With my newfound shifting skills, and finally some dry weather, I rode the Hojack again. Kessa joined me on her bike. This time I was hoping to be able to shift successfully whenever I needed. And for the most part, I did! Very nice.
However, I had an incident at one point, about 1
/3 into the round trip. If I recall the circumstances, at a road crossing I had dismounted and when I went to remount, I was in the middle of the road and I failed and fell. It was a very quiet road and no cars were in sight. I dinged my knee on the road, but it wasn't too bad. When I went to try again, I found my Schlumpf hub was in a freewheeling mode. Turning the cranks just turned the cranks, not the wheel! That's not normal and not good. Shifting the button up and down did nothing. I tried like a dozen times, and bounced the tire and kicked the cranks hoping to dislodge whatever mechanism was getting hung up inside the hub. It made no difference. There was a wooden post nearby and I bumped the unicycle into it with some additional force, hitting the crank. It didn't seem to immediately help, but after pushing the buttons a few more times, the cranks were now engaging the hub. Although then as I turned it by hand it seemed to me it wasn't shifting out of high gear. After another dozen button pushes and questioning what to do, I realized it was in fact shifting properly again.
Although I was a bit on edge from that point on, I was able to ride and shift without incident. I'll have to check with people on the forums and see if there are any thoughts on this.
Overall, my ability to shift with near 100% success made the ride a lot more enjoyable.
My lower back muscles got fatigued and I need to keep working on my posture, I guess.
