Polo Bikes

Well if and when I get a job, I think that is what I will go for, and pretty much exactly the same, but with v-brake mounts, and slightly bigger.

I'd be happy with my current old mtb, but it's too short, and I want to replace the forks/headset for threadless and straight blade fork. It does the job though.

The problem is that all the mountain bikes with tight back ends are jump bikes and if your over 5'10 you end up with a ridiculously long seat post, mine was 400mm in my NS, the longest i could find and i still wanted it a few cm higher, if i had shorter legs i would have stuck with it

Boom! (Had more tweaks to do, but refreshed accidently...)

you can do curved tubes, track drop outs etc with more messing about

A question I often ask myself is what would I replace my bike with right now if it was stolen.
So basically starting all over again with little money...

I honestly think I'd just get an oldschool mtb in a really small size and make it work.
I'd be looking for one with a tighter back end to most and with short tt and raked forks which I could switch out for straight. I'd be happy to have a tensioner too.

Trying max's new bike made me think there are bikes out there that are almost perfect. And cheap. I hate being so precious about my bike.

What would you do?

i would murder emmet and steal back the v2

when people are CADing up their designs what are they using as a reference for angles and the effect it will have on the bike, is there a decent website?

http://www.bikecad.ca/applet

Then go: File -> Open Template -> Paint -> Fruit Bomb and click the button!

(Measure your old/current bikes and go from there, or copy the bruiser as a base - awesome stability/handling for the most part.)

theres a certain miniature horse that would actually buy that bike

when people are CADing up their designs what are they using as a reference for angles and the effect it will have on the bike, is there a decent website?

yeh just measure your current set up, decide what you would like a little shorter/longer higher bottom bracket? etc and then look at the spec and angles of popular frames like the bruiser or velo joust and go from there

Most important i think is your head angle and the trail that gives, then take that into account with what forks you want to use, its not a case of the steeper the head angle the better, its about getting it perfect with the trail

theres a certain miniature horse that would actually buy that bike

i wants it!

its about getting it perfect with the trail

This is where Ryan has it nailed.

This is where Ryan has it nailed.

true, its quite easy when using bike cad though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_and_motorcycle_geometry#Trail

i would murder emmet and steal back the v2

ha! just switch when he's not looking.

true, its quite easy when using bike cad though

The tricky bit is stability versus agility/handling, but yeah bike cad makes the maths a doddle.

So larger trail is good for polo given that we look for a small rake in the fork? Confused as I thought less trail was better.

"Trail can be increased by increasing the wheel size, decreasing or slackening the head angle, or decreasing the fork rake or offset. Trail decreases as head angle increases (becomes steeper), as fork offset increases, or as wheel diameter decreases."

Lots of trail makes your bike steer like a boat but it will be super stable (unresponsive/unmaneuverable). Too little trail and your bike will be super maneuverable but will try to throw you off at every turn (unstable/twitchy).

it has been said that 65 is good trail for trade off between stability/agility. I have been riding 71 trail on my damp and enjoying amazing stability at high speed, eg I don't feel vulnerable riding over the ball, mallets, getting bars snagged on fences/players at relatively high speeds (to a degree).

I have aimed for 65 trail on my Marino to try out more maneuverability in tight corners. There are lots of other things to take into account though, stem length and bar width will change everything also.

im far from an expert but i learned alot while designing mine, its basically based on my NS frame with higher seat tube, shorter stays and a steeper head angle, from what i can gather a good trail is around 65mm, i believe the butter bean is around 70 and my NS was 62, my new frame is 65.8 using the dmr trailblade forks, they have an rake of 40mm. new frame turns nicely and you can get the bars to 90° until it wants to flip. Short rear stays are good but unweights the front wheel and decreases what Ryan explained as "rider confidence" thats why its good on these new breeds of frames people are getting to put a slightly longer stem on to get your weight more equal over both wheels while keeping the bike short for tighter turns

snoops beat me to it with some of those figures!

65mm at what steerer angle snoops? My BB is 73.5 at the steerer.

The bruisers have around 60mm of trail at 74.5 degrees.

Head tube angle? Not sure, my trail might be different as I'm running slightly different forks.

Bruisers are 61 I think. But that's a combo of HTA + rake + A2C length.

I have a big trail.

mines 72.5° because the dmr forks were abit of a compromise but i didn't want to get new ones, the NS frames are 70.5°

I think trail overrides all other figures, Jon. So hta and rake and a2c can be totally different on two bikes but if the trail is the same then they will steer identically (assuming riding position, stem and bars stay the same). Front end is all about trail.

#afaik #idkm