Here’s a question for those who ride all or at least three of the following: 24 MUni, 26er MUni, 29er XC and 36er street.
If you could get a Schlumpf hub for just ONE of these unis, which would you get, and which do you think you would offer the most benefit/improvement/versatility?
I had the same dilemma when I ordered my first hub. I decided that I rode trails the most and I already had a KH24 so I went that path. This led to getting another un-guni 24. I really enjoy the 24 guni and have learned how to shift with confidence. I have started doing a fair bit of road riding these days and decided I was tired of spinning 110s like mad on the 36 to go a decent pace, so now I am Schlumpfing it too.
I am also thinking about switching the 24 guni to a 26 guni (maybe next year).
It’s making more and more sense to me to just keep my 24 with the LM setup for the real big time MUni, and go with the Kris Holm-preferred 26er GUni for everything else trail-wise. Even with the geared hub on the 26er, it would still probably not weigh any more than my 24 LM setup, unless I decided to go with the much heavier, 26x3 duro.
I plan to ask Kris for his opinion, but I’m guessing he runs a lighter, narrower tire on his 26er GUni. The hub alone weighs over 3 pounds, which is more than double that of a non-geared hub.
My line of thinking has been that the 26x3 would be too damn heavy. Heavier than the already heavy 24x3 for DH, and heavier than the nicely light 29 for XC. The appeal of the 26x2.4 guni is a lightness similar to the 29 without being too fast in high gear for tech XC trails.
Do you really need my answer 
26er
Pros: Rim choice (up to 65mm), Tire choices (up to 3.8"), Tall enough to bridge obstacles, yet still small enough for aggressive freeride/DH
Cons: Heavier than a 24er, more muni means more difficult hopping.
24er
Pros: This is Terry’s fav size, most stable in tech stuff, strong wheel size
Cons: Twitchy at speed, limited tire choices
29er
Pros: Best at bridging obstacles, tracking is second only to a 36er, fast rolling, big contact patch.
Cons: Least stable in tech terrain, tire choices limited to XC and 2.5"
Adding a geared hub will make even the lightest uni heavy, so it’s a null issue for me. That said, I would probably not run a Larry on a Guni, that’s just too much wheel to keep under control at speed.
I’ve got an unGuni 26er (with 26x3 Gazz) (Nimbus frankenUni) and a GUni 24er (with 24x3 Gazz) (KH24). Personally, ungeared I don’t notice much difference in the ride. I can ride similiar technical and non-technical terrain in roughly the same time and with the same amount of difficulty (#upds, etc..). Now going into high-gear the 24er kicks butt and it’s just the right speed (for me) on the smoother trails and gravel roads, not sure if I’d get much out of using the geared hub on a 26er, might be too fast except for the open road.
I’m totally happy with my 24" MUni, but then again I’m a smaller guy so perhaps bigger folks take to the 26ers for the same reason? Anyhow I’m not Mr. Money Bags so I put the Schlumpf in my best option at the time, my KH24. However, if I were to start from scratch I’d definitely just go the 26er route for everything. I think I’d get used to riding the bigger wheel offroad in high gear. More tire choices and going with a slightly thinner tire I could probably cut some weight, overall on the 26er vs. my KH24. But for now I’ve got my KH24 well outfitted and another brand new 24x3 Gazz waiting in the wings so I doubt I’ll upgrade anytime soon… Another plus is that my KH24 fits perfectly in my hardshell suitcase so it’s way easier to travel with than the 26er… Also if you like doing natural trials amid your MUni ride, the 24" is way better for that than a 26er…
To each their own, but I’m sticking with my 24" GUni… Outfitted with a road slick, I can cruse just as fast, comfortably, as I can on my 36er with same sized cranks. So there really is no “squirreliness” that you can’t quickly get used to.
Rob
Nice video once again, Terry!
If you want to get a geared muni I have the following recommendations for you:
-keep your current 24" setup for tech stuff
-keep your 29er ungeared cause you seem to enjoy it a lot
-build a 26er like mine for very versatile mixed riding, you’ll love it!
But as others have mentioned you should try not to abuse it with too technical terrain and high drops. Keep those things for your ungeared unis. The 26" is definitely my favorite uni and it would be the last one I would ever want to part with.
Another thing to keep in mind is that one has to keep an eye on the crank bolts and retighten them once in a while with a proper torque wrench at no more than 40Nm.
Confirming my thoughts exactly. What tire is that on you 26 guni?
That’s a Continental Rubber Queen 2.4. Very nice tire IMHO, very light but still more robust and better tread than a Racing Ralph. I also prefer it to the Muddy Mary and the Gazzaloddi. Haven’t tried much else either. I did get a pinch flat recently when I went over a very pointy stone with too low pressure. So now I’m running a serious DH inner tube with it and I keep the pressure somewhat higher.
Thanks for your advice; it makes good sense to me! But I have t ask, do you have the square taper Schlumpf on your 26er? I guessed this by the looks of the cranks, which don’t appear to be isis. oh, and is that the standard 18" maggie main line?
You’re welcome! That’s the ISIS muni version and the cranks are Nimbus Ventures 150mm. The brake line is the one it came with. Haven’t had any problems with it so far (no super technical terrain).
What was your reason for getting the ventures and not the moments? Are the ventures noticeably lighter? I would probably want the moments since you can get the dual hole option. I’m thinking 137/165 might be the best “spread”. I use 125/150 for my 29er, but I’m not sure that combo would be as practical and versatile as the 137/165 on a GUni.
I had the dual hole 150/125mm on before getting the ventures.
But they are much heavier and I never really needed the 125mm holes anyways. I still have the dual holed ones but I don’t think I’ll be using them anytime soon. When I first built up the 26er I had the 26x3" Gazzaloddi, Moments, the FFR seat and aluminum pedals. It was a very heavy machine so I decided to swap out all those parts for lighter ones in order to lighten up my ride.
I heard of lots of people who have drilled holes in their moments to lighten them up, and they still appear to be sufficiently strong. I wonder if drilling the moments would make them comparable in weight to the ventures.
Also, I thought I read somewhere that cranks other than moments might to fit properly on the Schlumpf and may interfere or hit the frame? What length ventures did you get?
The ventures are Schlumpf compatible. They’re 150mm. Drilling or milling the moments would be another possibility. Maybe stronger too. One other difference is the Q-factor which is much less on the ventures. But I like it like that.
Terry I still think you’re in the mindset of wanting to do drops on it all the time. I don’t know anything about this stuff, but I’ll stand by what I said yesterday. It may be able to withstand a 5ft drop, but is that just once? I wouldn’t do even 3ft drops on a schlumpf if I could avoid it, simply because I don’t have much $$ and that would be something I would be very careful with. So if you’re not doing big drops, would the cranks strength matter as much? Sure there needs to be some strength, but it seems ventures are strong enough for muni.
Hey Terry, Intense made a 26 x 2.5/2.7 DH tire, the same design and construction as the you’re runnning on your 24er.
I have three of the 2.5, one for muni, the other two are going on my son’s mtb; he has the 24 x 3 on his muni already 
If the Intense are hard to find, I’m pretty sure you’ll find some lovin’ with any one of the dozens of 26 x 2.4-2.7 DH tires available for that rim size. I ran the Intense DH 26 x 2.5 on the LM rim and it was fine, probably the narrowest tire that I’d run on that rim.
But being as your 26er Guni would be more for speed and XC, a 47mm rim is probably a better choice for reducing weight.
A KH 47mm rim with the Intense DH 2.5 would be very fast and still work great for muni, mmmm, nice ride.
I wasn’t really thinking about the weight savings with the ventures, as much as the added versatility of the dual crank holes in the moments. As for big drops, I would most likely reserve that for my ungeared 24 with LM, and use the 26er GUni for the longer , more XC and moderate tech rides that would normally take forever on mu ungeared MUni. The G26er would essentially replace my 29er, which I currently use for that purpose. And in 1:1 mode the 26er would also be better for the same moderately technical stuff I’ve been riding with my 29er.
Ah ok. But then you’re gonna want a Geared 29er next, so you might as well keep it 
Terry, don’t get put off be people stressing the fragile nature of the schlumpf. It isn’t. I’ve never been much of a person to get their kicks by doing big drops- and it probably isn’t a good idea to go doing static 4 ft drops on it very often. But at the same time you don’t want to wrap it in cotton wool and never use it to its full potential. I’m a roller. I hate interrupting the flow of a ride to pick my way through a section- i much prefer to just hit it at speed and see what happens. In most instances then it is rare to ever go off anything bigger than 2-3 foot and i am confident in my skills to land smoothly and roll out of it. It is the silly sort of abuse that is going to kill a hub like the schlumpf- riding it hard in technical terrain is what i’ve been doing for a year and a bit and it has held up absolutely fine.
I know crank length is an intensely personal thing for muni but i would highly suggest against going the 137-165mm dual hole route if you keep the 24" wheel size. The gearing is only good in the 137mm hole. I’ve been using the 125/150mm moment crank for a year and a half now and can highly recommend it as a versatile option. I started off in the 150mm hole while my legs got the strength and i gained the technique for high gear riding in technical terrain. When I started doing longer off road rides (50-110km) i changed to the 125mm setting and just loved the extra speed. Plus your legs get huge from high gear riding so climbing on the shorter lengths is a breeze and the DHs are fine too if you can use a brake. Since going to 125’s i haven’t changed back even once. I do like having the option of the longer length just in case i come across something I can’t ride- but that has not happened yet.
I really do like the shape of the moments and don’t want to go to ventures to save a bit of weight- I am looking into getting mine machined to kill some rotational weight. That and a tubeless set up is a great way to lighten the load on the legs- your speedplay drilliums might be a bit overkill for pedals too. Wellgo Mg-1s, Impact Knockouts or the Echo TR pedals are a good alternative.
Mark
