These schlumpf hubs are awesome ! I got mine last year in April (on my first 36"), and rode over 3000 km before I got the bearing problem 1 year later.
While my hub was in Switzeland, I chose to buy another one, so I got 2 hubs back instead of one! The new one went on my 36", and the repaired one on a 24". Yesterday in a small competition, I felt something wrong in my 24"; the bearing problem is back, with the bigger bearings this time.
I wonder if I can keep using my 24" even with 1 bearing loose, the other one is alright. I emailed Florian about that, and I’m looking for a temporarily solution before the winter (I’ll ship it back then if necessary).
This bring me to another question, is the schlumpf rideable in cold conditions (-20°c) ?
This means the big bearings are still not the solution ? What kind of ride to you practice ? Can you put some photos please to understand better your new concern ?
I rode the whole last winter without problems.
below -5°C I used 5ml oil every month - that speed up shifting.
as I remember I did not ride below -12°C…
As you can see it looks like the bearing is loose from the hub, not from the axe. Sometimes the bearing turns with the wheel, when it is supposed to be fix.
I did 300km crosscrountry since the repair, and I was smooth. These was my first rides with a geared muni.
Does not look like the bearing is defective, but the whole bearing is loose from the hub. That’s different than the old problem - so you can’t say “the bearing problem is back”. It is a new problem.
Mine has got this problem, it appeared after a hundred miles or so and can only be due to the outer case being machined slightly oversize (it’s I/D is .10mm oversize - not slightly at all!!).
I know I should have returned it however having waited so long for my first hub I really did not want another 6 months of messing about (it will need a new casing).
So my solution has been to cut a strip of .05mm shim the width of the bearing (I forget the size, approx 8mm I think) and the length of the circumference and carefully pushed it between the bearing outer and the hub case. It was a push/wiggle fit and I worked some bearing lock into gap first, then to ensure it stays there I peened over the edge of the case where the ‘webs’ are using a centre punch.
I know this sounds like an almighty bodge but as an old-school engineer I’m happy doing this sort of thing (actually I’m not at all happy about having to do it!!).
So far I’ve done about 400 miles on it since then and it’s been fine.
I do not recommend anybody else does this, unfortunately you should return the hub immediately.
I visited Florian and showed him the problem, he removed the bearing and fit it in again with loctite sealand (I´d have done the same if I would not have been arround there)
since that time I have no problem with it!
Sorry about this misunderstanding, I had the same problem 4 month ago that’s why I said that. What a badluck, I’ll try the locktight solution and see if it will be strong enough overtime.
I got my Karvers some weeks ago and used them on my 36" with 150 mm cranks. So far, I am a bit disappointed.
It is an exellent shoe for all kinds of unicycling, so I don’t regret that I’ve ordered them. But I don’t see that I have more success with shifting. In fact, I had my first two UPDs while trying to shift on the 36" (landed on my feet, fortunately).
The padding over the ankle is not as strong as I expected, so the button pushes the padding towards the ankle (with no effect) instead of being pushed in by the padding.
Those Karvers are very nice shoes for unicycling. I took them to Mongolia and they worked great. It was nice to have 5.10 rubber too. One time we had a river crossing that was jumping from boulder to boulder and it was great to have such sticky, nice rubber. I find shifting with them quite nice.
In fact my understanding is that there is not enough thickness of aluminum material all around the outer bearing cage and you loose the tightening. Florian made too large holes too save weight ! I was surprised when I saw the first photo with bigger bearings hubs and it seems to be the reason of your concern. May be next production batch will be improved again ?
The locktight solution worked for me.
I had to remove the bearings to clean up the hub’s body and outter bearing, then I reinstalled evrything before applying red locktight all around the bearing. I rode ~100km without any trouble. I hope it will hold on for a long time !
The Schlumpf website lists a Street Hub FS and and a Muni Hub KH. Which hubs are people getting these days? Does he still manufacture both models? Has everyone gone to the KH for compatibility with KH frames? Do you have any advice for which one is more appropriate for road riding on a 29" or 36" wheel?