Oh no, this is not good. Both of ours are doing ok - no problems in the KH36 frames. One has about 800 miles on it and the other about 300. I sure hope we can get this figured out soon.
—Nathan
Welcome to the Florian Schlumpfs Broken Hub Club Band, Corbin!
I really want to know what causes this problem. Florian said he had absolutely no idea:(. Are you sure that some of the balls actually disappeared into the inside of the hub? I guess you would have to be able to hear them rattling inside when shaking the hub a little. Maybe they just moved around inside the bearing? Because that’s what happened on my hub. When the bearing cage started to pop out some of the balls crowded up right next to each other leaving larger gaps in other places of the bearing. But I could rearrange them to fit the corresponding parts of the cage.
Unfortunately I’ve already been in this club…this is the third time!
I’m sure that the balls are inside the hub – it no longer turns.
corbin
Corbin my actually be one of the club’s founding members.
@Corbin: Is your bearing cage gone? I went for a ride this weekend and the gasket popped off again. The bearing cage is still there, but it looks tweaked. The first time this happened to me, the bearing cage was actually hanging out of the hub. From you description, it sounds like the bearing cage is no longer there and you are looking directly at the ball bearings.
Hey Perry,
Yeah, it is there, it just was loose and popped off. It looks a little tweaked, but not too bad.
It appears that too large of a side force is causing the ball bearings to shift around and push the gasket (and cage) out and off. And, as which happened to me, the balls can come out too.
corbin
That’s a bummer to hear Corbin given you’ve already been through repairs, and a concern to see a few hubs fail the same way 
Do you still intend on taking 24" GUNI’s on the upcoming trip, or are you taking spare uni’s along just in case?
Almost all of my riding is off road on the (36 GUNI and 36 single speed and 29) and I’ve noticed that with the longer cranks on my 36 GUNI I probably treat it much rougher overall vs the shorter cranks on the single speed 36 e.g. more aggressive climbing. idling etc due to having longer cranks to play with.
So… it’s probably got nothing to do with these failures, but I wondered if you guys have the hubs installed in the same orientation - with the same shift on your dominant leg side?
i.e. Is it possible the hub is vunerable to excessive uneven force that long cranks/big wheels/rough riding generate sometimes?
My gold button is on the left, and I believe Corbin’s is on the right. Shouldn’t matter what side the button is on.
I’d like to think I can generate a lot of torque, but I just haven’t done so with the guni. I’m still in the “getting to know you” phase.
This sucks. Both of mine are still ok, but…I am planning on taking one to India in April and one to Africa in June/July. Obviously they have to work on trips like that. Like some other recent converts, I pretty much can’t imagine continuing with long distance cycling on an ungeared 29 or 36" cycle. We have to get this sorted out!
—Nathan
My question wasn’t not so much which side the button is on, but the relationship of orientation of hub to dominant leg of the rider.
e.g. You’d guess the forces going into the hub via the dominant leg from various activities would be greater than the other leg. I was just wondering if possibly due to the internal mechanics one ‘side’ of the hub is somehow more susceptible to that kind of thing, especially on a bigger wheel.
Anyways, probably not relevant, just wondering out loud if there was any correlation 
@Nathan: I took along a spare hub and spokes for the Panama trip. Figured if the hub went bad during the trip, I could simply build up a new wheel before the next day’s ride. Thankfully, a mid-trip wheel build wasn’t necessary, but from now on, I’ll always carry the spare parts when I take the guni on multi-day rides.
Perry, that’s smart of you, but…what a pain. I do always bring extra spokes but am not in the habit of bringing an extra hub. We have had to change out bearings on a tour, but never rebuild a wheel (unless you count RTL)!
As far as the gold buttons and hub orientation go, out here, we have standardized on shifting up with the right button and we make that gold. So if you are switching around unis with any of us N Cal riders, you always shift the same way. Some of us are right-dominant and some left, but we all shift the same way. Go for the Gold!
—Nathan
Wish I could take full credit for the idea, but both Corbin and KH suggested the hub/spoke safety net.
Well, It’s been 10 days now since I contacted Florian, he should be back home by now. I wonder what he will say about the two hubs that have been returned to him with this new problem… I just can’t stand the waiting. I hope there’s an easy fix.
Has anybody heard any news from Florian by now? I guess he’s back home now…
I heard from Florian on Jan. 29th as I’m waiting for my NEW KH/Schlumpf to be shipped. He was going to check on when my hub was going to be ordered as they are slow to put them out. I haven’t heard back from him yet, but I was told when I originally ordered back in early November that I could expect a February delivery… 
Okay, thanks MuniSano.
I just emailed Florian once again, to see if he had reached any conclusions yet regarding the bearing problem. He replied instantly, saying that he didn’t receive any defective hubs yet… So he still has no idea what’s wrong. He asked me to send him my entire wheel, so he could fix it. Bummer:(
I wonder if it would be of use to send the frame too so he can see if there were any potential problems caused by the frame.
Hopefully after Florian inspects the hub/bearings he can see what is going on. My kh/schlumpf 36er is still going strong, so maybe there were just a few defected hubs out of the bunch.
That’s a great idea, considering Corbin’s original problem with the KHU hub… and the tiny extra cost could be worth the extra information it could give Florian.
Hmm, actually I’m really sure the frame is good and definitely compatible. The bearing holders are exactly the way they’re supposed to be… I really don’t think the problem could be related to that. And besides that would mean I couldn’t ride it at all. Because at the moment I’m using it with the ungeared 29" wheel. Oh well, maybe you’re right though…
So what about you other guys with the same problem, didn’t you send your hubs to Florian yet? I find it strange that he says he didn’t receive them yet.
I have not; I’m waiting to hear from him first. He did get my email, but he didn’t confirm if I should send it or not. It isn’t useful to me broken…so I’ll probably end up just sending it to him soon.
corbin