Polaris OBark

Is there any reason not to wax an e-bike chain (mid-drive in our cases)?

I would assume the chain/lube is agnostic with respect to the power source(s), but perhaps someone has a different take on this...

veganbikes

Should be fine!

Tomm Willians

I started waxing chains on all my bike’s including my Pivot E Vault. I can’t say unequivocally that it’s any smoother or faster but it’s certainly much cleaner. I’ve no reason to go back to oil based lubes.

poiuyt

Same conclusion here, 3 bikes (including the two mid-drive e-bikes) out of 4 that are using waxed chains.

Wildwood 

Does this make sense?
It depends.
1.Given the higher torque possible, if you use all that added power - lube with what pro-cyclists use, they generate big watts for extended time.
or
2. If the cyclist uses less of the power, select what is best for your roads/conditions/weather based on your normal bicycle lube preference and usage.


Regardless of the lube, expect more driveline 'stress' from mid-drive systems as power is applied at the crank and thru the rings chain cassette. Conversely, on a rear hub motor system the additional power is applied thru the hub directly to the wheel; thereby, only putting torque to the driveline that is powered from the cyclist. (my direct experience with wear would be anecdotal, 1 mid, 1 hub for comparison).

veganbikes

Not fair as the Pros have bikes that are maintained daily or nearly daily or at least weekly and have plenty of spares and back ups. Plus many of them are running pre-worn chains that have coatings and special stuff on them. Using what they use is not always the best choice in these situations as their bikes are well taken care of where are bikes are generally not and you can may take good care of your bike it probably will never be to the level of a world tour bike.

However some of those lubes are great but I wouldn't change my lube routine of generally doing it monthly or weekly depending on my riding (some bikes it is just every night before I ride) and because of that I generally wouldn't change much on my lube because I would be doing it regularly though Finish Line does make a nice e-bike specific lube but in the end if I had the time and patience to wax it I would just do that and it would be fine.

2old

As above, I think waxing is fine, but not necessary. For socal, water based lubricants work fine, that is, they keep the chain nicely lubricated (if flexibility, noise and life are parameters) and don't attract dust.

JohnJ80

Probably more advantageous even for an e-bike due to the higher forces so a lubricant that was less slippery and held more dirt would do more damage to drivetrain over time.

Jsosborn

I have a Specialized Vado 5.0 SL and Creo EVO and bike tour them 5-6 weeks a year plus hilly often wet trails and roads here in New England. I’m sold on hot paraffin waxing the chain every 800-1000 miles. Getting much longer life out of chains and cassettes and buttery shifting. I’m very sold on it. Cheap too- I paid $9 for a small crock pot, and keep using the same paraffin.

JohnJ80

FWIW, I keep maintenance records on my bikes. Using wet lubes and even some of the more high tech ones (Rock n Roll etc...), I would typically get around 1200-1500 miles out of a chain. When I went to the Silca Secret Sauce wax based lubes, I am getting in excess of 5000 miles. The benefit, as I said above, for an e-bike with it's higher torque and wear on the drivetrain, can only be a significant benefit.

Wireman134

Muc-Off is wax based. No need for anything else,

JohnJ80

Which Muc-off lube is wax based? I didnt see any wax based lubes when I looked at their website. I used to use them a while ago and they weren’t.

They also don’t fare very well against all the other wax based lubes. For the last several years, Silca’s hot wax and their drip wax solutions are usually at the top. Friction Facts tests them all. Friction Facts testing is pretty thorough and you can see how the wax based lubes are at the top for wear performance.

Wireman134

Wax based. It's there if you look,,,, us.muc-off.com/products/bio-dry-lube. Simply Mountain Biking a Youtuber tested chain lubes and Muc-Off was one of the best.

DeadGrandpa

I've been trying a wax based aerosol chain lube, Chain Saver, for about a year. I apply it with the tiny plastic straw, spraying the chain going over the front chain ring while I turn the crank. Yes I did clean the new chain first, and yes, the chain is much cleaner looking after a few rides than my SO's chain, which is lubed with Finish Line. She definitely accumulates grit on the sprocket teeth of her bike, while mine doesn't. I get a gray waxy film build up, but I wipe down and spray it every 120-150 miles, even though I could go longer. I do the same wipe and lube for her chain at about the same interval, and I don't see much difference in life of each chain. Mine is a trike; hers is a DF, and my chain is definitely cleaner than hers, which I consider more important than other factors.

JohnJ80

I see what you're talking about now. I actually used that for a year and the wear on my chain was the same as with pretty much all the others. When I switched to Silca Super Secret, I was able to get 3X the wear out of my chain.

Apparently there is an issue with testing between MO and Zero Friction in that, ZF has a number of different testing blocks they put lubes through but all contain both load and no-load conditions on the chain. MO, after discussions with ZFC, only tests under no-load conditions. There is an entire series of memos on their website about the testing differences. What ZFC says seems to bear out the results I've had with both of those lubes but it would be really nice if they could resolve their testing differences and come up with repeatable results. While it's true one can obsess about this stuff, the results I've gotten have impressed me.

iFozz

I'm gonna invest in a belt drive on my Ebike. Because a chain wears rather fast and to keep tightening it every other week is annoying.

Smaug1

You can wax the chain to prevent rust, but eBikes don't have permanently-lubricated O-ring chains like motorcycles do, so they do need the lubrication that oil provides for the pins.

When I was a motorcyclist, Chain Wax was very popular, as they needed lubrication more for rust prevention than lubrication.

Dokiz

I have been using Squirt wax for a few years, never went back, you have to was the chain a bit more often than an oil-based lubricant, but the advantages in term of cleanliness are not comparable. I tried a Decathlon wax-based lubricant and it was leaving small packets of wax on the chain.