A Month? Really?!

Gentle readers, I apologize for the delay in recent posts.  I like to keep the blog as tight as possible, with at least weekly updates despite being halfway around the world.  In this regard, I have failed at Pedal Power these past few weeks.  

Why?  Well, preparing 700 bikes for the Velo-City Global 2010 Conference is one big reason.  I blame Baisikeli.  Check out this video to get a sense of why this might be so...and practice your Danish before you watch.  If you just can't be bothered to watch all thirteen riveting minutes, there is a very silly interview with me at around minute 7.  

På rundtur med Niels from Henrik Mortensen on Vimeo.

The bikes have been prepared, of course, for the Velo City Global 2010 conference, the largest conference on bicycling in the world.  All of Copenhagen has been busy preparing the city for the largest influx of cycling experts in history.  

Copenhagen is getting ready from Velo-city Global 2010 on Vimeo.

Finally, one of most exciting excuses for my recent lapse in posting is the creation of a new blog.  It's called "Community Powered Cycling," and it's a joint effort between myself, Joshua Gorman, and Kyle "Wild Arms" Wagenschutz.  As the Watson winds down (I will arrive back in Memphis in two weeks!), I will begin to post more and more to the CPC blog. 

Finally, I have of course been engaged in a ridiculous amount of bicycle polo here in Copenhagen.  This week, in conjunction with the Velo City Conference, we will play a polo tournament in the City Center to determine who in fact are the grand masters of the Copenhagen Polo Universe.  Stay tuned for results, but in the meantime check out this video about CPH Bike Polo.  

Se klippet "ASPHALT: Cykelpolo - en gentlemansport" på Pirat TV

       

Where it all Started

It was London, actually.  And this tournament in particular:  

BFF 2009 Bike Polo Tournament Final from Iain Pate on Vimeo.

Well, more than just the tournament, it was the community and the people and the films and the city all combined into one that led me to love bicycle polo.  The Bike Polo Tournament at the London Bicycle Film Festival in September 2009 was the beginning of my addiction to bicycle polo because the community was so strong and the people were kind.  Plus the polo was amazing.  People slaying and people playing some of their first games for hours and hours and hours at the Downham courts.  The day before the tournament, we played all day.  The day after, too.  

Go London.  Keep up the good work.  I'll see you at the Worlds.   

Shanghai Bike Polo

Last week, my English friend Yanis and I set out across Shanghai in search of a place to play a bit of pick-up polo.  I was fiending for a game, even a game of one on one, as I hadn't had a chance to play since leaving Australia.  So while Yanis had never even heard of bicycle polo before meeting me, much less played, he was still keen to have a go if we could find a place.  So he on his ladies cruiser with a front basket and rear luggage carrier and me on my Giant ATX cheap Chinese mountain bike, we set out in search of a smooth, flat surface.  

Heading north through the city, we reached the river before I realized I'd forgotten the ball.  Unimpressed with what we saw heading north, I suggested we head south from the hostel.  It turned out to be a great idea.  With the tower of Isengard in the distance (see the pointy spire rising upwards into the sky), we found the perfect, rounded, recessed surface; a place seemingly made for bicycle polo. 

The court, a public square (circle) in front of the Metropolitan Theatre, seemed an unlikely place to have a polo match.  It was too open, too public.  But as Yannis and I observed a half dozen skateboarders grinding the marble stairs we thought, all things considered, smashing a small rubber ball around and off the steps would be fairly harmless.   

Turns out we were right...sort of.  That day, as Yanis and I rode around playing one on one, the police and local security guards all passed us by.  None of them gave us a thought, much less a look.  The people who did give us a hard glance were mostly intrigued.  And so it was with great joy that I texted Tyler with the news that I'd found a fantastic, central spot to play some polo.

Tyler created a post detailing the space and calling for a session on the upcoming Sunday.   The stage was set for epic bike polo. 

And then the police showed up.  

Actually, it was the security guards who turned up first, blowing their whistles and speaking Shanghainese at me.   I didn't have to pretend I didn't understand.  But as more polo freaks turned up, polo freaks who could speak Shanghainese, it became clear that they wanted us gone.  

It wasn't necessary to speak Mandarin or Shanghainese to understand that this guy wanted my bike off the court.  Or maybe he just wanted to have a go at polo.  

It worked out quite well that the skateboarders stuck around until the police turned up.  I think it was their complicity in clearing the court that made it possible for us to stick around.  

So while skateboarding is not a crime, it turns out bike polo is less of a crime.  

At any rate, being the insolent non-conformists we are, us polo peeps didn't follow orders.  We instead stuck around until the 5-0 buzzed off.  Which meant we played some polo. 

  

Tyler has a full re-cap of the day, complete with a couple videos here.   In both videos you can watch as Rich, riding an orange fixed gear, takes me out.  Legal contact?  You decide.

Jue Hou also took some amazing photos of the day, the last two of the above set being a representative sample.   

One of the best parts of bicycle polo, in my opinion, is its ability to appeal to a variety of people.  When I turned up to polo in Melbourne, I saw a couple of older men--gray hairs, as it were (no offense, Pete!)--rolling around the court smashing the ball.  It was amazing to see older and younger people enjoying the game in a healthy spirit of competition.  When I arrived here in Shanghai, I was again pleased to see that one of the younger fellows, Nelson, had both his parent's turn up to the polo match.  Chris, Nelson's father, is pictured below.

Chris was fantastic at polo.  He rolled up to the polo match on his tricycle, which you can see on Tyler's blog, carrying the cones and assorted other polo equipment--along with his polo bike, of course.  He had such a nice style of play, bumping shoulders when necessary and shooting through gaps where possible, and he heckled me with relentless enthusiasm.  While bike polo is still primarily a sub-cultural realm dominated by bike messengers and bike freaks across the world, it's inspiring to see non-traditional bike people taking up the sport.  Here's to more diversity on the court! 

The Reason We Didn't Play Bike Polo in Beijing

Paris, 2009

BFF POLO TOURNAMENT 2009 PARIS v.01 (low quality) from Uolmo on Vimeo.

Throw-In, Throw Down Results

The downside of hosting a bicycle polo tournament is that instead of focusing on playing, or in my case playing at all, one has to focus their energy on doing stuff.  Like making sure Vive doesn't drink all the beer.  Or making sure Sam has first aid for his boo boo.  Or telling people to stop acting like monkeys with mallets.   

Or making hats for the MVPs.  

Now sure, this hat-making nonsense happened the day before the tourney.  But I bring it up, in the context of potential burdens for  a tourney organizer, mostly because it's the only bit of the whole ordeal I managed to photograph.  

 

This was the fabric, in a lump sum, that I picked up in op-shops early Monday morning.   Old shirts, suits and dresses mostly. 

This is Scott and Caff, my fearless colleagues in bike hat-manufacturing.  You can see how the dynamic of this team goes... 

 

Things did become a bit sweat-shoppy, as evidenced by this photograph of Scott feverishly at work.  We labored the whole day through, 11 til 11.  

 

Again, hard at work.  This was our prototype, produced early in the day.  I think it brings out my eyes.    

In the end, I brought the hats from Scott's house back to my place to finish the work.  My roommate Emily had a bit of expertise for finishing the hats and by 2:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning, they were ready for action. 

 

Though I completely failed at taking shots of the tournament itself, I did manage to snap a quick photo of the players warming up on the court.   Damon and a few others have some photos so stay tuned for the latest.  I'll post them here as they become available.  



Below are the tournament highlights along with a list of the rules (Adapted from our North American friends) which guided the tournament's structure.  



Thanks to everyone who came out and played, barbecued, and shared a laugh! 



These are the teams from yesterday’s tournament:
Team 1:
Scott, Melbourne, Captain
Leigh, Melbourne
Sam, Melbourne (Voted MVP)
Benny, Brisbane by way of Melbourne
Liam, Seaford OZ
Daryl, Seaford OZ
Bart, Melbourne
Simon, Seaford OZ

Team 2:
Damon, Melbourne, Captain
Niki, Belgium
Kez, Melbourne
Vive, Melbourne (Voted MVP)
Dan, U.K. by way of Melbourne
James, Seaford OZ
Caff, Melbourne
Thorin, Melbourne

Team 3:
Rob B., Melbourne, Captain
AJ, Melbourne
Rae, Melbourne (Voted MVP)
Tom, Belgium
Chris, Belgium
Maija, Toronto
Wade, Seaford
Will, Brisbane by way of Melbourne

The Day’s Highlights
The first game pitted team 1 against team 2 in a sixty minute bout of pure polo fury. After a fairly even first period, ending with team 2 leading by only two goals, team 2 quickly widened the gap and never looked back. At the end of game one, team 2 was victorious, winning 24 to 13. I would credit team 2’s victory to effective team play; namely, fluid substitutions and the ability to identify which players from their team were well suited to play specific players from team 1.

Game two saw the losing party from game one (team 1) taking on team 3. Again, the game stayed fairly close throughout the first period and a half, but then a lack of morale appeared to hinder team 1’s efforts. Having played polo for almost two straight hours, team 1 was undoubtedlyfatigued. But again, great team combinations from team 3’s bench led them to a 23 to 15 victory over team 1.

The final game saw team 2 and team 3, both victorious over team 1, squaring off in a very close, very exciting 60 minute polo match. The team play was quite good for both sides, and neither had a lead for very long at any point in the game. Defense was especially good, with heart-breaker shots being deflected or blocked at the last minute. The final minutes of the last (third) period were ferocious, with both teams putting forth their best efforts. Fast and carefully close physical play defined the closing minutes of the final match. With Team 2 behind by one goal in the final seconds of the game, a scuffle on Team 3’s end of the court led to a number of dabs and eventually a goal from Team 2. In the final seconds of the final match, Team 2 tied the game: 14 to 14. After a 5 minute break, the sudden death overtime match began: two on two, first goal wins.
Team 3 won the sudden death joust and immediately attacked. A fast and hard shot from team 3 was quickly deflected by team 2’s captain, Damon. After a bit of mid-court scuffling, team 2 took a shot and scored. Within 2 minutes of the start of sudden death, team 2 emerged victorious over team 3: 15 to 14.

Below you’ll find an adapted version of the rules for a Bench Tournament, adapted from the North American fellows preparing for a bench tourney in New York City.  

If you have any photos from the day, please post a link in the comments section.

Rules and Regs

Teams
Teams will consist of between 6 and 8 players. Teams can switch players in and out on the fly as long as there are only 3 active on the court at any time.

Game format
There will be three periods of 20 minutes per game. There will be a 2 min break in between periods, during which time each team will change to defend the opposite goal. The clock will stop only when the referee calls a penalty and after goals are scored.
A tie will result in a game restart with standard
“joust,” but teams play 2 on 2 in sudden death. Whichever team scores first gets 2 points, losers get 1 point.

Mallets
Mallets and bikes must not have dangerous protrusions (bolts sticking out, jagged edges, etc), and must be capped on the handle/handlebars.

Helmets
Helmets are required. There’s also plenty of other safety equipment out there. So don’t complain about your little fingers getting booboos when you could be wearing
gloves.

Goals
Shots must come off the business end of the mallet, unless a defensive player shuffles (or deflects off their mallet) into their own goal. They can deflect off any number of wheels, bikes or walls. Shots that deflect off a teammate’s body are considered shuffles.
Shuffles do not count unless you are shuffling into your own net. That is an own-goal, and for this tournament you’ll have at least 5 other people pissed at you for doing this, instead of the standard 2.
After a goal is scored, both teams will have a chance to switch players. The referee will whistle to begin play.

Half court will be given to scored-on team: play starts when ball or scored-on player crosses half court.

If goal gets accidentally moved a referee will fix it. Play does not stop.

Rules and Penalties
The following section is set up to first present the rule, immediately followed by the penalty (along with a description of the penalty where necessary).

Rule: Footdown
Do not put your stupid foot on the ground. Also, touching the ball or your mallet with your foot while it’s not on your pedal is considered a footdown.

Penalty: Tapout
Hit your mallet on the cone at either midcourt location. If you miss it, you need to circle back and hit it right, or you will still be out. If you go back to bench instead of tapping out, you will not be required to tap in when re-entering game.

Rule: Delay of game
Remaining active after a foot down results in a delay of game penalty. Having too many active players on the court is also a delay of game.

Penalty: Ball turnover
For delay of game penalties, the ball is given to the non-offending team exactly the way possession is granted after a goal is scored. Both teams are allowed to switch players during this time. After the referee blows the whistle to signal
start of play, the penalized team will wait until the other team either crosses mid-court with a player or the ball.

Important: some penalties will result in either a one or two minute Power Play. A Power Play requires the offending team to play with only two players for either one or two minutes while the offended team can continue playing with three players. If the offending team within the current power play incurs a second penalty resulting in a second power play, the offending team will be required to play with only one player throughout the duration of the initial offense.
 

Power Play Penalties
The One Minute Power Play
This is for when players are intentionally breaking rules (slashing, roughing, interference) or accidentally being reckless (most hooking and high sticking). When the referee sees one of these rules broken and the offending team has possession of the ball, (s)he will whistle to stop play and call it immediately. Play will stop while that player exits to the bench (the penalized player cannot play for the entire minute, while the rest of the team can switch out players as necessary as long as they only have two players on the court). If the innocent team has the ball when the penalty occurs, the ref will raise his arm for a delayed call. He will wait until the rule-breaking team gets possession to blow the whistle and make the call (this is called a delayed penalty, it’s so the innocent team doesn’t have to slow their roll.

The only time the call will be waived off is if the innocent team has the ball while being say, slashed or roughed or whatever, and ends up scoring before the other team possesses the ball. After the call is made, the teams will be playing 3 on 2 for that whole minute unless the innocent team scores during the power play, at which time the rule-breaking team can go back to using 3 players (including the original rule-breaker).

Typically, a warning will precede a power play penalty call. Warnings will be issued only once.

Rule: Hooking or holding
This includes hooking an opponents bike or person with your mallet, or holding something you shouldn’t with your hand (handlebar, elbow, mallet etc.). “Chicken winging,”
or holding someone back with your elbow is a penalty. Hooking the crook of an opponents’ elbow with your own elbow while they are holding the handlebars may cause your opponent to crash. This will earn you a one-minute penalty.
Penalty: One Minute Power Play

Rule: Roughing
Hitting someone in the back, hitting someone above the shoulders, or punching or kicking someone pretty much anywhere is considered roughing. T-boning and just riding right into someone regardless of whether they have the ball is roughing. You big goon.
Penalty: One minute Power Play

Rule: Slashing
Please don’t hit anyone anywhere at anytime with your mallet. If it bumps into their legs or bike it’s fine, but if you take a swipe at the ball and it ends up on someone’s spokes or fingers, it will be called. Chopping mallets is allowed, however if you accidentally hit someone’s finger or bicycle a penalty will be called. You can defensively hook an opponent’s mallet, lift it, or hold their mallet down with your own mallet.
Penalty: One minute power play

Rule: Unsportsmanlike conduct
Throwing your mallet (or dropping it in a conveniently bad place), being an asshole to the referee, etc…
Penalty: One minute Power Play

Note: “The Two Minute Power Play Penalty” is saved for slashing that draws blood, roughing that causes substantial injury, or malleting that causes a lot of bike damage. Pretty much any call can be extended to 2 minutess if considered severe enough.

This is reserved for slashing or roughing calls that draw blood or otherwise serious injuries (up to the refs discretion- if you get little cuts on your leg or hand from random shit and you’re not wearing appropriate gloves or padding, you will be mocked for being a big baby). This will be served just like the one min penalty, but that player will have to be out for 2 minutes.

The Bike Nerd

So deep down, I'm really a bike nerd.  

Currently, I'm working with an organization--Bicycle Victoria--that talks about "normalizing" bicycling; BV aspires to make bicycling into a mainstream activity, something we all do because it's just what we do.  When I was in Copenhagen, this mainstream-ization of cycling was apparent everywhere.  People bicycled to work and they rode for fun, never thinking that what they were doing was particularly important, or even particularly unique--at least within their own cultural context.  Creating more Copenhagens, that is increasing the ability of more people to cycle more often, is a wonderful goal.  It is part and parcel of my own personal mission.   I, and others, believe that making the bicycle into something as ordinary as a vacuum cleaner would do a lot of good for humanity.  

But it also tends to make the bike kind of boring.     

When I was in Copenhagen, I was boasting to a friend and fellow blogger about a recently acquired steel road racing frame.  I was glowing as I traced the elegant lugs with my pointer finger, giddy at the prospect of that supple steel frame gliding effortlessly beneath me.  My friend smirked and pointed out that I was a "bicycle fetishist."  I suddenly felt ashamed of my love for these simple machines, bashful about the excitement that buds in my heart when I see that little white dove on the Columbus tubing sticker.  

But the shame was momentary, gone as quickly as it had arrived.  I just love bicycles--all bicycles--and I can't help it.  I love rolling junkers that defy gravity as they're pushed up hill by dedicated riders; I love frankenbikes, cruiser bikes, folding bikes, tandem bikes and polo bikes.  And I love being able to travel across the world and observe the kaleidoscope of cultures that emerge from bicycle use.  

Enter Bicycle Polo.

A warning: proceed through this post with caution, as excessive exposure to the intricacies of mallet making and bicycle construction have been known to produce dizziness and nausea in the completely disinterested.  

I built the two mallets pictured above here in Melbourne.  Our friend Damon has accumulated a number of ski poles over the past year by scouring op-shops (thrift stores) and Savers markets (also thrift stores) in search of abandoned but usable aluminum shafts.   The mallet on the left is the first mallet I built, though it's on it's second head.  

Both mallet-heads have been attached to the shaft with a single screw threaded directly into the ski-pole.  The bolt doesn't come through at all on the opposite side of the mallet, which means the bolt provides minimal interference while handling the ball.   

This blue striped-piping has an inner diameter of 55mm and an outer diameter of 60mm.  It works well for balljointing, if that's your thing, and the bigger the piping the easier it is to actually strike the ball.   

The first head had the exact same tubing, only I had drilled the holes a bit differently.  

 

You can see that none of the holes are very close to the "business-end" of the mallet (the tip of the mallet used for taking shots and scoring).  I found that when I drilled the 3/4" holes too close to the edge, the mallet-head broke.  Literally, the round end of the mallet used for taking shots just fell apart while playing.      

This incarnation of the mallet also included a cap.  This cap, salvaged from one of Damon's old mallets, has been made from a cutting board.  It's held in place with four small screws--like 30 mm in length--driven on the top, bottom and sides.  I've found that when taking a shot using the 55mm diameter tubing without a cap, the ball tends to raise off the ground a bit.  While this can be an advantage in some situations, it's mostly annoying.  It makes otherwise accurate shots un-predictable.    

This second mallet was constructed at Tuesday night's Mallet Making Workshop.  I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera along to the workshop, but I saw Damon snap a few photos--so here's hoping he'll post them soon.  

The inner diameter of this tubing is 53mm with an outer diameter of 57mm.  Being slightly smaller than the blue-striped tubing, it's slightly lighter.  This mallet is also capped on one end, but this time the cap is made of some pretty hard but lightweight plastic salvaged from a warehouse rubbish bin.   The plastic was much thicker than the cutting board, instead of four short screws I put in two slightly wider, longer screws.  I found the smaller screws were coming loose after intense play.  Here's hoping the longer screws will stay tighter for longer. 

The left side remains uncapped and, while smaller, it's still capable of ball jointing.  

On the whole, this mallet is lighter than the first.  The biggest difference between this mallet and the first is a lack of handlebar tape underneath the hockey tape used for a grip.  Leaving the HB tape off of this mallet made it heaps lighter--which means it's much easier to swing.    

 

While the doctor has asked me to hold off on playing any bike polo for awhile, I figured it couldn't hurt to have a bike that was capable of playing polo *if* and *when* the time comes to hit the court again.  The bike pictured above is exactly that bike. 

The bike is set-up like a single speed with a slight modification.  

  

I took a rear wheel originally used with with a Shimano Uni-glide 7-speed cassette and spaced it out so that it was possible to have two different gears, 21 and 24 tooth sprockets. 

Here, the bike is pictured in the smaller of the two sprockets, meaning the chain would need more tension in this setting than in the larger sprocket.  The wheel is pulled almost all the way back in the dropouts to achieve proper tension, but that leaves plenty of space to slide the wheel forward when utilizing the larger sprocket.  

Thus, we have the commuting gear and the polo gear.  I actually stole this idea from another Melbourne polo freak called Circus Alex.  I thought it was a wonderful idea, something I hadn't yet seen, and I wanted to give it a try.  Turns out it works like a charm.   

The cockpit view.  The handlebars have rise for days, but that's quite nice for polo.  This set-up allows me to stay upright enough to see the court, get a good angle on the ball for shots, and still steal quick glances at the ball as it's pushed down the court.  

 

The bike is on loan from my friend Mark at Born Again Cycles.  I've been doing a bit of volunteer work with him, and he's been gracious enough to loan me this superb old racer for the duration of my time in Melbourne.  Have a look at his blog here.  His logo looks eerily like the Revolutions logo...but we had it first!  Our lawyers are currently in dialogue.