Hey guys,
I am new to the site and first off want to just say hi to everyone here.
I have finally convinced my parents to buy me a new unicycle and they have agreed to get me a schlumf for christmas.
I was curious how durable it was? Can it take a fair amount of a beating out on the trails or should i stray away from it if I will be doing technical muni stuff?
i am getting a kris holm 24 and want to put the schlumf on it so i can ride both technical stuff and more distance stuff too.
wow- your parents are cool to fork out that much money for a christmas present? You are a lucky guy/gal.
I have no experience with the schlumpf as of yet but the ride you are describing is what i am saving for next year (hopefully in time for Unicon!). I have been asking around for advice as well- an this is what i have gathered so far. Turtle (a guy on the forums) has a KH24" shlumpf but switches out the wheel to a regular ISIS/moment set up when doing tech muni. Aparrently it is fairly easy to accidentally change gears when things get a bit gnarly and your feet shift on the pedals. For XC and lighter muni though i think it all works out really well.
The thing about the schlumpf that gets me though is that after spending a years worth of savings on it, i’m not sure how close to the limit i would want to test it. KH says it is good for drops up to 1.5m, and he did all the testing for it so i trust his judgement. I get the feeling i would be a little more precious about a wheel with a schlumpf in it than i would, say, your regular ISIS/Moment wheel which is simple, cheap and bombproof. You might also want to consider the extra weight it will add to the wheel…
anyway, i hope that helps. If you do end up getting the whole setup write a decent review of it for the forums because i havn’t seen one yet for a 24" KH/schlumpf
mark
Kris says 4 or 5 foot drops are okay. So basically, yes it’ll be fine.
Personally I’ve ridden my old schlumpf on quite technical stuff with no problems except for one snapped crank, which was one of a bad batch of cranks, and that’s on the square taper hub. On that hub I think I’ve never done anything over a foot drop, but it has handled everything fine - I’d have no worries at all about riding rocks and stuff on the KH/Schlumpf hub.
In terms of accidental shifting - I think that’s a lot about how far you set the buttons out - I’ve not had an accidental shift since I got the setup right, even riding down some quite technical stuff on scary downhills in New Zealand.
When I bought the Schlumpf, I was pretty open with Roger that I was going to use it for muni in rocky areas, but no massive drops, and he said it’d be okay, I figured if I do bad to it, that’s what the warranty is for. I think I’ve probably ridden that particular setup harder than many riders because of that.
With the new hub, I’d take it off anything I’d ride - if I paid that much for a hub designed for muni, I’d expect the warranty to cover riding muni on it. It obviously is pretty strong looking at what Kris rides on it, I doubt I’d be able to break it. If you look at the innards of it, it is super beefy.
Joe
I would suggest keeping the factory wheel intact and building the schlumf hub into another wheel. The excess weight is unneccesary and would make it cumbersome for tech muni. Set up the schlumf wheel for xc, use the dual hole moments (in the 125/150 length) and a tire suited to the terrain you’ll be riding it on.
Just my 2 cents! Whatever you get, it sounds like it’ll be awesome!
cool thank you guys
i think i am just going to order up the normal KH24 and then order a schlumf separately.
since i really dont have any experience with one of those things…a local bike shop could set up/build the wheel up for me right?
I’d say any LBS that has a wheel builder (a must if it’s respectable) would probably be able to work with the schlumpf hub to build a wheel.
Wow, it would be nice to be rich.
So are you getting the schlumpf hub or a full schlumpf unicycle? Also, is it just the schlumpf or the KH/schlumpf hub?
Im just assuming you are getting the KH/schlumpf hub. Which is going to be strong. I wouldnt be doing any 10 foot drops or anything, but if it was me on one, id keep to about head-height drops, and nothing to flat. Its muni anyways so you should be rolling as much as you can and keep the flow up.
Putting a KH/schlumpf hub into a KH 24 wont be hard. Might need some work on the bearing holders, a different spoke length and then its just lacing it up, tension and true like any other build. =p
If he buys a KH24 08, he won’t need to do any work on the bearing holders.
Also keep in mind that the KH/Schlumpfs are backordered quite a bit, there are also hubs waiting to be repaired/upgraded (like mine) that were sent in 5 months ago. Florian is very busy right now and if you order the schlumpf you shouldn’t expect to get it anytime soon.
Order the KH24 and go have fun with that for 3-4 months until the Schlumpf hub arrives.
Yeah, but it is good news that some people are starting to get their hub shipments in. I just wish he would have repaired the old hubs first 
corbin
to be precise, any blue KH frame… You won’t need to do any work at all on the bearing holders - if you do work on the bearing holders, you’ll give yourself problems.
I thought some of the 2007, 2006 and earlier blue frames don’t fit on the hub, I’m sure some people had trouble with this. Maybe the 2008 ones are specified with high enough tolerances to always fit.
Joe
I understood all pre 08 frames had an inner bearing holder lip too high to clear the hub, whihc had to eb ground down. Was the result of those early hub failures that only a properly sized frame should be used, not a ground down earlier one?
the bearing failures in the 36s were apparently from using a nimbus 40mm bearing frame and grinding that out to 42mm without high enough accuracy.
Joe
That’s exactly correct. I have first hand experience.
However, Kevin’s KH29 + Schlumpf also had the bearings fail after RTL, and he was using an appropriate frame. However, subsequent hubs had beefier bearings, so the problem shouldn’t happen again.
corbin
Schlumpf hub is compatible with KH “2007” and “2008” frames, not “2005” frame because of lip hight inside the bearing holders but the modification to make it compatible don’t seem to be very difficult.
Schlumpf’s hub is a remarkable piece of engineering. It won’t break just because you do a drop on it. But to be realistic, the history of Schlumpf hubs indicates that they are approximately infinitely more likely to fail than standard unicycle hubs. A sizable percentage have had complete failures, and a majority have had some issues with buttons or shifting. They require much more care than normal unicycle hubs.
Frankly, I wouldn’t recommend a Schlumpf for a teenaged rider, unless the rider were an equipment geek who likes making sure his bolts are set within proper tolerances.
For the price of a KH/Schlumpf 24", you could buy a standard KH, a standard Coker, and your choice of a KH 20" trials or KH 29er.
ah thanks for clearing that up, makes much more sense as that’s got to be a lot harder than just grinding the lip down for clearance
Well I’ve finally done it! I’ve got a KH/Schlumpf Muni Hub on order from Florian. Probably won’t arrive at my door for several months but that’s okay. I can’t wait to join the “Schlumpf Innovations” hat club! Pretty expensive hat! Anyhow I plan to integrate the new geared hub into my 2007 KH24, probably with a new rim, leaving my current wheelset as a spare. I’ve heard all the detractors i.e. cost and such, but for me I want one unicycle to do a variety of different activities that make sense for me; and most of all to be able to fit it into a reasonable sized suitcase to take with me when I travel. For the most part all I ride is my KH24, even on trail rides up to 50 miles. So just adding another, higher, gear just makes it even more useful to me. BTW, I do have a Coker, trials uni and (in pieces) a 28er (26x3 Gazz) and will still use them all but, for me the KH24 GUNI will be the most versatile. I’m already laying out a long off-road route through the San Juans to do next summer when I’m able to travel to Lake City, Colorado again. A tough GUNI really opens up the possibilities! Thanks Kris and Florian!