Chain Wax Discussion thread

carvegybe

Well-Known Member
You would definitely need to resubmerge in a wax bath. But the beauty of wax is it attracts no dirt, or dust so you dont have to hose it off. Stuff doesn’t stick to wax like it does to lube.
You drive train stays completely clean. You can run your finger along the chain and it won’t leave any residue.
Ok, I'm now seriously considering this. I have a new chain and bought all the kit to strip the factory grease off of it. But I have two lingering concerns - please help me see through this:

1) I will get my chain wet when riding in NJ, so it will start to rust without lube. How do you prevent the rusting?
2) I clean my bike almost after every ride. This includes hosing it off with bike-friendly hose. You say this will require re-waxing. This means either that I need to clean less frequently or I need to get a lot of masterlinks for the chain (and time/materials to wax). What do you do?

Thanks in advance for your input.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
1) I will get my chain wet when riding in NJ, so it will start to rust without lube. How do you prevent the rusting?
2) I clean my bike almost after every ride. This includes hosing it off with bike-friendly hose. You say this will require re-waxing. This means either that I need to clean less frequently or I need to get a lot of masterlinks for the chain (and time/materials to wax). What do you do?

If the chain gets wet enough, it will rust. There’s really no way around this so I’ve been err’ing on the side of caution and just rewaxing.
I have a rotation of 2 chains that I use which makes it a bit easier to manage.

But I don’t get my chain wet that often, and I don’t clean my bike with a hose every time it gets dirty. I’ll normally just give it a good wipe, especially suspension, headset area, bb area, and dropper.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I noticed a huge difference on my SS after ultrasonic cleaning and applying Maxima Chain Lube. Kind of cheating on the wax I suppose. I believe the key is the cleaning part. I think it’s telling when after an ultrasonic cleaning and rinsing you put the chain back in the cleaner and it keeps spitting out clouds of dark stuff, times and times again. I put it back until it doesn’t release any more crap. That’s quite a few times. Not sure if a simple bath in a solvent really does the trick. But I may have too high expectations, after all I’m after the 1/100 of a second on each race as you all know! The cleaning solution for me is diluted Simple Green HD metal safe (purple).
Take the chain off and put it in a glass jar with mineral spirits. Shake for 5 minutes. Really shake it hard. Rinse, repeat with fresh spirits. Then do the same with denatured alcohol. The chain will be 100% clear of factory grease. I think if you are trying with a used chain that’s had lube on, and been ridden, it’s probably much harder to get it totally clean.
 

carvegybe

Well-Known Member
Silca website describes the solvents needed to clean chain. I'm particularly surprised by aerospace use approved degreaser that is recommended:
1653306955978.png



Overkill?
 

serviceguy

Well-Known Member
Take the chain off and put it in a glass jar with mineral spirits. Shake for 5 minutes. Really shake it hard. Rinse, repeat with fresh spirits. Then do the same with denatured alcohol. The chain will be 100% clear of factory grease. I think if you are trying with a used chain that’s had lube on, and been ridden, it’s probably much harder to get it totally clean.
I should have mentioned it before, I was referring to an used chain as @xc62701 seemed to go that way. For a new chain I get it, you just need to flush the factory grease out, no dust and nasty stuff in it yet. If I ever get to build the Kona I'll have a new chain to test.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Silca website describes the solvents needed to clean chain. I'm particularly surprised by aerospace use approved degreaser that is recommended:
View attachment 185301


Overkill?

Not sure. I think aerospace is a common approval that solvent brands use.

I’m not an expert. This is all at your own risk, lol.

I just watched these videos and listened to a podcast. This isn’t rocket science.



 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
I did just order a new ultrasonic cleaner, my previous one died like a year ago. IDK if I will go full wax life but I would like to try the NFS green genie with a perfectly cleaned chain
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
I did just order a new ultrasonic cleaner, my previous one died like a year ago. IDK if I will go full wax life but I would like to try the NFS green genie with a perfectly cleaned chain

Which ultrasonic cleaner?
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
@Patrick is it possible to create a new thread for waxing chains and put the last bunch of posts on that topic in there. It’s seems like there is some interest in the topic and right now it’s buried in here. Just a thought…
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
@Patrick is it possible to create a new thread for waxing chains and put the last bunch of posts on that topic in there. It’s seems like there is some interest in the topic and right now it’s buried in here. Just a thought…
Dad, are you kicking us out?!?!?
 

carvegybe

Well-Known Member
How does one responsibly dispose of all the waste oils, dirt etc collected as part of chain cleaning?
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
After watching Dylan's videos with Josh, I have definitely been thinking about switching to real wax.

Has anyone found an ultrasonic cleaner with a large enough bath for a 12 spd cassette?

For solvent disposal, I have added it to my used oil from oil changes.

I like the "run two chains and swap them" idea... I'll have to try that. Granted, I have enough trouble keeping one chain clean.

For bike washing, it would probably be best to just remove the chain?
 
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