Polo Rules

So is the circumstance of the NAHBPC incident rare enough that we apply a guideline rather than a rule, given that no rule can make our bikes truly save without making them very difficult and expensive to design and assemble to comply with said rule?

But it's also a feature of bikes which is not needed for polo itself. You can remove spare freewheels without affecting the sport in any way. And that should be the focus of rulemakers. How people get to polo is up to them.

Other elements of bikes which are unsafe, remain, but are required for the sport. Not being able to ban some things isn't a logical argument to not ban others.