This hasn’t proven to be an issue for me. I have 125mm cranks with high Q factor on a 29” and have spun up to about 248 rpm. I actually have an easier time spinning fast on high q cranks because I don’t have the fear of hitting my heel on the crank and getting launched into next week.
Thanks for your very thorough and informative response. I learned a lot from it and now thanks to you and the other forum members who replied to my post, I have figured out all the components I want to utilize for my upcoming geared 36er build.
Now I just need to figure out how in the dickens I’m going to get the wheel for my geared 36er built! I don’t have the skills to do it myself or the time to learn how, so I’m hoping I will be able to find a good bike shop (or unicycle wheel building guru) who I can hire to do an excellent job of building the wheel for me. Does anyone know any such bike shop or guru in or near NYC who would be up for the job? If there isn’t anyone in or near my vicinity, I will resort to shipping the wheel components somewhere else, so suggestions for a company or individual anywhere in the continental USA would be most appreciated. Thanks!
If you buy your spokes, rim, and hub from UDC they will build your wheel for about $60 I think. Not sure if Schlumphs are gonna be sold through UDC but it’s probably a safe bet.
Dave Stockton was living in Connecticut when he built the wheel for der uber Coker, I think that’s why you got it first, because he was so close to you. He was building the best 36" wheels available at the time. I think he might have moved to Texas. Do any of the Unatics know of his whereabouts?
Don’t be intimidated - it’s pretty easy if you’re good with your hands. Good easy to follow guide: https://youtube.com/watch?v=p2jTrJYJGd8
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Would you really recommend a Schlumpf wheel as someone’s first wheelbuild?
Yes it’s not particularly difficult to do yourself, but it’s also not easy to do it really well on your first go.
For such an expensive aluminium flanged hub I’d be recommending sending it off to someone who does high quality wheelbuilds professionally, at least for the tensioning and truing if not for the lacing as well.
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I don’t see how it should be any different from any other hub, but I’ll defer to your judgement since I’ve never built a Schlumpf wheel.
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Building it is probably not that more difficult than with a standard hub. But if you get this result:
there is a big difference in costs, compared to any other hub.
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Mostly that failure on the older hubs is just down the design, and the fact that aluminium loves to stress fracture over time, but clearly a less than ideal wheelbuild will lead to increased stresses in certain places, making such a failure all the more likely.
As has been said, neither the Schlumpf or the 36" rim is really anything unusual with respect to wheel building, meaning that a good bicycle wheel builder should also do a good job. I rebuilt my ungeared 36 when the hub failed and I built my 29" Schlumpf wheel myself too. The spokes are longer but so what, you can measure and the online spoke calculators handle it too. As for bike shops, most bikes are 32 rather than 36 spokes, but for any respectable wheel builder spoke count and spoke length are normal basic concerns (almost all rear bicycle hubs have 2 different spoke lengths, so should be used to that).
However, as has been said, although you could do it yourself, I would agree that a 36" Schlumpf is probably not the best first wheel build to build (it’s different and more costly if you mess up).
Also as Unigoof mentioned, depending on where you order it, most unicycle dealers like UDC should offer good wheel building too. Shipping the assembled wheel should not be an issue (my 36 wheel was shipped fully laced when I bought it).
I can’t recommend a wheel builder in NYC, but I would talk to some bike shops. I would say that you can quickly get a feel for a shop if a they scoff at a unicycle wheel or a 36" rim then obviously not your choice. I would think if you are prepared to offer/pay a few dollars more for something a little different different you should find someone good by asking around at bike shops. Most bike mechanics are generally pretty good and in general I think prefer doing something interesting like building a wheel by hand instead of changing another tube and bleeding brakes and changing cables and chains (the related problem is a lot of customers aren’t willing to pay for a quality hand wheel build because you just can’t do it in 20 minutes for $30 like the machine at the factory can).
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I’m pretty sure for the US most people I’ve seen here on the forum and I believe Terry (unigeezer) - has had their Schlumpf hubs built by https://www.silvacycles.com/
I could be wrong but I think Silva may also import hubs for customers - as UDC US don’t carry the hubs - unlike UDC UK.
I’m not going to risk building a Schlumpf wheel set myself again for peace of mind and the £££ value. So I’ll get my hub sent off to UDC UK and hopefully have Roger build it as then I know it is set up by someone who knows what a Schlumpf is 
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One potential issue you might face in getting a bike shop to build a 36" wheel for you is that their truing stand may not take a 36" wheel – and especially a 36" wheel with a unicycle ISIS hub and not a QR or through axle bike hub…
I ended up making extensions for my Park Tool truing stand which should allow it to be used to true my 32" wheel and my Hatchet fat wheel with the tyre still on (built the Hatchet wheel with it). These have machined bearing holders which are adjustable in angle since the Park stand legs don’t move parallel – probably overkill but at least the bearings always sit square in the holders.
Building in a 36" frame is always an option but you might have to supply your frame to the shop and they might not be keen to do it with anything other than a proper stand to true it given they are putting their name on it.
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Yes you can!
One probably has to build a few wheels before twenty minutes is achievable, but on my second wheel build I was on a call with a friend and managed to delace two wheels, steal a rim from one and lace it into the other in about an hour while talking about unicycles. Then I unicycled over to his house while carrying this rim and popped it into the frame and spent about 10mins truing it with the ol’ zip tie method. So it doesn’t take unreasonably long to build wheels.
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When I laced the wheel on my daughter’s unicycle it was my first time and I had my tablet open to Sheldon Brown’s wheel building tutorial. I remember it taking me about 40 minutes or so to complete.
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Oh, yes, I remember Dave Stockton being a wheel-building maven. If he still builds wheels, I would definitely consider sending the components to Texas, if I’m unable to find a good local option. Thanks for refreshing my memory. Any contact information for Dave that anyone may have, or information as to whether he still builds wheels, would be most appreciated.
Thanks to everyone else for your input, as well. I appreciate the encouragement to do it myself, but I would prefer to hire a pro for this build. Maybe at some point in the future when I have more free time I could attempt to learn this skill, but it’s not in the cards for me at the moment.
Thanks for the recommendation. If I can’t find something closer to NYC, that may be a good option.
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I received the information from Florian about his latest generation of geared hubs and I am eager to get back to him with my order, however, I have no idea what size disc I’ll need. I intend to build my geared 36er with a Mad4one frame and Kris Holm ISIS Spirit DH Cranks (127/150mm).
Can someone please tell me which size disk I’ll need - the 160mm, 190mm (or is this supposed to be 180mm?), or the 203mm diameter disc?
Sorry for being technically inept with this stuff. Your help is greatly appreciated.
Which rotor you prefer will be ok.
I’d probably suggest not the 160 for a 36er. The bigger the rotor the more scope it has to disperse heat as you brake.
I think there is probably some marginal difference in braking power - but that’s more relevant to a bike not a unicycle I think.
I’ve tended to look at rotors also in terms of wheel size - meaning how on a smaller wheel a larger rotor, 203 “might” more easily clip the ground / some rock etc - but on a 36” wheel the bigger rotor is much more proportionally hidden.
This probably doesn’t make much sense as I don’t think the rotor will ever get clipped in a UPD but you will prob benefit from 203 and it’ll look aesthetically more balanced when mounted on a 36er in my view 
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