Kamis, 25 Agustus 2011

Fixie Bikes

    Fixed gear bicycles have become the ultimate item in urban chique. Messengers glide effortlessly in and out of traffic in a show of defiance and freedom among lines of cars chained to the grind of the daily commute. Fixie bikes are simple and elegant, with clean lines and a genuine beauty which springs from their lack of complexity, stripped to the bare requirements of pedaling, steering and rolling. And they are becoming more popular as more people discover the joy of riding single speed and fixed gear

     Single speed riding requires a different kind of approach. The fixed gear does not allow you to coast. In fact, going downhill can be hard work. The cog on the rear wheel is bolted directly the hub so that your pedals must go at the same speed as your rear wheel. This also means your pedals can be used to slow down the bike, and the ability to pedal backwards make the impressive track stand you sometimes see messengers doing when the traffic lights are red.

    But where did the fixie come from? Some of the first bikes ever were fixed gears – look at the Penny Farthing, and you will see that the pedal cranks are connected directly to the hub of the front wheel. Before the advent of the derailleur, which allowed bicycles to have gears, single speed bikes were the only race bike available. And they were big news in the sporting world. In 1876, Madison Square Garden was built to accommodate a velodrome racing track. Bike racing on the original fixed gear track bikes attracted huge crowds and turned bike racers in to stars. In fact, bike racers back in those days could earn almost $150,000 per year compared with a tradesman’s salary of around $5,000. One of the best known events in the sport of track racing was the hour record where world riders would pit themselves against the clock in an attempt to ride as far as they possibly could in an hour. Some of the greats of the sport have held the hour record, including Francesco Moser, Eddy Merckx and Miguel Indurain. Graeme Obree successful record attempt on a homemade fixie, partly made from old washing machine parts, was made the subject of the movie “The Flying Scotsman”.

   The halcyon days of track racing in the U.S. are perhaps behind us, although the sport has enjoyed a resurgence of interest as an Olympic sport, and more nations are putting resources into track racing. But the legacy of the fixed gear bike is alive and well.

   Some of the features of those old track bikes, you might think, make the fixie less than ideal for riding in an urban setting, as opposed to riding indoors on a banked track, with no traffic or pedestrians to contend with. Others disagree. Fixie riders who ride without brakes have to anticipate their next move much further in advance than their free-wheeling colleagues. Fixie riders talk of the feeling of Zen-like peace and flow as they become as one with their bike, flowing through the streets and cars of downtown. Others compare riding their fixie to a game of chess, anticipating the movement of the traffic as a chess player would anticipate the moves of his opponent, and reacting accordingly. In any event, the history and the evolution of the fixie has moved on to accommodate the needs of every rider, and in particular the urban rider.

   Fixie bikes are probably best known for their uniqueness and variety. You will see track bicycles in the city with their dropped handlebars, but you will also see machines with flat handlebars, bikes with brakes and bikes without brakes. Experience fixed gear riding for yourself – it really is an entirely different style of riding and transport that allows you to feel very connected to your bike. Whether you choose a track bike or an urban machine, you too can get the feel of cycling on one of the oldest and best established types of bicycle – a form of cycling that is as enjoyable today as it ever was.

Parkour History

    Although parkour is credited with being founded by David Belle and friends in the Mid 1980s, it’s roots really run much deeper.  Let’s take a look at where and how it developed by looking at how humans developed throughout history. 
Without going into the agricultural revolution and how that domesticated humans and killed the hunter-gatherer aspect of man, let’s say that in prehistory most humans knew how to move well through their environments.  
     
      It was a necessity.  Only the most agile and strong humans could catch their prey, or escape from predators.  All of the attributes we associate with parkour: strength, agility, coordination, spacial awareness, flexibility, balance, etc., our ancestors had all of these.  Even today, if we examine some of the more isolated and primitive regions, we find people shaped by their environments and survival needs.  Take some of the isolated tribes in the Amazon and other rain forests, as well as some of the tribal peoples in certain areas of Africa.  

     It was these people, the tribal Africans that would inspire a revolution.
George Hébert, a French physical fitness enthusiast, and military man was stationed in Africa around the turn of the 20th century.  Being so obsessed with fitness he couldn’t help but be impressed with the native Africans he encountered.  They were perfect natural specimens.  He made comment that they were as strong and agile as any classically trained gymnast.  And that they were this way without any training  was even more impressive.  Hébert travelled around the world during his military stint and found himself stationed in the town of St. Pierre in Martinique in 1902.  This would be a monumental event for Hebert and forever shape his philosophy.   That same year there was a major volcanic eruption on the outskirts of town.  The French navy watched in horror as people fled aimlessly for their lives.  Add to this that the poisonous snakes of the mountains fled into town to escape the lava, the situation was grim for the people of St. Pierre. 

      Hébert couldn’t sit back and watch any longer.  He coordinated an escape plan on the spot, and through his actions, saved nearly 700 people. Returning home to France, Hébert looked at his fellow countrymen, and wondered how they would fare if a similar emergency confronted them.  He decided they were soft and needed to get back in touch with their nature.  To go back to those hunter-gatherer days when humans were strong, capable, and able to help themselves, and most importantly, others if the need arose.  He spent a few years developing his system of physical fitness, and in 1905, Le Methode Naturelle (The Natural Method) was born.  

    After finding tremendous success with his Natural Method’s inaugural class, it looked as if it would become the new standard in military and rescue service training.  Then came WWI.  Since most of Hébert’s students were exceptionally capable and natural leaders they found themselves on the front lines.  Many of those familiar and training in the natural method were killed in battle.  It was a major loss for Hébert’s movement.  By the 1950s Hébert was mostly paralyzed and unable to speak.  Through dedication and hard-work, he was able to speak and walk again, but died shortly thereafter in 1957.  His work can still be found today in military obstacle course training, children’s adventure playground equipment, and fitness or “parcourse” trails.
While a lot of Hébert’s work was lost, the Natural Method never died.  Many rescue and military servicemen continued to train Hébert’s way for decades to follow.  One of those surviving students was a talented firefighter named Raymond Belle.  


    Belle was a celebrated hero in France, and known for his crazy antics.  He was reported to have front flipped out of a second story window landing safely on the street below, simply to show a fellow firefighter that “fear is in only the mind.”   Belle moved his family to a small suburb of Paris called Lisse in the early 1980s.  It was here that parkour was “born.”

   Raymond’s son David was very much inspired by his father, and applied Raymond’s philosophy and training to his childhood play.  David and his friends would pretend they were in an emergency and try to reach a certain location as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Taking the influence of Raymond Belle, George Hébert, as well as rock climbing, gymnastics, the martial arts and the action movies they saw, they refined their movements into what would become the basis of parkour.  They figured out what worked and what didn’t.  

    They studied the mechanics of how the body moves, and applied it all to their environment, in this case, the city.  To them the city was one big obstacle course, or parcours in French.  Once they realized they were on to something, and that they should get the word out about it, they had to call it something.  David and a friend came up with a variation on the word parcours.  They replaced the C with a K to give it more “edge” and dropped the S giving us the word parkour (PK) that we use today. 

    Among David’s childhood friends, it’s important to note two other entities: Sebastien Foucan and the Yamakasi.  Originally Belle, Foucan, and the others were all The Yamakasi.  The name comes from the Lingala dialect of the Congo region in Africa and roughly translates to “strong man, or strong spirit.”  Disputes about the definition of the art as well as the business end of things led to a split.  David Belle took the name parkour and wrapped it up in a strictly purist definition, to move from one point to another as efficiently as possible.  Foucan took his Jeet-Kune Do like approach and marketed it to the world in the 2003 documentary “Jump London.”  It was decided that Americans wouldn’t get the French term parkour, so an Anglicised term “freerunning” (FR) was created.  It was meant to describe parkour to Americans, but has since become the term to describe Foucan’s own personal philosophy of movement, going where you want, moving how you want, efficiency isn’t important, but aesthetics are. 

   Any move that is not the most efficient way to overcome an obstacle would be considered a freerunning move, not parkour.  The Yamakasi also went their own way, apart from Belle and Foucan.  The Yamakasi has had a few lineups over the years, but the main members are Yann Hnautra, Williams Belle, Chau-Belle Dinh, and Laurent Piemontesi.  


   They call their way “L’art du déplacement” or ADD for short.  In many ways ADD is closer to Freerunning than it is to parkour as it allows for more freedom of movement.  The Yamakasi difference is that they are more stunt oriented than either PK or FR.  Most of the original Yamakasi have moved on to become the Majestic Force team, and they have recently opened the first ADD academy in Evry, France.

   David Belle currently works as a film actor and stunt coordinator and can be seen in “District B13″,  “B13 Ultimatum”, and “Babylon A.D.”  He is “officially” retired from parkour and will no longer accept students
Sebastien Foucan found and lost sponsorshipwith K-Swiss shoes, but has found work as an actor in films like “Casino Royale”, and the documentaries “Jump London” and “Jump Britain.”  

     The Yamakasi have appeared in two films, “Yamakasi” and “The Great Challenge”  A.K.A. “Yamakasi 2.”  They now focus on running their academy and spreading ADD throughout the world.


Selasa, 16 Agustus 2011

Surabaya

   Surabaya (pronounced [surəˈbaja]) (formerly Soerabaia or Surabaja) is Indonesia's second-large city with a population of over 2.7 million (5.6 million in the metropolitan area), and the capital of the province of East Java. It is located on the northern shore of eastern Java at the mouth of the Mas River and along the edge of the Madura Strait. To Indonesians, it is known as "the city of heroes" due to the importance of the Battle of  Surabaya in galvanizing Indonesian and international support for Indonesian independence during the Indonesian National Revolution.


  Surabaya is locally believed to derive its name from the words sura or suro (Shark) and baya or boyo (Crocodile), two creatures which, in a local myth, fought each other in order to gain the title of "the strongest and most powerful animal" in the area according to a Jayabaya prophecy. This prophecy tells of a fight between a giant white shark and a giant white crocodile. Now the two animals are used as the city's logo, the two facing each other while circling, as depicted in a statue appropriately located near the entrance to the city zoo. This folk etimology, though embraced enthusiastically by city leaders, is unverifiable.

Alternate derivations proliferate: from the Javanese sura ing baya, meaning "bravely facing danger"; or from the use of surya to refer to the sun. Some people consider this Jayabaya prophecy as a great war between Surabaya native people and invaders in 1945, while another story is about two heroes that fought each other in order to be the king of the city.






Map of Surabaya from an 1897 English travel guide


 Bung Tomo


 Battle of Surabaya 10 November 1945





















Tearing Netherland's flag


 Oranje Hotel



Handelstraat, Surabaya in 1930s, now Jembatan Merah area.



Riverside scenery in Surabaya at the end of the 19th century


 Tugu Pahlawan


Red Bridge


 Jagir Bridge


 Pahlawan Street


 Tunjungan Street


 Balikota



Mallaby's Car



 Gelora 10 November Stadium


 Gelora Bung Tomo Stadium




Surabaya, The second largest city in Indonesia




Cheng Hoo Mosque, Surabaya


 Al Akbar Mosque


 Ampel Mosque



Surabaya CBD skyline at night



Juanda International Airport



Ujung passenger Port



Suramadu Bridge currently the longest bridge in Indonesia



Suramadu, captured from the middle of the bridge


 Suramadu Bridge



Plaza Tunjungan, The largest shopping center in Surabaya and one of the biggest in Southeast Asia.



Jembatan Merah, near Kya-Kya Kembang Jepun.



Kya-Kya Kembang Jepun, Chinatown in Surabaya.


 























Grand City Mall 


















Siola




















Kenpark Kenjeran


























Rainbow Park




















Skate Park Surabaya


















Surabaya Zoo


















Bungkul Garden




















Royal Plaza Surabaya





















Bg Junction Surabaya



















Surabaya Town Square
















Surya Garden



















Bambu runcing