. Now if I would want to cheat during teh goldsprint races in Beijing I know that I can use the same goldsprints software to do like that and have whoever I want win the races.

BFF Bikes Rock

Mittwoch, Juni 16th, 2010

The New York City BFF opening party called “Bikes Rock” was on tonight.

BFF Bikes Rock Poster

Quite some people came by bike. I took some pictures of the bikes at the vallet parking.

BFF bikes at the vallet parking

NYC Trick Style Track Bikes

Some bikes had fat tires and BMX pedals and straps.

BMX pedals on Fixies

Others had BFF (Bicycle Film Festival) stickers

Bike with BFF (Bicycle Film Festival) stickers

I am so happy that Jacob is giving me his fixed gear bike to use. It is fun riding around Manhattan despite the traffic. Even at night there is still quite a lot of traffic but you just have to stay out of the way of the speeding taxis.

Cycling through Manhattan at Night

Riding a fixed gear bike in NYC

Beijing JISU PK tomorrow night! 明晚极速PK 活动

Mittwoch, Juni 16th, 2010

请参加我们本周四(6月17日)为点废为绿举办的筹款活动。

我们将组织极速PK, 在Acupuncture的DJ的音乐伴随下你可以尽情蹬车。

门票20元, 直接捐给点废成绿。 每场比赛10元,也捐给点废成绿,最终胜者将得
到一杯伏特加红牛鸡尾酒。

极速PK 活动 时间 晚 9点- 11点。
地点: Lantern 三里屯3.3地下
关于点废成绿的信息可上网站那儿见。

Join us on this Thursday June 17th at Lantern in Sunlitun Beijing for a fundraiser event for Greening The Beige.

We will be running the Jisu PK goldsprints bike race system for anyone interested in pedalling to the tunes of DJ’s from Acupuncture Records.

Entry fee is 20 rmb which goes directly to GtB to help fund its activities for 2010. Each race is 10 rmb and the winner receives 1 free ice cold Redbull soda cocktail !

The Jisu Pk will run between 9.00 and 11.00 pm.
Location : Lantern Sunlitun 3.3 Basement, More details on GtB’s website

Beijing Jisu PK Goldsprints Bike Race

Cycling Through New York on Fixed Gear

Dienstag, Juni 15th, 2010

What a beautiful day! I took the subway up to West Harlem to meet my friend Jacob.

NYC West Harlem

He gave me his Mission Bicycle fixed gear bike to use during my entire stay.

Mission Bicycle Track Bike

We rode towards the Hudson river to have lunch together at the river shore.

Jacon riding towards the Hudson

We could see the George Washington Bridge and New Jersey on the other side of the Hudson.

George Washington Bridge and Hudson

Then I started cycling South along the nice Hudson bicycle greenway cycling path.

Hudson bicycle greenway cycling path

Cycling along the Hudson in the sunshine

Then I went to the new museum of arts and design (MAD) on the South West corner of Central Park.

museum of arts and design

They were currently curating a bicycle exhibition. They had hand built bicycles displayed.

Bicycle Exhibition

But as it is a museum of design I was expecting some very creative designs like at see at the bicycle trade shows that get design awards. But in the museum they had regular bicycles that were beautifully made.

MAD Bike Exhibition

After that I cycled through Manhattan to the BFF headquarter.

Cycling Through Manhattan

New York city has improved its cycling infrastructure. There are special bicycle lanes painted in green color on many avenues and streets. Like even on Broadway heading down to Times Square.

Bicycle Lane on Broadway

But Brendt and the others from BFF were quite busy with last minute preparations. So I went to a meet an artistic cycling friend at her design studio karlssonwilker. We probably had last seen and spoken over 12 years ago because that is when she had stopped cycling. I did not even know she was living in New York. That is the great thing about social media like facebook.

Flying Banana Fixed Gear Bikes

Sonntag, Juni 13th, 2010

This is the last day before my trip to New York and of course it was very busy. We had to take some bike parts to the international post office and because that included rims we decided to take the taxi. What a stupid way to get around in Beijing. Because it is mostly traffic jams. It took the taxi 20 minutes to get from my shop to where I live. By bike it only takes me 8 minutes. And then we found out that the customs office was already closed because tomorrow is the start of the 3 day holiday. So we had to take the taxi back too.

Traffic Jam on North Second Ring Road in Beijing

And I had some fixed gear friends drop by the shop to change a saddle and cog. Will had bought an Aerospoke front wheel for his Natooke bike.

Will’s Natooke Bike

This is a beautiful Flying Banana track bike with chrome front fork.

Flying Banana track bike with chrome front fork

And this Flying Banana has a nice color.

Light Blue Flying Banana Track Bike

And with 2 customer ordering very special Flying Banana’s at Natooke store I hardly had time to finish the bike for Thomas. So he had to help me put it together. I like his choice of the lugged steel Flying Banana in black with a BMX style front fork and fixed gear.

Lugged steel Flying Banana in black

Thomas Flying Banana from Natooke

The special Natooke brand „Flying Banana“ track bicycle.

The Flying Banana by Ines Brunn

At night there were huge thunderstorms that seemed to never end. So Fede who was trying to fly back from Inner Mongolia got delayed until very late. And when it stopped raining there were huge puddles everywhere.

Brendan at Natooke

Freitag, Juni 11th, 2010

Brendan came back to give back the bike he was loaning from Natooke. We took a picture of him with the bike polo mallot he made yesterday.

Brendan Allen at Natooke in Beijing

Later Max dropped by with his new handlebar on his Flying Banana track bike.The track drop bars were too narrow so he switched to road bike drop bars.

Flying Banana With Road Drop Bars

Beijing Bike Polo

Donnerstag, Juni 10th, 2010

Back in Beijing I first need to get used to cycling in Beijing traffic. And the traffic jams are getting worse. And there are more cars in the bike lanes. Like this black BMW without license plate. He thinks he is the king of the road and does not need to follow any traffic rules.

Black BMW without license plate

A cycling friend from Oakland is visiting Beijing. Brendan loves playing Bike Polo and came to the shop to make two more bike polo mallots. Then we headed out to the Beijing CBD to an open space in midst modern office buildings together with some Chinese Fixed Gear riders. It took us a while to start a real game as most of us were playing for the first or second time and we were missing a mallot, then a guy fell and when we finally had 6 mallots it was already dark. It was still fun to hit the ball in the dark. And we had most people on fixed gear, Brendan on a freewheel, and later a guy on a fancy Flying Pigeon.

Beijing Bike Polo

Playing Bicycle Polo in Modern Beijing

Bike Polo at Night in China’s Capital

Natooke Fixed Gear Bikes

Mittwoch, Juni 9th, 2010

During my travel in Germany Fede and Samantha took care of the Natooke shop and actually built up many fixed gear bikes for customers. Until now we have never built up to identical bikes. Every bicycle is unique and reflects the customers personality. That is one thing that makes fixed gear bikes so attractive around the world. It is not just a bicycle. It is special. Here are some pictures.

Duncan’s stylish black Flying Banana with green hubs and retro tires.

Duncan’s Fixed Gear Bike

He even wrote some blog entries about his first ride from our shop at Lama Temple to Wudaokou as well as a 50km ride he did on the second day. It is great to see people enjoying cycling through the city. Beijing is perfect for that.

Black Flying Banana and Duncan

Charles decided for a cheap aluminum frame a nice rims matching the hubs.

Charles Aluminum Fixed Gear Bike

Mark also chose the aluminum frame and choose nice Velocity rims and expensive but classy seat post, stem and handlebar.

Mark’s Urban Bike

James wanted to stay with the black and white on this aluminum frame, even though he came back to change his tires to the full color DURO tires in red to match his grips. Here is the picture before that change.

James Fixie from Natooke

This is a nice lugged chromoly Flying Banana frame and crown fork in a very light blue color with Halo tires and Modolo stem and handlebar.

Lugged Chromoly Flying Banana Fixie

Happy Fixed Gear Rider

Interesting Vintage Bikes

Montag, Juni 7th, 2010

I went to Erlangen again to meet my physicist friend Martin. It was a nice day again so we went to a beer garden. He told me that the current rule that was set up by King Ludwig the 1st of Bavaria around 1800 states that an outdoor place selling beer need to allow people to bring their own “Brotzeit” (food) to be allowed to call themselves a beer garden. That means that nowadays many places that have a sign „Biergarten“ are not really beer gardens, because in most places it is forbidden to bring food or drinks, even for children.

Martin and Ines in Erlangen

Then I went to Gustl’s house to see some of the interesting bikes he has built in the last 50 years. I have known Gustl since 1989 and it was always fun to listen to his witty comments. He has been working with young athletes for over 42 years. One of the strange bikes he built is a unicycle with a tiny wheel and a huge gear ratio. This is like riding a tiny wheeled fixed gear bike in a wheely (on the back wheel only).

Unicycle with Huge Gear Ratio

He has half a bike with 2 tiny front wheels that he had built about 30 years ago. It seems to be a unicycle with 2 support wheels  and therefore looks like it is easy to ride, but it actually is not! Gustl challenged me for a race on 2 of those bikes. With his 69 years he is still very agile and has great balance but he also had some issues getting started. It is so fun to ride.

Weird kind of Unicycle

His father used to have a bike shop and he learned as a car mechanic so he was always playing around making interesting kinds of bikes. He made a tall bike tandem, that he does not have anymore. He also made a bike for 2 people that only had 2 wheels, but 3 frames and the person on the left had to use his right hand to steer the left side of the handlebar and the person on the right had to use his left hand to steer the right side of the handlebar which made it really hard to ride. The parts of that bike are in this pile.

Pile of Weird Bikes

He also has some really old trick bikes like this almost complete original one, just the front wheel is missing.

Vintage Trick Bike

It is too bad that he had thrown away so many of these valuable vintage bikes. He gave me wooden rims for my bamboo bike, some really old leather saddles and one of the medium old trick bikes so that I can start teaching some children in China the sport of artistic cycling.

Vintage Trick Bike Pile

Then I drove to meet my good friend Alex to go to a small little beer garden. I passed by the center of Nuernberg that looks really nice on such a beautiful day with the historic castle and medieval city wall and towers.

Historic Nuernberg

Artistic Cycling and Acro Balance

Sonntag, Juni 6th, 2010

Driving a different route than usual I saw a new site of Adidas built in the North of Herzogenaurach. Both Adidas and Puma are both expanding and building new sites in their town of origin. The nice thing is that there was a bicycle lane even out here in the countryside.

Bike Lane outside of Herzogenaurach

I went to to meet the artistic cyclists Karina, Paulina and Inga. There were practicing for the upcoming Bavarian Championships. They need to do well in order to qualify for the German Cup.

Karina and Paulina Rossbach 2er Kunstfahren

Karina for fun invented a new figure that looks classy. But she did not hand it in to the actual organization.

Classy Karina Split

I was also training. It was nice to be on a good fast wooden floor again. I was happy that I still was able to do the handstand on my bike. Then we took a picture together in the old school style on our fixed gear trick bicycles.

Traditional Stillstand on Artistic Bicycle

Inga does not ride anymore so we took a normal picture outside.

Inga and Ines

Then I went to the Zirkuslabor started by Tatjana Bilenko and Fritz Mack whom I used to perform together with for a few years (about 1996 to 1999) in the performing arts community show called “Vorsicht Variete”. Today they were doing some acro-balance.

Tatjana and Fritz Acro-Balance

Gerhard Pfeiffer and I were also practicing some partner acrobatic. We took a video that I uploaded only to facebook.

Tatjana performs on the trapeze and other aerial things like this ring. So she was practicing that too.

Tatjana in Aerial Ring

I hope next time I can see them perform, because they have been doing it as a full time living for quite some years now. That last time I saw Fritz he was still having his corporate job.

Tatjana in the Zirkuslabor

Then I drove home to have some delicious barbecue in my parent’s garden.