I’ve seen the same rust issue in the past which led me down the wet lube path. Used Silca synergetic for the last year with a lot of success.
Cleaned up the roadie and both MTBs and waxed chains yesterday. Just need to remember to clean things up quickly after wet rides.
CX bikes will stay on synergetic. That stuff is bomb proof in the wet.
I also used to have problems with the 11 cog using Connex links. It’s not the direction it’s the wear or bend radius that causes it to jump in my opinion. I’ve left the kmc link on and use squirt on my race bike and the 11 cog works fine.
I have that rust issue on my cx bike when it’s still wet for the drive home. Planning to bring a small bottle of paraffine oil with me this season and give the chain a wipe over, which will hopefully stop it from rusting until I’m home and can wax it again (with squirt - don’t want to use it right after washing the bike at the race, as it’ll run and drip all over the car).
Have any of you had issues with MSW separating over time? I just emptied my wax pot and there was a top layer of an almost watery substance and below that a thicker dark grey mixture.
As a quick background I only ride road and train inside a vast majority of the time so there shouldn’t be much grit on my chains.
Kinda? I haven’t noticed it being a big deal at all. Since you melt and then swish the chain in the wax it all gets mixed anyway.
After using up all of the Squirt I had, I’ve switch over to semi-waxing. Semi because I’m using Silca Super Secret Chain lube. My local LBS does the initial ultrasonic chain cleaning for me when I get a new chain, so I just need to do periodic cleaning. I’m using the Silca Gatorade Bottle method (I don’t have an ultrasonic cleaner, and given I’m in a rental, not going this route). I bought some plastic bottles on Amazon, but they turned out to have a too narrow opening to be convenient.
My question: does anyone have recommendations for small plastic bottles to use for the Gatorade method? Or am I just better off buying the Gatorade 20oz 8-pack for $8.29 and reusing the bottles?
Retrieving was exactly my problem with the plastic bottles I bought.
How does the opening of these plastic mason jars compare to the ones you are using? I’m only looking at plastic as I’m renting a place at the moment (house renovations), and the cleaning space is 4 floors below me. So I don’t want to carry glass bottles up and down.
Well, it worked!
I’ve put nearly 50 miles on a freshly waxed chain with the connex properly installed and no skipping. 
Thanks @DaveQB!
I often use Hammer Nutrition containers, Oxi-clean detergent, or even dog bone containers - all have plenty wide openings
Apologies if this has been asked/answered already.
I’ve managed to get some residual impurities in my crockpot of wax.
Is there a good way to strain or separate the impurities out?
You can heat up the wax and use a magnet to get any magnetic particles out. I’ve never come up with much doing this though. Or you can heat up the wax just enough to remove the disk of wax and take knife to slice off the bottom layer where the impurities settle out. Or you can just pitch the wax and put in some new since wax is so cheap.
If it’s MSW the black crap off the chains will both be mixed with, and look similar to the black moly which is one of the key ingredients… Best I’ve come up with is throw it away and start again!
I have a piece of metallic mosquito screen at the bottom of the crock pot. Very little gunk comes off of a waxed chain previously cleaned, but anything that comes off will sink to the bottom.
All true.
I was under the impression that a properly prepped new chain that had been previously waxed only needed a hot water rinse to prep it for re-waxing.
Last time I did this, noticed a certain amount of grit (?), or something, that was difficult to fully remove.
Somehow, the chain didn’t seem 100% clean before I put it in the wax. I was admittedly rushing.
I’ve got an ultra sonic cleaner, so I’ll throw the chain into it with ultra deluited simple green, like 5% solution, and run it for 5-10 min depending on where the chain was run (longer for gravel, mtb, shorter for road) do a water rinse until there are no suds, wipe dry, blow drive (compressor for the win) and re-wax.
Or if I’m in a hurry just pour a kettle of hot water over the chain and toss it in…
For those dripping silca SS on top of a waxed chain, how do you do it?
Just dripping seems like a waste of product because 90% will run pass the rollers, I am guessing from the wax on the chain. Not sure how much makes it to where it’s needed. Either that or mine is too runny/watery. It doesn’t cover nor look like Josh’s chain as he demonstrates on his video.
@aydraper perhaps you have a comment on how it works for you?
The only way I have had success is by going super slow, 1 drop per roller. If I try to crank and drip, I have the same issue as you with watery wax going everywhere but the chain.
As @Chris47 said, just do it slowly one link at at a time. I tried doing it while backpedaling but didn’t work nearly as well. Takes a little time but you get much better results and less waste
I have the same issue with the drip on from Silca, i feel the first bottle I had when it came out was thicker or certainly I seemed to manage to get more onto the chain.
As soon as I get the initial coating on I rotate the cranks forward and shift through all the cogs on the rear and the front rings too, not sure if it does anything but articulating the chain through those angles I thought would aid getting into all the small place.
For riding easy trails, muddy paths, gravel etc on my gravel bike over this winter, I’m considering running waxed chains for this. However I am reading slightly different tips on care, how often to change chains out etc. This is in the UK and washing bike after every ride.
As an aside, can I use a 12 speed Connex on a flat top chain?