maybe a silly question, but do you filter and reuse the cleaning spirits after the initial chain clean in the mason jar? wondering how much of the cleaning spirit you go through removing the grease from a chain.
I use a coffee filter to filter out the some of the particulates in the mineral spirits and naphtha I use to clean the chain and remove excess wax from the chain/cassette. It doesn’t get it completely clean but does a good enough job for me that I don’t have a problem reusing the solvents. Once I de-gease a new chain initially I never do it again so I go through very little mineral spirits.
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Uggh - literally dropped all my mineral spirits off at waste disposal this week. The used spirits had sat in my garage for months, so all the black gunk from new chain grease had even sunk to the bottom. The coffee filter is a great idea!
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Has anyone seen/used the Silca Super Secret Lube? I kind of trust Josh from Silca to be honest. His stuff are expensive but from a quality standpoint they are top notch.
I am in Germany and don’t have access to simple green. What other cleaner do y’all use?
I was looking at this article the other day:
You have to be careful with regular Simple Green. If you leave a chain soaking in it too long, it can make the metal brittle. Other formulations that are advertised as safe on aluminum (like the aircraft version) are probably better for cycling.
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Good reminder. I think this was brought up somewhere way back in this thread, where another user learned it the hard way! Helps me not regret using gasoline for even a moment.
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You can find a review here !
From my first 500km with the new UFO drip I can say that I am very happy. Easily application, even in my 16 degree C shed. Dries quickly, no dripping to the floor.
Stayed very clean through out my riding. I did top it off after around 300k and it runs relatively quite and shifting performance is great. Price is also okay.
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My first wax chain experiment had mixed results. And I have a question.
I used paraffin and 1.6 micron PFTE. All went well for first 130 miles. Then I did a ride on crushed limestone trail that was went. After 30 mile ride in these conditions, the drivetrain was covered in a wet slurry of abrasive.
Rinsed the bike off when I got home. Chain was squeaky/gritty. I looked at the quick release link and it showed signs of wear.
Paraffin did not protect sufficiently in these conditions. Question is, if I have to go into conditions like this again, should I use an oil based product to the wax to repel water sufficiently? (Prior to waxing, my chain was cleaned extremely thoroughly before waxing and I let the chain sit in hot wax for a few hours to let the wax an PFTE penetrate fully.)
That seems about normal for a ride on something like crushed limestone. As the wax gets contaminated especially in the wet, much of it flakes off. That limestone is really gritty and with a little water does a great job of completely covering everything so you get left with a chain where the wax is just gone. On the other hand I’ve had road rides in the wet where the wax holds up very very well if there isn’t much dirt.
For rides that are longer in time and I know will be dirty and/or wet you can layer something like Smoove over paraffin and that holds up very well as the Smoove is a different type of wax and doesn’t flake off like paraffin. It dries to a plastic like state which means dirt stays locked in but it holds up very well if you apply it well. I think some of the newer waxes like Tru Tungsten over paraffin may also hold up better in the wet. Downside is you can’t clean Smoove off with just hot water like a paraffin chain so if you want to rewax you have to strip the chain down again.
https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/ has instructions on wet weather waxing options. His articles can be a bit long but usually have a good summary section.
I’ve found that if I put a stripped chain in the wax it really only needs to stay in long enough to get hot and then I swish it for another minute and pull it out. I probably give the chain 5-10 minutes. I haven’t found any benefit in letting the chain sit in the wax for hours but YMMV.
Headstart, thanks for the thoughts and the link. Will check that out. Paraffin seemed to be doing a good job on the crushed limestone trail if there was no water. Oil lubes foul quickly. Muc Off dry lube was even worse. Really fouled quickly.
I have a question regarding previously waxed chain. I got it done at a LBS but I want to go back to lubes. Do I have to melt the wax off boiling water, or can I just apply lube onto the waxed chain.
I store my “best” bike indoors and used to wax my chains. Came in one day and noticed a load of black marks on the carpet! wondered what the hell it was.
Took me a couple of days to work out it was wax that had flaked off my chain and been grounded into the carpet, there was no way I could clean it off so back to regular lube I went.
I do miss a waxed chain however.
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Soaring Bear, I’ve been playing with waxing for a few years now on my road bike and still haven’t tested it on a REALLY wet ride, or a MTB ride with stream crossings here in Colorado. I still use wet lube on my cyclocross and MTB bikes. However, a couple times last year on my road/gravel bike I rode in some damp silty conditions on a gravel road and my waxed chain got really, really noisy. I was still a long way from home and I was wishing that I had brought a tube of oil. But eventually I tried spraying off the chain with plain water from my bottle and it soon got quiet again and stayed that way for the rest of the ride. I believe I did it again on a subsequent ride and it worked just as well. So you might try that ( I also started carrying a small bottle of lube on long rides, also ;0)
Could possibly work if the wax was clean, problem was the wax on my chain was black from a couple of rides worth of crud. The wife was not best pleased 
I’m going to give this a shot. I was asked for some Christmas ideas and this didn’t work so I had to settle for this:
I’ve been wax only for two years now, love it.
Anyone else tried this?
I’ve been waxing for 3 years now, and ride wet CX races in NW England. I’ve added parrafin lamp oil to the 10:1 Wax to PTFE mix, to provide some additional protection. The addition of lamp oil has worked, albeit it is necessary to clean with warm soapy water, dry the chain and then rewax after each race. There isnt any science to the amount of lamp oil to add, but i can say the chain doesnt show signs of rust after a cx race and before rewaxing again.
If I only really ride in dry conditions/on the trainer and still get 5,000+ miles out of my chain, is the trouble of waxing really worth it? I currently use Rock N Roll GOLD. For me, a quiet chain is a big plus
Putting a wet lube over wax will work. If you aren’t going to keep waxing the chain going forward the lube will eventually displace most of the wax