Has anyone retrofitted a schlumpf on their strida?

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 ?

@smitt53: Thank you very much for sharing. Regarding speedy shifting, you may want to consider adding Schlumpf’s “EZ-shift kick plates” to your crank arms. I heard it’d make shifting easier.

@Guest: I contacted a few Strida distributors in different regions and none of them carried the kit. It seems that at this moment the only way to obtain it is ordering directly from Schlumpf.

I am interested in the ATS Speed-Drive too, so I emailed them last month. Here is the first response:

“Because we only sale the ATS speed drive. The Strida need not only ATS but also the adapter for ATS parts. Therefore I have to check w/Strida company tomorrow.
I’ll inform U the result later. Pls kindly wait.”

And the second:

“Pls surf the website STRIDA.COM and leave a message or send a e-mail , Strida will endeavor to get back to you as soon.”

I followed ATS’s suggestion, but have not received a response from Strida.

Richard

Hi all.

The problem with the speed drive is that its ratio is not accurate for a single-gear bike.
The speeddrive is designed for adding versatility to a multi-gear bike.
So, in multigear bikes, the speed drive ratio works good because multiply the options you can choose for two. (if you had a bike with 5 gear, with the speeddrive you get 10). You allways can get the right ratio between 10 gears.
But for a single geared bike like the Strida, the speeddrive is only a “less-bad” solution. The jump between the low and the high gear is too big for a fine use.
When 16 wheels, you get a very very low first gear you never can use in flat ground. The second gear is the same that the original strida.
When 18 wheels, you get a first gear “almost” the original Strida ratio (a little bit lower), but the secong gear is too high, and you cannot use it if the wind blow a little bit against you or if the ground is not totally flat. Even with flat ground, the feeling is that you must make a big effort.

Now, my veredict.

Not a accurate design for the Strida.
Very expensive.
Finally:
Would I buy it again?: YES :open_mouth:
Why? Because it is better than nothing.

A last advice:
After 200 km. the effort for pedaling is decreasing a lot. I think the mechanism comes very tight from factory and It needs a little of use for a right work.
At the begining, pedaling in the high gear (with 18" wheels) was a pain. Currently is very much better.

Regards

Hydra.

And an added advantage for the SD.

You can secure your Strida easyly if you put your chain-lock crossing the speeddrive plate and the bottom alloy welded triangle.

This is the most safety method for locking a Strida, if you must leave it alone.

Hydra

@RichardCoffey: Thanks for ATS research and your friendly words.
On Spring 10 I asked Strida europe:
“The Taiwanese 2-speed gear of the Strida MAS is said to be very unreliable. Do you know more about that?”
Answer:
“The MAS Schlumpf cannot be ordered as a spare part.”
----- ? ------

@smitt53: Thank you very much for the pics, will there be more?
The Schwalbe Kojak tires of my 18" Strida, inflated at 8,0 bar, seem to lose air relatively fast (about 0,3 per day).
Did you make this experience as well?

@hydractiva: Fully agreeing to your verdict, I am sorry to say that I have trouble with your gearing description.
Please do not take this personally.

@All of you
My first impression after riding a few kilometers on the 16" Schlumpf Strida: at this moment I realized that I had not been biking for decades before I bought my Stridas in Spring 10:
The lower gear feels much too low for me and the higher one awfully high.
The smooth original 100:30 gear is suitable for a completely untrained stork leg but not the higher gear of the Schlumpf.
It’s true, with the higher Schlumpf gear you can go much faster … if you can.

But things are getting better every day…

There are no “hills” in the area I usually ride, but a few “drive-ups” or “raisings” hardly managable with the 16" original gear are nearly not to be managed with the 18" Strida. The lower Schlumpf gear lets me climb up these places without any problem, slowly of course. Acceleration in the lower gear is certainly much better than the original on flat road. After 2 or 3 rounds of the pedals it is advisable to switch to the higher gear, which brings me to shifting:
As smitt53 said, you will need practice first. But in my case shifting became automatic after 40 or 50 kilometers, meanwhile I shift almost intuitively and frequently. Always wearing high shoes, I kick the shifting button with the heel or ankle - the Strida aluminium pedals are a bit more slippery than the original black ones and support the little sideways movement of the shoes better.
Also shifting without interrupting the movement of the cranks is possible, it is just a question of the right moment (and really cool!).
With increasing practice I am on the way to handle the higher gear, my top speed on Schlumpf 16" might be around 22 km/h at the moment, and it feels the same as top speed on 18" with original gear, but at lower cadence.
By now I have ridden about 80 km with the Schlumpf 16" and about half this distance on the 18" Strida for comparison.

For better understanding of the gear mystery I did some research on the web, then I took a ruler and used these online gear calculators:

wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/gearinches.asp

soulbikes.com/gears/

The tires:
size; name; description; diameter (measured), circumference (arithmetical); circumference (measured)

16"; Kenda Kwest; 16 x 1,50 (40-305); 38,5 cm; 120,95 cm; 121,2 cm
18"; Schwalbe Kojak; 18 x 1,25 (32-355); 42,1 cm; 132,26 cm; 132,6 cm

Based on the two measured diameters of the wheels, the gear inches were calculated, and here are the results:
the first values are calculated with wisil, the values in brackets are from the soulbike calculator.

16" with original gear: 50 (50,4) Schlumpf low: 40 (40,4) Schlumpf high: 66 (66,7)
18" with original gear: 55 (55,3) Schlumpf low: 44 (44,2) Schlumpf high: 72 (72,9)

From my subjective feeling and corresponding to the results I have to say that the higher Schlumpf gear with Kenda 16" tires is certainly not the same as the original, as hydractiva mentioned, maybe her/his gear calculations are based on different tire sizes?
Anyway, I’ll have to train a huge load before changing the wheels of my Stridas against each other :mrgreen:

Here is another interesting thread about sport duos:
savedbybikes.com/blog/blog/sport … mpression/

Did you know that Strida Europe offers the MAS again, “available third week of June”?
Update 06.07.10: “available last week of july”
Update 06.08.10: “available last week of august”

Warmest regards

Hydra’s descriptions of 16" gear inches are inaccurate, at least according to the official specs. Check out the savedbybikes.com link shared by Blackstridaaustria and also areaware.com.

Sorry for the mistake.

The high gear with 16" is higher than the orginal Strida one.

Regards.

Hydra.

Here is the opinion of Mark Sanders about the ATS and Schlumpf versions of speed-drive:

Hmm. Are there differences between the bottom bracket of the Strida 5.2 and the DS? Was playing around with the idea to do a 1 to 1 swap of the ATS for the Schlumpf to do a comparison before I reinstall it on the Strida 5.2.

I think the BB shell is the same on all 5.x Stridas.

Hi Blackstridaaustria,

Just out of curiousity, as we know that you have anodised many parts of your Strida into black, why didn’t you order the speed-drive kit with black crank arms + black easy-shift levers instead of the one with sliver crank arms from Schlumpf? :unamused:

Amuro

Hi Amuro,

nice question…

Meanwhile a lot of time went by, at first was the Schlumpf, then the “black phase” overwhelmed me, inspired partially by users of the HK Strida Club, who are customizing their bikes in various ways.
At the moment are, of course, black crankarms and black kick shift levers to be found on my black Strida.:laughing:
These black parts were brought by my dear Mrs. Blackstridaaustria directly from Switzerland to Austria as a present. :smiley:
The silver ones I kept for Mrs. BSA’s brushed silver Strida, maybe the time brings a second Schlumpf?

Any other questions?

Warmest regards

Hi Blackstridaaustria,

Oh I see. So every part of your Strida is in black now. :sunglasses:

Best regards,
Amuro

Did it again…

…so the silver Strida is Schlumpf powered also :sunglasses:

Cheers!

Hello,

I recently wrote to ATS to ask them if a Speed-Drive for my Strida is available direct or through a US distributor. Here is the reply I received yesterday:


Dear Richard,

We don’t have distributer in USA.
We can sale directly. But U have to pay the freight cost (Ship out from Taiwan).
And U have to make sure, U can apply the ATS-speed drive on your bike. Pls check your bike first:
(1) Is your bike can fit our standard BB?
(2) Do U have belt chainring on your Strida already? (Right length of belt and chain ring…)
(3) Do U know how to install ATS-speed drive?

Best Regards
Mark Liu


Their prompt and considerate reply is a big step forward, but apparently they do not have a Strida-specific installation kit available, as Schlumpf does.

I am not certain how to answer their three questions for my single-speed 2010 Strida 5.0. I would greatly appreciate any advice on how to proceed.

Thanks and Regards,
Richard

Dear Richard,

I’m sorry to say, but there will be big problems to find/create the missing parts.

The standard ATS bracket is made for bottom bracket shell diameters of 33.6 - 34.5mm, according to their website.
The Strida bottom bracket shell has a diameter of ~ 52 mm, you will need an excentric bottom bracket mechanism similar to that you have now in your Strida.
Similar, not equal, the new one has to be more broad!
So I think it’s not possible to modify the existing bracket mechanism…

The 80 teeth beltwheel you will need is not available as a spare part, as far I know.
(I will try to verify that and ask Ming about it.)
Btw, Mr. Schlumpf had obtained these 80 teeth beltwheels from Ming Cycle directly, he did not make them himself.
Mr. Schlumpf also told me that these beltwheels were not manufactured precisely; therefore he had to chisel them out ~ 0,4 mm.

The belt should be no problem.

Just like the Schlumpf drive, here is an interesting video about the process:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0teCnQJskgQ

Please note: The video is showing a chamfering procedure, done by a hand milling tool.
This procedure is needed for all bikes, except the Strida (due to the excentric bottom bracket).

Best regards,

BSA

Below a few pics of the new buttons and plates:

Detail for our weight-weenies:
The new black buttons are much more heavy than the old silver ones; ~ 9 grams instead of ~ 3 (per piece!) :smiley:

12 more pics of the Schlumpf speed drive are here:

1600 x 1200

480 x 360

:mrgreen: