very common, and to be expected if the weather is too cold. nyc finds the threshold between red and orange Franklins (super high density and high density) to be about 40 degrees fahrenheit, or around 4.5 centigrade. I'm not sure how cold it needs to be to bring out the medium density, cold weather ball.
Ball cracking
Yesterday while some friends were playing polo the ball cracked in half. I'll try to get a picture from Bjorn before the end of the day.
This ball, a red franklin, had not been used very much at all before this. Maybe like a few hours over the course of a few weeks.
The tempurature was 30F(-1.1C). I know they make cold weather balls and everything but holy shit.
Is this very common?
Yes they only had one ball. Yes they tried to tape it together again with electrical tape.
Photo by Bjorn.
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Minneapolis Bike Polo information list
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Can I suggest that while you're shopping for cold-weather Franklins you might consider the purchase of a push-broom as well. Nice photo, though. Did you get a picture of the weird little alien fucker that hatched out of that thing?
This is the court in Nordeast MPLS. I don't like it. It's not my home court. My home court is about .2 miles from my house and I sweep that fucker.
I wasn't there but I hear the alien looked like this.
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Minneapolis Bike Polo information list
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We broke a few balls in short order a couple weeks ago in SF. We start off games with the ball resting in the hole mid-court where there's a latch for the tennis net. People (me in particular) started taking a really hard whack at the ball as it is not easy to knock it free. After the first ball blew I've started trying a more gentle approach.
So where does one buy hard court balls?
Any big box sports store should have them or online. Even in Minnesota its hard to find street hockey balls. Which continues to blow my fucking mind. I guess that boils down to when its warm out we don't want to think about ice.
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Minneapolis Bike Polo information list
A Blog about bikes
Our court is heated because it is the east side water reservoir. We are able to play with the red franklin ball up till -8c,
jonny
jonny is full of shit
we iced our balls this summer
i had to ice my balls after a nasty wreck this summer too.
Yeah, that's totally normal. You'll need to get some softer cold-weather balls. They'll play better, too. Less bounce. Props for playing below freezing, though.