I think I’ve found where I will learn this - on one of my regular trails, there’s a slight downhill where I managed 5 full rotations on Saturday. I think the downhill just helped me lean in to it better. I had enough time to think about how it felt, and started trying to pick up speed when I lost balance.
I’m going back there after work today and we’ll see if I can reproduce it.
Thanks for your PM, @mindbalance. Was gonna write a long reply, but the bottom line is probably just: know your limits, and ride within them. Crossing them comes with a price tag, and the higher the speed, the higher the price you‘re gonna pay. If you‘re not comfortable riding faster, then it‘s probably best not to, even if it may be easier from a purely technical point of view. I have a similar mental barrier when it comes to the kick up mount or jump mounts. I had one successful kick up mount so far. While I know (from experience) that nothing will happen to the 
, so far it costs me too much of an effort to do it again.
By the way: The reason I‘m reading this thread is that I‘m considering to buy a Schlumpf for my 29er to ride a bit faster than now, or to ride at the same speed but with a more relaxed cadence. I may have to redo the math, though, and possibly decide to go for a smaller wheel. How confident am I that I’ll be able to push my limits far enough to safely ride a G29er? We‘ll see.
Great points and summary!
I should say that for learning I was glad to start on a 26” wheel but the reality is a G29er is the sweet spot for the hub - and this comes from the pure fact that 1:1 is useful and 1:1.5 can be decently fast / offer a good change in cadence.
If you think you’ll do less cross country / commuting type riding, more muni or general purpose then perhaps a G27.5 would be an option but if I only had one schlumpf it would be a 29” wheel - a bit harder to learn in that a smaller wheel but everything is possible given, time, determination and a healthy dislike of being beaten by ‘fear’ 
Funny, I was just debating wheel size when I saw your reply. Guess 29“ is the way to go, then.
That‘s cool, ’cause I wouldn‘t need to buy an additional frame 
. Of course 29“ is also a bit easier than 26“ on the roughness of the gravel roads that I often use, so that‘s an additional reason to go for the bigger wheel size.
Just wanted to add a few of my own thoughts to this thread. I’ve been learning to ride a G36er since April - my first Schlumpf hub. Quite the ambitious wheel size to learn on 
At this point I feel quite confident riding in 2nd gear. Mounting in 2nd and switching gears mid-ride are still a struggle, although mounting is improving quickly.
A few of the things I’ve learned so far:
Absolutely ride within your limits. Know when too much is too much. In my case, in 2nd gear I enjoy an average pace of 10-14 mi/hr. I’ve pushed it to 15-17 mi/hr a few times but only on surfaces I’m 100% certain are smooth.
That leads me to my next point. Bumps in the road are your enemy. I’ve rode a few paved trails that are absolutely lovely except for one thing: tree roots growing under the asphalt. Navigating them often means backpedaling before reaching them, which puts such a strain on getting back up to speed. I figure once I can downshift mid-ride that will help.
The first few pedal strokes mounting in 2nd gear are super wonky but stick with it! It is quite embarrassing looking, though, so I try to avoid doing it around others. I look like I don’t know how to ride a unicycle at all. Then people are surprised when I’m zooming past them a couple yards later!
Shorter crank length isn’t always faster. I feel much more confident going at high speed on the 150mm setting on my cranks than I do on the 125mm setting. Running out of UPDs are far easier and there’s less “twingy-ness” felt in my knees as a pedal. That said, the shorter length feels just fine in 1st gear with a higher pedal cadence.
Okay, that’s enough writing for tonight. I’m going to return to dreaming of carbon rims and chucking my rim brakes for a disk break 
Sweet dreams! 
Not everyone considers it but lighter weight rims, tires and tubes (lower rotational momentum) does make a wheel that can accelerate faster but it reduces the ability to ride over bumps, dips and rough surfaces. Even on smooth surfaces a lighter wheel does take more effort to maintain forward and back balance. Unlike a bike, that is kind of important with a unicycle.
I’ve spent most of my time learning to shift at 150mm, but the geometry means the button is pretty much at the same point as the medial malleolus (pointy ankle bone), which I kept slamming on the cranks. I had assumed it would be easier for me to figure out riding with longer cranks, because of the leverage I’d need in the higher gear. I also noticed I was having difficulty (at 150mm) getting a definitive shift, so I moved the button out a half millimeter or so.
It made all the difference today - 25 full revolutions post-shift, definitively riding. I was aware of the slop in the gear, but it wasn’t bothering me. Plenty of leverage, too; a few attempts wound up slowing down to near-stops and I was able to accelerate a few strokes before losing balance.
It’s starting to click…
Good progress this week. I’m fairly reliably riding through an upshift, although I still don’t have the knack of riding in high gear itself. I’ve managed my first downshift and a number of planned dismounts from high gear.
I’m still not well balanced in high gear (it definitely feels like I’m re-learning how to ride all over again) but I’m up to about a tenth of a mile (42 full revolutions). I keep wanting to fix balance problems in high gear by stomping on the pedals, which is waaay too much force and needs over-compensation back in the other direction… and eventually it’s too much oscillation to recover. And between the two I’m very aware of the slop in the gear.
Quite unexpectedly: riding in low after having been in high feels amazingly like no effort at all. I wound up with a good 5 minutes of 11+mph in low, which ended with a spectacular off-the-front UPD that felt choreographed. I couldn’t have planned it better - a perfect slide on one heel l[and the other knee(pad) without my hands hitting the ground. Wish I’d had it on film. 
Hey there, I am in the same situation!
I just had a feeling early on - riding my KH36, that I would progress straight to a G36…
Once news broke that Florian was making the geared hub again, I felt so lucky to order one and wait out the 12 months for delivery.
I 've tried one session on it about 6 months ago - on grass in a park. I was falling off so many times - at gear change up, that my ankles were getting a hammering.
This week my KH36 frame has cracked (after 7300 km in 2 1/2 years and so I have been commuting with the G36 in low gear.
I intend to start practicing riding the G36 in high gear tomorrow morning (while wife and kids are at Japanese school) and this thread is so helpful. I’ll try add to this journal with my progress.
I think I am well prepared for high speed falls as I have fallen forwards off the KH36-110 at 22kph 3 times. Intending to ride on asphalt laneway, I’ll be putting on all my safety gear including shoulder pads, Elbow pads, motocross shorts with hip padding, wrist guards, knee pads with hard shells, ankle braces, helmet.
I am so happy to say that today I had a smooth start to my Geared Unicycle journey.
I started with setting my cranks to 150mm for maximum leverage in high gear.
Rode 1km in 1:1 ratio gear to get used to 150mm cranks. I usually ride 110mm and have recently been riding 127mm at 1:1 gear on the G36, which suits me more than 150mm.
Based on advice on this thread, I decided to forget about free mounting and changing gear. I did this 6 months ago on my first outing with the G36 and only rode for a second in high gear before UPD ing…every time. This put me off geared unicycles and I chucked it in the cupboard until recently when my KH36 frame cracked.
I was expecting to take a few months to ride any distance in High gear but was pleasantly surprised to accumulate 2.75km with 150mm cranks.
Setting back to 1:1 with 150mm cranks felt crazy with the sensation of spinning a bit off putting. This was not what I wanted for a 1:1 setting on my unicycle.
Although I had been told that 127mm crank length is too short for high gear due to the high torque needed to turn the wheel, I just wanted to give it a try.
It worked for me! And I rode in 1:1.5 gear with 127mm cranks for 6km.
This will be my setup for the G36.
Switching back to 1:1 with 127mm crank length still felt weird with the seemingly lack of resistance, but I can live with that…not 150.
I think the things that may have assisted me “get” geared unicycle riding so quickly include:
And lastly, I didn’t use brakes at all during:
The rotational momentum of the wheel was a bit scary and also thrilling and powerful in a good way. It was also really useful for “controlling” the unicycle when applied in the right place by specific tilting forward of seat/frame. This felt really similar to riding the 20" freewheel with brakes on/off and balancing by bending forward from the hip.
Going forward, I’ll continue to commute to work with the G36 and will try 1:1.5 gear at certain spots now. I’m happy to dismount to change gears and mount using a sign post pole. I’m thinking that, as I get accustomed to the differences of the high and low gears, learning to change gears and maintain balance due to the disruption of changing gears, will come naturally. Same for free mounting.
Instead of dismounting to change gear you could perhaps stop at a pole/whatever, change gear with your foot, make sure it is engaged and then continue your ride. Anyway, it‘s cool that things seem to go so well, now, with your second attempt. A good side effect of the frame of your other 36er giving up the gost.
Thanks Wheelou,
that is a great idea about stopping at a post, click the button and move on.
Having that high gear is going to make things so interesting going to work tomorrow.
I ride about 17km each way and I can’t wait to see which sections I will be able to reduce time riding. My best average speed with KH36 with 110 cranks is 18.5 kph. Usually I’m getting 15kph.
I quickly put together a video from footage of me progressing with the G36 yesterday.
1 week later.
During that 1 week, I rode about 9 x 2.5km legs in High gear. I had to mount with the aid of hand rails
I was most afraid of an accidental gear change and so made a cover to cover the gear change button.
2nd week later riding the G36-127 on my usual 3 days a week commute to work. 15km each way.
In a quiet level wide street I tried changing to high gear while riding. So surprised I could do it…Managed 4 gear changes on the ride.
Nice, congrats!
I’m starting to wonder if something’s up with my hub or some part adjustment, and I just emailed Florian for advice.
I took a break from “figuring out” high gear while dealing with seat issues for the last month or so… I want to ride longer distance, and I’ve been playing with an ISM bike seat, which threw off my balance so I paused learning high gear. But I’ve just put back the Nimbus Air saddle a few days ago, and started working on shifting again.
I’m back to upshifting pretty easily, and can downshift again relatively reliably at slow speeds. But if I’m in high gear and start bearing down on the pedals (specifically the right pedal), somewhere around 15/20 half-strokes the hub clicks like it’s shifting, and freewheels long enough for me to lose balance.
It’s not that I’m hitting the downshift button (I removed it to test today and reproduced the problem multiple times). I don’t think it’s because the upshift button is too far in to fully engage (I pulled it father out, still does the same thing). And it’s definitely not the slop in the gear, as this is while fully pushing to accelerate and I’m fully leaning in to the ride.
While trying to reproduce it with my hands in my house this evening, I think I noticed that the slop in high gear becomes less sloppy after this condition occurs. But I might be imagining that.
We’ll see what Florian has to say. Just in case, I’m prepping to buy 29" wheel building supplies to keep me going in case I have to ship it back to him. It’s never bad to be buying more unicycle gear, right?
In the last week that I’ve been commuting with the G36, I have had 2-3 shifts that resulted in a freewheel and me testing my elbow and wrist guards.
I get back on and then it shifts smoothly.
I do notice that there is no “play” in the button. I read somewhere that the engaged button should still be able to have some movement when pressing in. If not the gear changes can result in a " not total engagement" and result in a freewheel. That reminds me, I need to readjust the buttons.
It’s not pretty, but I put cloth tape over my buttons to ensure they don’t unscrew and fall out.
I now feel the schlumpf hub has opened up the practical possibility of Uni-packing for me.
I told my wife to be prepared for me taking a week off work soon and taking the G36 Uni-packing, heading north from Sydney towards Gold Coast, Queensland… distance there being 870km with 6000 elevation up and down. The plan is to see how far I get in 8 days and then catch the bus back home. I’m looking at light weight tents around 700g. My down sleeping bag weighs 1.6kg, inflatable mat - 700g. I have an MSR multi-fuel stove. I hear good things about warmshowers.org.
The high gear is great for providing a “rest” from high cadence pedalling in long straights.
I’ve found my perfect crank setup with KH Spirit 127/110. I can climb the 10-15% grades with 127 as well as get up to low 20kph at high cadence. 127 in high gear is manageable and I’m finding I don’t really use the brake much. Just leaning back uses the momentum of the wheel to control speed in a smoother/quicker more intuitive way.
I’m finding that by going down 5% hills in 1:1 gear and not using the brake, it gives the same feel as slowing the Uni in high gear on the flat. I do this every morning, as a warm up to riding high gear.
Also, I can always go back to 110 crank in 1:1 which I had been riding on my KH36 for the last 2 years.
Is this just over the top of the button? I’ve see Terry use aluminium foil to stop mud getting into the grub screw hole. But if your tape goes over the button and tapes onto the crank itself I think that will make them unscrew or tighten - as they need to be left to free rotate as they cranks move round.
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I think this is the first thing to check for any hub freewheel issues and / or problems shifting. Both sides require a bit of push inwards whenever either side is engaged - and this is said taking into account the proper flush (when engaged) installation of the buttons too. If this isn’t possible it likely means your cranks aren’t installed on the axle fully/far enough to make the room for this to be a possibility
I would suggest you to consider longer cranks for unipacking. The weight of the package and the tiredness may make it hard for you to ride in high gear after a few days.