We were talking about this and I thought a cable that could run up under the seat with a small lever for shifting would be ideal! Kinda like on a bike.
I’ve only started working on this shifting puzzle and it seems the 165 cranks offer special challenges, especially when you want to shift on the fly, going in and out of techical terrain and likewise toggling between 1:1 and 1:1.5 ratios–without dismounting.
We’re really fumbling with it just now - even with size 13 shoes my heel is a little forward to get a good contact with the button. I trust with practice it will all make sense but not yet. I’m having to move my foot all around and my accuracy in hitting the button is piss poor.
JL
One major problem with that idea is that the shifting mechanism would have to be between the cranks and the spokes in order for that to work. On bikes with planetary gears there aren’t any cranks getting in the way. I’m sure some engineer can solve the problem, but my brain is certainly not up to the task.
In the meantime I will eventually learn a shifting technique that will work with 165mm cranks. By the way, did I mention that cruising in high gear is a gas. Once I get the shifting down, I think this is going to be even more fun out on the trails.
I’m surprised you are using 165’s for muni. I’d say drop to 150’s and most of your problems will go away.
-corbin
Unless you’re Kris Holm, 150s don’t play so well with Santa Barbara, Simi Valley and similar terrain. Of course, I personally wouldn’t run a guni on any of those trails either (although I 29ered San Ysidro yesterday…)
I guess it is all personal preference! I rode my old KH 24 with 170’s for a long time. My new KH 24 with 150s is perfect, and I’ll never go longer. Heck, Beau is going to drop down to dual drilled 125/150’s and start using the lower holes!
-corbin
The only reason for 150’s over 165’s, for me anyway, would be for a little extra speed, (and maybe a bit less crank strike hazard) but with the geared MUni, even with 165’s, your speed will be dramatically faster than a non-geared MUni with 150’s. And in 1:1 the 165’s are great for the added torque for climbing, etc.
On a MUni, climbing is at least as easy on 150s as it is on 165s; I would claim it’s easier. At last year’s California MUni Weekend, I think the only person to make it all the way up the climb on Saturday (Beau Hoover) was using 150s; I was using 150s and made it further than 95% of the riders. I’m not sure what Bevan was using; he’s the only other guy I know who made it as far as the steep bit at the very top. (Corbin might have made it, also, he started before I did).
150s ride significantly smoother than 165s. Up until this year I’ve been swapping my 165s in when I went to Moab, but at this point I don’t see any reason to go back to 165s. I expect to ride everything I’ve ever done in Moab, and more.
I think the 165s, whilst a bit long for ungeared muni for my liking might be really nice for geared muni. I’ve got 150s on my 29er and the high gear seems way too high to ride any interesting terrain, I can see on a 24" with 165s the high gear might just be low enough to have fun with.
Joe
I dont think its right to use Beau as a comparison to everyone else, he is not human 
I concur about shorter cranks being better for climbing. I rode out and back on some steepish narrow fire road yesterday with my KH29 with the pedals in the 125 holes, and it felt good. The 150 setting makes me feel like I’m wasting energy bobbing up and down too much. It’s all personal preference though.
I tried this “roll your ankle inward” method yesterday, and it worked quite well, at least for shifting up. I suspect that the “heel click” method may be better for down shifting though–I’m usually almost stopped anyway when I want to down shift.
Well, since I have a pair of 150 moments, I’ll have to swap those for my curent 165’s to se what all the hooplas about lol! I don’t ride MUni for all out speed anyway, but I do like to have optimum control, and the 165’s give me that.
I’ve also made that particular hill with 150’s. Ironically, I never made it with 170’s (it is hard!). I’m human 
-corbin
This crank length discussion is quite interesting!
Well I learned on 150’s, but as I went to more difficult terrain I tried out 165’s and found them very helpful. Hills that used to be a struggle became easier and it made a lot of difference in back pressuring going down steeper terrain. I believe that as time goes on technique and skills increase for both uphill and downhill, and perhaps at some point 150’s will seem the better choice for me. My skill level isn’t anywhere close to the riders that are commenting on this thread, but I have noticed that my muni skills have improved dramatically from when I first started riding, and I still have a long way to go.
By the way, the geared hub is really a blast. I went for a ride yesterday and you can really cruise in high gear. It actually changes the terrain of the trail - things that you might have to struggle with in 1:1 mode you just rip over as if they aren’t there. Speed really makes a huge difference! You have to look further ahead on the trail and you actually catch air when you ride over small obstacles as opposed to just rolling over them.
I really think Florian will sell a lot of these hubs once he can get them mass produced. This is really going to revolutionize the unicycle. And when some brain figures out how to make 3 speeds or more, wow!
And hopefully lower prices!
I now have my KH hub put into a Nimbus 36 frame. Chuck helped me build the wheel up last night (we were done and testing it at midnight). I’m going to give it a real road test at lunch today.
corbin
Crank Lenth
I can see where the crank length might be a problem with shifting. If your heel does not reach the axis then you are not going to be able to shift on the fly without removing your foot from the pedal. Being able to pedal one footed should fix this problem.
However I don’t know how shorter cranks are going to make climbing steep hills easier, all else being equal. It just negates the laws of physics. With shorter cranks you have less torque.
If you can’t climb a steep hill with 165s there is no way that you will be able to climb it by swapping to 150s. Also braking power is considerably deminished when doing serious downhill. Kris Holm himself only went to 150s after starting to ride with a brake.
Now on gentle hills you can definetly get higher speed going up the hill with the shorter cranks. This should NOT be confused with shorter cranks making hills easier to climb.
Also many riders switch to shorter cranks as they become better riders. They then compare all the stuff that they can do now on the shorter cranks that they couldn’t do back then on the longer cranks and think that the improvement is due to the shorter cranks. This is not the case. You have become a better rider!
Unicorn
I’ve certainly found that on certain types of hills my 29 with 150s ascends better than my 24 with 165s. While newtonian mechanics would of course suggest that a lower gear would be better, the human body is by no means a perfet power source and there are other factors at play. For instance using shorter cranks to climb faster gives more gyroscopic balance meaning you waste much less energy keeping the uni straight and balanced.
All the guys I ride with run 165s not for climbing purposes but because on terrain like that found in Simi Valley and Santa Barbara et al the bigger cranks provide a little more torque for back-pressuring, an essential skill for rocky rolling and tracktoring. Most of us avoid excessive uphill pedaling and save our legs for the DH descents. But tastes differ . . .
How this relates to the new Schlumpf/KH hub is to be determined. I know I’ll be riding a lot more XC trails than before, so we’ll see. Right now I’m running 165s and a Large Marge rim - basically a full blown DH rig with a geared hub. Seems pretty fast but I’m only just getting started with it. I expect multiple lascerations and abrasions.
JL
Yep, and to proove this point, get on a teeter-totter with someone of similar weight. Each person sits as far back as possible on their respective seats, where there is the least amount of leverage needed to push down either end. However, you’ll notice that the leverage decreases as you move closer IN toward the pivet point. Physics 101.