Birmingham Hardcourt Bike Polo, UK.

Local tubing manufacturer, Reynolds, agreed to supply us with the steel to make our goals for the UK Champs.  Thanks so much!  Local framebuilder Andy Perks is going to oversee/help us weld it all together next weekend.

They also helped out with Birmingham’s Top Tube Map, a visual representation of our traffic-free cycling routes.  Check it out.

We’re collecting our wood next weekend, so the most important things are pretty much resolved.  Registration is open, so if you want to play, please paypal your team’s £30 registration fee to birminghambikepolo@gmail.com.

Actually, I think it is.  More so than for any other cycling discipline I can think of.

I’m not saying you have to spend hundreds or thousands on custom build, with classy Californian components though.  A sensible set-up that you’re confident on, and that doesn’t limit your game doesn’t have to cost much, and can hugely improve your performance.

It’s because polo is still new and as yet relatively unserved by mainstream manufacturers, that having a set-up that works well can maximise your strengths and minimise your weaknesses more completely than in other disciplines.  In MTB, road, TT etc etc, the designs are pretty well evolved, and the regulations so tight, that nobody can get much of an advantage by getting the next best thing.

The pendulum has swung to the extremes of shortness and tightness in terms of frame geometry, dual brakes are getting better and better and in some cases are being replaced by single front brakes, fixed is (practically) dead and I can’t wait to see the next developments.

I’m probably being spectacularly short-sighted, but I think that most of the big innovations have been and gone, and there will follow a period of consolidation and standardisation.  That’s not a bad thing, necessarily, and it will help to mature the sport, but I have to say that these last few years of wacky ideas and trends have been great to be a part of, and hopefully some genius will prove me wrong with a radical triple-brake system, 700c/24″ wheel combo or other craziness.

I started playing polo back in November 2010. I was riding a cheap fixed gear at the time, so started playing on this. I eventually converted into a polo bike with correct gearing, wheel cover and a front brake, and played AWESOME fixed polo until the bike (and fixed polo) died around the time of the 2011 London Open last July. I then played on a rusty frame for a while (still fixed) as I waited to put together my first freewheel polo bike. I borrowed Asim’s Birmingham Bike Foundry-built bike over the winter as he was out of action due to a bus collision and this helped me to make the transition from fixed to free. I don’t have the money to pay a Peruvian to build me a custom frame, so it was a case of getting hold of a cheap mtb frame and finding/borrowing the rest. This bike was created as an introduction to free-wheel polo, a stop-gap before I buy myself some super custom frame and in fact I don’t even like it very much. It does however handle well, weigh less than any other polo bike I’ve had and only cost about £80.

Specifications

• Frame – Carerra Vulcan 15″
• Forks – Carerra rigid forks
• Bars – Stock 400mm flat bars
• Headset – Stock
• Stem – Kona 60mm with 5 degree rise (I’m using it upside down)
• Grips – Stock
• Lever – Promax Dual
• Front Brake – Tektro V-Brake
• Rear Brake – Reverse mounted long-drop bmx caliper, (this is front caliper, hence the long bolt)
• Front Tire – X-rated (cheap)
• Rear Tire – Bontrager
• Front Wheel – Mavic 26″ EX721 / Shimano Disc hub (without disc)
• Rear Wheel – Rigida
• Free Wheel – Shimano 18t
• Crank Set – Stock mtb / 32 Chain ring
• Chain – Stock Half-link
• Pedals/Toe Straps – Stock
• Chain Tensioner – Surly
• Saddle/Seat Post – Stock
• Wheel Cover – Strawberries and Cream by Mya
• Re-Spray – An EMM Special ‘Red Mist’ Fade