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

[JayDee81]

When I wash a bike with a waxed chain, do I need to rewax the chain immediately afterwards? Thanks

Take the chain off before washing the bike. Re-wax the chain when the chain needs it and not so much when the bike needs cleaning, though the conditions that precipitated the need to clean the bike might cause the chain to need re-waxing anyway.

It's actually about Squirt and not submerging in wax and also on mtb, so a lot of dust that I just to wash off with a hose.
Taking the chain off is a good idea.

[jlok]

When I wash a bike with a waxed chain, do I need to rewax the chain immediately afterwards? Thanks

I don't do that. If you are afraid of rusting, just use hair drier to blow dry (turn off heating for the obvious reason) the chain.

[bikeboy1tr]

For those that like to push the wax out of the links I use a hub/freewheel with a couple cogs and spacers installed. I hang the hub up on a squewer that I pushed into a wooden shelf so that I can run the cooled chain over the cogs to free up the excess wax in the outer/inner plates.

[Lakal]

FYI: ZFC just updated his chain prep guide.
It seems to be a lot easier to use UFO clean instead of mineral turps etc.:
https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-c ... ise-v2.pdf
https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-c ... ide-V2.pdf

[MikeD]

When I wash a bike with a waxed chain, do I need to rewax the chain immediately afterwards? Thanks

I don't do that. If you are afraid of rusting, just use hair drier to blow dry (turn off heating for the obvious reason) the chain.

The hair dryer with heat won't get the wax hot enough to melt it, I don't think. Even if it did, it would be a good thing because displaced wax would flow back into the bearing surfaces of the chain. Compressed air would also blow the water off the chain.

[jlok]

When I wash a bike with a waxed chain, do I need to rewax the chain immediately afterwards? Thanks

I don't do that. If you are afraid of rusting, just use hair drier to blow dry (turn off heating for the obvious reason) the chain.

The hair dryer with heat won't get the wax hot enough to melt it, I don't think. Even if it did, it would be a good thing because displaced wax would flow back into the bearing surfaces of the chain. Compressed air would also blow the water off the chain.

If you don't localize the heat, yea the wax stays.

[MrRolandos]

When do you guys replace the wax in ur crockpot? I waxed my 3 chains about 3 times now, so 9 chains with half a bag of MSW. Plenty of wax in the pot and color seems normal. Do you just replace it becauase the wax gets thinner and more dirt inside the pan or whats the idea?

[jlok]

I replaced the wax (vanilla paraffin wax with 5% engine addictives) and the 3 chains at 18000km total. New chains, new wax. During their useful life, the wax became cloudy and then dark when molten. You take out the wax cake and can clearly see the dirts sedimented. I don't care.

[Mocs123]

I ordered some Silca Super Secret drip wax to try and suplement my MSW ( I assme they are compatable ) - as I'm running about 250miles (400 km) in between chain swaps with MSW and no sqeeking, but it does run pretty loud and I'm hoping it will quieten it up some. I've never really cared about drivetrain noise before but I rode my bad weather bike the other day that uses regular lube and was amazed at how much quieter it was. Of course my bike with MSW also has a SRAM Red Cassette and Rotor Q-Rings with a Shimano drivetrain so that might be some of the noise.

[nickf]

FYI: ZFC just updated his chain prep guide.
It seems to be a lot easier to use UFO clean instead of mineral turps etc.:
https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-c ... ise-v2.pdf
https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-c ... ide-V2.pdf

Just from a cost perspective, I can get 128oz of mineral spirits for $18usd. Or 33oz of UFO clean for $30+USD.

[Lakal]

FYI: ZFC just updated his chain prep guide.
It seems to be a lot easier to use UFO clean instead of mineral turps etc.:
https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-c ... ise-v2.pdf
https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-c ... ide-V2.pdf

Just from a cost perspective, I can get 128oz of mineral spirits for $18usd. Or 33oz of UFO clean for $30+USD.

If you want to look at the costs, you also have to look at the amounts required to strip a chain from factory grease.
ZFC says 100 ml UFO clean for one chain. You have to use 500ml mineral spirits and 500ml denatured alcohol for a shimano chain.
According to Ceramicspeed, you can reuse the same amount of UFO clean for 5 chains without a problem.
So that's 50 chains on one bottle UFO Cleaner.

[manystyles]

I’m all for this! One less solvent I’d have to store. Just bought some master link pliers, and a sealed container to agitate a chain in.


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[MarkoP]

UFO cleaner sounds too good to be true. Just picked up a bottle...

[kervelo]

The Dynamic Chain Cleaner is my favourite one for cleaning the chain. I just drop the chain in a jar, pour some cleaner in and close the lid. Shaking the jar will clean the chain quite quickly.

[ms6073]

I note the following in the product description for Dynamic Chain Cleaner :

leaves a preparatory film behind on your drivetrain, which prevents metal parts of completely drying out after cleaning. Your chain will look like