Tell me about your bikes

Since I'm relying on the polo community for my BSc it seems only fair to help out others in a similar situation, I'm not sure how useful I'll be with a single post but feel free to contact me if you want to discuss anything further.

Why my bike is my bike:
I've spent far too much time and money on it than most people (outside of polo) would think of as reasonable. Some parts (goldtec hubs and thomson seatpost) are totally overspecced but I like them so I own them. The frame (charge scissor) has had front and rear v brake mounts brazed to it, I watched Ryan braze the rear ones which was awesome, flames and metal etc is always fun. I also stripped the frame and spent a silly amount of time rubbing it down with wet and dry. My double brake lever is pretty unique and I haven't seen anyone else using quite the design.

In short, I've spent many hours saving for parts, building the bike, modifying it, fixing it and playing on it. When you invest that much time in to an object you can't help but feel an emotional connection to it. This is probably helped by the fact that there are so many different bike set ups being played on, none of them feel the same so I could never get my bike mixed up with another persons even if they looked identical.

I hope that's of some use, I study product design so if you think I may be useful for your project let me know.

That's an awesome sounding spec for a polo bike! Good to know I'm not alone in terms of the academic(ish) interest in the game, that's a great explanation of how your bike is customised to you; I'd agree that the more you invest in it the more it comes to reflect you, but would you say it is the same in polo as (for example) mountain biking - because there is the knowledge that it will get trashed..
Would be awesome to discuss more though, also your bike sounds epic (I think I may have already mentioned)!