Managed to get some outdoor riding in during a rare dry spell in England, the chain has run smooth as silk and I am happy as can be with the MSW, I think I will likely try normal paraffin wax after the MSW needs throwing away.
Question: between applications of MSW shall I just wipe the chain with a clean rag and re wax in the slow cooker? or should I add chain to boiling water then dry before re waxing?
I am reading conflicting information about the reapplication process and just want to go with the best option.
You can do both. The one downside of just dumping the chain without boiling water is that your wax will probably go black faster, on the other hand your chain might rust a little bit if you went with boiling water.
I have been waxing for a few weeks now and so far so good. I have a few issues with the wax flakes on the trainer and still have no clue about when it’s time to rewax. But I’ll learn…
One thing puzzles me though: I had thought that the waxed chain makes a perfectly clean drivetrain. My road rides are 100% dry, but still do I get a dirty rag after wiping the chain post ride. It seems that it’s small metal flakes. The chain I noticed it the most on is a used KMC EL Silver that is close to 0.5 wear. I disregarded the advice to start waxing with a new chain. I have another used Shimano 105 chain that shows less wear still, but it also sheds some metal. Small blackish dust.
I wonder whether this is the normal wear of a chain that is mixing with road dust and making up the black gunk in an oiled chain. Not as clearly visible as on a waxed chain.
I’ll shortly put on a new chain as part of a rotation and I’ll see how it looks there. Maybe it’s time to retire the KMC chain at least.
Can anybody please share some experience? Are your chains shedding some metal dust as well?
KMC chains don’t take wax well according to Zero Friction Cycling, something about the coating they use. My own experience mirrored this. Are the chains fully stripped before waxing them? If not you maybe you are getting some of the residual grease left in the rollers mixing with dirt and that can get kind of gunky?
I read the same about KMC. I did clean the chains properly based on the MSW instructions and even more so for the used chains. So happy that I’m over this stage already. I used turpentine and methylated spirits. I also cleaned the chainrings, cassettes, jockey wheels, etc. with a degreaser and alcohol. So I am sure I cleaned everything as much as necessary.
I’ll be able to see shortly how the new Shimano chains will do. Hopefully, they won’t she’s any metal dust.
Ahh okay. Not sure where the metal might be coming from. When my chains get dirty the wax and dirt mostly falls off leaving more a dry chain. Sorry couldn’t be more help
The chain I am using at the moment was previously lubed with chain oil, I cleaned it thoroughly before waxing it for the first time, The mineral spirits were spotless after about 5-6 cleans and refreshes.
I then waxed the chain but realised afterwards I had got a step wrong because I had placed the cold chain into the hot wax, after I realized my mistake I waxed again but this time I left the chain on top of the wax whilst it melted in the slow cooker.
When the wax was up to temperature I noticed a fair bit of black debris on the chain whilst it was sat in the hot wax (I did not notice this the previous time) this makes me think that the thorough cleaning I thought I gave the chain was not thorough enough to remove the oil/grease from between the links. I do not think you can fully clean a chain that has been oiled without giving it some heat to remove the final remains of oil/grease.
Maybe what you are seeing is remaining oil/grease being expelled by the wax.
I am also in the UK, and ride CX is wet and muddy conditions. The advice from Ozcycle was to add parafin oil to the wax/ptfe mix to provide a degree of resistance to water. the downside is the chains need to be rewaxed more frequently.
A little rust on the outer plates sometimes occurs after a wet road ride. I just clean the chain in parafin and then wax it. The chains on the CX bikes get waxed after each race after washing in soapy water and then hung to dry.
I’ve been waxing for 3 years now and wouldnt go back to oil based lubes.
I’m curious about the supposed issues with KMC chains. I’ve been using KMC X11SL (silver version, not gold) for a few years and have had no issues. I did start with new chains, and cleaned per the MSW instructions. My only change is that I tend to let them soak in the first mineral spirits bath for about a week shaking occasionally, instead of doing all the cleaning in one go. I’ve done a total of 9-ish chains.
On average, I get about 250-300 miles before rewaxing. I don’t often ride in the wet, but when I do, a quick wipe down with a cloth to soak up the water does the trick. Sometimes some light surface rust shows up, but it’s gone after the next ride, and doesn’t cause any problems. If it gets really wet and I don’t dry the chain, it’ll get squeaky really fast on the next ride, but after a fresh wax, it’s back to normal.
I’ve never had a chain rust to the point I wanted to toss it.
Seems like putting paraffin oil in the mix is defeating the purpose of waxing in the first place. Oil is going to attract and hold contaminants. Pure paraffin, MSW, Silca Wax none of those use oil. Sure putting some oil in will make it last longer but then why not just use a proper wet lube at that point?
The Oz Cycle guy seems like a lot of bro science with no legit testing done.
I am using KMC’s EL 11sp chains on one bike and Shimano Ultegra chains on another. While on the Shimano’s I have together just about 5000 km, I rode about 45 thousand km on KMC. I usually get over 10000 km, the last two I swapped after 15 thousand km. With Shimano I’ve noticed they are slightly noisier and of course directional. Can’t say much about durability yet.
I ride in dry conditions mostly so there is that. And while I don’t have any experience I know other people use parafin oil. Mostly because wax doesn’t like cold conditions. But it might also offer some water resistance as @Raythebike says.
I cleaned my chains exactly how you did but noticed dirt coming out from between the links when the chain was in the heated up MSW. I think the heat expands the links slightly and allows the final bits of dirt/oil to escape.
In the future if I clean an oiled chain I will add a step after the white spirit clean and put the chain into boiling water to let it heat up before a final rinse in white spirits.
Yes I will be using an air line from my air compressor to make sure the chain is completely dry before it goes into the wax.
I will be re waxing on Monday as I have outdoor rides planned for Saturday and Sunday, that should put the chain at around 250 miles since the first wax.
I experienced 105-level chains becoming rusty, too. With XT/Ultegra level chains, they do NOT get rusty. I cannot tell the material differences, but I am quite sure that there is a difference as I experienced it several times. First I thought it was happening by chance, but now I am quite sure it has to do with the material they use.
Following on from my last post, I dont think I need to re wax yet. The chain was running so smooth yesterday at some points I had to double check my Di2 battery was not flat because changing gear was almost unnoticeable.
I had used Squirt in the past and can honestly say MSW takes things to a whole different level. For the record I am using a Dura Ace chain and have not ridden in the wet.
I keep the used spirits in a Mason jar. If it becomes too gunked up I run it through a coffee filter. It doesn’t clean it up completely but good enough for me. And since I only use it on new chains it basically lasts forever.
I spoke to a buddy and he uses the Super Secret Chain Wax, how is that compared to a traditional immersion wax, or is it meant to be used more as a maintenance between dips?