St Cago news and custom requests

Sam: Mallet head orders over the internet - 1-3 heads, 14 USD per, plus shipping. 4-11 heads, 13 USD per, plus shipping. 12 or more heads (club orders) 12 USD per, plus shipping. Mallet heads bought in person from me or one of my agents at a tournament or such, 13 USD. If you want to pre-arrange for a club order to be picked up at an event, send me an email, we'll work something out.

Modified dual brake levers are being priced this week and next as I get bids in from machine shops around town. My goal is to have it be less than the problem solver, which is 38 bucks from most bike shops. It would be great if I could do it for around 20-25, but we'll just have to see.

Collapsible goals are a fantasy right now. 1. I need a standard goal size to be established. 2. I need to get my lazy metal working friends to return emails. Working on design/feasibility right now. Pricing won't come until that's nailed down. Here's my inspiration, though.

Messenger bag mods are also just an idea right now. If there are any bag makers out there (Abe in Chi, Henry in Lex, seagull, dank, etc) who are interested in some contracted piece work, email me and I'll send you the design. We can negotiate a price.

Riki: I'll get to work on your order. 4.75" is no problem.

Josh: Probably not, but so what if you are? I'm soliciting custom size orders at no extra charge. Do you want 2 3/8" or 2" O.D. pipe?

Yeah, like I've said elsewhere; I'm using a better grade of HDPE material for the caps now and being a little more scientific when I fuse them, so the occasional cap-flying-off should be less of a problem in the future.

Drizz: I've got 10 short pull and 10 long pull levers going right now. I'll want to see how much they are going to be and how much people like them before I sell 'em in bulk. I'm trying to engineer them well, but someone always seems to have a great suggestion after using it for a while that I'll want to incorporate in the next run.

Hey everyone, I made a little webstore in hopes that there would be fewer emails between you wanting and you getting. This should also help to alleviate the problems I've been having towards the end of a batch where more than one person claims the last of a particular size and style of mallet head.

This also marks the official introduction of the Tournament edition heads. All the details of that are on the site, which will also be linked to in my signature.

As of right now, I've only worked out shipping for US orders. I'll get to Canadian, European, and AustrAsian as soon as I can. If you are not from the US and you're itching to place an order, contact me through my profile here and we'll work something out.

Thanks, everyone. This is kind of a big deal to me, and I couldn't have done it without all of your support and feedback.

-Lucky

Wow. Thanks a metric polo-tonne to everyone who sought me out, cash-in-hand, at last weekend's biggest and bestest tournament ever! Even while I was hiding out in the shade trees behind court 4. Extra special big ups to the Lawrence, KS crew reppin' fixcraft for watching my milk crate while I was reffin', and acting double-quick to put together a great deal on complete mallet kits using their great shafts and my heads.

Here's the news:

•Looking at solidifying that mutually good relationship with fixcraft to get y'all deals on heads and poles together. Give us a minute to work out the details, it's awesome when we happen to be at the same tourney with our stuff. Warehousing and webstore interfaces takes a little longer.

•Version 2.0 of the dual pull brake lever is out. Started with better levers and added slots for quick cable changes. Still counting on your feedback to get to the best design, though. Let me know if the cable ends slide out of the rod, or the adjusters snap off, or if want a two finger lever or anything. I'm thinking about using road cables instead of mountain, cos I can make a more secure landing for that style of nipple in the rod. Any objections or suggestions?

•Also selling a kit to bolt the dual lever "hack" onto the lever you've already got. It should be kind of universal, but not totally. Looking at other people's levers all weekend game me new appreciation for exactly how many brilliant and crazy minds have been at work in the bicycle industry. The bolt that comes with the kit will attach the plate to most, but not all brake levers.
You might also need to file or dremel either the plate or your lever so that the two mate well. I put some extra meat in the plate just for this.

I intend to make and post some instructions for putting it together this week, but no promises.

•I did a warrantee claim on a tournament edition single capped mallet head that had split along one of the lines that are scored into them so that you can align the shaft and bolt. Has anyone else had this problem? If I just happened to hit a weak spot in the plastic that's one thing. If this is a persistent problem and I need to put those lines on with a paint marker instead of a nail, I'll do it.

OK? OK. Thanks again y'all. Sorry if I put any long time customers in the penalty box. But the whistle and the wallet gotta stay separate for polo to be at its best.

Also: The van broke down on the way back from Madison on Monday afternoon. So half of my stock of mallet heads, and all of the new brake levers, are locked up in the the autozone parking lot in a small town in Central Illinois right now. I'll re-open the webstore today with what I've got on hand, but it'll be the weekend before I can get going with the new brake levers. Sorry and thanks.

I have FINALLY set up shipping options to Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan. You may all order fewer than 10 heads or whatever direct from the site without ever having to rely on my email checking skills, which are weak. 10 or more heads and you'll still have to go through me to set up shipping. That's the weight at which the Post Office jumps from First Class to Priority shipping, and the method the webstore used to calculate shipping costs can't handle it.

RE: Shipping. I have now had two packages take way too long to get delivered. One to Canada and one to Spain. They did get there eventually, but it was no fun worrying about it. If this becomes a persistent problem, I will look into UPS or FedEX for international orders, but they are crazy expensive compared to the post. Stay tuned.

RE: Heads. I have successfully made enough heads of every size to get me through a tournament season (midwests to worlds) with some to spare. Such a relief to not have to do make-up batches before big tournys through the summer. Next batch will be done in Fall/Winter. I'll ask again about custom sizes then.
Other changes will be; more tournament edition, less pick up (except for singles). Paint marker lines for orienting your shaft instead of scored lines. There were a coupla tournament singles that split along the scored line. Only two that I've been told about, but it's easy to avoid in the future.

RE: Levers. I'm mostly OK with the design where it is. Gonna switch to road cables for a more secure seating in the rod vs the MTB barrels. Still looking for a better Long-Pull lever, hinged would be sweet. I'd like to get the price down, but this is where it's at for right now. Early adopter and all. Any complaints about the Short Pull lever? The design? Happier with the quick-change option and the beefier adjusters?

RE: St Cago heads and Fixcraft poles. We're still working out a deal. We're both super-excited about offering a discounted, 'complete mallet' package like we did at NAs, but haven't figured out who's gonna store who's stuff in what amounts and take on the shipping yet. They just moved their whole warehouse facility, from poles and wheel-covers to seven inches and grindcore t's. So it's gonna take a while longer. Probably they will carry my stuff starting with the next batch.

RE: The name "St Cago". It's a portmanteau, "St" from Saint Louis, where I live. "Cago' from Chicago, where I'm from. It's not "Kay-go". They aren't "Lucky heads". I, Lucky, am not a Saint. Not that I was interested, but to incorporate under "Lucky", "Lucky Co.", "Lucky Polo Stuff", or whatever, would've involved fighting off more than just the jeans people. Thank you.

Seriously, thanks everyone. This is fun.

Nope, not that I've made myself easy to get a hold of lately.

After a year of working part-time, using the off-days to work on bike polo stuff and ship out orders, I just stared a new full-time, grown-up-type job. It will take me a little while to figure out how to squeeze St Cago into the new schedule. My apologies to all those who've been waiting for email answers from me about their orders or when Tournament Singles are going to be back in stock.

I'm hoping to be able to get a really big batch of heads out in early November. It will be predominantly Tournament and Pick-up Singles. I should be able to do another short run of brake levers in the next 3-4 weeks. Does anyone have any complaints/suggestions about this last batch with the split adjusters?

When the next batch does come out, it will be sold through Fixcraft/Blue Collar Distro. They are super-cool people to deal with from both the artist/producer side and the customer/fan side, and I will happily give up the meager percentage they want in exchange for them handling the constant trips to the post office. I wasn't great at that stuff even when I had one or two weekdays to take care of it. Cost of mallets heads will stay the same, shipping might go up a little, but will become much more reliable. They are professional distributors, after all.

Thanks a lot everyone. It's still fun to make this stuff for y'all.

Hey Y'all - I've closed down the webstore and packed up what little remaining stock I've got to take to Lexington this weekend. Orders received this week (Japan, Australia, San Fran)will be sent out early next week, when I get back to town. Orders to Decatur and San Fran went out Wednesday.

I've only got a handful of tournament and pick up doubles left on the shelves. Plus a few dual pull kits. More brake levers have been ordered, and the machinist should be able to turn them around in a coupla weeks. New heads are in the planning, but I'm going to have to wait until I've moved apartments and caught up a little financially to buy all those materials. Funny thing about ramping up production to meet increasing demand: you need a lot of cash at the start to buy huge quantities of materials and services. Better this than no interest, though. Thanks for sticking with me, everyone! Huge batch of tournament singles coming in early 2011.

OK! I'm all moved into the windy city, my new job is working out, and I no longer have to look after 13 cats in 5 apartments (if you get people to help you unload a moving truck in December in Chicago, you end up owing a lot of people favors). This means I can start concentrating on St Cago again!

Dual Pull Brake Levers should be done this week or next. New this batch: The rods take road cables, not MTB. I think this will provide a more secure seat. The MTB barrels occasionally slipped out of their saddles on the old style. Also, I have produced a few of the kits with M8 and M6 bolts, for those of you using Paul, Tech 77, or some other BMX levers that don't have the M10 adjuster that the plate usually bolts into.

There is a deposit on the new batch of caps, and materials will be ordered next week, as soon as I have a Chicago checking acct set up. I went ahead and bought the fusion rigs that I used to have to rent, so I should be both more flexible and more diligent about making custom sizes and filling in stock as things sell out. My goal for 2011 is to not run out of heads all season long. But to keep making them in whatever styles are demanded, by holding stockpiles of pipe and caps in house to fuse up to send to fixcraft and/or take to tournaments with less lead time. This is a big change in how I finance and run the operation, but, if my email inbox is any indication, I'm only hurting myself and disappointing people with the batch production model.

Oh, and the thin walled HDPE pipe that I make the tournament edition heads from? I'm gonna make that available to you all uncapped for 4 bucks a foot, cos so many people have been asking me about it.

Thanks again for waiting for me. I'll see you all around this summer.

-Lucky

I just brought the box of levers home from the shop. I've got some emails to go through and I have to wait a coupla days for paypal and my new bank to meet each other, but I tentatively have 11 long pull, 12 short pull, 8 regular kits (w/M10X1 screw), 3 kits with an M6 screw for Tech 77 levers and some other old BMX stuff, and and 3 kits with an M8 screw cos I thought that's what Paul levers used. It's not, apparently.

On the mallet head side: Things are moving, although slowly. The caps are being cut out of the sheet by a waterjet guy this week. Then they go to my notoriously slow machinist. The real hiccup right now is getting the thin walled pipe for the Tournament heads. Last year it was only stocked at a yard in Boston, and my order was small enough to cut up and ship UPS. This year, it's only stocked in Kingman, AZ and I want enough that they have to ship it freight, which is painfully expensive.

Any Phoenix or Las Vegas polo players wanna take a road trip on my behalf? I can reward you with mallets-a-plenty.

Thanks once again for sticking with me through the move and all the BS. It'll get done, and this batch will be properly huge, so that the nice folks at Fixcraft can happily ship them out to y'all.