20.7.2010 von Ines.

I heard that there will be an alleycat race in Erlangen (a bicycle city that I used to live in and also the origin of Siemens company) and that has been published in all newspapers. So I was thinking “wow, a real alleycat race - why on Earth did they publish that in the public newspapers”. Because usually these races are more underground and only people that ride fixed gear bikes know about it. But then I found the website for the “Bikenite” and saw that it is rather a ralley than a real fixed gear only race. So it is more to get the word out to the public about riding fixed gear bikes and having a ralley where anybody needs to find and cycle to certain check points in the city. I hope that will increase the acceptance of fixed gear bikes in Germany.

Geschrieben in Germany, Fixed Gear | 1 Kommentar »

19.7.2010 von Ines.

I am so great to hear that Germany closed 60km of one of the busiest highways for a full day to give that space to the people. People came walking, riding bikes or skating to enjoy a day outside. The different community clubs set up different activities. And there were 20000 beer tables set up for people to sit and enjoy along the longest table. Here are some pictures from Spiegel where I really love the people just doing a great bike ride on the highway.

This amazing mega-event was called Still-Leben and there are quite a lot of articles about it. Here is the link to the article on SPIEGEL ONLINE. Or here is one article on USA TODAY. And this is the picture of the autobahn crowded with pedestrians posted on USA TODAY:

Here is the text of the article published by the GUARDIAN:
Life’s a picnic on Germany’s autobahn
Three million attend giant banquet on stretches of road between Duisburg and Dortmund

One of Germany’s busiest motorways has been brought to a standstill after a huge party saw picnic tables line 60km (37 miles) of the country’s famous autobahn network.

As many as three million people turned up for a giant banquet on one of the busiest stretches of the network between Duisburg and Dortmund, in western Germany.

A radio traffic report said: “Attention on the A40. There is a 60km (37 mile) closure between Duisburg and Dortmund due to the longest table in the world.”

The cultural celebration called rather appropriately Still Life was held in celebration of the Ruhr region.

The event’s organisers said they had given away 20,000 tables so people could eat, drink, dance and perform plays into the evening.

One lane of the autobahn, which crosses North Rhine-Westphalia state, was kept free for skaters and cyclists – and more than one million revellers brought bicycles, including the state premier, Hannelore Kraft.

“This is fantastic,” she told Reuters. “I grew up right next to the A40 and still live close to it. It’s great to see it now without cars but with so many people and so much cultural variety.”

There are no general speed limits on Germany’s autobahns. Cars often speed up to 200km per hour (125mph) or more. In dense or dangerous areas, drivers are often required to slow down to 120 km per hour (75mph).

The Ruhr region was chosen by the European Union this year as a European Capital of Culture 2010 the first time the distinction went to an area rather than a city.

Geschrieben in Green, Cycling, Germany | Keine Kommentare »

8.6.2010 von Ines.

Today I had to do again some lawn mowing and carrying the last things for my parents. Then I could pack my bags. After a very delicious lunch we headed to the train station. It was time to say goodbye again. We asked a lady that was passing by to take a picture of the 3 of us, but she seemed to not know how to take pictures so we tried to explain to her and then the picture looked like this:

So then we decided to take separate pictures. First with my mom.

And then with my dad.

Then I boarded the train and then the plane and flew back to Beijing.

Geschrieben in Germany | 1 Kommentar »

7.6.2010 von Ines.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Geschrieben in Cycling, Germany, Fixed Gear | Keine Kommentare »

6.6.2010 von Ines.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Geschrieben in Performers, Juggling, Germany, Fixed Gear | Keine Kommentare »

4.2.2010 von Ines.

Today there was an article in the German Newspaper about my life and how I am following my passion. How I decided to quit my corporate job and become an entrepreneur. It tells the story that even though I am doing something as crazy as a German person opening a bicycle shop in China I am succeeding. That definitely has to do with me being a famous trick cyclist. So not only do I run this fixed gear bike and juggling shop in Beijing but I also still perform around the world with my stunt bicycle shows.

The original article of the Erlanger Nachrichten can be found online. But I also copied the article here so you can directly read it (well, that is if you understand German…).

Von «Wetten, dass . . ?» zum Rad-Laden in China
Die Erlanger Kunstradfahrerin Ines Brunn hat ihr Hobby zum Beruf gemacht - «Inesgrätsche» weltweit bekannt

Einen Fahrradladen in Peking auf zu machen, ist wohl so ähnlich wie Eulen nach Athen zu tragen. Zumal dann, wenn das Vorhaben von einer Deutschen angegangen wird. Die erfolgreiche Erlanger Kunstradfahrerin Ines Brunn hat es trotzdem gewagt – und wieder einmal gewonnen.

ERLANGEN – Von 1989 bis 1995 hat Ines Brunn ihre Kunststücke für die Soli Herzogenaurach auf dem Kunstrad gezeigt und seit 1996 ist sie Mitglied bei der Soli Erlangen. Wie viele sportliche Erfolge sie in ihrer aktiven Laufbahn errungen hat, weiß sie gar nicht mehr. «Alle meine Ergebnisse sind in Ordnern auf dem Dachboden meiner Eltern», sagt sie. Kunstrad-Bezirksmeisterin war sie aber mehrmals, bayerische Meisterin auch, und etliche mal war sie Zweite und Dritte. Auch beim Bundespokal hat sie Platz zwei belegt, und bei den Deutschen Meisterschaften und German Masters war sie stets unter den besten zehn. Das hat zu Weltranglistenplatz 19 geführt. Ines hat auch die nach ihr benannte «Inesgrätsche» erfunden, die erste Figur, die im internationalen Kunstradreglement nach einer Person benannt ist. Dadurch ist die Ex-Turnerin weltweit bei Kunstradfahrern bekannt geworden. Zudem ist Ines die erste Frau der Welt, die den Schweizerlenkerhandstand beherrscht.

Pfannkuchen gebacken

Aber «richtig» bekannt ist Ines Brunn erst geworden, als sie im Februar 1992 mit einer spektakulären Kunstrad-Show bei der Fernsehsendung «Wetten, dass . . ?» aufgetreten ist. «Wetten, dass es Ines Brunn aus Erlangen gelingt, auf dem Lenker ihres Fahrrades stehend, innerhalb von dreieinhalb Minuten einen Pfannkuchen zu backen?» hieß die Wette. Jürgen von der Lippe tippte damals mit «Ja» – und Ines schaffte es unter dem Jubel der Zuschauer im Studio und an den Fernsehern. Ihren letzten Wettkampf hat Ines 2005 absolviert, obwohl sie offiziell nicht aufgehört hat mit dem Kunstradfahren. Deshalb war sie 2006 auch noch im Sonder-Bundeskader. «Wenn ich wieder nach Deutschland gehen würde, würde ich schon noch an Wettkämpfen teilnehmen wollen», sagt sie, fügt aber sogleich an: «Doch ich plane nicht in nächster Zeit nach Deutschland zu ziehen».

Denn Ines lebt seit einigen Jahren in Peking, und dort fühlt sie sich pudelwohl. 2001 wurde sie nach ihrem Physikstudium «Regional Market Manager Asia-Pacific» bei einer deutschen Firma. Das hat ihr so gefallen, dass sie in Asien leben wollte. Sie ließ sich nach Peking versetzen, und hat nach weiteren zwei Jahren einen lokalen Vertrag unterschrieben.

Das Hobby siegte

Mitte 2009 dann hat sie sich selbstständig gemacht, aber nicht etwa um ihrem studierten Beruf nachzugehen, sondern um ihrem Hobby zu frönen: Ines hat einen Fahrradladen eröffnet. Das war nicht einfach, aber nach einem langen bürokratischen Hindernislauf hat es schließlich geklappt. Bahnrennräder, schöne Eingang-, Ein- und Kunsträder verkauft sie nun. Anti-Pollution Atemmasken, Fahrradkurier-Taschen, Jongliersachen, Urban Cycling Klamotten und ähnliches führt sie auch in ihrem Laden in einem alten, aber frisch renovierten Beijing Hutonggebäude.

«Trick bike» heißt die Firma [Kommentar: Mein Laden heisst “NATOOKE“], und Ines verspricht neben all den Utensilien, die sie verkauft, auch Shows mit einer einmaligen choreografischen Vermischung von Kunstradfahren und turnerischen Elementen. Engagements hatte sie schon in Südafrika, USA, Sri Lanka, Russland, Belgien, Schweiz und Holland. Und wenn sie ihre Heimat besucht, dann geht sie natürlich zur Soli Erlangen in die Halle, um ein wenig mit dem Nachwuchs zu trainieren. Denn die Verbindung zu ihrem Heimatverein, wo man mächtig stolz auf die erfolgreiche Sportlerin ist, ist nach wie vor eng.

KLAUS-DIETER SCHREITER
4.2.2010

Geschrieben in Entrepreneur, Media, Natooke, Germany, China, Fixed Gear, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

12.12.2009 von Ines.

There are many people in Beijing that miss Andi, like me. He lived here in 2005/2006 and found his mountaineering passion here after I took him to come rock climbing with me in the freezing cold of Chinese New Year. And now what? He bough a vintage French road bike.

And what did he do: he converted it to fixed gear. I have the feeling he is trying to copy me. Just joking! Look how beautiful his fixed gear bicycle looks despite the front and back brake that he needs for riding in the hilly town of Heidelberg:

It would be so cool to have him back in Beijing but it seems there are too many places in the world for him to be.

Geschrieben in Germany, Fixed Gear | 2 Kommentare »

12.9.2009 von Ines.

We went to visit Marie and Do for the weekend who just just came back from a scuba diving holiday. As they live just at the “Dreilaendereck” of Germany, Switzerland and France we decided to go for a walk in the black forest near Oetlingen.

Her mother and sister also came for a visit. And the dog was happy to be on a long walk.

Geschrieben in Outdoors, Germany | Keine Kommentare »

11.9.2009 von Ines.

It was nice to go and meet many ex-colleagues. Unfortunately many had already left the office as we arrived in the later afternoon. But it was nice to walk around and still see so many of the nice people.

We then drove to a public barbecue site with a nice view over the “Alb” hills. It looked like it was going to rain but it actually stayed dry. I was happy to see that some of my friends came by bike.

One of our friends had magically set up the fire and we soon could start the barbecue. Some of my friends are professional open fire barbecue guys and had specific barbecue forks (they used to give that as a present for anybody who turned 40, so if anybody had one he was usually older than 40) and other utensils.

It was great to see these friends after such a long time. It did get a bit chilly when it got dark and the fire was almost out. Here are just some pictures we took throughout the evening.

Geschrieben in Outdoors, Germany | Keine Kommentare »

11.9.2009 von Ines.

It was again a beautiful morning. We had breakfast on the porch with some of the left-overs from the party last night like the delicious chocolate cake my mother had baked.

The “Pfefferbeisser” sausages were just enough after I found some hidden ones in the fridge.

Then we soon had to pack our things and leave. So we took a goodbye picture with my parents in their garden. It is funny how they look taller than me because of the slight slope in their garden and my father standing on tip toes.

Geschrieben in Germany | 1 Kommentar »