I would be grateful for some user feedback from owners of the geared 29” geared schlumpf. At the age of 47 and now in my fifth month of my new life on one wheel and have progressed to a KH24 muni, “Nessie”, which I love, however I now feel the need to up the mileage on my daily lunch break and am considering a schlumpf. Would be very pleased to receive some general feedback and views from schlumpf owners on their machines… cheers in advance …Davey.
The schlumpf has all the speed advantage of a coker and then some on flat pavement, but because it still has the smaller 29" wheel, you still have to be mindful of going ‘coker speed’ on a 29" wheel.
if i did it over, i would get the schlumpf 36"
I find the best part isn’t the fast, dangerous top speed, but the fact that I can go very speedily down the road and have my legs pedalling at a very comfortable speed.
I don’t shift it too much, I pretty much ride it in 44" mode all the time. It’s like mounting a coker with short cranks doing it that way.
I got 150’s with my 29" and they seem to be great for geared up, but way too slow for geared down.
also, I was pleased to see the Schlumpf frame looks way cooler in real life than pics of it
I’ve got a schlumpf and a coker, I think I’ve done over 1000 miles In many ways it is cool, but not as cool as a nice coker.
It has some practical advantages, like being easy to take around, you can put it on buses and stuff. If you drive it fits easier in boots (although I think a lot of cars fit a coker inside much easier).
It’s also cool if you ride a combination of medium technical muni with a fair bit of road. For that combination there’s no comparison, if you’re doing 30 km of muni and 20 km of road, nothing else will get you there so quick (presuming the muni is too steep for cokering).
I ride mine more than I ride my coker, at home because I commute with some offroad in the middle that’s too steep to coker (particularly on a coker with 110 cranks and no brake), and I can just scrape my way down it on the 29er in low gear, but still make my way to work in a sensible time. I shift it all the time depending on terrain and things like idling and stuff which are so much easier in low gear.
I’m currently in New Zealand, and it is handy, because I could just bung the schlumpf in a bag and not have any issues with taking it on the plane, and I’ve got a reasonable mode of transportation with me (I’ve taken a bus once, but all my other travel here has been by unicycle so far)…
For pure road riding a coker is great though, the schlumpf doesn’t have the same friendly relaxed ride of the coker.
It’s a cool hub. The only thing I’d worry about a bit is the frame which is ming, it’s so so much hassle to adjust the seat height (you need to undo and do up 8 allen key bolts to exactly similar torques). It’s also the only frame I’ve ridden that is noticeably flexy. With the current hub, you can’t just put a nimbus frame on it, which is a pity, as the Nimbus is just a so much better frame.
If I was getting one again I’d consider a 26" rather than 29", because then you can bung a decent muni tyre on it as well as a 26" big apple road tyre, for more muniish rides. Although I think if you’re a new muni rider it might not be a good idea to ride too much muni on it cos of the hub.
Joe
last year at Christie’s 59Mi run roger complained that the slack you get from the crank is just do dodgy at speed. He nearly came off a few times.
Then again Joe? was on a normal coker and could keep up with roger 
Get a coker and get the 3 hole size drilling for length and carry a spanner around with you. Be a lot more comfortable on road and esp with that wheel size.
Assuming that this is a thread asking Schlumpf owners about their experiences…I have a few questions as well. I have a friend seriously considering a schlumpf 36er.
This was one of my concerns as well. The 36" frame from schlumpf doesn’t exactly look that robust…and if the 29" is flexy…
That’s what I keep telling my friend…I tend to have a higher cadence, so I tell him that’s how I justify a normal coker over the schlumpf 36": I’ll still be able to keep up with him.
But you certainly couldn’t keep up to your own self’s geared 36" on a normal Coker…
I’m not sure why so many people compare unicycles so much when it’s actually the rider that works all the magic…or hamburgers working away all the potential magic
I think Roger had only done a few hundred miles on the Schlumpf coker then.
On the 29 at least you get used to it and stop noticing it.
The 36" schlumpf is kind of fun, but not so much better than a normal coker, and without most of the advantages of the 29 schlumpf that I wouldn’t bother spending oh so much money on one.
Joe
I’ll point out here that Roger Davies chose to ride an ungeared Coker in the Marathon race at Unicon. I rode his Schlumpf Coker, and never saw him again after the first kilometer. Yes, you could beat yourself.
My experience on a 36" Schlumpf is limited to one ride of 42km and about 1km of practice before that. Not enough to make a recommendation on my own. But the fact that Roger feels faster on a non-geared Coker, at least for racing, is telling. If you want a geared unicycle, I recommend a 29" wheel. Then you have a light, maneuverable and more easily stored vehicle, plus a faster version of it. With a Schlumpf Coker you have a Coker (large heavy) plus a faster, less-stable Coker.
Though I felt better riding the Schlumpf Coker toward the end of the Marathon than toward the beginning, it still was quite a lot of work to feel “safe” going anything above a very comfortable speed. At my lousy level of fitness, I probably completed the distance faster than I would have on a regular 36", but if I were at a competitive fitness level I’m sure I would have been faster without the gearing, like Roger.
In the Coker’s favor (vs. 29" Schlumpf), they are more striking to look at, give you a better view, and are way cheaper!
I appreciate the response and feedback, certainly given me a few things to consider. The practicality size wise is attractive but I do note the other concerns that have been raised. Must admit I’m 50/50 on this one at the moment!.. thanks
Davey
Assuming money isn’t a crucial factor, I’d go with the Schlumpf 26" or 29". A geared Coker is just asking for trouble for a new rider, I think, esp one in his 40s or after. The potential for going ‘too fast’ is too great, and healing times increase with age. The other writers have already weighed in with excellent advice that I will second (except for that crazy MacKenzie guy).
I really love the feel of a Coker with longish cranks, tho. Power!
If you’re mainly riding for distance (and some commuting) and exercise, I’d recommend:
- Schlumpf 26" or 29" with 150mm cranks
- Coker, 150
- Schlumpf 36, 300mm cranks, while wearing a crash suit and helmet
Sorry John, I got a bit confused here. Roger was faster?
I seem to remember Roger saying that the geared 36er was faster for outright top speed, but that for riding over any distance he felt he got a faster average speed riding the ungeared coker - I guess that’s why he wanted the ungeared wheel in the marathon.
That said, I’d have expected the large mass / stability of the Coker to compliment the gearedness somewhat… Also it would let you have much longer cranks and still go a decent speed, thus enabling some good Coker Muni when you reach your destination 
Gotta say though, for my uses it’s been ideal to have a 36er and a 29er, and this probably cost less than an equivalently well equipped Schlumpf 
(still want one though!)
Yes. But now that I think about it, I don’t think I started in the same group as him, so I actually never saw him at all during the race. I was in the second start group, which was estimated to be the second-fastest group of riders. I never saw most of them after the first 10km or so. I finished ahead of maybe one or two of the riders from the first two groups.
Longer cranks (than 150) might help on a geared Coker, but I don’t know how much of a dent they’d make in the instability I felt when trying to go fast. I think George Peck would describe it as having a “narrowed balance envelope” due to the gearing. Having less to work with, it’s easier to hit the edges of that “envelope” and have to make large upper body adjustments to stay in control.