spelger

regarding wax and water, i read this earlier in the thread but forgot to ask about it...why is this a problem and why would the wax be washed off? living in reno i don't get much in the way of rain and would never volunteer to ride in it anyway.

Lombard

No you didn't. You mentioned the intervals between lubes. You never mentioned how much life you get out of a chain.

The Park Tool chain cleaner is an absolute JOKE. All it does is give the bike and the floor a new speckled paint job, not to mention that pieces of the brush come off and stick inside your chain. It is also very unnecessary to do this to your chain.

yaw

I am one of those time more valuable than money spent on bike parts people, hence why I rotate waxed chains to save time cleaning and lubing and make fewer trips to the shop or perform worn out part swaps the time saving message doesn't get across to many for some reason.

I keep reading about all the extra time spent for waxing, it's a silly misconception. The time I spend on the bike outside of riding has gone down significantly but such anecdotes by people who are actually doing it, not just me in here either, fall on deaf ears by those who only imagine things.

TMonk

im on the same block of paraffin that I bought on ebay a few years ago. I think it was like 8 bucks. I don't do any of the fancy MSW stuff either.

Gonna go out on a limb and say that for those who prefer a clean drivetrian, and live in a dry climate waxing can be the path of least resistance. It takes me about as much time as it takes to break and re-install the chain.

spelger

ahh, your right. i misread your statement. i'll never know because i won't be measuring it either.

right, that was one reason why i chucked that tool, such crap, don't think i used it long enough for the bristles to weaken and come off.

tomato coupe

The reason you will never understand why waxing isn't more popular is because you can't seem to comprehend that other people place different values on their time, the cost of parts, drivetrain cleanliness, etc.

yaw

The only differentiating factor seems to be the expectation regarding drivetrain cleanliness and low friction performance. If people do not sufficiently care about this then there is no point in waxing.

Lombard

You are only comparing your hot waxing to your previous drip wax lubes which are pitiful. Nice strawman.

And how many average mph do you expect from your "low friction performance" advantage? Maybe 0.01 mph if that?

And I repeat, neither you nor anybody else here has any real world, real life experience on how many miles your chain lasts with this method. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON HERE.

Silly.

yaw

Oh I used dirty oil lubes initially, I think the carrier fumes made me oil grouchy so I looked to drip wax, and then finally made the switch to glory.

Now I am smooth and don't even shout on the internet.

I don't count the watts, I just like things to be clean and working nicely. A well tuned bike makes me whistle joyfully in the hills.

​​​​​​​And I'll sing out to you when I finally get one of those wax chains to wear out.

TMonk

​​​​​​​<3

Lombard

What can I say. If hot wax makes you happy enough so you sing and don't shout on the internet, who am I to judge? It's probably worth it just for that.

TMonk

I think it's kinda fun tbh. Feels like arts and crafts time. I don't do anything at all between waxes, so it's kinda nbd. I don't really track mileage between waxes, I just flip the pot switch "On" whenever the chain feels dryer than I like to the touch.

SoSmellyAir

You should have used Muc-Off C3 Ceramic Dry Lube. It may not work as well as wax (or even Rock N Roll Gold or Boeshield T-9) but it does smell good.

I too think that the best thing about waxed chains is that they are not greasy to the touch. Maybe you are OCD like me?

My annual mileage is fairly low by BF standards and will soon be distributed between 3 bikes, so it will be quite a while before I wear something out with my meager power. The only time I broke a chain was coincidentally after letting it soak overnight in purple degreaser.

SoSmellyAir

Arts & crafts major plus a minor in organic solvent chemistry, with cyccommute as the instructor.

TMonk

Well I am a chemist, and this statement is at least partially true, minus the arts and crats part . Maybe it's a proclivity for fiddling with instrumentation and other synthesis/processing apparatuses.

Lombard

I have never broken a chain in my over 40,000 miles of riding.

Camilo

I guess. The way I look at it is: buy a crock pot and have a place to keep it. Start the pot, wait (yeah, you can do something else, but still waiting), remove the chain, immerse the chain. Let it cool, shake off the excess. Reinstall the chain. Same process whether you're rotating the chains or not. Get really, really incredible performance and longevity (paraphrasing here).

VS

Store a small bottle of drip lube. Wipe off the chain with a rag (with or without OMS). Drip on the lube, rotate the chain, wipe off excess. Get great (as opposed to really, really incredible) performance and longevity. Buy a new chain infrequently, instead of possibly more infrequently.

I'm not convinced. But I feel ashamed that I'm arguing about this because it's so trivial and such a waste of time doing so.

Lombard

You should not feel ashamed. People reading this need to know all sides of the story and make decisions for themselves if hot waxing is worth the extra time and $$ for the limited if any extra longevity, just to get a cleaner looking chain. If that is the objective and you are a neat freak, hot wax may indeed make you sing and whistle when you ride. If you are expecting to double your chain life, intervals between lubing and reduce enough friction to toast your buddies up that hill they embarrassed you on before, you will be disappointed.

TMonk

Paraffin may be most inexpensive chain lubricant available. The crock pot is an expense, but that was a one-time purchase.

AnthonyE

The savings come in the form of the other wear components on bicycles as well. Chain rings and cassettes are not cheap these days especially when you're running Shimano DA or SRAM Red/Eagle. Add to that good quality chains then things can get expensive. I don't understand the hostility towards people pointing out the facts of chain waxing. I say this is not debatable as there is real data done by independent parties that show clearly that hot melt wax is a far superior chain lube. It might be debatable whether or not someone wants to go down the rabbit hole of waxing their chain but this has nothing to do with whether or not it works better. In order for a drip lube to work as good you would need to deep clean your chain after every single ride, which obviously is more time consuming and wasteful than hot melt wax. I personally feel like it's common sense to understand the theory that oil based lubes instantly start grabbing grit from the road which then becomes a lapping compound. Which you then can only get out with heavy de-greasing. I would love to see your hand after rubbing along your chain, there is no way it isn't black paste. Your lube didn't go on black. With a tiny bit of reasoning, why do you think it's now black?

As far as giving you a distance a waxed chain lasted, I honestly can't yet. Most people have started waxing only somewhat recently, myself included. I can tell you that I have almost 5K miles on my waxed chain and can't tell any sort of wear at all. But this isn't a good judge yet as chain wear is not linear. As with most mechanical devices, once the wear does start to creep in then it compounds over shorter and shorter time periods.

Waxing is certainly not for everyone though. Most people who are waxing do have a bit of a tinkerers personality with a little built in OCD. But most of these OCD cyclists also have some of the most well kept nicest looking bikes. I personally spent a lot of money on my bikes and treat them like I do anything else I spent a large amount of money on. My house, truck, woodworking shop/tools, etc all get taken care of with the goal of them running smoother and longer than if they weren't. If I'm being honest, the thing that really drew me to hot melt wax was the cleanliness side of things. I hated cleaning my nasty drive trains when it was time to wash my bike. That black sludge obviously doesn't bother everyone though, but be sure without a sliver of doubt, that black sludge is a true sign of wear.

SoSmellyAir

$12!

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Crock-Pot...lack/50213889?

spelger

$5. good will, at least that is what i paid.

scottfsmith

I agree that inexpensive paraffin and a crock pot is the cheapest method, but it’s more work and is no better than a good drip wax. Here is what ZFC says about inexpensive wax on a chain in their chain waxing FAQ:

TMonk

I've tried MSW, and I have some that I may reserve for my TT bike only, but the others seems to work just fine w parrafin after a few years

SoSmellyAir

I use Gulf food grade paraffin wax, which is also theoretically edible, and it has worked out fine so far. I also have half a kg of Silca Secret Chain Blend, which is more expensive.

But this thread seems to have caused a run on Gulf wax online, which is currently selling for about 8x of the $4 I paid for the 1 lb. at Walmart.com.