Chain Wax Discussion thread

[carvegybe]

I rode very soupy Baldpate today and kept thinking what would have happened if I installed the waxed chain. I think the wax would have come off.

 

[one piece crank]

All this wax. It’s like “welcome back to 1977” 🤷‍♂️

 

[carvegybe]

Ok, so I measured my 12-sp AXS chain for stretch using the fancier Park Tool CC-4 stretch thingy and it falls to 0.5 stretch on some parts of the chain. Question 1: What's the consensus here for how fast I need to replace the chain? Have I got a few rides left, or does it need to go?

More importantly, I have 2 replacement chains to choose from: a waxed chain or a normal chain. I suppose I need to complete the wax experiment by actually using it after all the methlab mess with degreasing and waxing. Question 2: Any reason why not to try it before I go all the way down the rabbit hole?

If I like the waxed chain thing, I'll probably degrease & wax the other replacement chain and keep the two waxed chains on rotation in case I ride in the wet. This will eat up a lot of master links. Question 3: What's the consensus on those? How many times can I break a SRAM AXS master link? I can imagine this getting expensive.

Thanks!

 

[shrpshtr325]

a1) with the cost of the sram eagle cassettes i dont chance it and just replace the chain as soon as i get the .5% wear mark, your money your choice tho . . . .

a2) might as well try it if your already did the prep work . . .

a3) i have broken and reused the master links several times, but what the upper limit is, i have no clue, when they pop open too easily toss them.

 

[jShort]

a1) with the cost of the sram eagle cassettes i dont chance it and just replace the chain as soon as i get the .5% wear mark,

This ⬆️.

Nothing worse than buying a new chain and it skips on the cassette. Which means you need to go get a new one of those to.

 

[stb222]

I forget what marketing material I saw from Silca, or maybe it was that the price came down? but regardless I am in the waxing game. I think what sold me was that you could melt it in the bag, in boiling water. Well, that turned out to be a PITA and I bought a mini crock pot for $15. In any case, it is kind of amazing how clean the drivetrain stays and I did get caught in some rain last week. I have 200 miles in on the EVO and now did the mtb. Will report back.

 

[jmanic]

View attachment 210302

Did you go full Baziilion?


(Sorry if that’s been done already, not scrolling 7 pages to check)

 

[Ian F]

I forget what marketing material I saw from Silca, or maybe it was that the price came down? but regardless I am in the waxing game. I think what sold me was that you could melt it in the bag, in boiling water. Well, that turned out to be a PITA and I bought a mini crock pot for $15. In any case, it is kind of amazing how clean the drivetrain stays and I did get caught in some rain last week. I have 200 miles in on the EVO and now did the mtb. Will report back.



View attachment 210302

What did you use to clean the chain prior to waxing?

 

[stb222]

What did you use to clean the chain prior to waxing?

Instructions per Silca:

Soaked in mineral spirits over night in a glass jar
Degreaser in ultrasonic until clear (new chain so this was clear after the first). Blow out with compressor
Acetone in glass jar to rinse off degreaser (this was clear also so no need to repeat any steps) Blow out with compressor

Ready for wax when dry.

The glass jar make it way easier to pour mineral spirits and acetone into a disposal container instead of trying to pour it out of my ultrasonic cleaner. For the degreaser it doesnt matter as much if I spill the degreaser while pouring from the ultrasonic cleaner.

 

[TommyF]

Is anybody on here taking mail in orders for the use of their ultrasonic chain cleaner service?

 

[carvegybe]

I forget what marketing material I saw from Silca, or maybe it was that the price came down? but regardless I am in the waxing game. I think what sold me was that you could melt it in the bag, in boiling water. Well, that turned out to be a PITA and I bought a mini crock pot for $15. In any case, it is kind of amazing how clean the drivetrain stays and I did get caught in some rain last week. I have 200 miles in on the EVO and now did the mtb. Will report back.



View attachment 210302

Been doing this for a while and not going back to wet lube. Bike cleaning is so much faster now and..it is also easier to keep the chain clean so drivetrain wear is much improved.

 

[stb222]

Been doing this for a while and not going back to wet lube. Bike cleaning is so much faster now and..it is also easier to keep the chain clean so drivetrain wear is much improved.

Yeah, the mtb will be the real test. I also done plan on doing it on my rain bike, feels like it may be too much of a pain there

 

[jShort]

 

[TommyF]

All that talk about how clean the drivetrain stays, why does that sling off look dirty?

 

[jShort]

All that talk about how clean the drivetrain stays, why does that sling off look dirty?

That’s the wax falling off. It would normally end up on the road. The drivetrain itself is clean.

 

[rlb]

Full disclosure, I'm lazily not searching for the answer that's probably here in this thread, but how often do you have to reapply it? That looks like a lot of wax coming off.

 

[jShort]

Full disclosure, I'm lazily not searching for the answer that's probably here in this thread, but how often do you have to reapply it? That looks like a lot of wax coming off.

This is months of trainer. I probably reapply every 2 weeks on the trainer bike. And I use the drip wax that SILCA makes.

For outdoor bikes, I go till I hear the chain. You can tell when it’s time.

 

[one piece crank]

I’m just seriously trying to understand how wax can actually compete with modern chemistry, like advances in lubrication? I mean, we don’t use 1930 oils in modern engines. I will admit that the engine:roller-chain analogy is stretch, but also think modern lube tech is the better choice. What am I missing?

Also, I feel if I “hear” the chain, I missed the re-lube window.

 

[ebarker9]

I’m just seriously trying to understand how wax can actually compete with modern chemistry, like advances in lubrication? I mean, we don’t use 1930 oils in modern engines. I will admit that the engine:roller-chain analogy is stretch, but also think modern lube tech is the better choice. What am I missing?

Also, I feel if I “hear” the chain, I missed the re-lube window.

It is definitely a weird thing. From Zero Friction Cycling:

"Why is waxing so hard for drip lubes to match? Once one thinks about it – the main reasons instantly make a lot of sense re the challenge drip lubes face.

1) It sets to a solid – so the amount of contamination that the chain picks up is literally miniscule vs liquid lubes
2) The immersive nature of waxing means that every square nanometre is covered with lubricant
3) Each re waxing effectively resets the contamination level in the chain back to almost zero. With liquid lubricants – in most cases the level of contamination starts to build from km zero and simply continues to build unless periodically fully solvent cleaned.

Outright performance wise, when Friction Facts first tested paraffin wax the result surprised them. They then investigated why was paraffin so efficient and going through all the friction mechanisms in a chain found that things such as stiction (static friction) and viscous friction play an important role in the overall efficiency of a chains lubricant. Chains do not spin like bearings, they articulate a bit and then stop, reticulate back and stop – and that is happening at around 20,000 times per minute whilst pedalling. So a solid very slippery wax has extremely low static friction and zero viscous friction – and this adds up to great overall efficiency for wax as a chain lubricant. They also found that being solid it was pretty much unperturbed by water and contamination affecting its performance. With drip lubes one can generally expect they will begin to increase in friction from KM zero (there are apparently exceptions – will be testing them soon), solid paraffin does not. It doesn’t actively absorb contamination like liquids do, and nothing really sticks to it."

There's a lot more in here, but I think the excerpt above summarizes the comparison pretty well.

https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/MSW.pdf

 

[stb222]

Full disclosure, I'm lazily not searching for the answer that's probably here in this thread, but how often do you have to reapply it? That looks like a lot of wax coming off.

Silca says 200-309 miles from hot wax however but they talking road miles. And then 200 miles between drips. I am on 140 miles on my
Road bike so will advise.

@one piece crank it isn’t like we are melting down a candle and waxing it with that. It is a modern lube.