The Going Green Event took place last Friday with the World Health Organization coming down to the Beijing Store for the official handover of 5 beautiful custom built Natooke Bicycles, these bikes will be used for staff to ride around down at the WHO China office and with the handy front carriage they can easily go and grab lunch and take it back to the office hassle free.

If you live or work in Beijing and see WHO staff out and about on the WHO bikes, feel free to give them a wave! 

It wasn’t just about making lunch easy as Dr Schwartländer, WHO representative in China, explains “we also believe in doing our bit to protect the environment. We’re firm believers that even the smallest step makes a difference. In this case it’s not a step – but a pedal on a bike to get around town to meetings and events where possible”. The event was caped off with a ride back to the WHO office along the 2^nd ring canal which the perfect weather made all the more pleseant. 

Ines was practising her German down at the German Embassy School late last week where she was teaching the school children a thing or two about bike polo.

It was nice getting out of the office and down to the courts getting young children passionate about a sport that is so dear to Natookes heart. But before everyone headed on to the field for a bash around the basics needed to be learnt and the students had to first get used to riding around one handed with the other holding a mallet. This wasn’t as easy as first thought but soon the ball was added and things were taken up a notch. As the week went on the competition heated up with everyone becoming decidedly more aggresive in their playing style.

Underneath it all though was a sense of enjoyement and fun as everyone there was just starting out and learning the ropes.

The week culminated in a performance by those students involved in the training. Playing a match infront of the German Embassy School for parents, teachers, and students alike to show off their new found skills and to hopefully get others interested in the great sport that is bike polo!

Polo has always been thought of as a princely game; but Bike Polo is a different beast all together. Open to anyone “that can ride a bike and see” according to Ines Brunn. The traditional is about riding around on horse back but in its current form it is far more versatile and far less restrictive on who can play. You don’t have to feed bikes and they don’t get tired.

The writer of the article gets the chance to see if they have what it takes to play bike polo. Slowly building up a bit of experience with the more experienced and seasoned profesionals the play style was understood. Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu have multiple teams set up but it wasn’t quite time for the writer to join one of them yet.

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The 2014 Cool Search was underway with So Cool magazine and in the April 2014 edition Ines Brunn appears as a top pick! Dressed in Levi’s Commuter apparel she demonstrates her coolness by performing tricks and standing with her Natooke bicycle in Beijing along with these awesome pictures is a candid interview that can be read in more detail in the pages provided.

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This year Ines performed at the X Games that was taking place during the China Cycle Exhibition. The X Games in Shanghai were an opportunity for local riders to see some of the skills on offer around the world and was well placed at such a great exhibition.

Ines took a break from maning the Natooke booth and put on a show. 

Unsurprisingly her performance went down well, amazing the crowd with acrobatic feets that even impressed the other athletes in attendance!

China Cycle is the leading exhibition in the two wheel market and is the largest of its type in Asia. Taking place in Shanghai annually it has become a trade show that is a must attend for cycle companies and interested consumer groups who are looking for innovative and cutting edge products to stock and distribute.

Ines Bike Company has had a presence at this exhibition for the last five years.

We were there again showing off all the great brands that Ines Bike Company distributes and Natooke stock! We are happy to report that we had another stand out year at the exhibition hall with our place smack bang in the center attracting large amounts of foot traffic.

After five great years, Natooke needed to celebrate, and what better way to celebrate than with a party. The night started with M.C. Chizi hyping up the crowd and Founder/Owner Ines Burnn giving a short introduction of the shop and how it has grown and changed over the years.

Bikes and beers stood in for cake and candles for this birthday blowout which was shaping up to be a good time. 

After the introductions, the games began.  The first, and probably the most popular was the JSUPK sprints where two competitors race one another on rollers. The front wheel is removed and the fork is bolted down, the rear wheel is set down on a set of rollers that allow free movement of the wheel. Natooke however wanted to spice things up a bit. It was simple, chug the beer as fast as you can, then pedal as fast as your legs would allow, and maybe more importantly, do your best not to throw up.

With the sprints done there was more entertainment, dancing, rapping, juggling, a raffle, and a pretty convincing beat box demonstration.

After that was another popular game, the trackstand competition. The rider comes to a complete halt and balances upright without putting their foot on the ground. The last one “standing” wins, however once again in an attempt to spice things up the rules for this game were tweaked as well. The person track standing would have a set amount of time, during this time they would attempt to stay on two wheels, as well as reach down to pick up 100 kuai notes that were strewn on the beer soaked floor beneath them.

To wrap things up, Ines showed her skill and bike control during an artistic cycling demonstration. It was the perfect way to end the night and begin a new year with Natooke.

This is the second year that the vintage ride has taken place in Beijing, with many more people becoming interested in vintage cycling it’s now growing to other centers in China. The idea of a vintage ride is riding vintage style bikes and wearing vintage style clothing.

City Weekend, in its March 6-19 2014 edition, featured a piece on an urban biking initiative “Bike to JUE”, which took place during the JUE Music + Art events. The initiative was a collaborative effort by Split Works, NLGX, and Natooke with a simple premise: ride your bike to select JUE events, collect stamps and win prizes. It was a great little initiative to help promote preserving the environment and to reduce the stress of navigating the Dashilan’r hutongs!

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JUE is a music and art festival with various kinds of events in different locations across Beijing spread over a period of 3 weeks.

This year Natooke will be again organizing all the “Bike to JUE” rides to encourage people to cycle to the JUE events. And also like last year Natooke will provide bike vallet parking at the venues to keep your bike safe while you enjoy the JUE event.

The main difference this year is that all the “Bike to JUE” rides will be more fun as we have speakers and cool music to have a relaxed feeling while leisurely cycling to the events.

Bike to JUE registration (optional): info@natooke.com or 13501088728 (English/Chinese/German)