more polo.

6 times year one of our favorite publications comes out, Urban Velo. We really can't express how much we enjoy the magazine itself or how much respect we have for Jeff and Brad for putting it all together and how great they are to work with it. We've highlighted a number of items so far this year in it; from the Halo Reflective Rims, to our ability to custom build wheels to your exact specification and need, and last issue the Bottle Trap. In this installment, since Matt and a few others of the GR crew making it to the Midwest 8 tournament in Minneapolis and being on the verge of the North American Tournament in Madison here in July; we wanted to simply say thanks to everyone in MPLS for a stellar time and advocate a bit for more to join in on this growing subculture of cycling.

Waaay back in June, we had the privilege to be part of another bicycle polo tournament down in Indiana. It was the first ever Indiana Invitational presented by the Bloomington Bike Polo crew, held in Bloomington, IN on the Indiana University campus. With a strong showing of around 60 players representing 7 states it's easy to say that it was a success. The tournament even garnered enough attention that the local paper did a write up on it. Check it out, in what I'll call great polo fashion the article seems to give a great snap shot of the growing polo culture.

We contributed one of our handbuilt Chukker wheelsets to the tournament, which ended up being awarded to the MVP of the day, Ben from St. Louis Dignified Gentlemen. The Dignified Gents also went on to win the tournament by beating the Butt Suckers from Columbus, Ohio. A great day for the Lou', and from all accounts a great event and time for everyone involved. Next time hopefully it works out for us to get a team together and head down.

For more pictures from the event, check out the comment section of their post or see a few here.

GR Polo Night.

Last night was the regular bike polo night here in Grand Rapids. With impending thunder storms and need for refreshment along with some food a few of us headed over to one of our favorite spots in GR, Founders Brewery, for a little pre-game.

Matt really isn't that gruff, this is more of a look of bliss. A Founders sandwich and a brew, it's hard to beat.

After hanging out for a bit there we headed to the courts. Fortunately, where our courts are located are under Grand Rapids' S-Curve near the downtown GVSU campus, so as clouds began to form the court was going to stay dry although that still means people have to venture out in it.

Sorry, had to take a cliche mallet shot.

During a break in the action while we waited for more to join in.

Sorry no action shots, we were all too busy playing. We ended up just having 2 on 2 games for around 2.5 hours, in which we had the privilege of having some of GR's finest come down and watch for a bit. One being the our local CSI officer, apparently no 'back and to the left' crime scenes to investigate.


Flats seem to be the theme of the day. Bob was the first to have one after skidding through his back tire and then what ended up ending the polo session, Casey getting a mysterious flat just before the lights gave out for a moment. All in all, it was a great night for polo.

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Since we've got polo on the mind today. There are 3 events that we would love to let everyone in on:

- This weekend, June 19th, in Bloomington, Indiana; the Indiana Invitational presented by Bloomington Bike Polo.

- July 10th-11th in Burlington, VT; the Last Stand Waterfront Bike Polo Tournament being put on by the Burlington Hardcourt Bike Polo crew.

At both of these events you will have the chance win some of our polo approved Chukker wheelsets!

Finally, mark your calendars, make your hotel reservations to make your pilgrimage to one of the bicycling Meca's in Madison, Wisconsin for the North American Hardcourt Bicycle Polo Champoinships on July 16th-18th. If you thought the Midwest 8 tournament was big, the North American should probably blow your mind!

Bike Polo: A Cycling Sport from Zach Cost on Vimeo.

Another Tuesday... another day of videos.

There is a project coming out here shortly called 'To Live & Ride in L.A.' being put out by the guys over at Trafik. It's another film that we've had privileged to be apart of and look forward to seeing the completed product. It's being billed as '... a new documentary feature that explores a side of L.A. few outsiders have seen. From races through rush-hour traffic to midnight loft parties, To Live & Ride in L.A. is a fast paced-trip through the busy streets and back-alleys of one of the world's largest cities.'; in short, a film on the fixed gear cycling community of L.A.

To Live & Ride In L.A. [Teaser B] from TRAFIK on Vimeo.

This morning as I made my normal rounds of blogs and websites, I stumbled onto a video from Milano Fixed. With World Cup fever mounting around the world and possibly being the only member of the Velocity crew interested, I was immediately intrigued by the title of the video bring together two of my loves futball [or soccer] and bicycles. '... Trackbike Football'.

NIKE TRACKBIKE FOOTBALL (NTF2010) from YUHZIMI on Vimeo.

Then landing on this video...

Which then led to quick conversation about the videos with JBolt who quickly reminded me that I was far behind the times of Rad Ball or Cycle ball. Although this branch of cycling intrigues me, I think I'll stick with Bike polo. A game that I am at best, mediocre.

Bicycle Polo film from JeanGa Becker on Vimeo.

A little Polo talk.

As the world knows, or at least a few of us, Blogger had some issues yesterday and instead of fighting with it more, I decided to walk away from the Interweb-box so for today, let's talk a little polo. Mentioned two weeks ago, the Midwest Bike Polo Championships went down over in Minneapolis and our GM, Matt, headed over to compete with a few other of the Grand Rapids crew. It didn't take long for pictures to start to surface from this event, you can check some of those out here and here.


The GR team seems to have successfully stayed off of all photo blogs and sites on event; having only one photo of two of the 3 members caught in action, sort of.


The North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships are going on coming up here in July across the lake in Madison, Wisconsin. The Midwest Championships had 44 teams make it out and from the message boards it looks like crews from Seattle and some from the east and south will be venturing up to make this another great event.

Bicycle Friends Falling from Mr.Do on Vimeo.

Sure the video isn't from either MWBPC, NAHBPC or any of the previous years but that never hurt anyone.

Finally, this past month we were contacted by a new magazine down in Austin, The Dropout. Their latest issue was released yesterday and will eventually make it's way to view/read online. There's rumors of a Halo write up there, check it out and their previous issues.

Polo

By no means will I try to say that Grand Rapids is at the forefront of this little movement called Bike Polo but that's not to say we don't have a great amount of growing excitement with anything involving the bicycle.

I've mentioned this before but this past summer a group, including few Velocity guys helping to get the ball rolling on it [JBolt and Matt], started meeting up and playing, by the end of the fall it became a 2 night a week affair, under the S-Curve by the GVSU downtown campus.

With West Michigan getting a taste of spring this last week, Bike Polo is back! The past two weekends have had the games begin again and should make for another exciting year of Polo. More information on GR Bike Polo, along with times and dates, can be found on the Facebook page.

A quick bike polo video for you from the Dallas crew: