London Calling

One of my my favorite sites to haunt is the London FG/SS polo sub-forum. While not the goliath that bikepolo.ca has been, it's one of the european polo hubs on the net. Not only does London have one of (if not the) largest polo scenes in the world, but their style of play seems quite different from us norteamericanos. We play big courts, freewheels, and slapshots, while they primarily ride fixed, play smaller courts, and (from videos I've seen) put emphasis on passing/short game as opposed to breakaways. This is, coincidentally, more similar to the Bloomington style of play.

What is it they say... the proof is in the pudding? Well, here's a plethora of London polo bikes posted on the FGSS forum. There are a ton more bikes/photos on the site, this is just a small sampling of the ones I like for some reason or another. Check out lfgss.com if you're ever bored (or if leagueofbikepolo.com is slow that day).


The polo bikes of London.






















Also, here's a few other gems found in the polobike thread.


28 tooth! atwentymotherfuckingeighttoothcog! Thought I was special with 23t. Especially awesome considering there are chainrings smaller than that!!



Polo-specific disc brake + protector. I can't think of anyone over here that uses disc brakes...maybe some of the mtb riders from Arizona, but apparently a few of the euros do.



^"Happy dinosaur track ends"?


And a nice bike + cat photo. I love how the owner put as much thought into their cat's stairway and bed as they did their own polo bike.




This shot is apparently from Stockholm. Those svedes definitely have some class. Cool color, chromed out, MKE pologuard- hell, even the disk wheel is cut clean.


However, the Germans have us all beat. Check out this rig from Karlsruhe.






Sweet bikes from across the pond. Hopefully we'll get to play some of these teams soon... Berlin '10 Worlds anyone??

W.

Photos from the St. Louis Lock-In!

The Lock-In was more fun than can be described in words. I'm glad so many people from Bloomington were able to experience quality polo in the most fun of settings. Many thanks are due to Lucky and the rest of the STL crew for organizing the whole event, Drew and the Lexington crew for the ski poles, Minneapolis for the hospitality, and pretty much every city that showed up! I think this might qualify for the worlds longest/largest game of pickup. Games were 14 to 15 deep most of the night, though it slowed down to about 8 game back by morning.

Below are a few photos that Bloomington's own "Lightning Lembo" took at the Lock-In. His Flickr can be found here.



































Also, here are some photos posted over on the Lexington forum by Drew (thanks for the ski poles!) and the rest of that crew. Really cool people that we'll definitely be having some friendlies with soon! Sounds like have a good thing going on down in those Kentucky hills.


























I found these photos here on what I believe is a one of the Chicago player's flickr account. Thanks to whoever took 'em, they're really good shots!





















I'd write more about it all but honestly I'm still too tired.

Damn that was fun though! Let's do it again next month?

-W.