Publisher's Statement
Two or three times a week, my friends and I get together at an inner-city playground. Canned beer is passed around freely and cigarette smoke wafts in the air. Trash talk and dirty jokes are not only appreciated, but encouraged. And anyone who shows up with a new component, messenger bag or any sort of bicycle accessory becomes the object of a “show and tell” inquiry.
The game is hardcourt bike polo, a mutation of the original sport “Sagol Kangjei” from northern India, played on bicycles on unused basketball, hockey and tennis courts, so commonly found in urban areas. The fact that there are so many of these sport-specific facilities being repurposed by an emerging underground activity is remarkable. It’s at once an indicator of modern society’s wastefulness, and a testament to the creativity and resourcefulness of everyday people.
But as I sit and contemplate bike polo, I find it truly interesting how sports have the potential to both align and divide people around the world. On the one hand, many people in the nearby cities of Pittsburgh and Cleveland genuinely dislike each other because of the rivalry between their respective American football teams. On the other hand, there’s not a single bike polo player from Pittsburgh that doesn’t think of the entire Cleveland crew as friends. And vice versa.
And so when I recently saw a forum post advertising the first annual Japanese Hardcourt Bike Polo Tournament, I made the executive decision to sponsor the event with t-shirts, hats and magazines. It’s something that we can barely afford to do, given our upstart status and the struggling economy, but I know that without even meeting Riki and the Tokyo crew, we’re already friends.
Urban Velo issue #21, September 2010. Dead tree print run: 5000 copies. Issue #20 online readership: 55,000+