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
Am I being dumb for throwing away easy watts by not waxing my chain?
Moderator: robbosmans
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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I started waxing for several reasons and watts are none of them :spartacus wrote: ↑Thu Jan 19, 2023 10:49 pmEveryone'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.
- 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
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.
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.andy4g63 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 2:20 pmSurprised 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.
For me it just ends up on the floor.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.spartacus wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 8:52 pmI'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
"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
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
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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.
Watts don't mean much to me in the overall scheme but this ^^^^ is attractive.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.
I'm gonna take a long look
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