We recently got some Mylec reds in Sydney and we have been loving them. Ridiculous amount of bounce compared to the red Frankins we had been using. The best part is that, unlike the Franklins, they stay really hard in the humid Australian weather. Sure, they hurt a lot when you take a direct hit, but they make the games too fun to stop using them
...polo-specific ball. a topic for discussion.
Is there a thread about this yet? well, it's been a recent topic of discussion at the last few tourneys...
Okay, so this is what we use now, or the red version for certain conditions.
It's nice to use an established product that's been proven over time, and hey it would be nice to be sponsored by Franklin too.
Let's think for a second now about what we really want in a hardcourt polo ball.
things to consider:
- weight
- diameter (which should probably not change for our game)
- material (optimized for most surfaces we play on, rough pavements, smooth tennis courts etc)
- visibility. (so we can still get a good game after the lights die down a little.)
thoughts?
visibility is key. We need a color that other sports don't use too. It would be nice to have fluorescent green balls (most ball sports don't use green balls as they would not be visible on grass).
Size and weight are is fine as is, material may need improvement...
The Franklin balls come in three colors/temperature ranges/densities. The Mylec come in 5. Both companies have hollow and liquid-filled products.
Similar to how colored tires have less carbon black in them, and therefore wear and grip differently, the color of a plastic product affects it's characteristics. I don't know the exact chemistry, and there are ways around any problem, but you might incur extra costs or toxicity or something if you pick a color before you pick a density.
If you are not going to request anything so special as a new size, texture, or density, your "polo specific" dollars would be best spent in getting an endorsement on an existing product. Like the custom printed balls thread suggests.
Not an isolated incident, Mylecs suck. Franklin Reds FTW. I see no reason to use anything else unless it is below 20ºF
I agree, Franklin reds are perfect except for the color in my opinion. Something bright like fluorescent green would be great...the red gets becomes dull very quickly if you play on asphalt.
Has anyone tried these for colour on court? http://www.totalhockey.net/Product.aspx?itm_id=3344&div_id=1 (sorry I'm HTML illiterate) I doubt the glow in the dark aspect would be of much use, but seems to best fit the colour mentioned above, except tie dyed like a bad 1970's tee shirt.
"Can be used in all temperatures, but for best results, use in temperatures below 32°F / 0°C"
That probably isn't a temperature range Christchurch sees too often.
I'm less concerned about colour than I am about density. Soft balls suck.
Yeah, I guess it's a Franklin Yellow ball all dressed up for a 1970's disco party. I'm not sure if Lucky is correct above, I doubt the colour has anything to do with density, just a way to differentiate between them. If they all just get dirty & grey, perhaps colour dosn't matter at all?
Oh it does get pretty cold in CHCH, but I think we'd struggle to get players on court in below freezing conditions...
Yes we've played with them. They eventually, no matter what the color, all turn the color of brake dust, diesel and sand up here in Minnesota winters.
ooo that's a cool one
I bought one of their multi color balls. It is sort of white and sparkly Mis amigos usually call it the gay ball. When it was new it was sometimes called the sparkle ball. Smoke up and play sparkly!
The fun wears out about that fast. Pretty quick it becomes the dirty court color.
I've tried scrubbing a ball clean. Works for about half a game before dirt finds its way back in to all the scratches. Maybe there's some trick who knows I think its time I buy more balls anyway.
WARNING: Fahrenheit scale is used in the flowing text.
weight: I'll take a few to my local USPS.
diameter: same.
material: We know the current warm weather balls are not rated for high enough temperatures, because we're having to ice our ballz in 75degree weather. Same goes for the opposite end of the temperature scale, but has more to do with how poorly the current cold weather balls play in extreme cold. If we can get man to outer space...
visibility: "so we can still get a good game after the lights die down a little." - agreed So what color is it? neon something? day glow whatever.
Custom: Just like buying disc golf discs. We should be able to buy our desired ball weight and density(material blend).
Maybe if we start a petition to request some serious R&D we can convince a company like Franklin that we could potentially surpass the roller hockey ball sales.
Whatever brand has that rubbery shell that loves to hug down into the court and refuses to come as you pass by pawing at it really sucks.
Those bright yellow balls really show up well and I like the way they look too bad they're so soft. A crisp ball can really bring some extra energy into a game. What about a white ball, maybe make it out of nylon like that thick white tubing people were using a couple years ago.
The tubing you refer to is still being use, but yeah, imagine a thick layered uhm material? Now we're breakin' knee caps.
I think as long as we're keeping the ball density slightly higher than our heads we're in good shape.
That's a good point! Using a material like that may require some extra R&D. Mastering the balance between the perfect skin, the right weight, non cracking or exploding, and non lethal is an incredible challenge. Considering the many many factors required for the perfect polo ball makes me respect the Franklin reds even more. A chilled Franklin red is perfection.
I think you're on to something there..a ball like that would hurt like hell but be worth it.
This is a pretty cool thread Chombo... I have been searching for the "perfect" ball for a while now.. but, have yet to find a Franklin ball ... The picture above shows what I have found and used here so far..
The Viceroy ball was sent to me as a sample direct from the manufacturer ... they do custom printing on balls and I wanted to check em out ... its really hard and really HEAVY! .. at least twice as heavy as the Canadian tire ball ... so it doesn't bounce much and even the hardest shot will only get it off the ground about 1 foot... so far not many people like it due to its weight .. I'm not sure how many grams it is though..
The Sidelines ball has been the best so far .. not too heavy or light .. again I wish I could weigh it .... its hard as hell and the owner of a shop here has been selling them at cost to me ... we have yet to split one on the court ..
The Canadian Tire .99 cent ball .... they work ..( sorta ) but mostly garbage ... its the softest and lightest out of the 3 balls .. they split all the time or develop cracks in the seam and become softer then a tennis ball ..
I'm gonna track down some Franklin balls ( I hope ) and try em out ... or if anyone wants to send me one or trade for one of these Sidelines balls drop me a email..
We actually started with the Orange Sideline sports balls here in Christchurch NZ as it is the only locally available street hockey ball, but the 2 I have aren't very round and are fairly soft - softer than Franklin oranges balls. But I agree they are a good weight...are yours the orange ones? do they make other densities?
*Edit* - Just did a search on the Sidelines balls and it seems they only do orange. http://www.sidelines.ca/street_hockey_ball_puck_2008.htm
Dunno if it exists, but something that glows very brightly at night for when lights are dimming would be awesome. And not that light up ball, that things too heavy.
plus, after rolling around on the ground for a few games the damn thing got so dirty it was barely visible. and then it broke...
I think most folks who have played a range of these balls would agree that mylecs are very light..they hop high and catch serious air when someone really lays into it. The liquid ball feel a little sluggish and something in their compound feels a bit more rubbery...they also felt a little squishy in hot temps. It feels like it wants to stick to things! Franklins seem to really fit the bill best so far in performance over a variety of weather conditions and terrains.
is there any way to improve on that performance?
Still no Franklin ball .. but, one of the guys here brought some of these to the court on sunday ... they are freaking amazing!! .. its the hardest ball we have now and about the same weight as the Sidelines ball .. there is no give to this ball no matter how hard you squeeze it.. and its only $3 a ball ... I don't know what its made of but it feels more like a plastic then a rubber ....
so this will be our new favorite ball for now..
Still no Franklin ball .. but, one of the guys here brought some of these to the court on sunday ... they are freaking amazing!! .. its the hardest ball we have now and about the same weight as the Sidelines ball .. there is no give to this ball no matter how hard you squeeze it.. and its only $3 a ball ... I don't know what its made of but it feels more like a plastic then a rubber ....
so this will be our new favorite ball for now..
Hey Yorgo! is that the same ball as Cory's that you had a while back? I recall seeing a similar one at one point, forgot what the dish on that one was. good? bad?
Ya these are my favorite. Super hard....I almost made Dylon's shin bleed the other day ;-). Pretty duarble too, although I did split one the other day. Price is good too. Just about everything else is more money and not as good, except the $.99 canadian tire ones, but they suck so bad that you have to buy 5 times as many of them.....
cory, send me a few. we wanna try them. message me mrmartinhauck at hot to tha mail dot com
oh tay .. I'll pick you up a few today ..
pick an extra few up for MKE. Message me and let me know if you can ship a few to us and ill send paypal $. thanks
I can ship out up to two balls for free if that's enough.... if you want more then that you have to send me back something ... I don't want your money .. send me stickers or a shirt or anything really ..
email me - cory(at)ponyexpresscalgary.com
just let me know how many you want and your address.
I will ship them out early next week ...
Thanks so much Cory. I got them Friday and we played with one on Saturday. They are nice and hard (me like) but pretty bouncy in this weather and on our court. I get the feeling like these will be THE summer balls. How much are they?
x2
I liked it. Hard balls rule. Using those ones in the summer on the night court would be ideal. Up above Cory says they are $3. That's a good price for a ball like that. I wonder if there is some place in Van that sells them.
Were those balls ordered Cory or did you get'em in Calgary?
x2
I liked it. Hard balls rule. Using those ones in the summer on the night court would be ideal. Up above Cory says they are $3. That's a good price for a ball like that. I wonder if there is some place in Van that sells them.
Were those balls ordered Cory or did you get'em in Calgary?
also Cory: any chance we can get a couple of these sent out to NYC? pleeeeeeez
Yeah I would like to know as well. Also if I can't find them up in Edmonton would you be able to send a couple up here?
yup .. just email me addresses to ship to and I can ship them out .. i have to go pick up a few more balls tomorrow and I think I will order a case of 100 ...
..oh and Chris I get them here in calgary.. only one shop I have found that carries them .. but as I said to neil I will see if he can find out where there might be other distributors ...
Here are a few photos I took on the weekend.
Nicely displayed http://splashr.com/show/desktop/s-72157623633705885/
and the Flickr set http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanbicyclist/sets/72157623633705885/
Please go and post comments/questions etc.
I'd like to put some more photos straight into this post but there are too many.
will also post this in the too seriously thread.
I like your Kenball ... so out of all of those .. what one seems to be the best to you?..
If we get balls printed, I vote for Kenny's design :)
Best balls? pretty unanimous in Melbourne, the only times we have disagreements is when it's 25.0 degrees.
The generic orange for under 25 degrees and the red mylec for over 25 degrees C. (which was almost every day last summer)
The mylec liquid filled is also great but we only have 2. I've had a few random dollar store balls in the past, but I have lost track of those. I'm interested to know how these ball hockey association balls are similar/different to what I have photographed.
Damon
So balls have been shipped to all who requested some .. prolly gonna take about week to get there... I only get free overnights done here in Canada... so post office it is ... I have ordered a box of 50 and hope to have it in a week or so ...
so today we were playing in the rain, and The Pit's surface combined with the ball provided some interesting (and sometimes frustrating!) situations, as I'm sure we've all experienced before in such conditions.
the surface was wet and covered with light debris. it was somewhat cold out.
the ball (a Franklin red) was popping up all over the place like a damn ping-pong ball! It also had a crazy almost unpredictable spin on it at times due to the slick surface. Putting english on the ball would bring about some crazy results. I almost wished we had something just a tad heavier just to keep some consistent roll going on. I know that good polo demands a healthy response to handling a ball in many different unpredictable conditions, but for just one moment I wanted something else. Something that would respond to the conditions and be able to perform accordingly.
Am I just lazy?
AGS nuf said.
http://www.hockeyoffice.com/images/shop/view/SC750511.jpg
This is what I bought from Germany to play in hot weather... they are just a bit harder and more heavy of the RED Franklin Super High Density... this could be a good alternative?
That looks like a "standard" NHL franklin red rebranded for the euro market, is it really a different composition? I can't imagine Franklin doing 2 types of Super High Density balls out of the same Thai factory but I suppose it's possible.
That looks like a "standard" NHL franklin red rebranded for the euro market, is it really a different composition? I can't imagine Franklin doing 2 types of Super High Density balls out of the same Thai factory but I suppose it's possible.
It's really different than Franklin red.
Bought some but they are too heavy and hard.
It looks like red-ish from the photo, but the real color is more bright orange, which I believe is different composition.
We prefer Franklin orange to play with here in Netherlands.
no chombo you aren't lazy just high. Calgary sent us some of those orange ball hockey asc. balls thanks for the effort but they kinda suck a lot. they are hard as fuck which is nice but way to light. every shot i took left the ground and curved from fighting the air. I also blew it to bits within about 20 minutes. it was around 65 70 degrees out at the time. I think we all know what the best ball is. red franklin i think they just need to replace them more often. probably a month or less of polo 2 to 3 times a week is the life span of a ball. maybe franklin can make a pro model or some shit that would be tight
I've been thiniking about the very same thing this week and just posted something on our local blog http://hardcorepolo.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/red-ball-rampage/ We've been playing with Franklin "Oranges" with some success We got hold of some Mylec reds & there was a near fatality on court...well not quite, but totally different & not in a good way.
http://downlowpolo.wordpress.com/