Chain Waxing Tutorial

Two years of people Nerding out on waxing a bicycle chain ?. OMG… I’ve read it all… and still have things to add and ask :mask:
I’ve come from the inspirational OZ Cycles YT Vids.
These are great but as he’s moved on there’s some overlapping and added methods which can leave you confused.

Wax additives.
I been waxing for a year and I’m currently on a batch of added PTFE powder. I’m enjoying the difference of a very clean and fast drivetrain as apposed to just wax. .
I read with interest the Friction Facts test on the True Tension Tungsten lube. He rated it and said it was good for reducing DT wear.
Has any tried adding WS2 or Tungsten Disulphide powder to their wax ? I’ve Googled the poop out of this and and came up with a chap saying it sank to the bottom of the crock pot and needed additional agitation to mix. Anyone ?

Northern Latitude/ Colder Climates
I’m London Lat 51.5…It’s cold and wet here ALOT. I’ve experimented with adding Paraffin Lamp Oil. Just enough to soften the mix. It works by adding a film that seems to combat wet conditions and not producing rust. It does mean more attraction of dirt and sooner re application but allows it to be used in wetter conditions. It needs an additional IPA wash to get it clean after boiling water before the next re wax but seems to allow Winter use of wax lube.
Any one want to put their thoughts?

New to waxing but still not ready to go the crock pot route. Instead I started using squirt wax chain lube. When do you know it is time to clean the waxed chain? I am starting to see black waxy flakes coming out from the chain. is this normal for a waxed chain? Is this a sign to take off the the chain to give it a through cleaning and re-waxing? (degreasing > spirits > wax)

With squirt, I’ve only ever wiped it down with warm water (along with the bike), dried it by running through a cloth, and then re-applied squirt. It’s probably better to wipe it down with paraffine oil instead, but I don’t have any.

I’d only go through the whole cleaning cycle if cleaning it as above doesn’t work anymore. Think so far, I’ve usually just changed the chain.

Still not got round to proper hot wax, but just found liquid wax from Morgan blue, so giving that a try. Two dry 65 mile rides so far, and been ok. Chain seems to attract more dirt than with Squirt, bht the reviews said it also lasts longer, so lets see…

I know Squirt is wax based but from a waxing experience Squirt is apples and oranges from actual crock pot waxing.

There is a whole Squirt lube thread - Squirt Lube - what am I doing wrong?

IMHO - I didn’t like Squirt, but crock pot chain waxing is the bees knees (weather contingent)

2 Likes

I came here to ask almost the same question. I was waxing last year, good success and good longevity, chains did alright in the wet. I bought some new wax which was very ‘white’ - the old beads were more yellow. I thought this would be an improvement as it must be more pure.

Since changing batches I’ve noticed the wax is very brittle, it seems to all flake off straight away. The chain goes orange if left even slightly wet, and if I get caught in the rain it’ll sound horrible. All of these things are new with the new batch of wax. The last one was more resilient, and seemed to cling on more (leaving a waxy residue on the jockey wheels for instance which the new one doesn’t).

I was thinking of adding something (maybe white spirit?) to the mix to soften the wax as it seems too hard. Anyone had similar issues and solved them? Thanks,

alexgold123
https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/u/alexgold123
September 2
Roy07775:
Northern Latitude/ Colder Climates
I’m London Lat 51.5…It’s cold and wet here ALOT. I’ve experimented
with adding Paraffin Lamp Oil. Just enough to soften the mix. It works
by adding a film that seems to combat wet conditions and not producing
rust. It does mean more attraction of dirt and sooner re application but
allows it to be used in wetter conditions. It needs an additional IPA
wash to get it clean after boiling water before the next re wax but
seems to allow Winter use of wax lube.
Any one want to put their thoughts?
I came here to ask almost the same question. I was waxing last year,
good success and good longevity, chains did alright in the wet. I bought
some new wax which was very ‘white’ - the old beads were more yellow. I
thought this would be an improvement as it must be more pure.
Since changing batches I’ve noticed the wax is very brittle, it seems to
all flake off straight away. The chain goes orange if left even slightly
wet, and if I get caught in the rain it’ll sound horrible. All of these
things are new with the new batch of wax. The last one was more
resilient, and seemed to cling on more (leaving a waxy residue on the
jockey wheels for instance which the new one doesn’t).
I was thinking of adding something (maybe white spirit?) to the mix to
soften the wax as it seems too hard. Anyone had similar issues and
solved them? Thanks,

Hi Alex,

Have a look at the Oz Cycle YT Vids. How to make your own chain lube.He
talks about using Paraffin Oil and how to add to get the right
consistency.If you’re using just wax with no expensive additives try
doctoring your current batch. If it goes wrong chuck it out and start
again with a fresh batch.
During the depths of winter last year I siphoned some off into a small
old Muc Off oil bottle.I put the bottle in a pot of hot water to make it
very runny and applied it like a oil lube.When set i partially cleaned
the excess wax off leaving some on the outer plates.Yes it got dirty
quickly but wet riding wasn’t an issue.

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Hi Roy, I’d gone by the Oz Cycle videos originally, and that (his new video with a ‘better’ formula) was what prompted me to change to just wax and PTFE. I may have added something to the initial wax (as he said to before) but it definitely wasn’t lamp oil, as I’ve never had any! I’ve bought some now so will try that and report back. The current mix is definitely night and day different to the first mix (in a bad way) so I can’t make it any worse by adding something…

Has anyone experienced an increase in dropped chains? Prior to this season i used Squirt for several years, never had a problem. This season i had chronic chain drops all year long on two bikes, both having a YBN & SRAM chains with Molten Speed wax (I swap them out every 250-ish miles)

F%@&# SRAM

No, but then again my bike is 1x :man_shrugging:

After fresh waxing, the chain is a little lumpy for a few dozen rotations and needs to be done under load (ie, not back-peddling). Once the excess wax flakes off, it’s gtg. But I wonder if maybe the wax slightly increases the width of the outer chain links so sometimes the FD pushes it just a touch too far? Maybe dial the limit screws in a tiny tiny bit?

No, but I do know shifting changes as the wax thins out on the chain.

I know if I have my FD dialled with exactly the minimum amount of outward movement to change to the big ring, with a waxed chain after 100km or so, that won’t be enough to change to the big ring with a freshly waxed chain.

HTH

PS I have YBN, SRAM and Wipperman chains.

Not only that, but with pure paraffin, the cassette gets sticky as wax residue builds up. Campy shifting is smooth and Ultrashift is rapidfire fast… but I did notice a degradation and lag in shifting over time with a waxed chain due to the stickiness. I also found the flakes annoying.

Don’t have the same issue with Tungsten All Weather (which is better than both Smoove and Squirt). My crockpot’s done its dash… Tungsten moving forward. So quick and easy with better performance than hot wax.

NB: I used pure food-grade, commercially sourced paraffin wax from a company that makes it in-house on an industrial scale. 1kg bag of pellets for AU$15. I wanted this to be good, but it just wasn’t.

i get the paraffin build up on my cassette, but i havent noticed reduced shift quality. I take the cassette off every3 months or so and clean it anyway

You can fit 3 chains in a 2L crock-pot! It takes a fair bit of wax to cover it, but my HPV team runs waxed chains, and the trike uses 3 chains at once.

No issues due to waxing for the last two years. Only chain drops due to improper mech derailleur adjustment and one really bad (rough) line in a crit.

So I bought a bike with Di2 and I’m getting better at choosing lines. :slight_smile:

Help please: Am I over-using my waxed chains?

I am new to waxing. I am using Molten speed wax.

  • On my road bike I did 463 miles in 30 hours of dry riding before I replaced the chain.
  • On my TT bike I have done 442 miles in 26 hrs of riding (outside and turbo)

I have had the odd “click” sound from the chains, sometimes when shifting, and at other times. Sounds like a chain pinging on a tooth. However no other sounds of squeaking. Both were new chains, thoroughly cleaned.

Am I leaving these waxed chains on too long? (I think the recommendation on the zerofriction site was 300km!)

Experience and thoughts please - Cheers

If you wax more often your chain will last longer ! So it is up to you i wax every 150 miles

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I find it depends on how much it rains and how much grit and dirt gets on the chain, one 50mile ride in the rain and my chain was done but in the dry it can go much further.

yes i agree , i only ride in dry weather so 150 miles in dry weather in the wet i don’t have any experience :wink: