Milwaukee Bikes Polo Guard

Milwaukee Bikes was one of the first companies to take fixed freestyle and hardcourt polo seriously, and have continued to support each discipline as they’ve grown and matured. One of their long-standing polo products is the pictured polo guard—a one-piece 35t chainring and bashguard. Keeping your chainring covered is not only a good idea to protect relatively delicate chainring teeth, but perhaps more importantly to protect yourself and others.

There is no doubt that the $100 Polo Guard is a high end option, there is a certain price premium that comes with the one-piece machining as compared to a conventional separate chainring and bashguard setup. Materials-wise, Milwaukee spared no expense as the guard is CNC machined from 7075-T6 aluminum, the same material that many high end rings are machined from for maximum hardness and longevity.

The design features a 7 mm thick guard section—wide enough to resist bending and denting, and also wide enough to not act as a blade itself as a filed off ring or ultra-thin guard can potentially do. Compatible with most 1/8” single speed chains, the guard covers the top of the chain perfectly. It should be noted that while most 1/8” chains have a 9.5 mm pin width, some measure a hair wider, as do many masterlinks.

Two models of the Milwaukee Polo Guard are available, each with a 5-bolt, 110 mm bcd interface. Pictured is V1, created to mesh perfectly with the readily available, hidden bolt, Sugino XD crankset (available as a package deal of guard and cranks for $130). V2 is for all other 110 mm bcd cranks with five visible bolts. Installing the hidden bolt of the V1 is a challenge as the design doesn’t allow any space for a tool behind the crankarm. I found that a dab of threadlocker on the female end of the chainring bolt was enough to keep it in place to get it almost tight, and have had no problems since. Available in either silver or black.

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