Silca Ultimate Chain Stripper + Wax Prep

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Competition for Ceramic Speedā€™s UFO Clean. Competition is good!

$36 for a 16oz bottle FYI

Also, they say you can dump it down the sink as itā€™s safe for the environment, but what about the grease? surely this product doesnā€™t convert the grease into something safe to dump down the drainā€¦

They say it encapsulates the grease or something like that so I think its safe to go down the drain. Probably not the best for your water treatment plant. But who knows. My silca hot melt arrives today so I am entering the world of hot wax.

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UFO Clean bottle I have was $30 for 34oz / 1 liter.

So much for competition driving down prices!

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UFO clean is now in 500ml bottles, which is half the size they used to be - so I guess that would be 16 oz!

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https://www.excelsports.com/ceramicspeed-ufo-clean-chain-cleaner

Still $30 for 1 liter / 34oz

For now. The relaunch was last week so any new stock from the distributor will be the smaller bottles:

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You would need to buy roughly 20 bottles to equal the cost of the new Campy Super Record 12 Speed Wireless

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A gallon of mineral spirits is ~$14.00ā€¦so why do I need to pay 20x as much per oz?

I mean cā€™monā€¦

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Message from Silca regarding its ability to be disposed of down the drain. Seems pretty disingenuous to suggest itā€™s safe for the drain when the only way that is, is before using the product.

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Was wondering about that after watching the videoā€¦Josh clearly says you can just ā€œhose it downā€ after it drips off. That didnā€™t sound accurate to me and it appears it isnā€™t.

You see this all the time with Simple Greenā€¦ā€œOh, it is biodegradable so I can just pour it down the sink or into the ground after I use it.ā€ Um, no you canā€™tā€¦at that point it needs to be disposed of like any other chemical. Once it strips the nasty stuff off your bike, it is no longer biodegradable.

It sounds like some great tech, but it is just ridiculously pricedā€¦which is saying something since it is from Silca.

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Convenience! My chain stays on the bike and its fast&easy to deep clean while washing. Put a oil pan under to collect the junk instead of going down the drain. Why do I want to mess around with removing the chain if I donā€™t have to? UFO Clean for $30 per 34oz has been a bargain and its lasted 18+ months and still more in the bottle.

Yeah, I can certainly see the convenience factorā€¦but it is worth the premium? I have a hard time seeing that, I guess, especially since you only do it once per chain.

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Premium? I spent $30 about 20 months ago. I spend more on beer in a month.

Do it once per chain? I use UFO Clean to strip the grease, and then every bike wash. So Iā€™ve been using UFO Clean to deep clean the chain about a couple times a month on average.

Make that 176 bottles of UFO Clean to equal the $5300 campy price.

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That is a whole separate budget / spreadsheet. Iā€™m not dipping into those funds for anything.

Premium vs. just using mineral spirits. Again, it is 20x as much per oz.

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Iā€™m spending an extra 5 minutes every two weeks to deep clean my chain. Not ready to pull the chain off and dip it in hot water or whatever else you might do. Honestly this is probably the cheapest thing I spend money on to maintain my bike. Right now its about $1.70 per month for the UFO Clean and the bottle still has a lot of life left in it.

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You canā€™t spray mineral spirits on the chain/cassette/chainrings when on the bike, tickle them a little with a brush and rinse 99% of the crap plus the wax off the bike (a ZFC ā€˜contamination resetā€™) ready for re-waxing from a fresh starting point.

Iā€™m sure there are cheaper cleaners you can buy, but Iā€™ve yet to find one as effective on oil and wax.

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I really want this to be a new standard unit of measure around here :joy: