Hey everybody!! I finished putting together my 36 with the Kris Holm/Schlumpf hub a couple days ago, and have gone on a couple rides with it already, and I have to say it is AMAZING. Some observations:
High gear is quite crazy… I can cruise maybe 3-4 mph faster than on my ungeared coker with 102s, but it’s decently scary, and any irregularities in the road really hurts my speed, because I end up choosing to slow down rather than attempt to accelerate over them. I’m 100% certain that with some time and with some riding, my speed will increase just due to the fact that I’ll have geared coker riding in my muscle memory. Gotta go out and ride! On flat ground, I’ve pedaled it up to 21-22 (ish), but on downhills, I’ve probably only ever hit 20. 18mph feels quite natural and sustainable. I think I need shorter cranks…
With 165 cranks, I bounce too much. Florian sent me the 165 Moments instead of both pairs of dual-drilled cranks (125-150 // 137-165) like I ordered, but at least he charged me for what he shipped me; all I gotta do is get me some shorter cranks now. And seriously, it’s not even a big deal, because riding this thing is so amazing that I just don’t care at all right now! 
The slop is really good: though it’s very noticeable when riding slowly, it blends in entirely while you’re actually riding somewhere.
The hub is beautiful! It really looks so cool… Kris and Florian did an amazing job making this thing, and if you have the money and end up buying one, I guarantee you won’t regret it. It’s a work of art!
Descending in high gear without a brake for a long period of time will destroy your quads! :o … I rode up and down Mt. Diablo (10 miles and 3,200ish feet) two days ago and still feel like jello when I walk. (I hadn’t gone on a bike or uni ride for about 3 weeks prior to that, but still, usually nothing taxes my muscles like that, even after being that long out of it).
XC MUni on a 36 inch wheel with a splined hub and long cranks is just godly! You can roll over just about anything, yet the long cranks give you all the torque you need to power up some pretty steep hills in low gear.
Shifting on the fly seemed impossible initially, and then I figured it out… you hit the button with the butt of your heel as the pedal goes down in front of the hub. After maybe 30 attempts to shift since 2 days ago, I can shift about 80% of the times I attempt it, with one “attempt” being defined as “take as many pedal revolutions as is required in order to get the button to pop in.” Usually, to shift, I’ll twist my heel in and end up hitting the button three or four times before I actually get it to pop in and shift the hub.
Shifting at speed seems better than shifting going very slowly, due to the small period of freewheeling when the hub is “between gears”. When you’re moving with a little bit of speed, the cranks lock in much more quickly, sometimes so quickly that you don’t even realize that they were just freewheeling on you for a fraction of a second. I’ve only ever fallen due to a shift when I’ve been going really slowly (though I haven’t ridden much yet, of course!)
The frame is beautiful, and LIGHT! It’s stiff as hell, and when I ride muni with it, it feels like I’m on a real muni and not on a 36er. Except for the speed, of course! I can’t believe how much lighter the KH36 frame is than my old Nimbus. Guess that’s the difference between aluminum and steel! The seat tube is a bit long, but that’s because it’s a prototype. Kris warned me about this, and luckly, I’m tall enough so that I can have the seat at the proper height and not be stuck with it too high, so, for me, it makes no difference. It just means that not too many shorter people will be able to ride it.
and… PICTURES!!
http://gallery.mac.com/cedwall#100535 is the link to the whole album (on me .Mac Web Gallery). Here are a few for those who don’t want to click:
