Let me just chime in that, since I got it back from Florian, my hub has operated flawlessly even as I’ve (as far as I can tell) punished the crap out of it. It’s making a couple funny noises now, but after around 5,000 miles on it, it still works just fine aside from the noises. My bike has given me infinitely more trouble.
I had some issues keeping my crank buttons in the cranks, and my cranks on the spindles, in the very beginning, but after about the second month, it all settled in and I literally haven’t touched it since, other than to ride it. And I just bought my first torque wrench last week, and have never used it on my unicycle.
Like the good Corbin, I say a Schlumpf hub is your ticket!
And BTW, count me in for ANY reliable three-speed drive train that:
A: goes higher than 1.5
B: won’t kill me if I try to shift it while riding
Even a two-speed drivetrain with a 1.67 or 1.75 gear ratio or something (which I very distinctly remember Florian saying he could make) would be fantastic. The shifting would be a huge, intense jump, but I’m sure we could get used to it and it’d be “worth it.” I figure if we’re capable of smoothly riding as slow as 5-7mph in 1.5:1, we’d be equally capable of smoothly riding as slow as 5.8 to 8.1mph at the same cadence in 1.75:1, to shift to the same 1:1 direct drive ratio as always. Such a setup would make the flats much faster and the downhills MUCH faster, but would definitely widen that dastardly range of grades where the high gear is too hard and the low gear is too easy. That’d be a trade I’d be willing to make, though, because 165mm cranks were never more attractive than in the face of a higher gear ratio!