Waxing Bicycle Chains

[chapo]

I have 2800 miles on my stock chain and gears, only cleaned a few times on the bike with degreaser and relube? seems to be ok ? Am I doing it wrong?

[rwest]

Originally Posted by stevej37

I have over 4200 miles on this bike and it's never seen any chain lube or chain waxing.

Not even turtle wax?

[rwest]

Originally Posted by chapo

I have 2800 miles on my stock chain and gears, only cleaned a few times on the bike with degreaser and relube? seems to be ok ? Am I doing it wrong?

Absolutely not, we’ve been doing it that way for “forever”. It just doesn’t last as long and is messy. What happens is that the oily stuff attracts dirt and it turns into sort of a grinding paste causing the chain parts to very very slightly wear multiplied by every chain part and that is what causes chain “stretch” which in turn starts to wear the gears to match the larger chain spaces.

The wax completely fills the spaces in the chain links and being dry doesn’t allow dirt inside to wear the chain; therefore making everything last longer.

Online testing also shows a couple watts of power savings- but for most of us, we would never know.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by rwest

I’m positive that the total time involved in waxing the chain is much less than keeping a liquid lubed chain driveline and bike clean- just so much greasy slop all over the rear wheel and bike. Which means either a lot of time degreasing or riding a filthy bike that is slowly grinding all of your expensive gears with a dirt paste!

I regularly ride three bikes (four if you count my literal grocery-getter) between 3500 and 4500 miles a year and even here in rainy PDX, I've been able to maintenance the three drivetrains in a way that strikes a balance between cost and effort that works for me. I also lube my chains a drop at a time, link by link; it takes a couple of minutes more, but it means my bike or rear wheel isn't covered in greasy slop and I don't like to ride a filthy bike; I wash my bikes when they're dirty, check and wipe the chains before each ride, I hot tank/ultrasonic my drive trains twice a year - at the end of the summer season and at the end of the winter season. It takes about three hours of shop time for all three bikes; a very pleasant morning in the garage. The parts last a long time using this method.

My friend Steve just bought a brand new Santa Cruz Stigmata gravel bike; he also bought and freshly waxed 2 brand new chains which he'll rotate to learn for himself what all the hubbub is about.

[jimwill911]

I have 5500 miles on my Specialized Turbo Vado ebike with the original chain that I wax every 150 miles. No chain stretch.

[stevej37]

Originally Posted by rwest

Not even turtle wax?

The turtles don't like that wax...they never got one red cent for the use of their pic on the containers.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

operation "recycle filthy kerosene" in full swing!

Couple of thoughts.
1. Kerosene is expensive. $38 for 5 gallons (I got some today).
2. Made a funnel, spent very little time on it. Two minutes tops. I attached a fuel filter to the bottom of an off the shelf oil funnel.
3. Only bad news- Kerosene is so full of garbage, fuel filter gets clogged too quick- , slowing to a drip, so it took a while, but, it did get the kerosene pretty clean.

Dirty kerosene goes in the funnel-



Clean (ish) kerosene comes out.



I dump bike chains, etc right in the cup as not to have to clean the whole ultrasonic cleaner. I test cleaned an already waxed chain. STILL a bunch of crap came off in the ultrasonic. I think if you put me in an ultrasonic cleaner, I would completely come apart. Once the crap was gone, There would be nothing of me left.

[stevej37]

^^^ My first full-time job in the early 70's was in a parts plant where I used a oven-sized vat to dip parts in for cleaning.
The vat contained heated carbon tetrachloride and it looked like a thick white cloud wafting back and forth.
I would use a chain-fall with a basket of greasy parts and lower it in and raise it out without stopping. All parts came out looking like new. It was incredible how well it worked.

About 2 years later they shut the cleaning vat down....liver and kidney damage was found.

[sc_rufctr]

(I have deliberately stayed out of this thread)

Chain waxing is a great if implemented correctly for Pros. That doesn't mean amateurs shouldn't do it but just regular chain cleaning and maintenance is all that's needed IMO. It's easy and simple. The trick is to do it often. Why do we always make things more complicated?

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I do it cause I enjoy it. Therapeutic perhaps.
Now... I do know this guy on the internet who cast his own headset lock nuts and machines them from scratch... but that's just crazy talk!
Just kidding Otto- really it is an amazing job!
Today's ultrasonic haul. Screw the reusing funnel. New cleaner all the way. Life's too short. About three more drivetrains to go and my cogs will be clean. Chain's cooling off right now.





Gunk from the first chain go around in the cleaner. I don't do this every time, but this guy needed it.


A great way to kill time until taco dinner with the family tonight!

[LEAKYSEALS951]

And pulley wheels are the worst!

[red-beard]

When I was riding a lot, I would clean my chain at least weekly. If it rained Saturday, I'd clean it on Saturday night as well. The secret is "Missing Links". These are little links that allow a chain to be removed, whenever. It is good to have a couple of extra links with you on the rides, just in case.

But with the easy removal and dropping in an ultrasonic cleaner, the chain becomes really clean every time. I used a "dry" lube, which was a dissolved wax. I only used "wet" lube on days it was raining. I had it down to cleaning the chain, rear sprockets and chain ring every week. This was when I was doing 120-150 miles per week.

[red-beard]

[LEAKYSEALS951]

^^^I use the heck out of those. I don't have that fancy tool either, I just hold the chain together against itself with the link exposed at the top, use a set of channel locks to grab the edges of each link piece and compress. Takes seconds.

[red-beard]

I love Park Tools. And yes, I have one of those!

[rwest]

Time for an update!

It’s been over a year now riding on the waxed chain. I’m sold. I rode about 3,000 miles last year, mostly because I ended up with a foster dog and have been running as well, so my riding is less than I expected.

Switching between 4 chains and I did that 3 times, which means my missing links hit their manufacturers reuse number and I put news ones in the mix.

Couple changes after watching a couple videos: I stopped boiling the old wax off; just wiped them down with a microfiber cloth, now using just the low heat setting on the crockpot and finally not doing a cool down before removing from the pot- the cooler temp means less run off. Both of these saves more time and makes it even easier.

Another bonus benefit of the wax chain is that when I had a flat last summer, my hands stayed pretty clean, so the patch didn’t get greased up and stuck much better- hard to keep a patch clean out in the middle of nowhere when dealing with a tire and rim covered in an oil film.

[rwest]

I also found these link pliers- not as well made as the Park ones, but they have three fingers, which means that installing the link can also be done by squeezing the handles together instead of needing both hands to pull the handles apart. I like to hold the link together while squeezing the pliers as the wax can add some thickness making it hard to join.

https://www.amazon.com/Super-Master-Link-Pliers-Trident/dp/B007E8YO7Q/ref=sr_1_58?crid=2WLPQXGR01XG1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.pLdmAtSjazhEIiwCHcINmrkuV9GjiPr2r FRntJShBFtYDBHxGbVAke9bsr86Bmmxm6ZpiEp-JB-_7LJlOii1obwihVJ385bMOjSsspbahnklHk5nsPYaiRWEwWlrX MFI6Zy1BiAP407o7d3b70pszSgJSB7_55tvidNufNP_zdrrSfr bVpw8HnBqm0vUK7wQ8M8TXmoiMN0JKZmx13WD_-h9q7pOJlEnerWLgvN77ekRVtqUOGp90_NI4las5J7Yjnmz2vm5 8cYkaU7w8VIjIKq0ivD44-PL-Rc_8UTt1O4.lDqvvC_jo-Gcwu5ZZqjOTO9rpKXatVDPcUZtfPX8B_M&dib_tag=se&keywords=bike+chain+pliers&qid=1719699349&sprefix=Chain+pliers%2Caps%2C481&sr=8-58

[red-beard]

I can see how that would help. I never had trouble connecting them. But a spreader as well as a clincher would be nice.

[herr_oberst]

Run the chain so the quick link is "on top", hold the rear wheel and crank down hard on the drive side pedal. Snaps in place. And they make a quick link plier that is small enough to fit in the seat bag and it also holds a couple of links.

[rwest]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Run the chain so the quick link is "on top", hold the rear wheel and crank down hard on the drive side pedal. Snaps in place. And they make a quick link plier that is small enough to fit in the seat bag and it also holds a couple of links.

KMC makes a set of tire levers that interlock to make a quick link plier- bought them, but haven’t tried them yet.