Question for Schlumpf owners

You're assuming that the schlumpf is a 29"? 36" schlumpfs do exist, they
give you the easy rolling on the coker and you can put long cranks on
for control, and then gear up to still go faster than a standard coker.

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"kington99" wrote in message ...

Quoted message said:

You're assuming that the schlumpf is a 29"? 36" schlumpfs do exist,

they

Quoted message said:

give you the easy rolling on the coker and you can put long cranks on
for control, and then gear up to still go faster than a standard

coker.

Ah, yes, I forgot to mention that. Yes, it's the 29" Schlumpf that I'm
thinking of.

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I tend to think that a 36" Schlumpf
would be _too_ fast. Or am I just a coward? :-)

STM

They're both good. You've already answered your own questions.

Coker:
Comfortable ride
Stable especially when bumpy/riding on dirt
Big is beautiful
Simple and bomproof

Schlumpf 29:
Sexy
Very fast
Easy to travel with- compact
2 gears
Takes more concentration to ride when bumpy

If I was riding 100miles it would depend on the terrain, and what I
felt like riding on the day.

Ken

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For me it totally depends on what ride I am doing. If I am doing a ride
like the blackpool ride which is a leasure ride at high speed. Then
schlumpf 36. If it is a serious high speed long distance ride, then it
is Std 36 with short cranks. :-)
World record attempt.... well lets see. I think std 36 with 80mm
cranks will win.

Roger

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rogeratunicycledotcom said:

World record attempt.... well lets see. I think std 36 with 80mm
cranks will win.

Roger

So you're going for the hour record then Roger?

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Well me and Sam have been talking about it. We have a 1k oval that
sounds fun... I need to get fit after my arm problem. It has slowed me
up a lot. Sam has to also stop falling off.

Roger

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"rogeratunicycledotcom" wrote in message ...

Quoted message said:

For me it totally depends on what ride I am doing. If I am doing a

ride

Quoted message said:

like the blackpool ride which is a leasure ride at high speed. Then
schlumpf 36. If it is a serious high speed long distance ride, then

it

Quoted message said:

is Std 36 with short cranks. :-)

Hmmm... well, on a terrain that's mainly tarmac (maybe some cycle
paths), with and without hills, and mainly avoiding high traffic areas
such as city centres, then I'm still unsure.

Quoted message said:

World record attempt.... well lets see. I think std 36 with 80mm
cranks will win.

Surely for the hour record the Schlumpf with shortish cranks would beat
a Coker hands down? Or am I missing something here?

STM

Absolutely- a 29" Schlumpf on smooth, flat tarmac is faster than a
Coker.

I might be wrong but I think there is some sort of unwritten agreement
among the Hour Record contenders (Dustin, Patrick, Roger, Sam etc) to
do it on fixed wheel unicycles.

And that makes the record more robust. You don't want to end up 10 or
20yrs down the track and revert to a fixed wheel standard. Like how
they disallowed a whole lot of bicycle hour records due to "illegal"
bikes, and went back to Eddy Merckx's (?1960's) record.

Roger- a 1km course would be great as it would make the curve much less
noticeable. But how will you divide it up when you hit the hour? Will
you be filming it and then working out your position on the 1km oval at
the 60:00:00 mark?

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rogeratunicycledotcom said:

World record attempt.... well lets see. I think std 36 with 80mm
cranks will win.

Roger

I think a geared 36 with 80's would win it. If you could pilot the
thing.

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Quoted message said:

but 3 degrees is like a heat wave!! woohoo.

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Simple answer on which is faster over a long distance is almost
certainly the Std 36, this is not a guess but from my experience. This
is especially the case if there are any corners, bumps or rough points
on the track. So much so that even the inner ring on the Manchester
Velodrome was not smooth enough for the 36" schlumpf to be faster than
the Std 36.

It takes a lot more effort to maintain the balance and fine control
that is needed at that speed on a geared unicycle.

World record attempt on geared unicycle... As I say I am not sure if
it is faster, but it is allowed. I have discussed this with Sam and he
agrees that we should do it together one std and on geared together on
the same course. He wants me to do it on the geared unicycle

Timing is easy, you just time to next time point and calculate for the
distance. This is allowed by 1 hour records for Guiness as it is not
an advantage to the rider.

Roger

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Roger, have you tried a 29" Schlumpf?

I was about 1-2secs faster per lap (on my 29" Schlumpf) on the circuit
I used for my 24hr record. Only did a few laps though, but it seemed
to be consistently faster. It is a fairly bumpy circuit so I think if
it was smoother and bigger there will be even more of an advantage.
That was early this year before I'd ridden very much on the Schlumpf.

I think the 36" Schlumpf is so heavy and highly geared that you have to
use longer cranks, which negates a lot of the advantage of the bigger
gear.

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GizmoDuck said:

I think the 36" Schlumpf is so heavy and highly geared that you have to
use longer cranks, which negates a lot of the advantage of the bigger
gear.

I'm a chicken and don't ride as fast as you and Roger. I'm also not as
skilled or well conditioned. To me, as the wheel mass increases in
proportion to its diameter, so does the stability. I have ridden 24",
29", and 36" tires all on 1.5 geared hubs. I find the 36" to be the
most stable and my belief is that this is because of the massive tire.
That's why I find the Big Apple to be preferable over the lighter
NanoRaptor on the 29" version, too. To expand the balance envelope I
have to go to longer cranks as Ken says but I have long legs and that
doesn't affect me as much as someone with shorter legs. A crank length
change for someone with short legs can dramatically change their riding
style do to the variation in leg motion during pedaling strokes.

I have also ridden a 24" Schlumpf and a couple of different 29"
Schlumpfs both of which have ratios slightly greater than 1.5. I have
ridden Pete Perron's jackshaft stye geared Cokers at ratios of 1.89 and
1.4. The seat height and crank length for other peoples' unicycles are
not set to my preference and an accurate determination of my sense of
stability for those machines is not so dependable. Regardless, I find
Pete's 1.4 geared Coker to be the best of the bunch that I have ridden
from the standpoint of stability and controlability. His jackshaft
design also has no backlash.

--
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GizmoDuck said:

Roger, have you tried a 29" Schlumpf?

Yes I had one for 3 months before the hub had to go back to be
repaired, it then got made in to a 36" which I think I prefer.

Interesting what you said about the 29" being faster on testing. My
guess is that in the long run the advantage would diminish and then
eventually disappear, certainly for me. It did with me when I rode
with Sam on the Manchester to Blackpool ride. It was very fast while it
was totally smooth, although as soon as we had a corner or any rough
ground Sam just pulled away from me. I also tired faster. Although we
were going REALLY fast.

Roger

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I don't think there's much difference between my Schlumpf 29 (150mm
cranks) and my coker (110mm cranks) in terms of speed.

I've ridden 100 miles in a day on both.

The Coker lets you fall asleep a little more which is nice. The
Schlumpf lets you ride in 29er mode for a bit if you like. This isn't
much of an advantage for long distance, because when you're knackered
riding in 29er mode just means you have to ride for longer. It's nice
for if you want to ride muni when you get there.

The Schlumpf high gear is not nice on non-smooth off road. It doesn't
like bumps at all. Obviously you've got the choice of low gear though.

If I had to ride 100 miles tomorrow, I'd do it on the coker, because
that's whats next to the front door at the moment. If you'd asked me
last week, I'd have done it on the Schlumpf, because that was
downstairs then.

Overall I'd recommend just buy a coker now, because they're cheap
compared to the Schlumpf, so you'll have extra money to spend on
wasting time riding it places.

Joe

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GizmoDuck said:

I might be wrong but I think there is some sort of unwritten agreement
among the Hour Record contenders (Dustin, Patrick, Roger, Sam etc) to
do it on fixed wheel unicycles.

They may have such an agreement but there's no need to split hairs.
Just keep track of what type of unicycle was used for any given record,
and note which type is the absolute record-holder, and which type has
its own record, at a slightly shorter distance. In other words, there's
plenty of room for records on geared and non-geared unicycles. As far
as the IUF is concerned, they both fall under the category of
"unlimited," though this may be further refined as unicycles continue
to evolve.

I rode Roger's Schlumpf 36" in the Unicon marathon. I kept it in high
gear for basically everything but the hills, but it did slow me down.
It rode just fine for me on the dirt track that was the first and last
part of the course, but a more bumpy trail would probably slow you down
a lot. I was unable to keep up with the second start group in that
marathon race, which I probably could have done on a regular Coker.
However, I think I was actually riding faster toward the end of the
race than I was at the beginning. I did minimal training on the cycle
before the race, so I think with more training I could maintain a
higher speed than a regular Coker (assuming similar fitness levels
between riders). That's on flat ground; hills would surely have an
effect.

--
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I had a ungeared Coker, I now have a 29" and a 36" Schlumpf. I prefer
the 36" Schlumpf for my a leasure rides. For the 36" Schlumpf long
cranks are good. I used 140 mm cranks and was very unhappy, I changed
to 170mm and love it.
I normally ride 20 kph on flat terrain with no wind. I have long legs,
so I have no problems with the long cranks. For hills, off road or
heavy traffic there is allways the possibility to shift down to 1:1
gear.
I feel very uncomfortable over 25kph, but only because I am afraid of
falling. For leasure rides the geared Coker ist best. I use the geared
29" mostly for travelling. It is easy to put into a train or into a
plane, but it is about 2 kph slower then the 36". The 36" feels more
stable and I love the Coker-feeling. I have a break and it works quite
well.

Get a geared Coker and after 1000 km and you will know: it's the best
distance unicycle you can get!!!

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Well, reading through the replies so far, it's kind of shattered my
dreams about what a Schlumpf was all about. The concensus seems to be
that they're not noticably faster than a Coker, and that on Real
Life(tm) terrain, they don't rate that well.

Well, I guess it's good news... it's saved me £600 :-)

Might be back to the drawing board with my high-mileage project then.
But thanks for the input guys.

STM

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hans said:

Get a geared Coker and after 1000 km and you will know: it's the best
distance unicycle you can get!!!

Typical. I was just composing my last reply as you were posting this!

That's one vote in favour of a Schlumpf for long distance riding.

STM

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I'm probably the only person in the world who has a Schlumpf 29er, but
not a Coker. I also have practically zero experience with a Coker, only
riding them every now and then circling around a hall at BUC13.

I do sometimes wonder if it was a mistake to go all the way to a
Schlumpf for distance without even considering a Coker, especially when
I find it hard to freemount and get moving in high gear, when I get a
wobbly feeling after going over a bump, and the fact that any attempt
to exceed my maximum cadence of 90rpm (about 12mph or 19.3kph) never
happens because I get so bloody scared.

But I like it because it's a very nice 29er as well, two unicycles for
the price of... err.... 😕

I bet some people would advise me to get a Coker as well, but I've made
an annual purchase of a unicycle for the past four years, and I've made
a vow to never buy a fifth unicycle at all.

Was it a mistake to jump straight to a Schlumpf, or will extended
practice on it be enough for this non-Cokeur to master it without too
many issues?

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