The week of Dallas Cycle Chic came to a close last Sunday with a Dallas Bike Polo game at Glencoe Park in Dallas.   I met Dylan Holt and several other bike polo guys who were eager to talk about the sport and also get you on a bike to try it out. Some of Bike Friendly Knox Henderson was on hand to watch too but I’m not sure if they got Wooly on the court or not.  Amanda (Dallas Cycle Chic) was fierce as you can see in the photo above.

The Dallas Bike Polo crew A bunch of great guys to be sure and I learned quite a bit about the sport as well as some of the geographical cultural nuances.  For instance in Austin, and many other parts of the country, people tend to play on bikes with 700c or even 27″ wheels, which are best suited for defense. In Dallas and Denton bike polo is mostly played on mountain bikes with 26″ wheels, which are ideal for maneuverability.  In this area they also tend to use freewheel and not fixed and also incorporate a rear hand brake. The popular gear ratio, if I remember correctly, is 32 x 18.

In these parts is still a bit of a guerrilla sport at the moment because they don’t have an official place to play. It’s pretty much show up at a tennis court and  set up and then hope a bunch of tennis players don’t crash the party.  They’re pursuing something more deliberate and permanent.

The green tennis court is an ideal backdrop for taking photos and I was please with several of the photos.  Usually the solar glare on concrete is blinding and washes everything out, so the green background eliminates the effects of full sunlight.

I’ll let the photos provide the rest of the commentary but the short version is Bike Polo is an exciting sport to watch, a fun one to photograph, and is very user friendly. Yet another cool thing you might see if you’re biking in Dallas.

- Chris

Bicycle Polo is a global sport that originated in the late 1800s.  Wikipedia has a pretty good history with ample links to other resources here.