Has anyone retrofitted a schlumpf on their strida?

Andy B: Awesome mod! Mini owners are lucky that their crank arms are 5-bolt just like the Schlumpf SD. Us 5.x owners can’t do the same unless we somehow manage to find a 5-bolt front sprocket to replace the existing 4-bolt one. :frowning:

A quick update regarding the Schlumpf Speed Drive kit for Strida: I heard the first batch of the kit was almost ready. The delay of release was due to a redesign of clutch geometry. The change was deemed necessary to compensate for the higher tension on the belt (vs. a chain).

If the technical issue is indeed true, it helps to explain why Sports Duo has been produced in such a small quantity. But it may also raise a red flag on the durability of existing Sports Duos. :question:

It IS here! Behold the Strida Speed Drive Kit:

http://www.schlumpf.ch/hp/schlumpf/news_engl.htm

The official price tag is 519 euros! Maybe it’s to justify the cost or to deter people from buying ATS Speed Drive, Schlumpf made this statement:

“Please notice: the internal parts were modified in order to correspond with the higher proload of the belt compared with a chain. Always ask for the original Schlumpf speed-drive made in Switzerland!”


On another Schlumpf webpage, I found the following warning:

“The belt drive speed-drive comes with a special geometry of the internals, which matches the requirements of the higher belt tension, compared with a chain. Never combine a standard speed-drive with a belt drive.

http://www.schlumpf.ch/hp/sd/sd_engl_preise.htm

Does it mean that hte first Sport Duo Series are defectives?
Will Strida change the defective parts for free?

Best regards

Hydra

I’m thinking here that the belts don’t have the slack and give that a chain has here which can probably stress out the intricate gearing they have inside. Those belts are very strong and don’t stretch at all.

I thought with the snubber correctly adjusted (ie 0.5mm gap max, but not touching the back of the belt) … that belt tension can be much lower - on par with a chain. Maybe Schlumph dont get this ?

The price seem high - the china made one appears to be much less - but only available on a new bike.

In their news, Schlumpf report availability of a two-speed front hub gear specifically for Strida. http://www.schlumpf.ch/hp/schlumpf/news_engl.htm.
They say “available from your Strida retailer”. But my dealer (http://www.strida.nl/english/products.php) has no reference…?

For me, spending 400 Euros (or so) for 2 gears is too much for not enough, so I won’t be bothering. But it’s a useful link for anyone who wants to look further…? Please post here, if you go further?

It still baffles me. There’s a huge volume available on the Strida; that whole area of the drive cog, below the crossbar, times the width of the pedal axle? You could get a load of big gears (lower torque, higher efficiency?), and axles and springs and bearings in there?

If this was a Dyson product, gears would have been available years ago…

(2 other pet modifications I have in mind:

  • Folding seat. If it hinged below the front of the saddle, close in to the frame, to lie alongside the back strut… The whole bike would eat sooo much less volume… The saddle would be mounted on a strut, which would be parallel to the ground when unfolded. This strut could be about 600 mm long… And used to hang luggage off… Which is much more efficient than a rack to stand luggage on?
  • Wheeling the Strida folded? It’s twice the pain it needs to be, because you have to hold it upright in two dimensions. One simple fix might be to buy a pair of Strida wheel magnets, and fit them to either end of a short flat bit of plastic, and, when folding, instead of clipping the wheels together, click each wheel to an end of the strut, making a “very short wheelbase Strida”, that would be stable “front to back”, and would only need supporting left/right. Immediately, you stop carrying the weight when wheeling it folded…)

I think the point of Strida is SIMPLICITY, and the design aims to be pure, clean, simple and Iconic. There are plenty of bikes with zillions of gears - but its interesting the fixie urban movement is also going simple 1 speed. I beg to differ about dyson products: yes they are highly innovative, and extremely well marketed, but the design style - with all the innards out on display - is not to everyone’s taste - like seeing all your intestines and ugly bits on the outside of the human form :smiley:

2 speed locally made Shlumpf geared Strida’s are also slowly coming to market from Ming - they work out cheaper than buying a Strida and then adding the gear. But the gear upgrade direct from Shlumpf will be super quality swiss engineering… I guess give them all time to get these to market - manufacturing, shipping and distribution is not as instant as the internet.

I saw a pic of a folding Saddle on a Strida …sorry cant find: I think it was on a picture from Taipei show a couple of years ago: The seat folded down to be parallel with the tubes: yes it did make the bike slimmer at the top, but also more complicated - with big safety issues: if not locked could drop the rider and lots of finger traps.

The idea of setting the wheels apart when folded is interesting - But I have no problems with the stability of my folded Strida. The best tip (from this forum I think) is to roll the bike as vertically as possible - with most weight through the wheels, not the arms, this means hold by stem with a bent arm, Or: hold by the front of the saddle. I think, Having the 2 wheels together makes the folded Strida more easy to manoeuvre - in fact just like the Dyson Ball vacuum :smiley: - we’ve all seen the adverts for, steering around furniture etc. :smiley:

Skywalker has a good set of pictures of what to expect to gradually come into the market from Ming-Cycles in the coming year from the taipei Show …

tw.myblog.yahoo.com/Skywalker-St … e?mid=2476

Hi,

I recently emailed Schlumpf Innovations to inquire about a Speed-Drive for my Strida 5.0. They were very helpful, and promptly replied with a quote of 821 CHF (Swiss Francs) plus 82 CHF shipping to the USA, for a total of 903 CHF.

821 CHF is currently about 577 EUR or 707 USD, 777 USD with shipping to the USA.

That’s higher than I expected. Has the price gone up from the 519 EUR quoted earlier in this thread, or is this currency fluctuation?

Richard

Dear Strida drivers, Dear RichardCoffey,

with kind agreement of Mr. Florian Schlumpf, mechanical engineer in Switzerland, I would like to publish parts of the conversation between Mr. Schlumpf and me a few weeks ago:

Me: “… as an enthusiastic owner of a Strida 5.2 I would be highly interested in where to get a speed drive and in knowing the costs of the precious piece. Sharp, possibly not really competent, tongues here in Austria claim the Strida MAS does not operate properly.”

Mr. Schlumpf: “The sharp tongues are not totally wrong: years ago we made a licence agreement with a Taiwanese company.
Presently, these gear drives are mounted into the Stridas - unfortunately with little success since the quality leaves a lot to be desired. For this reason we decided to produce a tailor-made alternative including the excentric fitting for the Strida, which is now available and works faultlessly. However, with “made in Switzerland” and 5 years full warranty this part is also a little more expensive.”

I received the following parts:

  1. Speed drive and belt
  2. Tool set “maintenance”
  3. Info sheets, mounting instructions

    In my case, the price was exactly 553,27 Euro (speed drive plus toolset minus 4 % when paid within 10 days).
    And praise the lord if you are NOT going to be charged for customs duty (in my country about 20 %). :imp: :open_mouth: :imp:

To dismount the original cranks you will need something like this:
bbbparts.com/images/tools/btl14_normal.jpg

For further information the workshop manuals can be found here:
schlumpf.ch/hp/handbuecher/WHB.sd.engl.pdf
schlumpf.ch/hp/handbuecher/WHB.sd.dt.pdf

Not mounted yet, I will post some pics of the mounting soon, additional overview added below.

Better quality here:
s769.photobucket.com/albums/xx33 … rive%20HQ/
Best regards to all Strida riders!

This is great new can you give us a review on your feelings riding with the upgrade after? like speed and hill climbing? I’m seriously thinking of this but the price keeps holding me back. It’s like the price of a new dahon curve with the 3 gears, but then again that is not a strida. With the schlumpf it’s putting it into brompton territory in pricing and both bikes are handmade so the quality is there.

Hi everybody,

here is a little “how to do the Schlumpf”.

1, remove the bell, turn your Strida upside down, remove crank bolt and belt tension bolt

2, remove the small conical part (using the bbl tool), insert crank separator tool, screw in as far as possible and detract crank


3, insert drift punch into thread of tension bolt, remove the big groove nut and pull the excentric fitting out


4, remove the brake, remove the belt roll and the wheel, unlock your Strida carefully and change the belts

5, lock the bike, mount wheel (Loc!), belt roll (Loc!) and brake (Loc!), pull the Schlumpf in its new housing, fit the big black groove nut (do not tighten yet), and fit the belt

6, mount the single crank and tighten the axle bolt (strongly), mount the gear shift button (and shiftplates), refer to:
schlumpf.ch/hp/handbuecher/WHB.sd.engl.pdf B-4, B-5


7, adjust belt tension, tighten the belt tension bolt and the groove nut, mount pedals - done!

Better quality here:

s769.photobucket.com/albums/xx33 … ting%20hq/

required tools:

-the Schlumpf tools
-Allen keys 4,5,6,8 mm
-socket wrench 14 mm with ratchet or similar
-cotter pin drive, drift punch 6 mm diameter o. s.
-crank separator tool (bblparts BTL-14 o. s.)
-bolt adhesive, thread-locking compound (Loctite o. s.)

depending on your crank separator tool:

-flat wrench 15 mm
-adjustable wrench or flat wrench 16 mm

If available, use a torque wrench to tighten the following bolts:

-brake bolts 8 Nm
-axle bolt 50-55 Nm
-gear shift button bolt 1,1 Nm

Never use any bolt adhesives or thread-locking compounds (like Loctite or similar products) on Schlumpf parts (axle bolt, gear shift button bolt, belt ring bolts)!

Always use bolt adhesives on Strida brake bolts, wheel bolts, belt roll bolts and some other parts (Loc!). Refer to Strida user manual:

strida.us/files/5-MiniManual.pdf

The procedure takes about two hours and the Strida weighs about 500 gram more now.

Stormy, rainy and ugly cold here, the driving review will take some time…

…is there anybody out there…

Blackstridaaustria,

Thank you very much for your posts. You have provided a wealth of information that will be very useful to all of us considering fitting a Schlumpf Speed-Drive to our Stridas, and your installation process photos prove that ‘‘A picture is worth a thousand words’’.

With good weather, I am looking forward to hearing about test-rides of your Speed-Drive Strida.

Richard

For anyone who’s intrigued, here’s the cost breakdown:

Speed Drive Kit, including silver crank arms CHF 689
Black crank arms (optional) CHF 10
Strida Parts (EBB, sprocket, and belt) CHF 100
Easy-shift kick plates (optional, silver or black) CHF 45
Strida installation and maintenance toolset CHF 32

Schlumpf offers 4% rebate for bank transfer payments cleared within 10 days after purchase. The deal is probably only available to continental Europe though. Anyway, people who are interested should contact Jolanda office@schlumpf.ch. It’s a small company therefore it may take a few days before someone replies your inquiries. So be patient.

I fitted both the Schlumpf drive and 18 inch wheels to my Strida 5 last weekend. Here’s a picture of the new setup:

http://picasaweb.google.com/2948682/201006#5482733661112080866

The transaction with Schlumpf was very smooth. They don’t have secure ordering capability on their web site, so I phoned them up and provided my credit card number verbally. The package took less than a week to travel from Switzerland to the west coast of the USA.

Installation was very easy, no drama at all. Everything went together as intended and the entire process took less than one hour. Belt alignment is perfect and everything runs very smoothly.
I live in Oakland, California and the weather the past week has been perfect, so I got a few miles in. The combination of the slightly larger wheel/tire combination, lower rolling resistance tires and availability of a higher gear makes the bike much more usable for longer rides. I find myself using the lower gear most of the time, but for nice long flat stretches with little or no incline or headwind it is nice to have that taller gear. The tall gear is somewhat taller than I would like, I have to be going pretty fast before it works for me. It probably would have been more to my liking with the 16 inch wheels, but I did both mods at the same time…

It takes some practice to shift quickly. First you have to position the pedal, which I don’t find particularly instinctive – I have to think about it every time. Then you have to use an unusual movement with your heel, pushing sideways on the crank pin. This takes time, I’m not sure I will ever get to the point where I am “speed shifting”. There is a soft clunk as the gear engages, usually. Sometimes the gear engages with little or no noise. Because of this it is usually, but not always, obvious that the new gear is engaged.

Internal friction of the 2-speed drive is quite impressive. In fact, it is hard to tell subjectively which gear is direct-drive (it’s the low gear). That works for me, since I am spending most of my time in low gear. Once I build up some speed and upshift I can’t really notice any additional drag. Everything runs along quite smoothly.

Overall I am very happy with the Schlumpf 2-speed drive. It is a beautiful piece of engineering and machining and improves the appearance of the bike. The drive itself is remarkably small and compact. I need to practice my shifting, faster shifts would improve things considerably.

http://picasaweb.google.com/2948682/201006#slideshow/5482733304274624386

smitt53,

Thanks very much for sharing the information about your Schlumpf Speed-Drive upgrade. It sounds like a winner. I’m especially delighted to hear that the ordering and shipping process to the USA went well.

It is also interesting to hear that you swapped your stock 16 inch wheels for 18 inch wheels at the same time. If switching between the two sizes is a painless process too, then you have even more flexibility for dialing in a good setup for your needs.

Regards,
Richard

seems like with the 18 inch wheels you get the original 52 gear inches in the low gear and the high gear is almost pushing probably 80 gear inches. That thing is going to go like stink on a downhill. Fastest I went on a strida is 40km/h downhill and it was pretty stable as long as you relax and not have some death grip on it. else you got a really nice setup. Did you carry that wheel stand with you wherever you go in case of photo ops? :laughing:

Thanks for sharing the review.
I guess the Swiss Shlumpf is the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of the gears: as a cheapskate, I’d love to compare with the ATS, licenced version of the gear. Does anyone have any news that Ming are selling this as an upgrade / accessory yet ?