Eric F 

The SSS may not have the longevity of hot dip wax, but the ease of use and clean/quiet results make it a winner for me.

Jughed

Bike chains and women are to be kept in the same condition.

Waxed and clean.



















Too much?

SpedFast

You do realize that it's wearing out your cassette and chain rings and will probably not give you any problems for another 5000 miles, or at least until you go to put a new chain on and have to replace the cassette and maybe even the chain rings too.

One Wheel

Very possibly. TBH I'm planning on riding this bike about another 3-5,000 miles before I replace it, so that doesn't bother me much. Cassette and chainrings look pretty good to me, though.

Lombard

I guess some people like riding a bucking bronco. To each their own.

SpedFast

Then I would just ride it too.

polyrhythmia

I've been waxing chains for more than 40 years now.

Russ Roth

The last three weeks of cyclocross has given me a mixed appreciation of chain waxing. Each of them has downpours making them incredibly wet and muddy; the first week seized up a outboard shimano BB that was only 6 months old, the second week required me to pull the seals from my oldest's front king hub and regrease them, and yesterday I had to pour water out of all our rims and the bearings on my white industries front hub is definitely washed out and will require repacking. The waxed chains have gotten rusty by the time I got home each time but are easy to wipe off with no greasy mess, the cassettes are staying clean and don't require any effort and nothing is getting clogged with mud. I'm not certain any chain lube would hold up better to the wet, mud and drive through down pours, but the chain stays silent the whole time. Only negative is the extra time it takes to rewax the chains each time.

For clarity of the level of mess the wax has been dealing with, one of the days was slightly less muddy than this, and another was worse, this is probably the average of how its been.

One Wheel

How is riding a bike in the mud supposed to be "fun"? I would love to try cyclocross if you can guarantee me a dry course.

PeteHski

I would much rather be dealing with wax than oil when wet mud is involved.

It also backs up my experience with sealed BB bearings in those conditions - there was a thread a little while ago where I was being lectured that they should last for 40k miles with regular pressure washing.

Russ Roth

Sealed cartridge are a whole different game. This isn't even close to the first BB I've had to toss for this reason. In the past I've managed to pull the seals and regrease the bearings but this set went down fast. I think it has to do with the arms being so close to the BB seals, there's nothing really protecting the seals from being pushed against as the thin space between the bearings and the arms fill with grass and mud. So as the arms come around its pushing the mud into the bearings and eventually past the seals. Some companies like King do make better sealed ones that will withstand a lot more though eventually they'll still need the cranks pulled and the bearings cleaned and greased. I still like them better than old cup and cone, maybe I never had the right ones but even the last Dura Ace I had needed regular regreasing. On hubs the real advantage is that you can pull the cartridges and toss them while cup and cone left untreated will wreck the hub, in the case of the bike with the failed BB the XT hubs stayed well sealed with no problems.

SpedFast

And no fenders!

LesterOfPuppets

I only did a couple of muddy races when I was in a city with weekly races (sometimes 2 CX races per week), then I swore off mid rides.
If I had a butler to clean the bike/shoes/clothes/car I'd do another mud race maybe. There were some that I thought for sure I'd be skipping but it got cold the night before and the muddy ground froze solid. Race time temp was 25° F so it was game-on! Frozen ground is so fast! Just watch out for frozen puddles.

bbbean 

This statement makes me think you're not going to like cyclocross. It's a bit like saying "I don't like the taste of alcohol. Can you let me try some scotch that doesn't taste like alcohol?"

One Wheel

That's fair. The bottom line is that I work in mud, I want to play clean. I can understand if someone works in a clean environment wanting to play in the mud.

bbbean 

FWIW, I'm a farmer and live in a swamp. I understand about working in mud. For many of us, cyclocross is more like "playing bike" the way we did when we were kids.There's also the "bike party" atmosphere, and in the final laps if you aren't a serious contender, there are beer and bacon handups, cheerleaders, hecklers, and other things you wouldn't see at a crit or road race.

polyrhythmia

I've been waxing chains for over 40 years now, using at least a 2 chain rotation. Makes the cassette and chainrings last much longer. Can get about 5000 miles for each chain, but then again I don't play around in the mud....

Racing Dan

If you follow the usual internet advice hot waxing becomes a huge faff. You can however hot wax a new chain straight from the package and then switch over to drip wax when the initial application is gone. 5 - 10% the faff, 90% - 100% the result.

If your roads are salted during winter wax wont do. Your chain will rust in no time.

Imo, chains are not that expensive. Its hardly worth it spending lots of time, money and effort to make them last forever.

msu2001la

I race CX and we usually have a few sloppy mud fests like this each year. Between the racing and driving to/from the races in downpours with my bikes on the roof, I typically end up replacing my "sealed cartridge bearings" in my BB and hubs at the end of every season. A few years ago we had 3 mud races in a row to start the season and I had to replace my BB bearings mid-way through the season due to my crank sounding/feeling like a coffee grinder.

SpedFast

Yeah, sealed doesn't necessarily mean sealed does it?

msu2001la

Seconded. I have ruined an Ultegra cup-and-cone hub by racing CX and riding through wintery slushy/salty grime. The ball bearings got corroded/contaminated and then tore up the inside of the hub. Cup-and-cone is great if you stay on top of them, but in muddy/salty riding this requires a lot of attention.

Cartridge bearings are relatively cheap and easy to replace.

msu2001la

Well said. Playing bike is exactly what it is. Mud usually makes things more fun.

That said, there's a fine line between a slick track that is still ridable, and a tractor pull where the only way around the track is to carry your bike and run through ankle deep mud. Having participated in a few of those tractor pull types of races, I'm a bit more selective these days.

bbbean 

Fair enough. I don't mind a good mud hole, but those Belgian mudfests you see in the world cup look like torture. If the best CX riders in the world are running through half the course, I know I'd have to sit up and look for the beer handups.

ofajen

Seems like there could be a natural restoring force to keep that under check if the rules allowed entrants to skip the bike and just run the course: if it’s bad enough that the runners end up placing, you’ve gone too far in messing up the course. 😀

Otto

Steel Charlie

Belief systems are immune to logic or reason. Waxers will never become oilers. I'm an oiler. Waxing is absurd in the 21st Century.

Rust never sleeps