Am I being dumb for throwing away easy watts by not waxing my chain?

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spartacus
Posts: 1049
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2011 6:53 pm

by spartacus

AJS914 wrote:
Fri Jan 20, 2023 1:16 am
spartacus wrote:
Thu Jan 19, 2023 11:20 pm
My experience with KMC chains and rock n roll gold is that the chains last a long ass time. I want to say typically 3000+ miles and still passing the first elongation check with the little gauge thing. Maybe fails the first check after 4000-5000 miles.
That's not a long time. I changed my last waxed chain after 2 years / 10k miles and it hadn't even hit the first wear mark (.5mm). I only changed it because I couldn't believe how long it was lasting.
Maybe it's not, I'm guessing a little on the exact mileage but at any rate I only rode 5000 miles last year and I have 5 bikes so it feels like they last forever hahaha

AJS914
Posts: 5397
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 6:52 pm

by AJS914

I used to hit the .5 wear mark in about six months prior to using Smoove so I was surprised by how long chains are lasting.

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wickedstealthy
Posts: 427
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2021 3:16 pm

by wickedstealthy

spartacus wrote:
Thu Jan 19, 2023 10:49 pm
Everyone's all on about waxing their chains. I use rock n roll gold and a microfiber towel. My chain is pretty much always clean and feels good.

I use only KMC and SRAM chains, in particular x11SL and xx1 eagle.

Don't bore me by telling me about unrelated things someone can do with their time besides mess around incessantly with their chain, because that's what I'm doing now. I need to be convinced this is worth it. Or not, that's OK too.
I started waxing for several reasons and watts are none of them :

- ease of maintenance. Oil just is dirty. Bike wash takes me now 10-15minutes. Waxing is NOT more time consuming it only looks like that.
- cleanliness: chain cassette are clean and anything touching it stays clean. Changing a tire I simply can grab the chain
- lifetime of your drivetrain. Oil and half baked waxing just doesn't cut it. I'm now at 25k km with 1 cassette, 3 chains and 1 set of chainrings. Will touch 30k km. Try that with oil. I ruined drivetrains in 2-3 months during winter time simply as you need to clean the chains after every ride to keep wear to a minimum. Now it's only swapping chains

andy4g63
Posts: 199
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2020 7:02 pm

by andy4g63

Surprised no one mentioned Silca's Super secret lube...

For me better than Smoove and UFO.a
Get a new chain , clean it with soap water dry it, clean it with alcohol, soap and water again and let it dry overnight.,Apply the SSL, put it in a plastic bag, let it sit , maybe heat it up a little until warm...
Let it dry, install on bike and apply one more time while on the bike let it dry and that's it.

After that I don't need to remove chain like ever, just wipe it, clean with alcohol or acetone and rag, apply SSL that's it,

Chain is clean forever, even in the wet...

The only problem I see is that Silca seems to change the formula and now is thinner and lasts a little less.

otnemem
Posts: 398
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2019 7:55 am

by otnemem

Easy answer: yes, you are.
Lower friction, lower maintenance, lower rate of wear on your drivetrain.

It's a no contest.

Lakal
Posts: 192
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:20 pm

by Lakal

andy4g63 wrote:
Fri Jan 20, 2023 2:20 pm
Surprised no one mentioned Silca's Super secret lube...

For me better than Smoove and UFO.a
Get a new chain , clean it with soap water dry it, clean it with alcohol, soap and water again and let it dry overnight.,Apply the SSL, put it in a plastic bag, let it sit , maybe heat it up a little until warm...
Let it dry, install on bike and apply one more time while on the bike let it dry and that's it.

After that I don't need to remove chain like ever, just wipe it, clean with alcohol or acetone and rag, apply SSL that's it,

Chain is clean forever, even in the wet...

The only problem I see is that Silca seems to change the formula and now is thinner and lasts a little less.
Silca SS Lube is just more difficult to apply than UFO Drip or Effeto Mariposa Flower Power Wax.
For me it just ends up on the floor.

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LouisN
Posts: 3510
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:44 am
Location: Canada

by LouisN

spartacus wrote:
Thu Jan 19, 2023 10:49 pm
Don't bore me by telling me about unrelated things someone can do with their time besides mess around incessantly with their chain, because that's what I'm doing now. I need to be convinced this is worth it. Or not, that's OK too.
My 2 cents.
I started waxing when parts availability was an issue.
I won't go back to oil for a sum of reasons.
The main one being I save $$ from the drivetrain wear. Chains last 2/3 times longer. I still have the same cassettes I bought in 2019-2020 and don't plan to change them this year.
The rest is bonus: cleaner, easier to wash bike ( dish soap only and water for the whole bike, no chemical for the chain), maintain clean....

Louis :)

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LouisN
Posts: 3510
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:44 am
Location: Canada

by LouisN

Lakal wrote:
Fri Jan 20, 2023 5:25 pm
andy4g63 wrote:
Fri Jan 20, 2023 2:20 pm
Silca SS Lube is just more difficult to apply than UFO Drip or Effeto Mariposa Flower Power Wax.
For me it just ends up on the floor.
I use a small amount and put it in a tiny ( 1 oz) container. Dip a toothbrush in a apply on the chain thoroughly on both sides (upper/lower). No loss this way. You can apply tiny drops on the top of chain links and "brush them" in afterwards.

Louis :)

maxim809
Administrator
Posts: 853
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by maxim809

The best chain lube is based on where and how you ride.

Wax has huge upkeep if the conditions you ride in are frequently wet or humid. If you have a mechanic, or a lot of free time, then that's cool.

Half my bikes are wax, the others are Rock'n'Roll/Dumonde/oil/blah/nothing and rotting. I sometimes ride my waxed chains in rain, and this quickly turns into a lot of work. People will talk about rotating chains. Ok, sure. Based on the details the payoff ratio between riding vs re-waxing is still not always great compared to riding a drivetrain that's purpose-built for your specific situation.

A cold drip wax like Silca SS can really speed up maintenance but this still has a heavy tax if your environment sucks. Waiting for the wax to cure can be the longest lead time.

Maybe the real move is to rotate bikes. See my point about mechanics and free time.

robeambro
Posts: 1829
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2018 6:21 pm

by robeambro

maxim809 wrote:
Fri Jan 20, 2023 5:54 pm
The best chain lube is based on where and how you ride.

Wax has huge upkeep if the conditions you ride in are frequently wet or humid.
Yes but - wouldn't upkeep increase a whole lot anyway in those cases? Unless we're talking about people who use oil-based lubes, not maintaining them properly after wet and mucky rides, and seeing their components lifespan greatly decrease.

spartacus
Posts: 1049
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2011 6:53 pm

by spartacus

I'll tell you what I do. With gravel or MTB I carefully hose off the bike. Chain's wet. Will usually wipe it off and let it dry. Later I'll get it saturated with rock n roll gold, then run it through a microfiber until the chain is basically clean and dry externally. Same thing with after a wet ride. If it's bad I'll do a few treatments until it's not coming out black or dark.

If it's not wet, I'll just do the whole douse with lube and run through microfiber towel every few hundred miles or so.

So really I'm already doing the bare minimum, BUT here's what I'm thinking:

Wax the road bike chain, the chains that probably won't get wet often or ever

... Maybe don't wax the gravel and MTB chains? Because they're gonna get wet for sure?

or DO wax those? My head hurts

robeambro
Posts: 1829
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2018 6:21 pm

by robeambro

spartacus wrote:
Fri Jan 20, 2023 8:52 pm
I'll tell you what I do. With gravel or MTB I carefully hose off the bike. Chain's wet. Will usually wipe it off and let it dry. Later I'll get it saturated with rock n roll gold, then run it through a microfiber until the chain is basically clean and dry externally. Same thing with after a wet ride. If it's bad I'll do a few treatments until it's not coming out black or dark.

If it's not wet, I'll just do the whole douse with lube and run through microfiber towel every few hundred miles or so.

So really I'm already doing the bare minimum, BUT here's what I'm thinking:

Wax the road bike chain, the chains that probably won't get wet often or ever

... Maybe don't wax the gravel and MTB chains? Because they're gonna get wet for sure?

or DO wax those? My head hurts
ZFC makes the case for waxing especially those chains that get wet and dirty often, as resetting contamination is far quicker with wax than otherwise. At least that's what he says.

Zero7
Posts: 113
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2019 9:38 pm

by Zero7

"Am I being dumb for throwing away easy watts by not waxing my chain"
Short answer: No
Long answer: Hell no

What you are doing seems to be working fine for you. I couldn't imagine spending the amount of time some people do dealing with chains.
I degrease a new chain and use Dumonde Tech Lite for lube. Light cleaning and reluge every 300ish miles. I get 5,000-7,000 miles out of a chain

TobinHatesYou
Posts: 12458
Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2017 12:02 pm

by TobinHatesYou

Zero7 wrote:
Fri Jan 20, 2023 9:55 pm
"Am I being dumb for throwing away easy watts by not waxing my chain"
Short answer: No
Long answer: Hell no

What you are doing seems to be working fine for you. I couldn't imagine spending the amount of time some people do dealing with chains.
I degrease a new chain and use Dumonde Tech Lite for lube. Light cleaning and reluge every 300ish miles. I get 5,000-7,000 miles out of a chain

I spend less time with drivetrain maintenance with waxing than I did with Dumonde Tech. I never have to degrease any part of my drivetrain. Hot water is the only cleaning agent needed. Plus, I got something like 25000 miles out of my big ring before it needed to be replaced. I still have not replaced any of my XG1190 cassettes. Only recently did I start replacing chains that were put into service 4.5 years ago… I do >15000mi per year.

If hot waxing still doesn’t appeal, wax drip in dry climates is a good compromise and gets you 95% of the way to the performance of hot waxing.

flying
Posts: 2861
Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2005 9:16 am

by flying

TobinHatesYou wrote:
Fri Jan 20, 2023 10:42 pm

I spend less time with drivetrain maintenance with waxing than I did with Dumonde Tech. I never have to degrease any part of my drivetrain. Hot water is the only cleaning agent needed. Plus, I got something like 25000 miles out of my big ring before it needed to be replaced. I still have not replaced any of my XG1190 cassettes. Only recently did I start replacing chains that were put into service 4.5 years ago… I do >15000mi per year.
Watts don't mean much to me in the overall scheme but this ^^^^ is attractive.
I'm gonna take a long look :thumbup:

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