Oil for the Schlumpf

I searched, and there wasn’t really a dedicated discussion about replacement oil in Schlumpf geared unicycle hubs.

I was wondering what kind of oil do guni riders use when they’ve used up the supply included with the hub.

Sewing machine oil has been mentioned by Jogi in the Schlumpf discussion thread. Anyone have any other ideas/experiences?

As a soon to be Schlumpf hub owner, I think starting this thread is a good idea.

Here’s what I’ve gleaned so far.

According to this post:

And this one this post:

The only reference to oil I can find in the Schlumpf manual is:
“please remember, that the hub has to be lubricated once or twice a year with some bicycle oil or our special grease”

No details how much oil to use. That seems like some key information that’s missing from the manual.

I would never have thought to use sewing machine oil or transmission oil.
With the manual’s suggestion of “bicycle oil”, I’d just buy a small dropper bottle of Finish Line or Pedro’s bicycle chain lube at my LBS.
Any reason not to use these products? Is something better? Why?

Steve,
Here’s a thread that discusses Schlumpf lubrication. I especially like the bacon grease part.
I’m still having great results with the gear oil.
Geoff

Thank you! I’ll post there.

Oddly, that thread did not come up when I searched for Schlumpf oil. How did you search for it?

Yeah, I had trouble finding it, too. My first couple of searches for terms like “Schlumpf maintenance” and “Schlumpf lubrication” came back negative. Eventually I did a search for “mimosa” and struck gold. Figures.

Geoff

The first thing I searched for was Schlumpf oil, and I didn’t see that thread.
Now I search for Schlumpf oil and it’s right there. Hmmm.
I guess I must have missed it too.

(Though it isn’t particularly informative. Bacon fat! :astonished: )

When you are doing the advanced search you have to specify the time frame you are searching in. The default is the previous 6 months, so unless you specify “any date” it will limit your search to the previous 6 months. I don’t know what default the regular search at the upper right of the screen uses. That’s probably what is messing us up.

The gear oil I use is only slightly more viscous than regular motor oil of the 10W/30 variety. I figured that my Schlumpf has gears in it, this ought to work. And lo, the gears were well lubricated. Prior to that I used 10W/30. Prior to that I used the 5 cc of green lubricant that came with the hub.

I really don’t think there’s a whole lot to know about lubricating Schlumpfs. Use a high quality (as in not bacon fat) oil. Keep those gears bathed in oil. Hard to go wrong.

Geoff