I’ve seen people spend hundreds of dollars for titanium bolts and other attachments to save realistically less than that amount of effort. 
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I mean, from my perspective, 2W at 400W input is potentially meaningful in a race where literally every watt counts. So Portner and friends formulated the SpeedChip for the pros. Then they decided to sell it to the proletariat. I don’t know if this falls under the UCI’s homologation rules, but if it does, then they’re obliged to sell it to us plebeians.
And you don’t have to bite. This will reduce the treatment lifespan. This would lead to me waxing my chain quite a bit more, so I’ll pass on the SpeedChip. And conversely, I don’t need such long single-application durability that the EnduranceChip would make sense, so I’ll pass also. Just because Poertner is selling this stuff to the great unwashed doesn’t mean that us peasants have to buy it.
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My understanding is that these waxes were all designed to be in the regular Silca chain wax blend in varying amounts. They were all added to the blend for their relative strengths and that the amounts are somewhat based on their costs and what it would take to make the regular blend cost effective. These new products just provide a tinkerer a way to add more of the custom waxes to amp up the existing blend however one might want. Seems like a pretty reasonable way to enable us in my opinion rather than any kind of cash grab.
Call me a sucker, but I just bought both the endurance and speed additives and a new, second “chain waxing system” to keep them separate. I plan to use the speed additive on race only chains and endurance on everything else.
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Indeed. Porsches and Rolexes are for sale as well. Just because I’m not the target consumer for either doesn’t mean they aren’t fine products for people with different priorities.
I’ve both won and lost races by a few seconds. I know what I’d pay or do to have an extra .5% when I missed the podium by 5 seconds.
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In the past I’ve used Rex Hot Wax, which comes in a 12 block package. 11 wax blocks and 1 “ingredients” block. You can mix as low as 4 to 1 ingredients block for fast chains, at z slightly less mileage expectancy. I’ve used the Rex wax and I would say in the 11-1 standard ratio, it out performs Silca and Molten. IMHO.
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Positioning and tactics generally determine podiums over raw watts.
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Power and strategy are not mutually exclusive. With more power, it’s easier to be in the proper position.
Training, nutrition, equipment, strategy, and power are each necessary but not sufficient to insure a win. You need all of them.
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Good luck with that 0.5% more power allowing you to be in a better position.
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Thanks. It’ll certainly help.
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hi I just got the stripper+ wax pack. Drip the stripper to my used chain according to the instructions to all roller, wait 10 minutes then backpedal a bit, apply again then wait 5minutes and rinse it with hose. But the chain still dirty with black grime! OSPW and casette not clean too. Wonder what I did wrong
In my (very limited, as it’s hugely inefficient) experience of cleaning on bike you’ll need to do the whole thing again at least twice more, and if you didn’t start with removing what you could from the jockey wheels and chainrings directly with a cloth possibly even more times.
My general approach to switching someone to wax is:
Remove Chain*
Remove rear wheel
Remove cassette
Scrape worst of the gunk off jockey wheels and chainrings
Wipe jockey wheels and chainrings with a cloth soaked with white spirits
Put cassette in container with degreaser and hot water
Spray jockey wheels, chainrings and anywhere else dirty with UFO Drive Train Clean, work in with brush, leave whilst…
Scrub cassette with brush until clean
Rinse all the above
The chain off the bike gets it’s own treatment, either in degreaser and hot water first then dried and into ufo clean, or into a container with ufo clean, wait/shake/etc and repeat until clean* before rinsing with boiling water.
**that might take a few goes, even off bike and it’s definitely the hardest part of the whole thing. I am very relieved of the existing chain is close to the wear limit, as I can just fit a new waxed one!
Last one I did I tried the old method of starting with a container and white spirit, shaking, pouring off the dirty stuff and repeating, then rinsing in methylated spirit to finish. It took 13x (nearly 2 litres) bath of white spirit to get to the point of being clean, so if your chain is anywhere near worn it’s definitely easier to just throw it out before starting
I would pull the chain and soak it. For cassette, chainrings and pulleys, put some stripper on a brush, wipe down all the cogs, let them sit for 5 minutes then scrub with a brush and they should come clean quite easily
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Got it. Probably a very newbie question as I never remove chain in my entire life but what’s the most convenient way? Is it using the quick link pliers(just learn how to do it on youtube) to take off the quick link and use it to install again? My chain is shimano dura ace 12speed, can I reuse the quick link?
Quick link pliers will remove it easily. Some pliers can install, otherwise position quick link in top chain line and apply force to crank while rear wheel is on ground in place. Be sure both pins are engaged. Officially, you cannot reuse the link, but most people use a few times until the link doesn’t “click” into place firmly.
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Thanks for the kind reply now I feel less daunting to remove and install my chain 
oh and is it better to use expensive branded quick link pliers like park tool or any cheap generic quick link pliers will do? In my place parktool’s cost 10-12x then a generic one
I use a generic one and it’s perfect.
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Any chain pliers will work. Good tools aren’t cheap and cheap tools aren’t good… or something like that. I wouldn’t use a needle nose pliers or similar tool as you don’t want to damage the rollers.
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Officially, most quick links are meant to be used only once. I have re-used them 3–4 times with no issues so far. However, I always keep a spare quick link in my saddle bags.
Shimano’s quick link pliers seem like the best design to me: it has three prongs so that opening and closing happens with the same hand movement. On my quick link pliers I have to spread the handles apart, sometimes with two hands. Not great, but it works.
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I used generic cheap quick link pliers off Amazon and they work great.
12s links aren’t technically reusable however 12s shimano links are much tighter snapping together than reusable YBN quick links so I’m comfortable refusing 12s links.
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