Chain Waxing

The YouTube video I watched had someone blast out the IPA with compressed air - I used a hairdryer to save time, but I sincerely doubt a 10 minute air dry and then into the slow cooker will cause any problems, the temp is low enough to avoid any issues with alcohol still between the links.

I just let it evaporate off, as I'm generally not in a huge rush when stripping a new chain. Slow cooker is the way. So much better than other methods :)

Thanks everybody, I’ll go with the do nothing approach I think, I can manage that.

I’m doing 3 chains in this batch and in all likelihood that will see me through the summer season with my geared bikes, so this is only likely to be a once a year job.

Looking to give this chain waxing a go for the first time…

Can anyone comment on how “clean” Molten Speed Wax or Silca Hot Melt Wax are?

I’m in it for the cleanliness and saw a few posts back that this might not be the case, or is that just the drip-on lubes?

Silca Hot melt is clean, the Secret something drip lube is tacky and dirty.

MSW is clean, Silca is clean-ish (light grey because of molybdenum or some additive).

I'm using Enigma Black Edition, which isn't great given all my chains are silver, but it seams good otherwise.

I've now completed my second chain waxing using my £15 slow cooker. It took just under 2 hours to get up to temp and then back down again which I think is fine for my needs. I'll be doing this a max of 3 times year to keep 4 geared bikes running only get ridden when it bone dry and no likely hood of any rain.

Yeah. I'd agree with cleanish. If you wipe it with a clean cloth it will be grey, but you can handle chain and cassette without fear of scrubbing your hands eight times after.

After moving to axs and being hit with the eye watering prices (£160 for a cassette, madness) I need to start waxing. What’s the forums collective saying?
Current plan is basically copy zero friction recommendations, but is this overkill and the drips on like squirt aren’t the demons he makes out?
Anything is probably better than the muc off goop I’d chuck on and scrub off 11spd

Anything is probably better than the muc off goop I’d chuck on and scrub off 11spd

Anything, and potentially nothing: between leaving your chain completely dry vs Muc Off’s incrementally worsening grinding paste / lube, it’s a toss up for what would be worse for it.

Squirt drip wax has been ok enough on my urban ss. Road bike gets immersion wax and, except for a sweet spot a few kms long, I couldn’t differentiate them in a blind test.

I have found squirt to gunk up a bit, but maybe I’m putting too much on. I periodically need to clean pulley wheels when I use it. Immersion waxing is the way, if you can.

Same situation with (Rival) AXS stuff. My latest bottle of Silca drip isn't finished after a year of regular applications. Probably hot wax once a month. I can't remember how much I was spending on normal lube but at a guess this isn't much more expensive yet drivetrain lasts so much longer.

I’ve committed, going for the full immersion wax life. Thanks for the advice all, big love

Funny, now that he's got everybody on board he releases a video saying it's not actually a viable
option if you want to cycle somewhere, maybe a short commute, preferably dry.

https://youtu.be/ZEfi2HOfqpM?si=rr3PsnCb065zgD4G

1hr on chain waxing? This is turning into coffee geek culture.

He's got chapters in the timeline, it's a very good sedative if you have trouble sleeping.

Some people would argue I have trouble sleeping. I would argue that the sun isn't doing a good enough job with the duration of daylight it's providing me with.

I think I'll pass on the vid though, tl;dr welcome

Hardly the Sun’s fault you’ve chosen to live at these godforsaken latitudes.

Blame doesn't have to be logical.

Blame doesn't have to be logical.

Preach.

Pro-tip: check your cassette for wax build up around the 11 tooth cog, there is no clearance below the chain for the wax to fall away so it gets compressed in the area and can cause the chain to jump.

My first foray into this world, i degreased the cassette and chainring by dipping them in degreaser overnight then scrub, cleaned jockey wheels thoroughly. Degreased brand new chain. And then doused inside of the chain with Squirt ebike lube, 2 coats and left overnight. Did one ride felt no difference whatsoever lol. But yeah I'd keep doing it for efficiency and cleanliness. It doesent feel as much of a big scam as road tubeless as of yet.

You shouldn't feel a big difference. It's in the single digit region of watts going from a clean chain to a waxed chain. The only difference is you'll have flakes of wax all over your house instead of grease marks.

I assume this grey stuff is my PTFE settling at the bottom, but the discolouration being due to dirt accumulating. Should I scrape it off?

Trying to eliminate dirt on my chain. Whenever I re-wax, I clean the chain with boiling water but when I wipe the chain with a cloth there’s still quite a bit of black grime.

Last time I used new wax, and stripped the chain with Silca’s chain stripper. Also cleaned the cassette thoroughly. This is the result after just one waxing.

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I do (did). There's probably some pics of the black pucks on twitter