Vintage polo bikes rescued!

sage advice chaps, but in the traditions of this forum I'll have to ignore you and do what I was gonna do anyway!

just kidding, might buy one and try it out....beyond that we're looking for a cheap kiddie crank (145mm...ish) that will take small chainrings, as we've got 11 bikes, they need to be CHEAP.

I think the one-piece old-school-stylee cranks you are on about need an ashtabula / American BB shell? ...you know, the massive ones you see on BMXs.

winston im very interested in giving this a go... what you thinking in terms of days/times etc next year i presume?
polo week time table kinda goes like this at the moment:

monday - free
tuesday - mitchitson
wednesday - south polo
thursday - mitchitson
friday - is friday
saturday - mitchitson
sunday - brick lane

Shins

Thanks Ray....anyone would think polo is getting popular or something!..

Saturday after track training was always trditional and prob best opportunity to get new people involved....

the whole single forged one peice thing is good for strength in comparison to something thats machined but 1 peice cranks are not strong at all and generally bend so the cranks aren't in line. I used to regularly bend them on my BMX when I was about 12 and I wasn't that fat! I suppose though if your going for shorter junoir cranks these will be alot stronger than standard length BMX cranks if they are made with the same diameters and stuff.

Likewise, used them for years on BMX and they always broke. You need to consider that there's no chainring bolt either, just a forged peg coming out from the crank which fits (loosely) into the chainring. Lot's of rocking so if you're running these bikes fixed it'll be a pain in the ass.

Surely if the bikes are running a near 1x1 gearing, on grass too, there is not going to be anywhere near the same amount of pressure exerted through the cranks.

If this is the case I think the cheap one piece cranks would be worth a shot. Welding the chain ring to the crank arm is a 2 min job.

What are the bottom bracket's like on the polo bikes?
I've never seen 1 piece cast cranks which didn't require a US BMX BB.

can't we just hammer them in?

The BB is about twice the diameter of a normal BB shell.

Sheldon knows.

You should also pay attention to the pedal axles as one piece cranks are 1/2" not 9/16

thanks for this Obj....we're were just thinking out loud about ways of getting strong, cheap, short cranks....you convinced us some time ago.....

Anyone out there got a cheap solution for this, we're aiming at 145-155mm cranks, this is based on the crank length of my circus bike and the lengths of "some" of the bikes at HH....note: if you've seen the curvy cranks on the HH bikes, we've learnt that they weren't originally like this, they were deliberately bent to shorten them.

there are 11 bikes, nearly all could do with new BB's and cranks, if we save a tenner per bike it's quite a chunk...so we reallly are looking for budget options.

I'll keep trawling for ideas too.
I still need to come to check these out sometime too as I'd love a play on one.

you should....although progress is slow, I'm sure a lot of the design features of these polo specific bikes would convert well to hard court....polo boy recently pointed out the benefit of the special seatposts for example..

I know that these guys are the enemy (unipak)
**But **they sell cranks for £5-6 including P+P.
I found this bike that uses 3-piece cranks and is 20" wheel (so they should be short ones..)

woh! cheap.

I am a cheapskate..
enjoy!

Winston
start of the new sesion over here and a few bike were set to the bike shop for new bottom brakets with cotter pins and peddle stems where you looking to get some as i can get the bike shops number for you or i can get them and i could send them over to you for trad bikes.
i seen a few lads need lie back saddle pillers.
you need to welled two bars to getter because if you bend the saddle piller that goes down the seat tube you will do one of two things and damage will be done which will cost you more money to fix.
1 saddle piller down tube will crack
2 lie back saddle piller will fold

you need the same die as the saddle down tube. Dont use a sleve when tighting you damage the bike saddle down tube.
two pipes welled them to getter make sure the die is same as some bike saddle down tube differs be a were.
contact me on
bicyclepoloireland@gmail.com

there is a polo competition in april in dublin if you fancy bring the bike run out cheak out our web site
bicyclepoloireland.com
yours in polo
polo boy

7 bikes restored thanks to Mark and all donors and helpers!
http://www.rollapaluza.com/blog/2012/09/polo-bikes-restored/

BIG LIKE! Can't wait to play on the new Herne Hill courts too

LOVE those bikes!

Was talking to a bunch of grass polo players at Canterbury. Apparently they'd love play in London more often, but the Chelsea wheelers can't organise a piss up in a brewery...

Maybe rollapaluza should organise a tourney?

I sent the Chelsea Pedlars a query about buying one of their t-shirts a fortnight ago... I've heard nish...

Was talking to a bunch of grass polo players at Canterbury.

Guys you speak of are Oakenden pedallers. Gareth Collins is one of the main men there. He's on the forum here i believe under the user name Topper (thats one of the oakenden guys anyway)

They said they are always looking for teams to play.

anyone know if they play anywhere near to bristol? i'd be well up for trying it sometime

Cork's probably your nearest team :)