Last week we took a look at bike polo in Singapore.  This time we hear about the bike polo scene in Osaka, Japan from Yu Tomimine.

Osaka is the capital city of Japan’s Osaka prefecture and after Tokyo, has the second greatest population of any city in the country. The city is a a major centre of Japanese industry and shipping and is also noted as the country’s historical commercial capital.

When and how did polo start here?
We have played for around two and a half years.  The bike messengers of Osaka started it.

How many people play in your city?
In Osaka, they are about 25 people playing.

How often do you play?
We play 3 times a week for around 3 hours.

Tell us about your courts
It is the ground for street hockey so it slides really well.  It is about 800 square metres.  This is the only court we use and there is no charge to use it.

What have you found works to get new people playing polo in your city?
Usually an introduction from a friend.  Also the BMX riders and the fixed riders saw it and were interested.

Has your city hosted any tournaments or are you hosting any soon?
Osaka hosted the Japan Cup in 2011 .  The Japan Cup is held every year around October.

Have many people in your club have played in other countries?
There is a person who played in Seattle and Vancouver in last year.

Bike Polo: more man love in more places since 1998

This is a community service announcement brought to you by GOALHOLE.

Photograph by Bennett Rust

When Kristine finds spare time in her busy schedule of providing haute couture for hobos and breast feeding her cat, she is being a menace down at musgrave park in Brisbane. She plays as hard, if not harder than any of the lads and can out drink the park locals.  Here’s a little more about Kristine.

City:  Brisbane, Australia

Team:  DYGDOYMLT (Do you go down on your mum like that)

Years played:  2

Super power:  Slashing

Favourite heckle: Fist the court!

Bike:  Unknown brand, freewheel with dual brake and a massive ratio

Mallet:  Ski pole with uncapped generic head with side cut-outs

Protection:  Gloves, knee pads and shin guards

What do you love most about bike polo?
The amazing people.

If you missed our last player profile on Scott dMello, you can access it here.

By Virginia Castellan and Jamie Barber

Owner:   Jamie Barber

City:   Brisbane

Frame/ Fork:  eighth inch scrambler v2. Size large (58cm top tube)

Bars:  C-UNiT bars with vans grips. 5 cent piece bar ends

Seatpost:   No name seatpost with a turbo saddle

Pedals:   Plastic Odyssey flats with BO-Gear ‘Strap-ons’. I have had the same set of strap ons for nearly 2 years. Have only had the 2 sets since I started playing polo nearly 4 years ago.

Cranks:  Milwaukee 35t with bashguard and Sugino cranks. I stripped my previous cranks assembling them drunkenly at worlds. Luckily I was able to buy some second hand down at the courts the same day.

Sprocket: piece of shit 22t dicta, seems like I am buying a new one every 3 months or so, should just buy a white industries one.

Brakes:  Tektro long pull on the front, my rear is a Campagnolo Mirage I requisitioned from my AIS road bike. I was having a lot of troubles running my front brake with a 26 inch wheel, I was too lazy to fit v-brake mounts, the brakes often rubbed the tyre, causing the side walls to wear. I filed the brake arms a little, now they have a few mm more reach, I still have to shave a bit off the top of my brake pads so that they won’t rub though. Paul dual lever.

Front wheel/tyre: Velocity 26 inch, 48 spoke. CST ‘Traveller’ 1.5 inch tyre. I really like the responsiveness of the 26 inch. I was riding 700c, but one week I had a flat and used a mate’s 26 on the front, I really liked the feel and haven’t gone back.

Rear wheel/tyre: I think it is an Alex rims, not sure of the hub. Brought it brand new 2 years ago off a guy who ‘upgraded’ to an aerospoke. Has stayed true with only truing since I have had it, it only cost 40$.

Why did you choose this bike?
At the time I chose this bike, it was one of the first polo specific bikes in Brisbane. There really wasn’t a lot to choose from. I had read positive reviews from people doing fixed freestyle and polo that they were a good starting frame. I wanted something sturdy but cheap, something I wouldn’t be afraid of having damaged when travelling. They were one of the cheapest bikes available at my local bike store, so I brought one.

How long have you played on this bike for? Have you played on anything else?
I began riding fixed after losing my licence in early 2008. The prime minister at the time was giving everyone free cash. I purchased a Bianchi Pista, which I played on with drops for a while. It was completely impractical and I eventually brought an Avanti Pista for polo and freestyle riding. That bike is still used by rob in Brisbane, super light aluminium with carbon forks and has played in all 4 Australian nationals. I have played on my current bike for maybe 18 months, maybe closer to 2 years.

What are the best things about your bike?
It was cheap. I am not afraid of it breaking. I have been able to travel the world with it. My daily commute takes me across a golf course, I can get some pretty serious air off some of the grass mounds. That is usually the highlight of my day. Some of my best memories took place on that bike; doing the ‘PoloCat’ race before the London Open, riding down to the lake at Worlds in Seattle and the strip club in Adelaide.

What are the worst things about your bike? What would you change?
Part of me really just wants a pretty bike with awesome componentry. Once or twice a week, I go into Gear Brisbane and froth over the custom Colossi that Kristine is putting together. It is the nicest machine I think I have ever seen, but I know I just wreck nice things. The bike is super reliable, I will ride it into the ground.

By Jamie Barber

If you missed last week, we took a look at Brook Tait-Styles bits

Plans for the Australasian Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship 2013 have stalled as both Christchurch and the Gold Coast removed their expressions of interest to host the tournament.

Representatives from both cities have written to the Australasian Hardcourt Bike Polo Association to officially withdraw their expressions of interest and declined to place an official bid to host the tournament for 2013.

Christchurch representatives withdrew due to most players having constraints on their time in the next year, including completing of studies and the rebuilding houses and businesses after last years devastating earthquake.

“[Christchurch] are critically aware of the amount of work required to organise this event successfully and do not feel that 2013 is going to be a suitable year for our club to commit to this workload.  Many of our players are completing studies in this timeframe and some will be re-building homes and businesses within the next 12-18 months, following the enormous amount of demolition going on here post earthquake.”

Christchurch's home courts

The Gold Coast‘s statement has pointed to ongoing set backs, including the loss of their home courts at Miami High, as the reason for withdrawing their bid.

“[The GC] are still developing the sport on the coast and are working towards hosting a few social tournaments. We’ve had a lot of set backs since returning from Nat’s this year. For a tournament on this scale alot of factors have to line up finical [sic], political, amenities etc just to name a few.”

The GC's home courts at Miami High which have now been revoked.

These sudden withdrawals leaves a void as no other bids have been made. The deadline for expressions of interest has passed, only the Gold Coast and Christchurch indicated they would bid. The Australasian Hardcourt Bike Polo Association (Jedi Council), are now determining the timeframe for new expressions of interest and bids.

To express interest in hosting the AHBPC 2013 contact your local representative and refer to the bidding process outline on bikepolo.com.au

For more info on the AHBPA and who your local representative is see our previous article on the Jedi Council .

by Oliver Wykeham

6 May 2012

A very strange thing happened at polo.. not only did most people turn up on time, a lot of them were early!

Chris Zito had a bit of a leaving the country garage sale going on.

Jamie practised tricks..  Daniel watched on in amazement

Jamie pulled off a trick.  Daniel ignored him.

Danos (the bike mechanic) convinced other people to change his tube for him.  Daniela bowed to his authority.

Finally the games started!

We played some awesome polo.

and then some more

It got dark so we put the lights on

Tsz’s wheels started doing crazy things..  I realised it was time for me to leave.

Sydney Bike Polo play at Alexandria Park every Sunday from 2.30pm and every Thursday from 7pm. Check their website for more details.

By Virginia Castellan

Well what can I say about Scotty?  There’s a lot I really want to write but I know that he will send this to his Mum.  I met her at AHBPC 2012 and she is really lovely so I will try to hold back.  Nobody is better at not giving a fuck that Scotty.  Pretty much every photo of every game of AHBPC 2011 had Scotty in the background, laying across the barriers, one arm under his head, sunglasses on, absolutely motionless despite the action in front of him. NASFWG, indeed.  Here’s a little more about Scotty.

City:  Perth

Team:  NASFWG (Not a single fuck was given)

Years played:  1

Super power:  Not giving a fuck

Favourite heckle: I beat Ned in the joust! I beat Ned in the joust!

Bike:  Charge frame, freewheel with dual brake and 30:18 ratio

Mallet:  Fixcraft with uncapped head with closed sides

Protection:  Gloves and a face mask

What do you love most about bike polo?
People

If you missed our last player profile on William Jetnikoff, you can access it here

By Virginia Castellan

A couple of weeks ago we took a look at bike polo in Bangkok, Thailand.  This time we hear about the bike polo scene in Singapore from Acit Salbini of  PEONFX.  PEONFX (which stands for People on Fix) is an independent lifestyle company producing cycling inspired clothing, products & accessories.

Tell us a little bit about Singapore
Some 5 million people live in Singapore, of whom 2.91 million were born locally. Singapore is highly urbanised but almost half of the country is covered by greenery. More land is being created for development through  land reclamation. We are a republic and Singapore has a tropical rainforest climate with no distinctive seasons, uniform temperature and pressure, high humidity, and abundant rainfall. We have a good transportation system and great roads to ride our bikes.

When and how did polo start here?
It was in 2009 when PEONFX started and riding fixed gear was relatively new. Aside from just riding, we wanted to introduce new activities involving our fixed gear bikes. We came across bike polo over at some websites and we’ve decided to produce our own mallets, since there is none available in the stores here. We started out with a very small group of people and we fell in love with the sport.

How many people play in your city?
At present there are no teams available in Singapore. When I was stationed in Macau for a good year, bike polo in SIngapore did not get any further as it seems that we are the only one with the mallets.  So when we organized bike polo clinics whenever we could, we have a handful of familiar faces that would attend and play with the new comers. I do hope the number would grow and that there would be other enthusiast that would take up the sport and expand it further.

How often do you play?
Not often to be honest, we did not get much support from the sports organizations here and there is no place( or court ) that we can call our own. We were chase out by the police at times when resident complain of us using the car park.  Or the police would say this basketball court is meant for basketball games only.  They see us as nuisance and vandals to public property.

Tell us about your courts
Cement courts, we would hijack the basketball or the netball courts that’s available islandwide and, at times, the multi story carpark.  Its a decent size, enough for 6 bikes to manoeuvre around for a decent game of polo.  Our games are organized in a rather guerrilla approach.

What would help to get new people playing polo in your city?
A whole lot more of support and exposure of the sport would definitely get people to play. And I believe that if we have the facilities and also the equipment readily available in stores… it will definitely help grow the sport.

Are there any other clubs nearby?
I dont think there’s any. We do have some groups that would play as a team whenever we organize bike polo sesh but they do not take it up seriously as they are depending on us for the polo mallets.  When we play together It’s usually casual. We would love to expand this further as and when we could and have the time and place to play.

Has your city hosted any tournaments or are you hosting any soon?
At the meantime, no tournaments as yet but we do hope to get more support from the sports councils here to grant us a place to play, then perhaps we can take it from there for more bike polo games and exposure.

Have many people in your club have played in other countries?
Unfortunately none. I guess my aim is to expose the sports further to the people here.

What is the future for bike polo in Singapore?
It will take a while for bike polo to break into Singapore. As said, it would need support from the sports councils here. We made our own mallets, it may not be the best but it pretty alright to date. We never charge for rental because that’s not our aim from the start. We do hope that we have more time to expose the sports further and we do hope that others out here in Singapore would do more and who knows, take the lead in exposing and spreading the sports to the masses.

If you want to see Singapore bike polo in action, check out this great video filmed and edited by Acit –  https://vimeo.com/37536016

Answers by Acit Salbini

Questions by Virginia Castellan

you’re not trying hard enough!

This is a community service announcement brought to you by GOALHOLE.

Having more wind up than a kitchen timer, William is the current Australasian record holder for the most mallets snapped ever.  He’s always ready to hug it out and for a vegan, he certainly gets a lot of meat on his shots.  There’s not much more I can say about William that won’t get me into trouble.  Here’s a little more about William.

City:  Melburn

Team: Melbourne Anchor

Years played:  Since the dawn of time (I’m still not great)

Super power:  ”Kapow” and great hugs and jack knife and breaking mallets

Favourite heckle:  “More hugs and more smiles” and “this game needs more science and fire”

Bike:  Jetnikoff bicycle co, freewheel with dual brake and 36:20 ratio

Mallet:  Northern standard, with capped head

Protection:  Norton 2012

What do you love most about bike polo?
What I love about bike polo is the people that play that make me happy

William has a bike shop – check it out here

If you missed our last player profile on Dave Bell you can access it here.

By Virginia Castellan

(credit to Donald Graham for the kitchen timer reference)