Bike polo mechanics & fixing

Don't be so aggressive, Em.

My new BB is finally here, anyone fancy putting it in for me?

(I'll drop it past Push most likely, was just checking if anyone wanted beers for it)

Better?

Nope. I've been scared off now.

Another polo player lost.

I currently have a 32 x 24 gear ratio and I want a second freewheel on my rear for commuting.

Is there any way of figuring how many teeth I can go down?

Does anyone have any freewheels around 19, 20 or 21 teeth that I can try?

Depends how much room you have left in your dropouts if you don't want to change chain size, you can usually get away with 2 or 3 teeth though.

With a half link chain I manage to get away with a 22t for polo and 16t for commuting. With the 16t the axle just fits into the dropouts. Not ideal but I figure if it slips it's only gunna go forward.

I reckon I could squeeze a 4 tooth difference but I filed my track ends down and am as far forward as possible with a halflink at the moment.

I reckon I need to try a 20. I also might gear up on the front for general polo so that would make the road gear even better.

How much does the axle move per tooth change? Is it 1/8"?

I'm not sure Rob. I'll have a look and measure it when I get home.

It says online somewhere, or someone could probably use science or maths or some shit.

^ It's illegal, no¿

Science?

I'm assuming he already has an exposed freewheel covering method in mind.

Ok I've just measured it, there's 22mm of axle travel on mine with 6t difference. That equates to 3.66mm per tooth. As for exposed chainring/freewheel I just take it off for tourneys.

On my pomp I managed 6 tooth difference without too much hassle, but most custom polo bikes have smaller drop outs.

Each tooth is half an inch, so will cause a quarter of an inch movement along the drop outs (slightly less because of the angle of the chain from chainring to cog), but you'll need a half link to get within a quarter of an inch of the ends.

I'm not sure if I understand what you mean by up gear mr standard, but the smaller your chainring the bigger difference in ratio you can get between flipped gears.

^ It's illegal, no¿

I think the trick is to put your polo gear on the outside so it covers the other sprocket, no?

Most chainsets we're rocking can take two chain rings and a bash guard.

On my old 700c polo bike I had an entirely different chainring and sprocket for each polo and commute, and the axle barely changed position.

Wasn't much more faffing at the court, either

I need to cut down a steerer on some forks. Could anyone loan me the tool that I can use with my hacksaw? I dont know what its called. It looks like a little cube with a cylindrical hole in the middle of it and a line through it for the hacksaw blade to go through.

If you don't have it sorted by the lo I could bring my pipe cutter,

Kev, it's obviously some way away but PUSH in Stoke Newington will let you use their tools on a Saturday (mostly). Otherwise, maybe Max has something useful?

Steerer cutting or steerer saw guide. I've bodged reasonably well with an old stem before when mine wasn't to hand.

Or just do it freestyle, a bit of filing will sort it out if you keep it relatively straight.

I have a pipe cutter that will go through a steerer tube, happy for you to come and use it, it doesn't leave my workshop though...