croquet mallets are waaaay too heavy.

if you expect to win, then ball handling skill comes into play
(speaking from experience) croquet mallets are super slow, with almost no flex

the pvc (or whatever you use) mallets always sucked in my opinion because of the 90 deg joint
the offset angle of the "real" mallets allows for so much more control

that being said, they are that fractional amount heavier, and as such, slower

i'm interested in using ski poles to build up a new cheap set. what sort of bolts did you guys use?

rivalry.

so what happens when you live in philly and play for dc? are you double hated by the new york teams?

/youre.out.for.my.head

the best and most durable design, as proven over years and years on the blood-stained courts of portland, is a ski pole cut to custom length, affixed to a high-density PVC mallet-head (steal it from the gas company) and a handle wrapped with hockey tape, in the standard hockey style. perfect balance of strength, lightness, and cost. they're also way easy to mass produce. golf clubs are just too hard to drill, and most of the time too short. horse polo mallets don't have enough surface area to assure a straight shot most of the time.

ok so i got some free poles from a local shop
what do i do now?

from the post on the previous page, i saw that in his design the pole did not go entirely through the pvc
is there an advantage to this? (like not having a bolt/bit of pole sticking out the bottom to catch on the ground)

Also, i saw that the cross-bracing bolt you used to fasten the head onto the pole looked pretty big. Did you wedge the head on the wider or narrower end of a tapered ski pole? I imagine that would affect how large a bolt you could use without destroying the pole.

we demand answers

okay, here what you do...

-cut off tip of pole and take off grips.

-drill a hole in the head just big enough to jam the pole in so it's snugg.
When you drill you want to drill about halfway into the other end of the head so the tip of the pole is sitting in the head material. this is to keep it from swiveling and moving around. It will make the mallet assembly stiffer and stronger.

-with the pole securely in place of the head, drill a hole through both not at the center but closer to the top of the head where the pole enters.

-secure bolt through that hole and trim off excess bolt material.

-wrap other end of pole as see fit (we like to use a hockey wrap)

-you've got a proper polo mallet.

oh btw, mallet head material is key. We use polyethylene and it's the best material for a mallet.

thanks wangster.
that did infact help.

here's scan of some ideas i was just batting around.
your thoughts?



I think I'm going to have some trouble finding an anchor sleeve narrow enough to fit into the end of the the pole's narrow end

you don't need the anchor, the pole doesn't need to go through the other end, just sit in halfway so it doesn't move. The head should be about 6 inches long and the bole should move up a bit, not directly center. this way the bolt won't interfere when you shuffle.

do we play bike polo in philly? i'd certainly be interested to see this *****e in action... and if necessary i have a ssmtb that sounds like a hell of a polo bike.

wangster... good idea with moving the hole off center. I'll make sure to try that.

Although, the one thing that bothered me with your idea was that the pole doesn't go all the way through.
If the mallets hook, then there is a potential for it to "pop out" of that groove inside the head.

Also, that means that i need to find a 3" drill bit - which i do not have.

how about this?

Another idea taken from Veeco23 @ dcfixed.com

thats too much construction...easier the better.

the stuff we have has a pretty thick wall so when you drill into it you have a good amount of material keeping the tip from moving. PVC really is no good so if you can find the black or yellow stuff that'd be better and even better if you can get the polyethylene.

but if you must then just drill it through and make sure it's flush with the mallet head.

ATL Sledgehammers polo has two rules:
1. No Footdown
2. Play it Broken

Play don't stop just because your bike don't work.
ATL Polo Bike = anything not expected to be rideable for a distance longer than the length of the court.

No footdown meaning you can put your foot down? or you put your food down, you're out?

Play what broken? bike? teeth? bones? mallet? that kinda ruins the game doesn't it? what's the fun in playing with someone's who's bike's broken? I sure don't wanna play against a dude who's mallet broke and is just riding around like an idiot with a shaft... hardly seems challenging.

I say ATL can come up and play some real polo where we play brutal, and fair, none of that playing against someone who's bike's busted.

No footdown meaning what it always means. Your feet touch the floor and you've got to circle before you can play again.

And you can come down and play where we don't cater to pansies who want to quit just because their wheel is tacoed.

All of our bikes are broken in some way. If we didn't play it broken, we wouldn't play at all. Its a ritual before every night of playing that we stand around with wrenches and try to get the bikes rolling again. I don't think I've played a night without banging my rear wheel on the ground to get it true enough to spin in the frame.

Wednesdays at 7, Schuylkill River Park.
https://www.myspace.com/phillybikepolo

I'll be there starting next week.(jumping ship from DC)

playing on concrete seems like it would me run into people a lot more often.
also i'm getting old memories of the street hockey ball rolling into the sewer and forcing someone's little brother to go down and get it.

+hardcore

I'm trying to organize some bike polo action in my town now just because of this thread! All the tips are great.

we need to put together some epic ATL vs. Gainesville polo match someday.
Isn't there a race down there sometime soon?

There's a race in April in St. Petersburg, which is a few hours south of Gainesville. Maybe there's another race in Tallahassee I don't know about.

As far as the polo, I know there are some dudes that play here already, but they don't like to invite new people. I'm just trying to organize some games with some friends so we can learn and possibly get invited to play with the other crew. I only know one of the guys who play polo here, but he doesn't even own a computer. I don't know how you would organize something with them or if they'd be interested, but once my crew gets decent we might just take your offer! I'll hit you up after a while if the offer still stands.

always.

that's what i'm talkin about. curbjobs keep the game going. pain and glory. blood and guts. beer and whiskey. that's "****** bike golf" for you.

"pain is weakness leaving your body." - o.g. Axles of Evil adage. and to whoever said "messengers didn't start anything", you don't know what you're talking about. This ain't the same game that imperialist british soldiers in pakistan came up with. I wrote these rules. this ain't sport of kings, it's the sport for messenger dirtbags.

So ATL ain't coming to ESPI? Stop making excuses and come up and show us some supposed ATL skills and toughness. We play on busted bikes, but if its busted like a broken chain and can't be ridden then we'll sometimes pause so the person can have a fair chance. If you look at the NY Polo myspace you can see some busted ass bikes. Mainly Brad's bike that he rode on for one whole match with half the spokes missing.

Come up to NYC for ESPI and see who the pansies are... we'll destroy ATL, nothing personal, love ATL kids that i've met, but we'll destroy you all the same, then buy you a beer.

Note for when you guys come up for ESPI, we stopped doing circling out because it's too vague and too many people cheat, so it's tournament rules, which means you must tap out center court. We'll have a gong or a metal pot so it makes a nice loud noise when you whack it.

I've actually only tacoed my wheels once, and that was the worst crash i had with cracked ribs and busted hip. Still doesn't get close to Bill's epic polo injuries in portland though.

Seriously though, you should all come to NYC in April for ESPI. We'll have some surprises for you guys and def have an awesome time.

We'll see what we can do.
In the meantime, back to ****talking.

Never footdown, Never admit defeat.
Sledgehammer Rules!

ATL, bring your mallets with ya...we may have our act together for a match by April 21st. We've tossed around the idea of polo, but it's yet to happen.

we just discovered the ultimate spot to play in DC.
it's a sunken basketball court surrounded by concrete bleachers.

there are a bunch of leaves and trash in it right now, but with a little TLC this place will pWn

gMap