Okay, it’s Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, thoughts turn to longer rides, and spending all that squirrelled away cash… anyone else heard whispers of disc hubs and hand shifters?
If so, what’s a reasonable time frame?
Not for a while yet. Could be wrong and it depends slightly on sales, but I would say 2014 anyway. At the moment, we don’t plan to release a hand shifter.
I remember several years ago asking Florian about adding disc brake hubs and his reply, “Never. Why would you ever want a disc brake?”
JM
Hmm, sounds like I should still hold off on the spirits until then…
Would be great if the existing hubs could be upgraded to the new standard. Any chance for that to happen, Kris?
And btw. I think the current way to shift by foot works great (most of the time).
Any planned changes related to the slipped bearing problems?
I’m assuming current Spirits will work fine with the new hubs. Given I’m sure a disc brake Schlumpf is in my future sometime that makes me happy to invest in Spirits now when I eventually go for a disc on my current unguni muni.
Yes, Kris wrote somewhere else that the current KH frames lack the inner lip on the bearing holders in order to accommodate a half round counterpart on the upcomung geared hubs. That will replace the knurling on the bearing.
I hope that’s correct, at least that’s how I remember it now.
Yes - all KH frames with the disc brake tab, + Spirit cranks, are set up in anticipation of eventual (likely 2014, anyway) updates to the KH/Schlumpf hub. That said, the existing hub does work very well with rim brakes due to the super stiff wheel with the larger flange size Just depends on whether you’re willing to give up riding one for an entire season, for some disc brake setup in the future. Personally I’d go for riding one sooner rather than later because they are just too fun, but a personal decision for sure.
At Unicon 16, Florian told me that he was considering offering a hand shifter, but it would be at least a year from “now” (now being August 2012). It would be somewhat along the prototype that someone (sorry, forgot his name) brought to Unicon. Florian added that a retrofit option would be possible.
From Kris’s response I gather that it won’t be anytime soon, and so I’m not holding my breath but I’m still holding out hope.
I saw those handshifters too and got impression they were ‘on the way’ too. Shame would have been nice. Although in the time since I saw the idea, I’m getting much more consistent on foot shifting
So am I correct in thinking the disc brake comparability for the new
Hubs is a fix for spirits and external discs. Rather than a schlumpf with internal disc?
Is this a schlumpf with longer a longer axel, or is there a hard stop to tighten the cranks against?
I’m one of the user who has voided warranties in modifying frames to get a spirit and disc brake set up working just wondering if this next generation hub is worth getting excited about. Since I’ve never had a knurled bearing slip, I’m not that fussed about that change
Yes, that.
That hand shifter idea is great for sure but it makes things more complicated than necessary. And it looks pretty ugly, at least the version in the picture.
I rechecked my HS33s yesterday and found that one of the cylinders was leaking. I replaced it and was amazed how well they worked all of a sudden. I think I’ll just stick with that setup until next winter at least.
While I can shift without too much problem, it’s still way less easy for me than on a bike.
All modern stuff is “more complicated than necessary”. My car is a pretty complicated thing. My first car (VW Beetle) was much simpler and it also brought me from A to B. The question is: can a Schlumpf be handshifted in a less complicated way than this? I think on-one has invented a simpler way yet.
Matter of taste.
A Schlumpf hub is way more complicated than necessary.
no it’s not.
ever had a look inside of this hub?
if it could be that easy: who will build one?
No, but I’ve had a look inside a normal unicycle hub.
So Kris, the revisions on the next hub will include:
a longer spindle
a crank stop
and ??
Is there any possibility that we will some day see a gearing option?
There are always ways to simplify, but is there someone who has the money and time to do the work? Honestly, considering we have one geared hub choice producer, I’m inclined to think that we are lucky to have what we have.
But for arguments sake… the Schlumpf hub is a two speed transmission, bi directional drive, designed to fit in a very small and lightweight package. Consider this application for automobiles: It took decades to go from direct drive to gears, and in the case of automatic transmission the two speed was standard until the 1960’s when we got a third gear (overdrive); five and six speed autos took another 40-50 years, many cars still come with four speed autos.
It would be wonderful to have a three speed hub in our lifetime, but we’re getting old fast…
It probably depends on your definition of necessity.
Since when has unicycling become a necessity anyways? 
If people had major problems hitting the buttons by foot it would make more sense.
But to me the problem with shifting is mainly in the delay from hitting the button to when it engages.
That behaviour would not be changed by a hand shifter. Hitting the buttons mostly works very well for me.
Anyways, I’m not saying it’s a bad idea but I doubt it’s really worth the effort.
To me adding a third gear would be much more interesting than adding a hand shifter.