It was interesting to note the presence of the Geekhouse polo bike at this year’s NAHBS: it shows that builders are aware of the increasing popularity of bicycle polo.
Founded in Andorra but now headquartered in Cologne, Germany, Focale 44 is a fixed gear specialist that came on the scene with a series of modular looking off-the-peg bikes in 2009. And this is their contribution to the sport of bike polo.
Polo is an age-old aspect of our culture that, along with bicycle speedway, grass track racing and cyclocross, has existed in the background and is enjoying a resurgence thanks to the renewed interest in fixed gear culture.
Focale 44’s Polo Bike is the essential extension of their range into polo: a tidy frame, a refreshing lack of branding with a distinctly French sense of style. It’s running a short 28/17 gear ratio, with a 1” stem, narrow risers, a 48-spoke wheelset, and one hell of a laid-back seat post to enable the quick revolutions required on the court.
Thankfully, the pictures of the Focale 44 Polo Bike tell a thousand words, thanks to the eye of Benoit Guerry—one of the world’s foremost motorcycle photographers and a founder of the French club Southsiders MC.
