Chain Waxing

11,320km on my chain now with less than .75 wear. Squirted since day one. I reckon it could go to 15k.

Yep, it's upside down. Oddly, I bought a Connex link for this exact purpose too (regular removal of chain for waxing) and I could not get it to run smoothly through my derailleur either. Mine's 11spd, no idea why, so I sacked it off and just replace with KMC quicklinks every time they start to feel a bit less solid

Anything above 8 or 9 and I cannot comment.

Also I don't strip the factory lube out of a new, I wait till it gets mucky.

But I smashed my ceramic slow cooker pot...so no chain lubbing for a while

that is bonkers. 2x? don't you need to change 11 speed at 0.5? my mtb seems to be at 0.5% wear after 400km on 1x11.
On the squirt bottle instructions it says don't degrease again once applied, so have you ever cleaned it at all and how often are you adding lube? Cheers

Yes 2x11.

I’m itching to switch it out TBH as I have a DA chain prepped and ready to go. I’m now at 11,500km and the .75 checker is not dropping in, but I will change it today.

This is road only, but has been through a full winter. I boil the chain once every few months and reapply Squirt to the bare metal. One healthy drop per link every 200km-ish. Wipe the chain down after every ride.

"Wipe the chain down after every ride." probably helps more than the waxing.

I get way less mileage out of my waxed chains, probably because I don't touch them in between waxings (that and making WAAAAAAAAAAY more power mwhahahahaha).

Been enjoying reading about this but as I have some squirt lube think i'll just stick with that for a bit on my road bike, mtb and commuter. Like hippy I keep my bike inside and get worried about the floors.
The instructions are beautifully simple but if switching to squirt mid chain or doing the new chain pre-clean, what degreaser/method gets the best results? Petrol?
And then when cleaning the chain (for example it ends up like this), it is quite clear to say don't degrease again so what would you do? Cheers

edit - you'd clean that with a stiff brush according to wiggle.

How does it do in the wet (context of year-round commuter)?

And do you just add more when the chain is loud?

Sorry for all the questions!

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Hot water and the wax will wipe off.

great thanks. On cleaning a new or old chain before you made the switch, what was your method of degreasing? Probably overthinking this!

As many rounds of degreaser followed by meths as it took to get it clean and rattly. There are loads of tutorials out there. Just give it a go.

Don’t wax/squirt it until the chain is leaving no grease/oil marks on a clean rag.

I use an old washing up bowl, dish brush and white spirit - you don't need much. Thoroughly scrub the 4 'sides' of the chain. I do this every 4-6 weeks depending on motivation, I ride approx 130-140mi per week.

Generous drop of squirt to to the top of each roller, then use a dedicated SquirtRag™ (currently an old sock) to roll the rollers and spread out the wax over the inside of the chain. Gentle rub down with a different rag after every/every other ride to get rid of dirt. Reapply wax in the same way weekly.

Rub the chain down with a dry rag after every ride and reapply squirt liberally to the rollers, rub the chain between your fingers to help it penetrate, then take the excess off with a cleaner rag and job done. No degreasing, little mess.

Switching to squirt has saved me a fortune in time and degreaser. RE wet winter use, its not as lasting as a good wet lube - if its a cold wet ride my chain is noisy by 100km in, but considering how horrible wet lube is to live with its a small price to pay.

my mtb seems to be at 0.5% wear after 400km on 1x11.

That would do my head in. I hope you are at least riding through sand/swamps or something.

I wouldn’t apply Squirt liberally after every ride. I find that it feels smoothest, perhaps fastest, after about 60k following a liberal application. Then I have about 120k before I begin to feel, or hear, that it needs to be topped up. #IME etc.

Interested to know what sort of mileage folk are getting out of fixed chains using the wax method?…
I’ve never waxed but over the past few years have tried a ton of different lubes and cleaning methods.
I average about 150 outdoor miles a week all on fixed and although my miles are always split between two bikes, I get about 600 miles from a chain. Only road riding.
That’s using decent components and cleaning / lubing every ride. I did leave my commuter once and just re-lubed to see if cleaning was having a detrimental effect but the chain lasted about 400 miles.
The chain on my turbo bike which is geared has done almost 3000 miles and isn’t at 0.5% yet. Maybe I shouldn’t have started measuring….

Hot water and the wax will wipe off.

is it best to remove the chain when doing the hot water clean?

Yep. I put mine in a plastic bottle, hot water in, shake it then wipe down. Repeat until it's as clean as you can be arsed to clean it, at this point it's more about minimising the crap going back into your pot of wax

$15 crockpot, $5 of paraffin wax, scraping the black stuff off the bottom of the cooled wax block? Priceless.

I used fancy Silca wax on my chain, cassette and chainring for my TT bike last week, it's the melt in the bag sous vide method so didn't even use a crockpot. Took an age to melt but super easy and silent, shiny drivetrain ftw.

Not sure I could go whole hog this winter though - I probably ride 2-3 times a week between 50m-100 miles each ride and it's usually wet... cleaning the bike every time so it's not much more time compared to wiping down a waxed chain, relubing etc.

I still need to work out what to do with my CeramicSpeed race chain. It's way over its coating lifespan, the bottle of Drip I have seems to have gone off. I don't know if degreasing it will remove the wax or if I should use something else. Maybe I could just send it to WattShop and have their coating put on it? I could just wipe it down and buy another bottle of Drip but it's pretty spendy.

I didn’t swap my chain out. 13500km and 0.75 chain checker still not dropping in.

Dang, that is awesome! Are you based in the UK? What do you think are your secrets to success?

Hippy thinks it’s my wipe down of ejected/dirty wax after every ride.

Otherwise not sure. I’m riding mostly around Essex so roads are full of shit. Some of those KM are indoors, but not more than 25%.

Applying one drop per roller every 200km ish. 105 level chain.

Theory #2: your chain checker is bent and everything is worn to fuckery :)