SamSam77

To be sure, each type of wax has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each person is going to weight those differently for their situation. For myself, I hate cleaning my perpetually dirty, sticky, oily chain and everything that it touches. It seemed to me that no matter how diligent I tried to be about cleaning it, I could never keep up with the dirt accumulation in either wet or dry conditions, which enticed me to try various waxing options that might stay cleaner for longer. I did not mind the initial effort involved in cleaning and waxing the chain. But if the trade-off is having to remove and re-wax the chain after every water exposure, which I would mind, then I don't think I am actually gaining anything with this process. As mentioned above, cleaning and reapplying oil-based lubricants is still recommended after each water exposure too (the difference being, perhaps, that it is a bit less extreme of an issue since the problem is mostly hidden from view).

There are several responders, just in this thread alone, that are claiming some pretty long mileages out of their own waxing jobs: GhostRider62 (200 to 300+ miles), sdmc530 (400 miles), Litespud (about 300 miles), HillRider (150 miles). Oil-based lubricants are definitely not going to last that long, or at least stay clean while doing so, and I think drip-on waxes typically need to be applied about as frequently or moreso. Granted, in these anecdotal cases mentioned, I am assuming these riders are in dry environments more suited to waxes than what I experienced. (Andrew R Stewart relayed a counter example, by way of a friend, to the high mileages mentioned by others.)

Other than commercial waxes (Silca, MSW, etc.), what kinds of additives are used to improve the flexibility of waxes. In my own reading, the most common types that I came across were PTFE (MSW) and materials like molybdenum (MSW) or tungsten disulfide (Silca), which I think are more for their frictional properties and not for wax flexibility. I'd imagine lower melting point waxes, for example, or adding in some organic solvents (e.g., flangehead mentioned lamp oil), might help. I'd think that the solvents, though, might evaporate overtime, leaving it brittle again in the end.

Incidentally, regarding my waxing process, yes, I agree that my 24-hour+ pre-cleaning and 1-hour soak was overkill, but this was mostly done out of convenience and not out of perceived necessity. I just dropped the chain into the solvents ahead of time and 'forgot' about them as I did other things. I figured there was no harm in over-cleaning them, but I did not want under-cleaning to be a possible reason for failure later ("of course your wax is falling off, you didn't pre-clean the chain enough and now the residue is interfering with adhesion"). And letting it have such an extended break-in period after reinstalling the chain was probably also not necessary; the derailleur issue was probably an unrelated coincidence.