Plead the Fleeting Moment to Remain

We now have a new Lord of the Ring Road II! Don’t miss these nice autumn days and come on out for some events. Most polo lovers come to play polo after work on Wednesday, but since it’s getting dark so early now, the Wednesday polo will be cancelled from this week So we just devote all the enthusiasm and energy to Saturday!

Working schedule: Shop will be closed after 3pm on Sep 25th. And besides Oct 2nd and 3rd, we open as usual during the October holidays.

Events for this week:

Thu > Sep 22nd > Olympic Forest Ride
Leave the shop at 7:30pm, let’s go to the Olympic Forest ride wild and heat up the cold air with our hot blood！

Sat > Sep 24th > Bike Polo
Start playing at 4pm till dark falls, East Gate of workers Gymnasium. Let’s start it 30mins earlier than before to make sure that we have enough polo time together.

- Natooke Team and Ines

P.S. : If you are interested in pro-cycling there will be a WorldCup race in Beijing during the October holiday with professional road cycling teams participating. “2011 Tour of Beijing”
Stage One – Wednesday 5th October: Individual Time Trial – 11.3km – Bird’s Nest – Water Cube via Olympic Park circuit
Stage Two – Thursday 6th October: 133.5km – Bird’s Nest to Men Tou Gou via North Gate of Summer Palace
Stage Three – Friday 7th October: 162km – Men Tou Gou to Yong Ning Town via Thirteen Ming Tombs Reservoir
Stage Four – Saturday 8th October: 189.5km – Yan Qing Gui Chuan Square to Shunyi Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre via Mutianyu Great Wall
Stage Five – Sunday 9th October: 118km – Tian An Men Square to Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium
Further information on the Tour of Beijing, including course details, can be found at their website.

Lord of the Ring Road II
Zeus probably knew it was Fred’s last night in Beijing and blessed us with fine weather for Lord of the Ring Road II. It was a Gentlemen’s Race around Beijing’s third ring road with Larry claiming the throne in one hour and 20 minutes. Teamwork brought Nicolas and Charles to a close second while our Natooke intern Will came in third. And let’s not forget Michael who walked away proudly with the DFL (Dead F**king Last) prize. All our winners received exceptional prizes from Mongolia (and bionic eyes!), courtesy of our event organizer Jacob.


Farewell, Fa(s)t Freddie! Farewell, Will! See you soon Fede!
Notorious fixed-gear riding migrant worker in his black-and-yellow one-piece tracksuit, Fred had shed blood, sweat and tears during his time at Natooke. As much as we cannot bear to part, he has to visit mamma and pappa in Sweden and return to London to continue his studies at SOAS. Even though he’s no longer in Beijing, Fred remains close to our hearts especially at dinnertime; as Jacob would say, “Wish Fat Freddie was here…”

The beginning of the school term hasn’t been kind to us as we lose yet another good boy, Will, but not before he clinched a title in Lord of the Ring Road II! He wanted to be a migrant worker just like Fred but alas, he’s from Beijing! Study hard! Ride harder!

Our juggling shop boss Fede is off for 2 months to Europe (most of the time to Italy). Before he left he just finished another great bike project: A bicycle sidecar which is the best way to pick up your date and ride her around the city! And then both can drink as much as they like (as a bike with a sidecar cannot fall over). We will miss you!


Backlog of Happy Customers
We’ve built so many gorgeous custom bikes recently that it’s hard to pick which ones to showcase in our newsletter!


New Stuff
In the past 3 weeks Natooke has received great new things like colorful Natooke saddles (8 colors as well as black and white), colorful Serk top tube covers (each one is unique and we will constantly get new ones), more re-usable chopsticks (to carry around and use to reduce the amount of throw away chopsticks you get in most restaurants), Nutcase helmets (for those who love their brain) and also Carol, Ken and Brandon our new employees making Natooke even better. Come around to say hi to them.