I’ve experienced this with Squirt. And to a lesser extent Silca drip wax lube. I think it’s the nature of wax emulsions.
The Silca hot melt wax does not go sticky like this.
I rode a dusty 3 hrs on my MTB Saturday, and 5.5 hrs on my gravel bike Sunday. Both Hot melt waxed chains. They performed flawlessly and stayed very clean. Afterwards I lightly rubbed the chains down with a damp cloth to get the surface dust off them. The wax emulsions aren’t as clean.
For me squirt doesn’t go tacky. It also doesn’t flake off. I use a different drip wax on my road bike, which feels more tacky and does peel off a bit, but also lasts much longer on dry rides.
Squirt I only use on my off-road bikes. It is nearly always muddy here, and squirt seems to cope well with that (it also tested well in the wet). I always re-lube after washing my bike, which is basically every ride, as it’s always muddy, so can’t comment on the spraying-but-not-relubing question.
The other drip wax says not to use it in the wet, so I think it might not last long then.
To me it feels like squirt is designed to go harder, so it copes better with wet conditions, but the downside is that when it starts cracking, it come off quickly, and you’ll end up with a dry chain.
All of this might be temperature dependent - maybe if you live in warmer climates, the properties of the wax change.
I used squirt lube for around a year, the chain ran nice and smooth but it attracted as much dirt as chain oil. I think this is down to the amount of squirt you need to use to penetrate between the rollers and then the amount of excess left behind or bleed out during a ride.
Never compare Squirt to a proper hot pot wax application, there is no comparison in regards to how dirty the chain will get afterwards.
I’m NOT a fan of Squirt for MTB. That sticky wax gets stuck all over the drivetrain and it’s difficult to get off. Since you’ll be in a mobile workshop and riding your MTB I suggest Rock N Roll Gold. All the performance and none of the gunk. You may loose 1 watt of performance and longevity of your chain but none of that matters, you’re already using beefy tires.
I use Rock N Roll Gold regularly for 4+ hour MTB rides and events 8-12 hours without reapplying lube. Never and issue. After the ride simply wash down chain, dry and reapply.
No. But it’s still MUCH cleaner than wet lube. I love that it’s cleaner.
I’m just concerned that I’ve changed the properties of it by dousing thoroughly in water because the Squirt Lube itself is what is sticky now.
I’ll have to check this out. Looks good by Friction Facts standards and I’ve been using NFS on our road bikes with reasonable chain life, but I’ll be hard pressed to go to a wet lube for MTB if I can avoid it because I’m so tired of black chains and drivetrain components.
Most of our riding is in dry/dusty conditions. For that I’ll never spray my bike down.
I’d love to use Squirt or similar for all the dry dusty riding.
Is the stickiness a problem for chain longevity? I don’t care about watts right now honestly.
Indeed, I used to apply squirt and let it “set” over night. Then in the morning give the chain a good wipe to remove the excess before setting off. I just found the wax never actually fully dried, there was always wet residue left behind, and I assume that is the reason why it attracted so much dirt/dust. 
This is what I did. And what I plan to do in future.
Interesting. I’ll play with this.
Good idea! Are there quick links that are reliably reusable? SRAM says theirs are 1-time use. I bought 10 of them for ~$4 each but I’d hate to spend $4 on a quick link every time I pull my chain for a bike wash… but would love to pull the chain off!
I learned the rust risk the hard way one time (living in PNW). Bikes now live indoors with warm well-circulated air if they get wet.
I let mine dry overnight in 68 degree Idaho air (~30-40% humidity) with a small fan blowing towards the bikes. It dried completely in 24 hrs. I have not tested any other scenario yet.
is it “bad” if they stop clicking or does it just indicate an increased risk of failure?
I ask because I honestly haven’t paid that much attention but recently realized I probably should. I swap between my two chains twice a month and reuse the same quicklink for most of the past year and haven’t had any issues 
I reuse sram quicklinks, but not that often. Maybe 3-4 times over the lifetime of the chain.
Really find it interesting that there are so different experiences with squirt. Wonder if its down to temperature, or something else. For me it always dries completely overnight, and it isn’t sticky, just a slightly waxy feel. It also doesn’t gunk up at all.
The temperature here in the UK is mostly between 5-20 deg C, and humidity somewhere over 60%.
The waxy feel was how it felt after drying, so same experience there. But once sprayed down with water, it was quite tacky. A new experience for me for drip-on lubes of any kind.
Repeated again tonight after a seriously muddy ride, spray down, blow-dry, and same tacky feel. Wiped chain pretty firmly with microfiber rag and tacky feel went away. Felt like dry chain. Reapplied Squirt and it appears to be drying nicely by the fan. I suspect I’ll be back to waxy feel tomorrow morning.
But who knows what the pins and rollers are like on the inside. 
My chain and drivetrain never looks dirty. After application you must wipe the chain and drivetrain excessively, to include the chainring and jockey wheels.
How many miles or hours of ride time do you go between application of the lube and the next wipe-down and re-lube?
I’ve reused a kmc quick link at least a dozen times w/o trouble (just one data point fwiw)
Joe
After each ride, which is 2-4 hours. I generally do a full wash of the bike (drivetrain) at the end of every week.
Whoever thinks waxing is a hassle, I swear that’s nothing compared to trying to keep a greasy drivetrain clean! I’m going back to waxing as soon as this chain needs to be replaced.
Any bad experiences with an initial hot wax bath and maintenance done with a drip lube for the remainder of the chain’s useful life? I won’t be taking it off after it’s installed.
Edit: It’s a road bike ridden in dry conditions unless the unexpected happens.
If you use something like Silca Hot Melt or MSW and then top up with a similar formula (such as Silca Super Secret Drip) I’m sure you’d have great results. Topping a waxed chain with something like Rock N Roll GOLD seems like a terrible idea and a waste of initial waxing
Oh yes, I meant wax-based lube, only applied through dripping after the initial preparation rather than bathing.