My adventures in chain waxing: goals, reviews, suggestions...

[Mocs123]

What are people's thoughts on Josh's meathod of hot dip wax every 1,000 miles (1,600km) with a drop of Super Secret per roller ever 125 miles (200km). I had been using MSW and re-waxing every 250 miles (400km) but just bought some Super Secret to try and quieten things up.

[eins4eins]

I'm doing something similar. MSW hot dip and then relubing with CS UFO.
I have 6 chains in circulation and with this method i only need to hot dip every other month or so.

[maxim809]

Hi collective ww.

What are alternative chemicals for stripping a chain if you live in a small apartment without a garage, balcony, or open area?

Spirits/Turp bath followed by Acetone/De-alcohol works great for places with lots of ventilation and a place to store safely.

Looking for something good enough for the apartment. Used chemicals is indoor safe for storage before disposal, and does a good enough job to strip factory grease.

[Lakal]

Hi collective ww.

What are alternative chemicals for stripping a chain if you live in a small apartment without a garage, balcony, or open area?

Spirits/Turp bath followed by Acetone/De-alcohol works great for places with lots of ventilation and a place to store safely.

Looking for something good enough for the apartment. Used chemicals is indoor safe for storage before disposal, and does a good enough job to strip factory grease.

Ceramicspeed Ufo Clean: https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-c ... ise-v2.pdf

[maxim809]

ty ty

[C36]

Would an ultrasonic cleaner be as good as the chemical solvents before waxing ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not in my experiance. An Ultrasonic cleaner is a great additional step, but not a replacement for solvents.

You're allowed to use solvents in your ultrasonic cleaner...

To clean a greased component you need both, solvent and mechanical action. The US cleaner only gives you mechanical action by vibrating the liquid. And the solvent breaks the lubricant molecules.

Been using MSW without any issue, get about 300-400 from a wax, just the noise after 200km is , so I bought Silca's Super Secret chain lube, batch #3. Chain wiped completely dry, shaked bottle for like 2-3 mins but its so thin, it just falls straight of the chain on the ground. The chain is completely dry and clean. After spilling alot on the ground, I managed to cover the chain in lube. Is this normal and do you guys experience similar things? What can I do to improve/change this?

This pic is from the 3rd series (according to R2 store at least) SSS, 2’ after I put a drop on each roller. Over the entire chain I had a single droplet that went to the floor and that was done at a rather hot temp (28degC).

The only thing particular I may do is shaking the bottle till I see no darker deposit (the fancy additives) on the bottle walls (and that takes… a lot of time… a solid 5’).

[carmody]

@Kervelo, can you wax the chain without further cleaning after using dynamic chain cleaner? ...

Yes, I have waxed the chain without further cleaning. The Dynamic Cleaner may leave a protective film, but the chain does not feel oily or anything like that. Disclaimer: I use the Dynamic Speed Potion Wax (https://dynamicbikecare.com/product/speed-potion-wax/), so perhaps the cleaner and wax are made to match. I have not tried any other wax, so I cannot tell if they are any different.

How's is your expirience with Speed Potion?

[kervelo]

How's is your expirience with Speed Potion?

So far the experience has been very positive. The chain feels very smooth and silent. I have used Speed Potion on three chains so far - my road bike, gravel bike and XC mountain bike - but have ridden only on road due to the miserable weather we have had here. I am not yet able to tell how long the chain can be used before re-waxing.

Edit: the Unbound winner used the Speed Potion wax, so I believe it should work offroad too.

[MrRolandos]

Been using MSW without any issue, get about 300-400 from a wax, just the noise after 200km is , so I bought Silca's Super Secret chain lube, batch #3. Chain wiped completely dry, shaked bottle for like 2-3 mins but its so thin, it just falls straight of the chain on the ground. The chain is completely dry and clean. After spilling alot on the ground, I managed to cover the chain in lube. Is this normal and do you guys experience similar things? What can I do to improve/change this?

This pic is from the 3rd series (according to R2 store at least) SSS, 2’ after I put a drop on each roller. Over the entire chain I had a single droplet that went to the floor and that was done at a rather hot temp (28degC).

The only thing particular I may do is shaking the bottle till I see no darker deposit (the fancy additives) on the bottle walls (and that takes… a lot of time… a solid 5’).

Strange, this is a MSW waxed chain and now rewaxed with Silca's? I got the same batch from R2. Did you apply in cross chain? Big big? Yeah the shaking needs to be really good i've noticed, my chain is due for a top off so I guess ill try that one.

[C36]

Strange, this is a MSW waxed chain and now rewaxed with Silca's? I got the same batch from R2. Did you apply in cross chain? Big big? Yeah the shaking needs to be really good i've noticed, my chain is due for a top off so I guess ill try that one.

This is Silca Supersecret topping a chain waxed with Silca 230km ago. I didn’t really bother crossing the chain, here I was on small/big, and I haven’t really seen it causing problems when you “massage” the rollers.

[usr]

What are people's thoughts on Josh's meathod of hot dip wax every 1,000 miles (1,600km) with a drop of Super Secret per roller ever 125 miles (200km). I had been using MSW and re-waxing every 250 miles (400km) but just bought some Super Secret to try and quieten things up.

For me (as a "dripper") this raises the question of how much worse the drip part alone could possibly be.

I'd guess that it's mostly about goals: is your main motivation low chain wear? Drip alone should be fine. Do you try to achieve the highest imagined ZFC scores (or real ZFC scores, if you happen to run that test setup)? Frequent immersion would probably be best, but slightly less frequent immersion with drip top-ups might be a way to achieve similar results with slightly lower total maintenance effort. Would you love to go all in on immersion, but you can't stand hearing any drivetrain noises and immersion doesn't stay silent for long enough? Adding some drip might make the difference.

[MrRolandos]

Strange, this is a MSW waxed chain and now rewaxed with Silca's? I got the same batch from R2. Did you apply in cross chain? Big big? Yeah the shaking needs to be really good i've noticed, my chain is due for a top off so I guess ill try that one.

This is Silca Supersecret topping a chain waxed with Silca 230km ago. I didn’t really bother crossing the chain, here I was on small/big, and I haven’t really seen it causing problems when you “massage” the rollers.

So I did everything again, shake bottle, seems normal, no problems.


The stuff that comes out is closer to milk, on your pictures it looks grey. My stuff is just white, as soon as I drop a drip on a roller, poof, it just falls straight off. I guess the only difference is that you waxed with silca and i waxed with MSW.

I also took a different approach, chain off the bike to prevent mess everywhere, and wax it while its off the bike. More control, but no. Same stuff, room temperature, shaked about 5-10mins. Some rollers it stays, most just falls off.



Kinda dont wanna waste this product, but I guess I might need to go Ceramicspeed drip if that works...

[Mocs123]

I've recently been topping off my MSW with SSS mine is also very milky and the first time I did it I had about six drops hit the garage floor, but yesterday was able to get one drop on each roller without spilling any. I've been doing maybe ten to fifteen roller at a time and then working it into the rollers with my fingers before moving the crank to bring up a new bit of chain.

Mine is also white and milky, similar to a thin elmers glue. My bottle is green with a different (newer??) label. - No idea if there is any difference in the product itself.

My first application went on a chain that had been immersed in MSW about 100 miles (161km)earlier but had started to get noisy (raspy) and the SSS did quieten it up quite a bit for the next 125 miles (201km) until I re-applied. So far I'm pretty happy other than this stuff isn't cheap.

[MrRolandos]

Right right, yeah the SSS is pretty expensive for what it is, so it needs to work. Not completely satistief, if it's done. I'll give CS a go, did anyone clean a chain with CS UFO yet and what are the results compared to the normal cleaning method?

[Lakal]

I just stripped an YBN chain with the UFO Cleaner.
100ml, 5 minutes soaking, shake the bottle for a minute and then rinse with water.
Used a hair dryer for 5 minutes.
The chain seems to be perfectly clean.

I gave 22 dollars (150DKK) for the bottle.

My experience, MrRolandos.