23: Pake Polo Bike

Bicycle Type: Polo Bike

Owner: Liam Griffin

Primary use for this bike: Going fast around a court chasing a ball and trying to get the ball through some cones.

Frame: Pake Track Frame, 55cm

Fork: unicrown steel fork

Headset: Cane Creek

Crankset: Sugino XD cranks with a 35t Milwaukee Pologuard chainring

Cog: 18t Soma

Gearing & Gear Inches: 35/18 51.3 GI

Chain: KMC

Rims: Rear is a 48h Velocity Deep V with machined sidewall, front is junk

Spoke Style/Lacing Style: 3 cross rear, I can’t remember the front

Hubs: 48h Milwaukee rear, front is junk

Tires: as shown, Soma everwear rear and some junk front. Have recently switched to a Vittoria Randonneur rear tire

Stem: Thompson

Bars: Swobo

Grips: Oury

Saddle: Comfy Junk

Seat Post: no name

How long did it take to get this bike rolling on the pavement…from the time you found it, ordered it and located the parts?

I built this up over the winter, to have it ready for polo in the spring. I first rode it with the original wheel set off polo bike 1.0, and then swapped out to the new rear 48h wheel. I still need to swap the front wheel. Polo bikes are a constant work in progress, since things are always breaking.

This is your 2^nd Polo Bike build, were you able to learn quite a bit from bike number one in regards to frame geometry, spoke count, crank length, freewheel or fixed, etc?

My first polo bike was an old road bike converted to a fixed gear. It worked ok for the first summer of polo, but as I got better and faster, it started to hold me back a bit. The slack geometry didn’t handle as well, and riding fixed/brakeless had some drawbacks. This new bike has tighter track geometry and handles way better on the court. I’m still riding fixed, but also use a rear brake on the left side so I can use my mallet in my right hand and still skid one handed. My old wheel set was junk (still running the junk front wheel), and the rear wheel was always going out of true. I got a 48h wheel set built up by Milwaukee bikes and have been super pumped on them (need to find some time to build a new disk for the front wheel so I can have a 48 in front too).

Modifications: Left handed rear brake

Extras: Bar end plugs (cause getting a bar end in the gut sucks) and top tube pad (protect your junk)

This one is for our readers and most likely a very common question regarding bike polo, but why is that big shield on the front wheel?

People are used to seeing disk wheels on the rear of time trial bikes, so it throws them off to see it in the front. For polo, it isn’t a real disk wheel. Since there is a high risk of a mallet getting caught in your front spokes (which has catastrophic results at high speed), a lot of players make disks out of corrugated plastic to keep mallets, pedals, etc from getting caught in there. It sometimes helps block shots as well if you’re playing defense.

We see the mallets on the bike in these photos, what’s their general construction and material?

Mallets are all hand made, with ski pole shafts and gas pipe heads. Making mallets is part of the fun, sort of like building the bike. I’m always experimenting with new materials, weights, lengths, etc. There is no real standard, so building new stuff and seeing what works is a cool process.

We see a small bell next to the handbrake, what purpose does this serve while playing polo?

That is the claimer bell. When we first started playing there was this girl who used to play grass polo that came and played some games. She had a bell on her bike she would ring when her team scored, and I thought it was funny. I do the same thing now, and try to keep track of the score that way (1 ring for one point, 2 rings for 2, etc).

Are we going to see this bike in Cog Magazine used to its exact purpose?

I hope so, but I’d probably need to convince some VT people to go play one of the bigger tournaments. We went to Boston this spring and got our asses kicked. Polo in VT is still pretty new, and we do have some good players, but to really get good we need to travel more to cities where people have been playing a long time.

Would you recommend bike polo to a bicycle enthusiast who hasn’t checked it out yet?

Bike Polo is the most fun I have ever had on a bike, period. Cycling in general is not a team sport, and it isn’t super competitive or social. When you’re playing polo, you’re playing with and against other people, so it has a totally different vibe than racing. You also have the whole stick and ball thing, like hockey, and that skill is really fun to develop. Once you get good enough to start scoring goals, you’ll be having a great time. Heckling and being a spectator is also part of the game, and there are usually beverages involved. We even have a grille stashed down at the court in the summer

Notes: 3-2-1 POLO!

Shout Outs: The original polo crew, Cory, Erock, Aaron and Rachel. BTV parks and rec for letting us play at the roller rink. Milwaukee bikes for making polo parts that work (www.benscycle.com)

Liam, you’ve organized a bike polo pickup game circuit in Vermont, tell us where we can track down that info: You can get on the e-mail list by sending a mail to bikepolo@mac.com, or by joining the facebook group here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18302612292

In general we play every Wednesday night starting around 6, and Sunday afternoons around 3.

Have you seen your crews’ polo game elevate during these summer months? For sure, there are a whole new crew of players that have been pushing it. Addison, Chris, Zach, Perry and others who just started this season have been stepping up their game and there have been some great matches this summer.

Tell us where we can find bike polo on-line if the readers are interested in checking it out in any given city: http://www.bikepolo.ca/ has a club page that lists local crews in most cities. Chances are, in any major city you can find some polo happening.

Original posting date: August 28, 2009