Bike polo
 

Im planning on playing this sunday in chicago, Humbolt park. This will be my first time

Any of you guys play? Tips? Should I go fixed or not?

Playing on a tennis court.

I want to get into this, but I value both of my bikes too much and I don't have the space to build a beater.

My only hint as a watcher rather than a player is to ride a bike that you don't particularly care about and keep the gear inches low.

guess I'll be taking the gf's bike then :D

Wheels are easy to unintentionally destroy with a polo mallet, so use the cheapest you can find.

finally a thread i care about...

lots of folks ride fixed for polo. i use a 650b coaster brake and love it. much easier to chase a ball into the boards if i don't have to worry about skidding. i would strongly recommend risers or flat bars. drop bars are hard to play with and bull horns are dangeroso. there is a 83% you will destroy one, if not both, of your wheels.

are you playing with the regular chicago crew? or with another group?

enjoy. the most fun to be had on two wheels that also involves a mallet.

check this site: http://www.hardcourtbikepolo.com/

there you can find rules, how-to's, reference, etc.

I believe there are some chicago locals who play. look them up. in particular, look up a fellow named Ben.

GL

I just started playing bike polo with some friends i love it

any good how tos on making mallets?

also found on the hardcourt link chombo pasted. also found on www.nycbikepolo.com

chombo, was ben the dude who played in ESPI 2 on the mini bike with the backwards fork? that dude keeelled it.

yeah, that's him. he's up on 700's now, beware! he's a f*ckin shark.

btw we're still takin a road trip down to you guys before the ESPI.
you guys around the end of this month?

http://chicagobikepolo.com/

these are the guys I'm playing with. I've been emailing Andy back and forth for a day or two.

I'll be riding a motebecane 29er with 700c 32 and cut down risers. it's a bike I got and modified for my GF but she HATES riding so it just sits here now.

we'd love for you guys to come down. some of us were talking about going down to slaughterama in richmond for their sunday polo tourney on that last weekend of march. it'd be rad if you guys came down then and we did some pick up on saturday then all went to richmond for the sunday tourney. i've got a floor and comfy fouton for a few of you to crash on to keep costs down.

thats ben with the beard in the header photo on that page.

Got this link from "OT: Track bikes' last night

http://208bikepolo.blogspot.com/2007...raft-time.html

im going to get slaughtered lol it'll be awesome

all of us got slaughtered our first times out. it takes a little getting used to, but after a couple of times out, you'll get a lot better.

We started playing here in Ann Arbor every Sunday..til winter hit. Now that it's warming up it's time to start it up again..

We have a good size group playing here in Macon now. The bike scene is starting a revolution in Macon, Ga. A year and half ago, no one rode bikes around the town unless you were homeless. Now, we have a pretty good size scene coming together. We finally found a good central spot downtown to play and it grabbed a lot of attention from passers by. A bunch of people either stopped or slowed down to watch. Back on topic though, build you a comfortable beater. I prefer to use risers for the bars so nothing gets in the way. Also, just get some super cheap wheels are get some thin plastic and make wheel covers. You don't want to break spokes if you can help it.

a side bit of advice for those starting up in their town:

make good friends with the locals. the deli owners, the neighborhood families, the homeless, whatever.
take good care of the space you use. get involved with the local community.

it really helps.

werd you can just be like raawwwrrr bike polo

Very true! Clean up after yourself and don't wreck anyone's property.

Come down to Slaughterama yalls!

Great thread.

Has anyone started playing in Portland yet?
I need to build a mallet. Anyone have instructions? I was planning on going to the goodwill and buying some old ski poles. What about the mallet, most the ones I saw look like PVC plastic that has been drilled.

I read the rules on one of those sites. Man some people are too into this. Half the appeal to polo around here is it is low key and looks fun.

-EDIT-
Just found mallet instructions:
http://www.hardcourtbikepolo.com/?page_id=6

Use ABS (It's the black stuff), PVC (usually white) will shatter to easily. 1 1/2" diameter. I bought 10' of it for ~$3.00. I've probably got 6' left.
There's a link posted above to the how-to page on http://208bikepolo.blogspot.com.

Where is everyone getting these rear wheel covers? It looks like they are zip tied on. I can't find the right kind of plastic to make some. Someone told me you can buy them online but where? Do they work for the front too?

I plan on buying some plastic from a place that specializes in it, then just cutting it out and zip tying it. I have a junky old front wheel to put this on, and just let it be permanent. Ill just have to risk the spokes on the back.