I think many people would agree that the Schlumpf hub is a revolutionary advancement in unicycling technology and a total game changer. I couldn’t be more excited to (hopefully) soon have a unicycle with this incredibly unique geared hub in my stable of one-wheeled vehicles. Realizing that not everyone has the skillset to build a wheel with a Schumpf hub themselves, and in an effort to make Schlumpf geared unicycles available to as many people as possible, I am hoping that this thread will be a directory and resource for unicyclists who would like to hire an experienced Schlumpf wheel/guni builder to help them make owning such an amazing vehicle more feasible. I hope it will also be a resource for Schlumpf owners who may need some assistance troubleshooting, repairing, or tuning the Schlump guni that they already own. While some bike shops may be able to build a wheel with a Schumpf hub, hiring a person who already has experience doing so may be a more desirable option for some people. As far as I know, Florian is the only one in the world currently manufacturing production guni hubs. I hope this thread will help facilitate driving the highest possible demand for Schumpf hubs so that the community of guni riders will increase and so that Florian will stay highly motivated to keep producing his hubs long into the future. As such, if you have experience building Schlumpf wheels and maintaining them and you are available for hire to help others build, troubleshoot, repair or tune their Schlumpf guni, please reply to this thread with the following information:
- Your location (Country, State or Province, City or Town)
- What services you are willing to offer (building the wheel, troubleshooting, repairing, tuning, or all of the above)
- Your level of experience and/or confidence level in performing such work.
As far as compensation, that can be worked out privately between you and whoever solicits your services. Given that Schlumpf wheel builders have very specialized knowledge and expertise, I think this thread could be quite helpful for prospective guni owners who feel overwhelmed with the prospect of building, troubleshooting or repairing this type of unicycle on their own.
While I think it would be great to have a directory of people who know how to service a Schlumpf hub (i.e. completely disassemble and reassemble it) I’d like to point out two things.
One, doing a wheel build using a Schlumpf hub is no different from any other wheel build (other than having the knuckle of the spoke on the countersunk side).
Two, “tuning” as you call it is quite simple. Just loosen the buttons until there is a bit of play and then tighten the set screw. The manual is your best friend.
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Thanks for your post. That’s very interesting information. I was under the impression that a wheel build with a Schlumpf hub was far more complicated than other wheels and that tuning the hub was a challenging endeavor. Apparently, I was mistaken. It looks like this thread isn’t necessary.
In any case, you’re right, this really is a revolutionary hub for all unicycle activities that go from point A to point B.
I hope these hubs will be produced for as long as possible.
The construction of the wheel presents no difficulty, but if you have a problem with an internal bearing, the shifting shaft or any other part of the mechanism, it’s almost impossible to repair on your own. As far as I know, you either have to send the hub back to the manufacturer in Switzerland, or send it to Flansberrium in Canada.
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Based on the feedback provided, if possible, perhaps the title of this thread should be changed to “Worldwide Directory of People who can Service Schlumpf Hubs”.
I agree, except for adjusting the knobs as described above there‘s no real difference between building a wheel with a Schlumpf and a regular hub.
One thing to remember, though, is that not all frames will take a Schlumpf without some machining / filing.
And the 2022 Schlumpf has a very thick flange. While building my geared wheel that led to the hub temporarily being shifted sideways as long as the spokes weren‘t tensioned. I wasn’t sure if I should proceed with the build or if I needed spokes with a longer bend section. After pondering a couple days I decided to proceed, and everything went just fine. But when you build a wheel with a Schlumpf hub, be prepared for this particularity.
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On the subject of servicing, I think it would be awesome to share that knowledge with the wider community. Obviously servicing your own hub would void the warranty. I wouldn’t encourage anyone to potentially damage their hub in an an attempt to service/fix it.
But having that info would be an invaluable resource to give owners the confidence to know what is going on inside their hub. Or to take their hub to a bike shop for the technician to have that info at hand and/or taking on the liability of servicing it themselves.
With that in mind, @jaco_flans: Next time you service a hub, would you consider filming the process? As far as I’m aware his patent for “Shiftable pedal bearing gearing for a bicycle or the like” has expired. So I don’t see any reason that info couldn’t be shared.
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Isn’t it a very short list with:
Not sure there are more people who can do it. Officially that is.
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