Who runs a truvativ Hammerschmidt? What do you reckon, what are the ratios akin to on a normal setup? Is there a weight penalty? What is the BB like? Are they (the whole unit) easy to fit? Regular maintenance?

I’ve got a second-hand one I’m trying to sell for someone – honestly, I think they’re awful – very fiddly to fit, heavy, need special rings, limited choice of ratios.

The Schlumpf Speed Drive or Mountain Drive is a far better choice – I do lots of them.

But if you want one, it’s just been reconditioned – £300 😉

Ive had one on my Covert for over a year. To answer your questions:

Ratios
You pick your rear cassette, I ran a standard SRAM 9 speed.
The front ring comes in two sizes, I used the standard All Mountain one, which is 22 T. That means you have pretty much the same feel as a normal middle ring and granny set up.
Weight
On the scales it would be heavier, but not that you can tell when its on the bike. Depends on what bike you put it on, my Covert is built up for the Alps/Trail ctrs and mucking about. Dont put it on a racelight HT.
BB
Solid, still going strong.
Maint.
Its made in America, so its not mud proof – you will need to take the top off and ensure its not full of mud once a month in the winter, less in the summer. That easy to do. You will need to clean it and put fresh grease in it when you do that. So a bit more time and effort is reqired. But it is simple engineering and all the bits are availabe from SRAM.
Fitting
Get it fitted by the SRAM service guys, not a shop. Mine was fitted by the shop who did it wrong (didnt face off the BB), so it wore out the main bearing and the SRAM service chaps replaced it at cost for me. The idiots at the shop should have done it properly and refunded me but the shops gone bust. So take it to SRAM, most shops wont know what to do or how to do it, or wont have the tools.

For riding say tech stuff / Alps / trail ctrs its great (but expensive)

best £200 ive spent for a long time,great shifting,bullet proof,not grinding rings/mech when changing up/down……you need to get rear cassette ratios right or have two for the different rides/runs you do,easy to keep running,weight not too much more than a standard set up but does feel heavy out of the box tbh,but again when on bike you dont care as it blows you away with performance,better clearance…..
Would defo have another bought mine 2nd had but look after it and it looks after you…simples

😀

Make a bike look much more slicker !!

Where did you get the blue bolts? Never thought about changing mine, also what is the finish on the crank arms?
I love mine, bit weighty but its on a heavy bike so not an issue. Instant shifts and never dropping your chain are very nice features. Slight drag is noticeable but nothing you can’t live with. Would be good paired up with ten speed set up.

akira..
Sprayed my bolts bud but you can get them on e-bay in normal alloy colours..
Carbon Wrap mate a Tw@ to do but worth it as its tuff as hell,better than helicopter tape ,works well for cranks.Hard to put on as need to heat up….
Mines set up on 10 speed bud very good as got a spare 11-25T Road cassette and a 12-36T MTB cassette well impressed as got the 24T on up front.
The eight like i said you get it out of the box and think arghhhh weighs a ton.! but when riding you dont notice hardly and the drag,well a slight bit but on dry days i grease the inner?outer plates with Black GOLD waterproof grease to compensate it a TAD !
Glad i got it as wouldn’t go for a spanking new one unless they saved around 200-300g on a new design ??
But saying that then others would cos of the main issue being weight but on a AM/DH bike who realy cares like…
performance and reliabilitys better piece of mind.. 😀

I’ve had mine nearly two years and it now looks pretty beaten up 😀

The best thing is the instant shifting up and down, so much so that it’s a revelation and hence for any little doonhall bits I find myself using the HS rather than trawling through gears at the back. Going from an HS bike back to a front mech is a disaster… so I ditched the front mech on the hardtail and went 1×9, which is ace on a 25lb hardtail… but not so on a 33lb AM bike.

I need my super low “winching” gears for the big mountains where I live so run the 22 with an 11-34 9sp rear. This gives me the same spread as 22/36 front 11-34 rear – which I find perfect.

The one flaw (other than weight) with the HS is the drag in the overdrive… but there is a simple solution to this which is don’t use the overdrive unless you have to. If you look at the gear spread there are only three/four? gears which the overdrive gives you which you don’t already have. So you very rarely “need” to use the overdrive, especially for when your putting effort into the cranks, and it’s only under effort which you notice the “drag”. Getting out of the saddle and “honking” when in the overdrive feels odd and is daft, just use the gears at the back so your not feeling the drag. With the HammerSchmidt I’m spending much more time down in the little sprockets at the back which are gears you usually avoid with a tripple up front due to slack chain and risk of chainsuck/fall-off… but because of the HS this is not an issue as the chain can’t fall off at the front, and the chain is much tighter as you can run a short chain (and a dinky Saint rear mech like me). Because of this change in how I use my gears I find I’m wearing the gears differently, I usually wear out the big three at the back because those are the gears I use most in granny and middle to keep the chain tight.
So… a little change in how you use your gears is required to make the best of the HammerSchmidt. Don’t use the Hammer and use the spread at the back, then come the doonhall… drop the Hammer and give it the beans as usual, but if you stall or hit a techy manouver a quick stab with the left thumb and your in the granny and through, then stab again and back up to speed… awesome!

Maintenance – I clean mine quite often as I find it does get some crap in it. In the winter I’ve found it best to run it with oil rather than grease due to the grease freezing (I’m up north, and I do the same with my Hope Pro2 hubs which also makes them freewheel better… a good loose spinning freehub is also a good idea with the HS as it limits your chain slapping about). The cable needs to be good and clean as this can cause problems as the spring tension is not huge.
The plastic chainguard thing can be snapped off and it makes no difference – mine is long gone and the chain still won’t fall off. Without the chainguide it’s much easier to clean out the mud which gathers in this area and gets compacted by the chain… just pop the chain over the cranks… mud is never an issue when riding but it does build up in this area.
Still on the original bottom bracket which feels great (and my HS was second hand).

So… in summary… if you like your riding techy and fun, and your bike is too heavy or/and where you live too hilly for 1×9 (1×10) then a HammerSchmidt is ace (I hate front mechs for the biking I enjoy).

I guess this all sounds very positive? On the downsides it really is bloody heavy 🙄 On a light bike or if you lived somewhere flat I don’t think it would be clever as you would be spending more time in the overdrive which would become an irritation. For me and where I ride I love it.