On Sino San Interview

Sino San Interview at Kinkfolk Bar, January 27 th 2009.
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David; How many deliveries you do in a day ?
Sino San.; at the moment, the economy is not so good, so I do about 20 a day, but when the business is good, I do at least 30 deliveries a day. One month ago, all the companies were not doing so good, so I did around 15 a day. I don t have more time off then, just longer lunch brakes.

D.; You like to go to see keirin races sometimes. Have you ever wanted to race against keirin racers ?
S.; No. I never competed with keirin racers. But there was a race called bike carnival 1 Month ago. It was a race with national university students and good racers, such as future olympics racers… So very well skilled people. And I had a race with them and I won.
Actually they had handicaps because they were very good, but I won.
The good part of the bike carnival event, is that this race is welcoming university students, bike messengers, keirin riders, and regular people…
For example, 2 years ago, there was the silver medalist of the world championship, and he went very fast, almost like a motorcycle.

D.; Were you interested to try to become a keirin rider ?
S.; I Love keirin, but you have to go to the keirin school. They have a very hard discipline, almost like a jail… So I didn t want to become a keirin rider for this reason. But there is this world cup velodrome championship, and I want to become the champion for this event.
So I started to prepare myself… I try to participate to all the events, twice a month, so I can train at the velodromes…
Until the Cmwc., I ll still focus on the World Cup… But now, I train for the Cmwc, then for the velodrome championship. I always want to challenge for a new event.

D.; So are you preparing yourself more physically, as you already know the city well ?
S.; I don t specially train, I m just Working…
I just want to keep the good balance as an athlete and the messenger. As my personality, if I want to be someone, I just concentrate about it… But now, I m a Messenger. If I really want to be an athlete, then I ll stop drinking alcohol, and I ll be very strict. But I love drinking, so… There s a party at the Cmwc., and I like to drink with my Friends… That s the joy of my life. If I stop drinking, I won t be happy.
Wining is an important thing, but in fact, what is really important is how you win. I can t sacrify everything for wining. I want to enjoy things I like first, then win. Because life is only one time.


D.; Do you have hobbies besides bicycle ?
S.; Watching films. At home.

D.; Do you like to travel ?
S.; I don t go to Travel a lot, but with the Cmwc.. A lot of messengers are doing the same.

D.; What was one of the strangest delivery you had to do ?
S.; It s difficult… There was a moment where I ve been called after work at night… Someone called the office and asked for a very fast delivery to a shipping company. The package was for Nagoya, but I was requested to deliver this presentation documents at night, so it could arrive before the morning… If I would have been late, then it wouldn t have any value… There was a deadline. So the person at the delivery company was waiting for me…
And I also had to deliver some flowers for a wedding. That was not an usual delivery, but the most unusual thing was to deliver some private people and not companies… It was kind of a surprise for me. And people at the wedding were happy too. I think the best way to deliver flowers at a wedding is with a Bike…when I went through Rainbow Bridge where bicycle is not allowed, it was thrilling and I remember it well.

D.; Have you ever been injured ?
S.; Not lately, but when I started this job, I was injured quite a lot during the first 2 years. I was not aware of bike riding by then. When there was a curve, I was speeding up... I was younger… And there was not so many cars… But even now I still think as if I was younger… I m 29 years old now. I still want to speed up sometimes, but I try not to… It s too dangerous and I don t want to be injured, and that s not cool. I still cross the red light because of the hurry conditions, but I will keep the basic rules in mind to not hurt anyone… But during an alleycat, I will not care about the traffic.

D.; Are there people you like ? Even in other domains than bicycle ?
S.; I only concentrate into bicycle world. There s a fighter of K1 wrestling; Kid Yamamoto. He s a middle class fighter. He s a cool guy. He has charisma. He rides track bikes too. He s very friendly. I liked him before, and I started to like him more after I met him. Some people are arrogant once they start to be known. This guy is not like this, and I also want to be like this later.

Q.what is the strangest delivery you ever made
A. when I went through Rainbow Bridge where bicycle is not allowed, it was
thrilling and I remember it well.

Q. toughest day at work
A. When it started to rain in a Very cold day even the weather forecast didn't
say so and I had to work without raincoat in such a day.

Q. best memory of alleycat
A. When I tried for the very first time at Mixpression. I won the race.
When I went to Toronto for CMWC, I tried the first alleycat in overseas,
it was really great.

Q.messenger community in tokyo
A.Many messenger ride bike together at alleycat and all kinds of bike
events even if you work at different messenger companies.  We still have
small number of messengers but I hope this community will grow more in the
future especially after the CMWC.

Q.do you think you can win monster track
A. I think it's gonna be tough.  try to win the race in other city is much
more difficult than winning in home city.  Austin, my good friend and good
rival, is very fast too.  Also there are lots of other really fast riders.
There are lots of messengers I respect.  But I still believe there's a
chance to win so I will do my best.

© David Wolff - Patrick

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A big thank you to Shizuka San and Sino San from the Bicycle Film Festival.