My plane had just barely landed when I received a call from TimeOut. An editor from TimeOut wanted a short interview about our fixed gear bike club. She said it will be published in the February edition.
Today we found that we are listed on a website called PCPOP. They must have come to our shop in September 2010 looking at the pictures they uploaded. Here is the link to the full article. They wrote very detailed in Chinese about our store in Beijing and took nice pictures. Here are some:
Here is the link to a video of the Bike boy event. It is not really good quality but gives an impression of the event where Natooke provided all the bikes and bike parts.
I was invited to the CCTV10 Green Space (Green Life) talkshow to talk about cycling in Beijing as an environmentally friendly transportation method and a green lifestyle. It was a very nice show called „I love riding bike“. Have a look at this program, but it is all in Chinese and we only talk. Click on the following image to see the video:
首播时间：2010年12月12日14:00
首播频道：CCTV-10
所属栏目：绿色空间
所属分类：科教台自然
关 键 字：骑车出行 解读 绿色出行 看法 体会 环境资源
本期节目主要内容：本期节目请来自行车俱乐部发起人孙健和三联生活周刊的撰稿人袁越一起来对骑车出行做另类的解读，骑车作为一种被倡导的绿色出行方式，在 华居住多年的德国前室内自行车运动员伊泉和韩国健美教练赵守镇对于目前在中国骑车出行又有怎样的看法和体会，本期节目和主持人一起讨论骑车出行，倡导珍惜 环境资源。
There were 4 guests on this talk show. First Sun Jian and the author of Life Week Yuan Yue do travel together on bicycle. Cycling is started to become a way to do green traveling in China. Then a South Korean girl that does not cycle and me (Ines Brunn) were invited to speak about cycling in Beijing comparing it to other countries around the world.
Natooke bike and juggling shop is searching for an assistant. We would prefer a Chinese national with good level of English. The job would require a lot of back office work with occasional shop work. A person with an affinity towards bikes would be preferred. If interested please contact me at ines@natooke.com
Today when I met up with Yu Changqing for our late morning (it is getting cold) practice I found out it is his birthday today! Now he is really also in our Western counting 74 years old. I invited him for lunch. All the best to him for the next 20 or more years!
Our shop is getting so famous that we do not even know when there is a new article in a newspaper or magazine or again something on TV. 2 friends had mentioned they saw us in a magazine called Ming 明日风尚. Today Echo brought the November 2010 edition of the magazine that Tom had found.
It is a very nice article about Federico and me and our shop. It is in the „Good Life“ section of the magazine and has the main title „Retail Star“.
Another friend mentioned that there is also an article in the high speed train magazine. I remember being interviewed for that. I hope I can see the article soon.
The weather is getting cold in Beijing and most people still do not have heating but they still come to our shop to buy bikes or juggling equipment. Thanks guys! Today was busy and because I was out at the show I only took 1 picture of 1 of the fixed gear bikes that we built in Natooke.
Currently most customers chose our beautifully hand made steel frames – our Flying Banana frames. I like how the red rims and tires on this one go so well with the Oury grips. It is an elegant and cool choice.
After that Julien and I went to our friends home for a typical French Raclette dinner. We brought the 5 kilogram pig leg – I mean the remaining 5 kilogram of the ham. Akiko told me that when she was back home in Japan she met a friend of a friend who loves cycling. She was amazed that he knows me for my trick bike abilities from my online videos. And of course he was amazed that she is a friend of mine. The world is so small 🙂
Finally we are working on Dupree’s fixed gear bike. The wheels are finished now he started installing the bottom bracket on his matt black Flying Banana frame.
The next step was the headset. As his frame is lugged he is installing a Italian threaded headset.
This year we are celebrating our 4th annual event series of „Greening the Beige“ GTB10: Plant Your Seed. Warming up to the full month of „green“ creative thinking and doing, there was a 1st-event „mini“ Pecha Kucha Night at The Bookworm, hosted by Beijing Green Drinks and Greening the Beige.
Presentations included the following:
1) GTB’10: Plant Your Seed (annual Greening the Beige event series)
2) Shannon Bufton, Smarter than Car STC
3) Philip McMaster, World Sustainability Project
4) Bertil Weil & Tulipos Fan, 51Give.org
5) He Bowen, Dynamic City Foundation, Sustainable City Project
6) Patrick Augenstein, Environmental Education Media Project China
Shannon spoke about hear an idea for re-inventing Beijing’s roadside bicycle repair stations which was really interesting.
After that Julien and I took his father for a goodbye dinner at a Beijing style hotpot restaurant.
Finally we have a page on facebook for Natooke. We have pictures of the bikes that we built up in the Natooke store in Beijing. Please check them out!
Bhaskar had bought a fixed gear and singlespeed bike at Natokke. He chose our Special Edition lugged Fixed gear Revolution II Flying Banana frame. We boxed it up for him as he took it on his flight back to India. In Bangalore he brought it to a nice bike shop Bums On The Saddle. The owner Rohan took these amazing shots of our Flying Banana bike. It is the first Fixie Revolution bike in Bangalore. Check out the whole set of pictures on flickr.
But I am happy to see that there are already fixed gear riders in Bangalore!
After a few days break we met up again this morning for some bike trick training. 74 year old Yu Chang Qing managed to do this trick he had not done since around 1990:
Yesterday some of the customer special ordered frames arrived. One of them was the special metallic orange Flying Banana track frame with Columbus Thron tubing for Echo. She wanted to learn how to build up her bike so she came to the shop. She started with putting inner tube and outer tire on the 50mm deep wheels (wow they look nice 🙂
Dupree brought his former military jacket for working on bikes. We think he looks like a Min Gong (migrant worker) wearing that.
Dupree, Chris and I then decided that better let Echo do all the work and us stand on the side and just give our comments.
And look how happy she is with her finished bike.
The gold and black goes well with the metallic special orange color she ordered. All the parts closer to the frame are golden, the further away parts are black.
Our Flying Banana bike frames are made using Italian Columbus Thron tubing. It is nice to see Echo so happy about her new bike.
Today was very busy in our Natooke fixed gear bike store here in Beijing. I am sad I had to send some of the Korean fixed gear riders away that just wanted small modifications. It was not the right day with other customers waiting for the bikes to be built up. Like this one that we finished around 6pm.It has glow in the dark Oury grips.
We also finished another great track bike for Ren Fei. He had requested to have his name added on the frame. He was also very happy to pick up his fixed gear bike. He even asked me to join him and his friends for dinner but unfortunately I had already an appointment with friends visiting from France.
