Polo Bikes

Polo bike alpha romeo?

Well I think all custom frames—apart from maybe the Oaks?—have teething problems! For instance...

I went to check mine today before it went to the painters... it was finished by Lee last week.

Unfortunately the back end may need rebuilding... It was built too short, so I can't tension the chain in the sliding dropouts. Lee is on Holiday for two weeks... I know it'll get sorted, and problems like this are to be expected, but the wait is killing me! It looked fucking gorgeous I wanted to ride it so bad!

John suggests I take it home next week and ride it whilst Lee is away on a skinny road tyre so I can tension the chain. He says I should do this incase anything else needs changing. I think building a bike up and unbuilding it to be sent back is a bit of a waste of time... A bit of a loss of what to do.

Anyway, here's a photo of the dilemma:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yt/7698843082/

Do what John says.

I'm worried what spot rust will do to the integrity of the material considering Lee will have to unbraze and rebraze the rear end.

This said I know very little about frame building, most of my engineering knowledge comes from Key Stage 2.

Custom frames should be bang on the money, how'd 14/Lee make that mistake?

Ask Ryan about what the unbraze/rebraze process will do (should be fine, but will be marginally weaker).

I've emailed Ryan now... Lee might've got the idea I saw running skinny tyres? As most know, I like to run chunky, even on my 'track' bike. The pic is taken with 1.35 duranos but I wanted to be running 1.5 eventually.

when i first got mine i ran a 1.5 and it was too tight. eg. the axle was 1/3 out of the dropout (with a brand new chain)

Custom frames should be bang on the money, how'd 14/Lee make that mistake?

This. Also, didn't Josh Superstar's rear brake mount not work? (Loads of production builders can't get that right either, so not totally unforgiveable). Although, I'd forgive the mistake; but I wouldn't forgive making the mistake, not checking, then sending it out for the customer to discover when they're excitedly building it up for the first time.

I'd assume it's the builder's responsibility to check with the customer what tyres he/she expects to run. Although that depends on what the customer's expectations are. With Marino, I had low expectations, due to the low price, but was pleasantly surprised.

Mister X stories get more and more riduculous by the day. Add them to the long list of shitty Italian companies who offer poor backup - Campag, Fulcrum, Formula...

thats a fucker jimmy. But yes 1.5 is the most i could go and its veeeery tight.

does look awesome though. RIDE IT!!!!

My first 14 was good, although dan is right, the rear disc mount did not work at all, so 14 sorted me out with a new frame-rather than taking the paint off and changing the whole rear end on the frame I had-the new one which is exactly like jimmys, it has sliding drop outs so I can run a disc on the rear, although there is no way I can now fit a 1.5 in there. But I wanted to run 1.3 anyways, so it's fine for me. Although I think 14 need to work out what the customer wants and have to make sure they can make it happen before building/send the frame to the customer.

I think an oak seems now to be the best opinion I terms of gettin what you want and actually being able to speak to the builder about what you want from your custom frame...

I get what lotsa people are saying about 1.35 isn't too bad, but the point is, I asked for clearance for 1.5's on the spec sheet, and even with 1.35, I'd need a halflink to get enough tension.

Ryan says it'll be easier for him to make me a new frame rather than repair this one so I'm guessing it'll be fine for me to ride this one and even if it does rust/get dented it won't matter.

This said, I ordered some funky V-brake mounts. I only thought of this just now, but rather than re-ordering them wouldn't it be quicker for him to unbraze these perfectly good unused ones?

I'd like to clarify that I'm still stoked to be getting one and pleased it's all being sorted out. It's just the wait more than anything. I just hope it's not a case of Lee getting back from hols, and then saying another 8 weeks ontop of that... I'll be crying. My current bike is in a very sorry state indeed!

Marino was good for me, i asked for the disk mount inside the triangle and he sent photos back showing how a BB5 wouldn't fit in there and advised to put it on the outside, he also said i can put 2 mounts on if you want but i wouldn't bother

Messyish, a tad weightier, but so far least problems.

Shame about that 14. Big mistake there. Should be sat in the closest dropout position with that tyre on, not the furthest. I don't understand why 14 are letting bikes go out without checking them?

They'll sort it out quick that's for sure but can't have hurt to put a wheel in there in the first place and get it right.

Is that the world's ugliest dropout?

I think you've missed a few comments, but reckon you're talking about Ben's bike. And yes, it is.

Or I am wrong and you mean the sliding ones, no, they are not.

Waiting for more weeks than what you expect and then geometry problems....this is not a proper custom bike builder. Don't want to be rude, but imagine the mistakes they can do in some other staff that is harder to check (head tube angle).

Or I am wrong and you mean the sliding ones, no, they are not.

Citygent's bike

I'm in the process of designing some sliding ones for my mountain bike, I'd be worried if they ended up like that... Sorry to the owner but eugh!

Some nice sliders here from Andy Perks a local framebuilder in Birmingham.

They're pretty sweet. looks like they fit in standard dropouts?

they're paragon ones no?

yup

paragons are pricey and these ones do the job. I think they look good shrug