Holy crap. I broke my KH/Schlumpf Hub.

This is not some kind of sick, post-April-fools joke. I broke my
KH/Schlumpf hub while riding my amazing new, two-week-old KH36. I've
been getting more and more confident riding in high gear, and this
confidence has included acceleration and deceleration. Before tonight,
I was able to lean pretty far forward to get great acceleration, and
lean pretty far back to get great brakeless stopping even in high
gear.

As I was riding about 9 miles per hour alongside my friend Todd
(onelesscar), I told him, "maybe I can stop in one revolution in high
gear... let's see." So I leaned back and decelerated hard, only to be
thrown off my unicycle at the end of the stop due to gears in the hub
simply letting go under my torque. I didn't even feel like I stopped
THAT hard; I've definitely stopped harder in the past. After a
gut-wrenching grinding/crunching sound, the hub just started
freewheeling and, moments later, I'd UPD'd.

Afterwards, Todd and I carefully tried shifting the hub up and down,
rotating the cranks (by hand) around to see what exactly was wrong with
the hub. In some cases, it wouldn't shift at all; in others, it would
go into the freewheeling mode as if it were getting ready to lock into
the new gear ratio, but it'd freewheel for about 120 degrees of crank
rotation before locking, making. Now, in first gear or high gear alike
(I can't even tell which is which anymore), the hub locks the wheel at
one position and prevents it from turning relative to the frame.

I could go on a huge diatribe about it, but I'm sure it will suffice to
say that...
-I am not happy.- It'll probably be three to six weeks before I can get
my hands on another hub (whether it's this one fixed, or a replacement,
I don't care), and I was planning on spending the next eleven weeks to
get confident on it for RTL.

I'm emailing Kris and Florian about this, too. I guess this makes me
the first on the planet to break a KH/Schlumpf hub, and it wasn't even
from a drop. I guess I just pedaled too hard. At 9 MPH. In one pedal
rev.

I can't afford spending another $1300 on a new hub, and I really don't
think I did anything abnormal on it. Yeah, I stopped fast, but I'm sure
no one ever envisioned that a fast stop could've completely destroyed
the internal gearing. I hope I'll get taken care of. And, whether or
not I end up with a geared hub in the end, you can bet I'm going to
watch how hard I actually pedal it in order to keep from breaking one
again.

i donno, maybe there was ongoing wear happening the whole time, and the
stop just happened to be the large-ish straw that broke the camel's
back. who knows? i'm sure florian will be able to dissect it and see if
anything was wrong beforehand or if i'm just too dumb and torquey for
my own good.


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chuckaeronut

Uni to work, work to eat, eat to live, live to uni.
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Ouch. That sucks. Maybe something has happened to the shifting pins that
lock the two halves of the gearing together. It doesn't sound like you
were caning it too bad or anything, I know I've emergency stopped on my
normal Schlumpf with no problems.

Do you have a normal 36 to ride while you wait for the hub to be fixed
(or a spare hub to build into the wheel)?

Joe


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i'm really sorry to hear about your bad luck with the hub- or awesome
backpedaling power. Hopefully the problem was specific to your hub and
not the whole bunch of them. I don't think kris will leave you high and
dry after you made a substantial investment in a hub that sells as
being suitable for pretty serious muni.
mark


--
napalm

you wont do it...your SCARED!
"We are all racing towards death. No matter how many great,
intellectual conclusionswe draw during our lives, we know they are only
man made, like God"
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Eeeek! That's about all I can say at the moment. Just Eeek!

Hope it gets sorted out soon for you.

STM


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semach.the.monkey
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Hey, yeah, I still have my old Nimbus 36 parts all ready to go. I
suppose I'll build my stealth/niterider combo onto my superwide hub
between now and when I get a new hub (somehow). It'll be my fourth 36"
wheelbuild in two weeks, and my fifth total, so I suppose I'll be
getting my practice. It'll give me a chance to rock up my 102s and see
what I can do in 1:1. Thanks for your concern, though.


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chuckaeronut

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...did you already talk to florian about that? i guess he will help
you...


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turtle

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I'm really sorry to hear this. I hope you get a replacement soon and it
is just the case of one defective hub. I would be equally unhappy.
Keep us posted as to how it gets resolved.


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osmundo
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Sorry to hear that Chuck - I haven't ridden mine too much, yet. I'm sure
that it will get repaired, but it is concerning that it happened. That
thing is supposed to be very durable. I hope it was just a fluke! Never
having seen the inner workings of the hub, I can't even speculate what
happened, other than teeth breaking off the gears. I'm hoping that you
are just mutantly strong, or there was an unseen defect in your hub,
and nobody else will experience this issue. Good luck getting back up
to speed!


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seriousslacker wrote:
Never having seen the inner workings of the hub, I can't even speculate
what happened, other than teeth breaking off the gears.



I hope this link works;
http://tinyurl.com/6353xf
but due to restrictions on my work network, I can't see it to be sure.
But, anyway, this should be the video that shows how the inner workings
mesh together, and give some clue as to what is bent/broken/snapped.

STM


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semach.the.monkey
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Holy crap, that totally sucks!! It sounds like the muni hub isn't quite
up to snuff. Let me know what Florian and Kris say.

corbin


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