Ladies Polo

Did I imagine this or are you ladies getting llpc tshirts made to strut around at LA in? (Will obv be showing off HB one too)
If so can me and Jo have one each? Think were are posing as Londoners anyway

Hey Ali, join our google group https://groups.google.com/group/llhbpc?hl=en

If you sign up, and send emails to the emails come to all our inboxes, as do the replies.. it's a great way to talk to each other direct, and all the girls are good at staying up to date on it.

Just sent Jo an invite, but I don't have your email, Ali

This is what we have to look forward to ladies

http://321polo.net/2011/05/ladies-army-iii-final-game-c-l-a-p-vs-cunning-stunts/

Last year's final. xx

B, are you having polo birthdayness on Sat?

Sorry for being so slow and disorganised with my Birthday.

I'm having drinks at The Orwell (ta daa!) on Saturday from...I don't know when, it'll be after polo.

Yay, so looking forward to seeing Jo and Ali again!

any ladies paying tonight? Askign for the lady not the megacreep.

Saturday. Mega Ladies Polo!

mega shuffle. thats the dance i like to do in the bushes not 'a lot of mallets' to divvy up.

i think sirens and tomradoes have teAM GAMES TONIGHT sorry, capslolck fail

sorry nik! that was a fail. might do throw ins north tonight tho.

still up for games sat.

whaaat! aw crap.

shall we do super saturday at newt as per email conversation? it's gunna be windy as fuck at downs, and there are two courts at newt, as you say.

i'm up for saturday at newt, should i have written that in the co-ed south thread?

ha! spamming all threads about this matter is a good idea. the more the merrier!

Ladies!

What's the deal with Cambridge? Are you all going the whole weekend, will you still be there on Sunday?

I can't do Saturday, but could do Sunday.

B probably best to send a google mail thingy to all the ladies. That way you know they'll all see it.

I thought consensus was against google groups?
We'll be playing Sunday throw ins with everyone won't we?

So, does anyone want a lift return?
Nik, do you want me to take a bike up for Jo?

im not sure if i will be staying over. might play it by ear. x

ok ladies, i have ridden a few of your bikes and some of you have ridden mine. its made me think that although bike fit is not an issue specific to you lasses, i am specifically concerned with how your bikes ride cos i love playing with you all and see some of you get frustrated because your bikes are limiting what you could otherwise easily do. here are a few 'trends' i think id like us to rid ourselves of:

big grippy tyres:
i think people started doing this cos it was stable and a ball under the wheel wouldnt send you flying. however, wider tyres are heavier/slower on the court (where its acceleration that is important). i ran 700x28c for a while and then fucked them up so put on what i had lyting around which was 23c gatorskins...super slick and quite light. they were fine with a ball under them and i found that with more acceleration i didnt need to worry about stability cos and i wasnt staying still as much! that said i do fall off a lot but thats cos i am a muppet not cos my tyres are narrow. now i have 26x1 1/8 which is like 25c i think id go narrower if io could. also, tyres with tred are not as grippy as slick tyres really as there is more contact with the surface with slicks. furthermore, th softer the tyres, the grippier they will feel, especially on slippy courts. i am using grand prix tyres which are folding tyre with a high tpi. theyre wicked. lots of brands do these kind of tyres.

stubby stems:
i think the reasons for this were to make the reach feel shorter and so, make you feel more upright and feel like there is more weight over the back wheel. it doesnt really acheive this as it is easier to acheive with geometry or at worst a laid back seat post. what you loose is weight over the front wheel which imo makes turning quickly feel really unstable and a bit fecking scary to be honest. so you'll find that you are braking while turning to freak yourself out less but of course that makes it easy to jack knife. not ideal. a longer stem with make the reach longer on your current bikes but, will put your weight over the front wheel making turning at speed more fun!

riseer bars:
again, these make you more upright whcih a lot of people like for shooting but again the side effect is that you are fuirther from the front wheel so that manoverability is compromised. i guess its a preference but when i changed tpo flat bars i jack knifed way less.

one last point:
gear ratios are very personal but it think its easy to assume you have a good one. i say we change it up! try outy a lighter ratio, it might feel faster! or maybe you have sprinter legs! try out a heavier one too! i know i relied on what the lads said then i put a ridiculously light gear on the other day and suddenly i could move! turns out ryan can push a heavier gear than me....somehow i was surprised...

obviously, all this info is relevant to some extent and often when people talk about bike set uyp they are talking about traditional set ups applicable to normal bikes but we all have other bikes for other purposes. a polo bike doesnt need to be comfortable like a commuter is, it has to work well on court, for ten minutes at a time. its worth bearing this in mind too.

all of the above touches on some opionions i have regarding our polo bikes and i posted it cos a few of us have been talking about it, not cos i think i know a lot about it, but because i am learning about it i thought this might be a good place to start talking about it together so we can all find a way to make the bikes we have do what we need them to do.

i love you girls, you are the most awesome, committed, chilled out bunch of lasses i have ever known and ladies polo in london is IMO the luckiest ladies scene in the world!

Thank you for posting this Nik, it's awesome. x

Cool post !

Really helpful post, thanks Nik. I'm building a new bike up at the minute and they're all things I've questioned over the last week or so!

I can't make Cambs this weekend now but I hope you all have fun! I might be coming down next Thursday with a couple of guys from B'ham though so hope to see Ali and Jo then. x

thanks nik, really good to read about these sorts of things in non bike tech language.

i have changed my front tyre last night to a 700x28 Supreme. i know they are not as sleek as gator skins but looking forward to seeing if i feel a difference.

Nice post Nik.

I'm switching to the 700x28 Supremes as well, as soon as the snow is gone.