I've found that the mylec balls are a little too bouncy. The franklins seems to stay on the ground a bit more
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Mallets Of Mayhem
Balls
So, ah...what kind of balls do you play with?
Here in Troy, we have been using the orange no-bounce kind (Franklin AGS Pro High-Density). I read someplace that these ones are disliked - they certainly suck when they go in a corner, or when you end up balls to the wall. Which do you prefer & why?
Also make sure you don't get the franklins with the water filled center. They REALLY suck
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Mallets Of Mayhem
The AGS balls ARE the ones with the water-filled core. We don't like them in NYC because they tend to play with a really "dead" feel. They are a bit heavier too.
All we play with is the orange water filled ones... it's all we know.
What are we missing?
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Moooooo!
Check out Lucky's link above. Doug gives a little rundown of Franklin balls on his blog...
Aha, I knew I read it somewhere!
In London they play with a cricket ball, so we've been playing a bit with it here in Paris cause of the upcoming tourney over there next weekend. it's slow, strangely a bit bouncy given its weight, and it's so hard that i bet a hard shot would taco a decent wheel. It's a bit easier to stick handle with cause it's slower, but it makes for a slow game.
you can see a decent photo of it.
I brought about 5 red Franklin balls with me to France, but they're really hard to get here, so if there's hope of this becoming an international standard we'd better find a means of easy regular shipments. I can help with this for the time being, so if any of the crew in Berlin/London/Basel/Spain are interested lemme know and we'll figure something out.
I also understood that they're hard to get in Canada, the Franklins, due to some NHL licensing restriction?
We use field hockey balls. Cricket balls are woven like a baseball...
Sunday I put one straight through a wheel, snapping the tip of a spoke and the nipple.
Somebody brought a red squishy ball around once and none of us liked it. It just stopped when you went to grab it with your mallet, it didn't handle so well and you had to hit it so hard to get a good shot off we were constantly having face high mallets. Plus side was you could ride over it without getting thrown around. Dunno if it was the Franklin one everybody is on about but it sucked! And supposedly it was the type of ball they played in Portland OR.
ok gotcha. someone here told me it was cricket ball, a sport i know nuthin about.
the orange ones that people switch to in the winter are squishy. They should only really be used in winter, when the red balls are too brittle and pretty much shatter on impact (and the orange ones become less squishy when it's cold out).
the red ones, which we use above 5 celsius, are not very soft, it is possible to ride over it but generally it means you're going to foot-down cause they're pretty firm. and they shoot true. you played with one when you came to Madison. and anyone in your crew who's gone to NYC has played with it. anyway i'll bring some to London this weekend.
Yea, it could've been orange. Maybe the waterfilled one in the hardcourtbikepolo link above? It definitely didn't behave like the one in Madison...
I've taken a slapshot with one of our balls in the shin, it wasn't so bad.
we just buy them online instead of trying to find them locally.
Whenever we travel to NYC we make sure to visit Paragon Sports and load up on those sweet sweet Franklin balls. We really love his balls, that Franklin guy
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Mallets Of Mayhem
if all you can get are the AGS balls, you can blow the liquid out of them. Then they play like a normal franklin.
Here is a link where you can get the right balls: http://www.sportsunlimitedinc.com/franklin-nhl-super-high-density-street...
I have also found them on Amazon and through AceHardwareoutlet.com
maybe we should set up some sort of trading collective. Like everyone sends polo parts they have excess of to one location and then we can send them out to city as needed. Kind of a lot of work but would be really an awesome collective project.
I guess another option is to bring extra materials to tournaments, so if you are coming to chicago for NACC's i will be bringing ten feet of yellow and red tubing. Also pre-orders can be asked for ahead of time.
you Canadians won't have any problem bringing some ski poles with you.
jonny
The AGS balls are extremely difficult to dribble with, especially when you're keeping the ball out in front of you. They tend to lurch after you touch them if you're touching it soft, and are considerably heavier when you try'n hit'em hard. I put a hole in'em with a safety pin and drained the liquid.
legitbikepolo.com
here in Seattle we prefer to play with the AGS balls. It is true they are a little heavier but it keeps peoples shots down closer to the ground and we find we like the dampening effect the have when they hit things.
Leon
206 bike polo
tennis balls, really?
ha, they played that on the radio on our way to the midwest tourney in milwaukee a couple years ago.
that was 1 year ago and that was when we were still playing big ball on cement(not sure if people would get your reference as to why that song was pertinent at the time)
no dice nyc...MKE!
Woah Carole. I had no idea. Now you have to sing the whole thing over the PA at the next NSPI.
I'd be willing to bet that if you read somewhere that the AGS balls suck to play with, you probably also read about how the preferred ball in most cases is the standard Franklin ball (red, high density).
We like those best, but we've also tried balls from a company called Mylec, who makes the same color coded balls for different temps (red=warm, orange=cool, yellow=cold). The red balls made by them aren't bad at all, but they have a slightly firmer feel than the Franklins.
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