KH36 Schlumpf GUNI – The Perfect XC Uni?
Could the KH36 GUNI be the perfect uni? Maybe! I have really been enjoying riding my KH36 GUNI.
I never thought I’d enjoy riding looong cranks like the 165’s but it turns out for off road GUNI on a 36 they are great fun and really well suited to the Wombat Forest terrain. I’m loving it!
Due to the long cranks in 1:1 the 36 feels like a much smaller wheel, creating the vibe you can go anywhere in 1:1 – while not true you can do a lot of fun stuff. In 1:1.5 with the long cranks you can easily cruise off road at incredibly low cadence and due to the long crank length step on the gas whenever the terrrain allows, blasting along fire trails for example, along with having control on descents and trickier bits.
Customized KH 36 GUNI
1:1.5 provides a great work out – much more like a solid hit out on an MTB, and with each ride you can feel your legs strengthening up to the GUNI task which is surprising in how different it is to riding a single speed uni. Also unlike the 29 GUNI, the 36 GUNI has two usable gears with additional benefits inherent in the big wheel (some extra weight too, but hey it’s worth it!).
Given all that, remarkably the combination of 36 GUNI and 165 cranks is proving to be very good news for my knees. Injuries from over 9 months ago are finally healing and my knees are generally much happier. The longer cranks seem to result in far less strain in 1:1 and in 1:1.5 the load seems to be carried elsewhere as it’s not about sustaining an insane cadence but controlled leg grunt.
So now it comes down to the Schlumpf hub, touchwood things will continue to go smoothly!
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2 Responses to “KH36 Schlumpf GUNI – The Perfect XC Uni?”
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I tried 165mm cranks on a KH/Schlumpf 36er and I LOVED using them in high gear, but the low gear felt unusable (on road). I am sure it is great off road though.
I found that shifting with the 165mm cranks was extremely more difficult than shifting with 150mm cranks, so I decided to keep 150s on my geared 36. I have had no knee issues on my geared 36, but I did get knee problems with an ungeared 36 and short cranks.
The geared 36 is my favorite and most used unicycle in my collection. Keep up the posts, your blog is interesting.
Yes I agree, 165’s in 1:1 on a 36′er aren’t much use on road — lots of trashing the cranks around (my rule was if I was spinning too much in 1:1 change up gears!) but were great fun off road and in 1:1.5 off road you could cruise along and still have some control.
I was also surprised at how much more difficult shifting was on 165’s vs 150’s, though it got easier over time.
With my hub currently not in a wheel the decision is what to build it up as next. I’ve already tried a 29 GUni which wasn’t that useful on the trails I mainly ride, and tbh it sometimes feels like you don’t get the most out of a 36 GUni when pretty much all your riding is off road, so it’s either a 26 or 24, most likely a 24.