M0871 has a new home!
Here are my first impressions of M0871, installed into a 19" trials wheel and a Nimbus Equinox frame.
I ordered the hub directly from Florian and had it shipped to Silva Cycles in Campbell, California. They installed it into the Nimbus Equinox frame. Perhaps I was not clear enough in my correspondence with Silva, because I wanted 137mm cranks, and they installed 137/165 DH cranks. Also, I wanted the stock seat which comes with the Equinox, which is the Nimbus Street Saddle (last time I looked), and they sent it with a Nimbus Gel Saddle. I also wanted a 300mm seat post, and they sent me a 250mm seat post. It turns out, after taking the thing for a ride, I’m not upset, at all, but rather pleased/intrigued by the changes to my order. More on that, later.
My first impressions are probably as run-of-the-mill as one would expect from a first-time Schlumpf rider. I started by manually placing it in high gear, then proceeded to miss my first couple mounts. Once I mounted seat-in-front, I was able to ride away, and it didn’t take long to static mount in high gear. Of course, it felt really weird, and I was slightly put-off by the small amount of play which I understand is normal in the Schlumpf hub. I rode up and down my street a few times. Then I stopped, shifted into low, and that’s where the big surprise happened: After only a couple minutes riding in high gear, low gear seemed ridiculously low; the lack of pedaling resistance was off-putting. I was not expecting that.
I wanted to practice shifting, but I didn’t feel like dropping my baby on the street, so I took it to an undeveloped, dirt/weed area adjacent to my neighborhood. I wasn’t ready to shift while moving, but I succeeded, with pretty good consistency, at shifting while in a still stand. I have U.S. size 13 shoes. Using this method, though, resulted in different amounts of slippage from one shift to another, some involving a small click-into-place, and others involving a significant free-rotation of the pedals, followed by a UPD. I was more successful down-shifting from a standstill, than I was up-shifting.
I rode down a moderately steep, off-road hill. In some ways it felt like riding a big wheel with shorter cranks. This being a new experience, I was working a lot harder, and I was sweating pretty hard. Then I rode up a long-ish, paved hill, in high gear. I was surprised at how fast I got up the hill, as well as how strenuous going up the hill was.
There was a limit to what I could climb, in 1.5 gear / 137 cranks. I’m going to swap to the 165mm hole in the DH cranks tomorrow and see what hills I can make it up in both gears. Pedal strikes may be an issue; I will find out. Low gear will be even more ridiculously low. Regarding the seat, I’m planning on taking longer rides, so it turns out I’m happy with the softer, Nimbus Gel Saddle. And the seat-post: I didn’t need a 300mm seat-post; the 250mm seat-post, combined with the long-neck frame, gives me as much seat-height as I can handle.
So, thank you Silva Cycles, and thank you Florian! I understand this is not a very practical use for the hub, but my interest is mostly learning how to use the thing, and using the thing in lots of different situations (even if none of those situations are exactly “optimal”). I’m going for a ~10 mile mUni ride on it this weekend. It’s too early to say what my ultimate feelings are about the Schlumpf geared hub installed in the 19" street/trials unicycle, but the first hour was awesome!
