Yup, I just do plain old paraffin. You can get it at Wal-mart, or Hobby Lobby with their ubiquitous 40% off coupon. The other stuff is truly marginal and not worth the hassle for me. I think I’d likely buy a pre-waxed chain for special events rather than do the fancy stuff myself all the time. (none of my events are that special )
Also remember to check out thrift stores for crock pots - my local goodwill always has some. Most holidays are half-off at Goodwill (my local one at least), so you can pick them up for just a few dollars - especially the small ones that are good for one or two chains.
I use the boiling water approach to clean my chains and find it keeps my wax very clean. So much easier than using the US cleaner every time. I bought a Pyrex meatloaf dish and I lay the chain in dish with the swisher tool and then in goes the boiling water. No chance of cracking the glass. I find gently swishing the chain in the hot water gets it very clean after 2 applications of water and then into the wax.
To change my wax I let it get just hot enough to melt and then pour it into an empty bottle with through a small funnel.
I do boiling water from the kettle with heavy duty car wash (CT-18) in the US cleaner for chains
Rinse and repeat until the US cleaner is not gross after 20 mins
Towel/cloth dry off, quick swish in some metho (white spirits), another quick cloth wipe down and into the hot wax pot until i remember to go get it out again
I am going to attempt to wax my chain, to be honest I’m going to buy a prewaxed chain to start to see if I like it and then go from there.
My question is for prep, I see a lot about chain prep but what about my crank and pulley wheels. Should I be pulling my crank and derailleur off my bike and scrubbing them before I switch to waxed chains?
Overkill. Wash the bike with soap and water, and that will be enough. I still hit the jockey wheel axle/bearing and derailleur pivots with a light hit of teflon spray. The important thing is to get the chain stripped of all the factory grease, or else it will continue to crud up your chain as you ride.
I don’t think you would need to pull off the crank and pulley wheels, but making sure they are extra clean is the way to go. I found using some de-greaser was sufficient
Mike
I pulled everything apart when I switched to wax. I worked too many years as a mechanic, grease is my least favorite thing in the world and I’ll gladly take the extra time to ensure no residual grease ends up on my chain/leg/etc.
Wax was a little bit expired I did replace it (thanks for the tip with the slow cooker upside down!) and cleaned my chains in hot water, dried and rewaxed. My chain was still very noisy and after measuring it I saw it is past 0.75. Anyway, ordered 3 new chains only to find out that that was my just-in-case chain and the other two I had in rotation were fine and still below 0.5. But I’ll have 3 fresh chains prepared when these are gone and will monitor my wax more closely. I’ve also put only half of the wax this time (around 0.5 kg).
wow, that is some bad looking wax! Was it black to begin with? (molten speed wax or something else with molybdenum disulphide in it? )
I’ll usually get a layer of about 1/8-1/4 inch at the bottom that is very dirty, while the rest is just slightly discolored.
I know, right? It was a clear (white while solid) paraffin wax originally. It wasn’t looking that bad at the bottom of the slow cooker and I haven’t really tried to get it out to look properly.
Here is how my wax usually looks when I take it out to clean it. This is after 4 chains I think - if I’ve done more chains then it is worse. I clean the chains in boiling water before I rewax them, which helps keep the wax a little cleaner. Chains are used indoors and outdoors.
I scrape off the dirty wax at the bottom, and then keep using it, adding more wax as the level goes down. Part of the coloration of the wax is I’ve recycled some peach colored candles in this batch of wax, but it does yellow/darken over time even with pure, clean paraffin to start with.
Also, I’ve gone longer on my last two waxings on the trainer to see how long I could go. This time I went 1479 km, and it was squeaking the last ride - I likely went about 1200 km before squeaking. The previous time I went 1276, and it wasn’t squeaking then, maybe just a little louder. Seems I can easily get 1000km on the trainer between waxings. Current chain is at 8800km total, at about 0.5% stretch.
One of the YouTube guys recommends petrol for the degreaser…is anybody actually doing that? How do you dispose of it?
I’ve had bad luck with simp,e green and am currently using hot water and dish soap in the ultrasonic cleaner but I’d like something with more grease cutting ability.
I’d be very careful with that since gasoline/petrol is much more flammable than most other solvents. I’ve been using mineral spirits which seem to do well on most chains for the initial cleaning. SRAM chains seem to have really sticky factory lube that was very hard to remove - I will be avoiding those.
Petrol or any other used solvent would need to be disposed of as hazardous material - many local waste companies have pickups for these or dropoff locations for households.
None of the typical solvents will dissolve wax, so they won’t do much for between wax cleanings. The only solvent that I am aware of that will dissolve wax is xylene, but completely stripping between waxings isn’t necessary.
I don’t want to deal with storing or disposing of mineral spirits, denatured alcohol, petrol, or any of that, which is why I’m using an ultrasonic cleaner and Simple Green HD (edited to add: I don’t really know what the difference is between Simple Green and Simple Green HD, but the Molten Speedwax folks recommend it). I will say I got much, much better results with two cycles of ultrasonic cleaning than I did with just one pass, and I got better results by doing a degassing step than the time I skipped it.
MOS2 is the high pressure lubricant you need. It will not only reduce friction, but will extend the life of the chain. Yes, it makes things black, so that’s the downside, but it’s the best dry lube you can get.
I actually got some of this along with PTFE powder when I first started waxing, I’ve just never pulled the trigger on using it as I really like the clean-ness of plain wax. I sometimes add some PTFE, but mostly don’t bother. I should probably give it a try sometime - I have two crockpots (Goodwill FTW), so I don’t have to fully commit.
Buy a ceramic speed shimano 11 speed chain that is pre-waxed
Ride that until it needs re-waxing
Dip it in molten speed wax
This makes it SO much simpler and I think ceramic speed does a great job of stripping everything (better than I do).
I also have a new non-scientific way to measure how efficient my chain is. I have a ceramic speed OSPW on my venge now.
If my chain is really efficient my cranks will move when I roll my bike around. Meaning there is not enough tension to overcome the friction in the freehub (enve).
Another way I check this is on my H3. When my H3 spins down my cranks spin like crazy. When the chain is waxed and is broken it the cranks turn for a really long time, even when the H3 flywheel is going slowly.
When the chain is freshly waxed or has been used for a long time the cranks don’t move at all or only move when the freehub is spinning really fast. That means I either need to break the chain in more or re-wax the chain.
I’m just re-dipping the chain for training, but if I really wanted something efficient for a race I would either boil the chain or just get a new ceramic speed chain.
I did replace it (thanks for the tip with the slow cooker upside down!) and cleaned my chains in hot water, dried and rewaxed. My chain was still very noisy and after measuring it I saw it is past 0.75. Anyway, ordered 3 new chains only to find out that that was my just-in-case chain and the other two I had in rotation were fine and still below 0.5. But I’ll have 3 fresh chains prepared when these are gone and will monitor my wax more closely. I’ve also put only half of the wax this time (around 0.5 kg).
It was a clear (white while solid) paraffin wax originally. It wasn’t looking that bad at the bottom of the slow cooker and I haven’t really tried to get it out to look properly.
