3G Software Industry Event

Juli 9th, 2010

A friend Zhang Xiang Dong invited me to perform at an event for the 3G industry to share the latest software developments. He was the MC of that event and he thought that my passion and love for bikes is similar to some of the developers passion for the 3G mobile applications they are developing.

Ines Brunn at 3G Event

It was the smallest stage that I have ever performed on. It was just 3x5meters with a big blob coming out of the wall and covered in fake plastic grass which limited the space to about 2.5 meters. Plus it was actually a stage, so it was elevated from the ground with one fragile light box on each side as well as a screen and a projector.

Trick Bike Shop on Small Stage

But luckily I did not fall off the stage, nor brake anything. Of course I could not do all of my bicycle stunts, but enough to fill the 5 minutes and impress the crowd.

Ines Brunn During her Trick Bike Show

More pictures are on my webalbum, just click here. They were done by the chef of the HLQ bar Frank Jiang.

Ines and Frank Jiang

Tour de Beijing

Juli 9th, 2010

There is a nice article in the Global Times about the Beijing road bike group called „The Beijing Peloton„. The past 2 years I have been riding with the group. Just this year I did not yet go on a single road bike ride in the mountains as the weekend is busy in the shop. Maybe I can join again in winter when there is less going on in my shop.

Ines on ZLOG

Juli 7th, 2010

A picture was posted on ZLOG from the New York City bicycle film festival.

Ines at BFF NYC

IBM Global Study on Commuter Pain shows Beijing Status

Juli 6th, 2010

IBM did a global study on motorists and how they feel about their communte. Here is an excerpt of their report:

IBM Global Commuter Pain Study Reveals Traffic Crisis in Key International Cities

– Overall, traffic has gotten worse in the past three years

The daily commute in some of the world’s most economically important international cities is longer and more grueling than before imagined, reflecting the failure of transportation infrastructure to keep pace with economic activity, according to IBM’s first global Commuter Pain study released today.

IBM surveyed 8,192 motorists in 20 cities on six continents, the majority of whom say that traffic has gotten worse in the past three years. The congestion in many of today’s developing cities is a relatively recent phenomenon, having paralleled the rapid economic growth of those cities during the past decade or two. By contrast, the traffic in places like New York, Los Angeles or London has developed gradually over many decades, giving officials more time and resources to address the problem.

For example, the middle class in China is growing rapidly, with the number of new cars registered in Beijing in the first four months of 2010 rising 23.8% to 248,000, according to the Beijing municipal taxation office. Beijing’s total investments in its subway system are projected to be more than 331.2 billion yuan by 2015 as the city expands the system to more than double its current size, according to Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co., Ltd. The city plans to invest 80 billion yuan in 2010 in building its transportation infrastructure.

Overall, though, the study paints a picture of metropolitan-area commuters in many cities struggling to get to and from work each day. For example, 57% of all respondents say that roadway traffic has negatively affected their health, but that percentage is 95% in Beijing.

Similarly, 29% overall say that roadway traffic has negatively affected work or school performance, but that percentage rises to 84% in Beijing.

IBM Commuter Pain Index: Beijing wins with the highest commuter pain index!!!

IBM compiled the results of the survey into an Index (called Commuter Pain Index) that ranks the emotional and economic toll of commuting in each city on a scale of one to 100, with 100 being the most onerous. The Index reveals a tremendous disparity in the pain of the daily commute from city to city. Stockholm had the least painful commute of the cities studied, followed by Melbourne and Houston (which tied) and New York City. [Beijing wins with the highest commuter pain index reaching the highest possible level of pain of 99 out of 100!!! Melbourne is one of the best cities with 17]

„Traditional solutions — building more roads — will not be enough to overcome the growth of traffic in these rapidly developing cities, so multiple solutions need to be deployed simultaneously to avoid a failure of the transportation networks,“ said Naveen Lamba, IBM’s global industry lead for intelligent transportation. „New techniques are required that empower transportation officials to better understand and proactively manage the flow of traffic.“
31% of respondents said that during the past three years traffic has been so bad that they turned around and went home. The percentage in Beijing, however, is 69%, the high for the survey [Beijing wins again]

The Commuter Pain Survey was conducted by IBM to better understand consumer thinking toward traffic congestion as the issue reaches crisis proportions nationwide and higher levels of auto emissions stir environmental concerns. These events are impacting communities around the world, where governments, citizens and private sector organizations are looking beyond traditional remedies like additional roads and greater access to public transportation to reverse the negative impacts of increased road congestion.

This year marks the first global Commuter Pain survey. IBM previously conducted the Commuter Pain survey in the United States in 2008 and 2009.

IBM is actively working in the area of Smarter Transportation using a worldwide team of scientists, industry experts and IT services professionals to research, test and deploy new traffic information management capabilities in cities around the world. Findings from the Commuter Pain Survey will be used to assess citizen concerns about traffic and commuter issues; expand solutions like automated tolling, real-time traffic prediction, congestion charging, and intelligent route planning; and serve as a basis for pioneering innovative new approaches to traffic mitigation.

Saturday in the Store

Juni 26th, 2010

Saturday in the store with 2 guys.

Fede in Natooke Office

Julien in Natooke Workshop

We got some bikes ready for the bike parts swap meet tomorrow. One was this pink girls bike.

Aluminum Urban Fixie

The bike that was almost sold and the almost customer requested to have the horn added.

Fixed Gear Bike with Horn

Or Quinn’s converted bike that he sold back to us when he left China.

Mountain Bike Frame with Fixed Wheel

And we also some special beautiful bikes like this red Flying Banana with Modolo wheels.

Flying Banana with Modolo wheels

A group of young Chinese fixed gear riders came by and hung out at the shop for a while. The one kid is 15 years old and just won first place in the Chinese National drawing competition. Samantha is asking him to draw the shop for us. His friend has this bike.

White with Black Fixie Bike

And onother friend has this bike that we built up here at Natooke:

White with Pink Fixie Bike

There they went.

Young Fixed Gear Riders of Beijing

In the evening we went to a rooftop party in Chaoyang district of Beijing. It was a great night to be outside.

Terrace on the Top of the Roof

From here you have a great view over the city and the central business district. And we could even see the moon that is on the top left corner of this picture.

Beijing CBD by Night

Relaxing on the Roof Top

Urban Liveability and the Bicycle

Juni 25th, 2010

Unfortunately I missed the speech of Shannon Bufton last Sunday. It seemed there was an interesting mix of people that had many questions at the end how the bicycle can improve the living quality in Beijing and how those kind of changes can be achieved. Shannon’s presentation and talk can be found at this link. I like the following quotes he had used:

  • Molly O’Meara, Reinventing Cities for People and the Planet:
    „In an urbanizing world there is an inherent conflict between the automobile and the city. After a point, as their numbers multiply, automobiles provide not mobility but immobility.“
  • Enrique Penalosa  – Urban visionary and former Mayor of Bagota:
    „Anything you do to make a city more friendly to cars makes it less friendly to people.“
  •  Dan Bruden –  US Urban Planner:
    „Cars are happiest when there are no other cars around. People are happiest when there are other people around.“
  • „CYCLE CITY = HEALTHY CITY“

Just an anecdote from the shop today: I had a Chinese person riding a cheap road bike with upward turned drop handlebar come to the shop. He had heard about fixed gear bikes and was looking for a white bike with some golden parts. He did not mind the idea that you can pick and chose each part separately in my shop. At some point he said it might be better if he can just quickly buy a bike that is already built up. I unformatunately only had 3 of which he liked the yellow one best. I thought he would buy a bike, but then his girlfriend came. She was shocked that he was thinking of buying a bike for around 3000.-RMB. She kept saying that he can buy a bike in any shop for 500.-RMB. He still wanted this bike but she just kept on telling him that it will be stolen and he should buy the same bike in another shop. What does that mean? If you want a fixed gear bike, do not tell your girlfriend to drop by as she might not understand the difference between a shitty mass produced Chinese freewheel bike for 500.-RMB and a nice fixed gear bike from my store. On the positive side: At least I do not have to worry about him turning the drop bars upwards on one of my fixed gear bikes.

Mark came with his cool matt black Fyling Banana bike. I finally took some pictures of it.

Black Flying Banana Fixie

Juni 25th, 2010

Mark passed by the Natooke shop with his elegant matt black Flying Banana fixed gear bike.

Black Flying Banana Fixie

I like the Oury lock on grips that he chose to have on his bike. Actually after taking this picture he decided for a new more classy Selle Italia seat.

Oury Lock on Grips on Flying Banana

Due to the upcoming bike parts swap meet on Sunday we decided not to do the monthly STC Friday Light Ride tonight. But next month we will have it again on the last Friday of the month.

Forever Keirin Ambassador

Juni 24th, 2010

My friend Tomity-san who is a professional track cyclist in Japan recently wrote this email to me:

I’m fine and still training everyday, Keirin racing every month. It’s long time no see. I’m sorry for the long time no message.

I am emailing you because I’d like to tell my retirement. I retire Tachikawa Keirin race (24-26th,June) this month and it retires from Keirin rider at the end. It ends about the history of my Keirin rider of 29 years.

It was you and everyone’s assistance that Keirin rider had been continued to me long. I wish to express my gratitude very much for it. Thank you very much.

The race of my remainder is only Tachikawa Keirin race. I am training toward it. I plan to help Fuji cycle show room studio that the friend starts after it retires.

Hereafter, I want to associate with you through the bicycle. Picture with my team mate at Matsudo Keirin race (2,June)

Tomity-san and team mate at Matsudo Keirin race

I wish him all the best for this last race. And that your projects for the future go well.

Bikes in NYC and Advocacy

Juni 22nd, 2010

My last few hours in NYC. I had to use this time to upload videos to facebook and youtube. Just outside the cafe that had horrible non-coffee drinks but free wireless internet were two single speed bikes. One of them was very colorful.

Colorful NYC Single Speed Bicycle

Tall NYC Bicycle

Then I went to a very nice and friendly bicycle shop that I visited a few days ago. It is called Metro Bicycles and is quite big and nicely sorted with very friendly staff. I needed to get some last few things before leaving the apple. Goodbye and hope to be back here soon!

I also tried to get in contact with the Transportation Alternatives group of NYC. They have worked a lot with the local government on setting up bike lanes and ensuring more safety for cyclists. Their work really shows. I see such a difference than 3 years ago. I wish that we in Beijing with our Smarter than Car initiative can also receive positive changes for Beijing so that the number of cyclists will increase as much as it did in NYC.

Bike Shops and NY Friends

Juni 21st, 2010

I wanted to check out what some of teh bike shops had. I first went to „Dah Shop“ in Manhattan near the Williamsburg bridge. The guys there sell skate boards, BMX bikes as well as fixed gear bikes. They are really cool and might come out for a trip to China. They have cool brands like animal.

Then I stopped by a close by but completely different kind of bike shop called „Frank’s Bike Shop„. It was quite full and messy. I saw that I can pack a lot more stuff into my store in Beijing after seeing this efficient tight packing. But when I when asked for a quill stem Frank went behind the counter into the hidden rooms and after a while came back saying “ I think I have one but I cannot find it now, can you come back in 2 days or so?. If I would live here I think it would be a cool place to find some unique things.

Frank’s Bike Shop

Then again I cycled over the Williamsburg bridge which has great bike lanes and a cool view.

Cycling to Brooklyn on Williamsburg Bridge

Then I met my friend Andrew (he does stand up comedy and acting) who surprisingly now lives in NY for some organic tasty ice cream on the Brooklyn river shore.

Eating Ice Cream on the River Shore

Andrew and Ines

He then had to rush to an improv theater workshop and I had to go to the flying trapeze workshop. It was fun again, even though I found my swing to be off rhythm. We first did again some back end splits but then they also showed me how to do some backward flips. When the catcher came and it was my turn I forgot that I was supposed to to the back end split so the only thing I did was hit my toe on my own trapeze. They then did not let me fly anymore which pissed me off. Then I did pull ups and push up and practiced my 1 arm hand stands till I felt better again.

I went to go to see Anna in her house. They live there with 6 people but it is quite huge and is standing alone.

Anna and her House

Anna is producing the theater play called Peking Roulette: A Beijing Love Story. The Midtown International Theatre Festival and AG Theatrical Productions proudly present: Peking Roulette by Ben Thompson original score by Michelangelo Sosnowitz. A quirky look at life (and love) for an aging expat in Beijing playing July 15-31. She is doing a lot of the rehearsals in her living room which is bigger than the actual stage.

Peking Roulette Rehearsal Room

Then we had some Chinese covered rice (gai fan) to remind me of what I am missing.