Polo in the News

Eigth Inch teaching polo in London...
http://londonbikehub.com/?page_id=248

wah

Say what?!

They're selling that shit for £35!! WTF?

That makes me angry

Are their products any good? I've heard about the uncapped heads splitting but nothing else. Is there anything special about the poles? Are they as light/strong as a ski pole?

The eighth inch pole is the worst I have seen. I bent one over my knee with barely any force.

So not worth the money then.

What a facking liberty.
And they link to our wordpress site for the rules.
Should we book in? ;)

EDIT, at least Harvey's getting some money from them.

Well, let's be fair to them, it's very hard when a non-for-profit association is undercutting them by that much ;)

Those that want polo to grow should be happy this is happening, surely?

Just get in touch and give them a link to the most up to date rules.

And maybe donate some mallets so Eight Inch don't monopolise with their extortionate sub-standard products.

I doubt that'll happen. If new players get interested enough to play regularly they'll quickly discover what breaks and what doesn't.

The eighth inch pole is the worst I have seen. I bent one over my knee with barely any force.

You just don't know your own strength

#hulk

I'll have a word.

is that kid on aufbunch's bike?

is that kid on aufbunch's bike?

Hmm, looks like it. Could be a photo from one of James' training sessions? Maybe James is hooked up with these guys some how? Maybe they just found it? So many questions!

The eighth inch pole is the worst I have seen. I bent one over my knee with barely any force.

i picked up a pole and head at the worlds (for free). built it up. terrible. broke the head in two places after the first hit of a ball. after playing one game with it both ends of the head were broken in 4 places each and the pole had bent past saving.

They're on V2 or V3 now and have worked with some of the peeps in the US to improve their mallet apparently. They acknowledged that the other ones were no good but say these are vastly improved.

they can send me a trial mallet any day, until then my experience stands.

Yes that kid is on my bike.

EighthInch are not teaching polo in London, that is crazy talk. I am though (or rather I was when I didn't have a job and hopefully will get to again when I get some time).

The guy who runs London Bike Hub came along to a session I was doing. He joined in a few games, saw how much the kids loved it and the massive benefit they get out of it in terms of bike handling/skills/confidence. He decided it would be a great thing to incorporate into the community projects London Bike Hub are involved in.

He went home, did some research on polo and found a company that made prefab mallets and ordered some because he had no idea how mallets were made. He bought a load so he could get kids playing the game.

He asked me to help him out with coaching some sessions and mentioned that he'd bought a bunch of stuff from EighthInch. He also asked me to test it out and see if it was any good because he wasn't really sure. He gave me one of their breakdown shafts and V2 to heads to try out. I recently passed on my thoughts to him and I believe he then passed them on to EighthInch (who apparently are working on V3 now). If anyone would like to trial the mallet themselves then let me know and I will pass it on.

This is not EighthInch. It's a guy running a community cycling venture that's trying to spread polo. Ironically, he actually emailed me a couple of days ago and asked if I knew of a team that might be looking for mallet sponsorship. I guess I'll say no (although if you are interested PM me and I'll hook it up).

I don't really have an opinion on EigthInch. The mallet I tried wasn't for me, but then most people's mallets aren't for me. Like any product, more feedback means improvements so I expect we'll see some exciting stuff from them further down the line. Shrug.

Yeah, I spoke to David, he seems like a top bloke and hopefully we can help each other out. Bike polo interest/endeavours are awesome...

Sorry - a bit late to the party guys. Just noticed a large amount of traffic from LFGSS to us and found this thread. To be honest we didn't have time to go the DIY route and hence went the eighthinch route. As James said we've passed on the feedback - making the shaft stronger, the head smaller if required and a few other pointers. They're not perfect, but good for our youth sessions.

Thanks to Jon's input we've altered the various links to the rules.
Anyone heard from harvey recently? I don't think we've directed much to him but anything is better than nothing

Someone wants to do an article on "bike polo teams" and pay a photographer (or two) for past bike polo images, anyone keen to get involved (private LHBPA thread below)?

http://www.lfgss.com/thread65765.html

thats from the joust in the final too..