I wanted to share my experience with waxing my bike chains.
I was resistant to waxing my chains because it seems that a lot of people felt it was “too much work”.
But having to constantly clean black shit off my chains after every ride, then spend time degreasing and re-lubing, I figured I’d try waxing when I got my gravel bike.
Now, thousands of KM later and having converted all three bikes to waxed, there’s no way I’d go back. The time saved could be measured in hours per month.
First, the biggest complaint is chain prep. Yeah, regardless if you’re waxing or not, you’ll need to prep a new chain by removing the factory grease. With waxed, you do this once, and no more worrying about degreasing ever again. Make like easy and get Silca’s chain stripper, and it’s a 10 minute, one-step process.
Ongoing chain maintenance couldn’t be easier. After every ride, give the chain a quick wipe (or not). My chain stays clean, even after a 200 km ride.
And if you ride in wet or dirty conditions? Guess what, you’re in for a LOT of work if you lube your chain. With waxed, keep a second (or third) chain ready to go, and you just swap it out (10 seconds of effort). Take the dirty chain, give it a wipe if it’s only been wet, or pour boiled water onto it if you want to “reset” the chain to bare metal. Then drop it into the waxing pot for a re-wax. You don’t have to stand at the pot, so there’s no real time commitment here. I’ve spent more time completely dirtying large microfiber cloths trying to get my chain “clean” when lubed (hint: it’s never clean if you use a wet lube, not without solvents and an ultrasonic cleaner).
For actual immersion wax, I do it every 1000 km (sooner than you need to), and use a drip wax every 200 - 250 km to keep things fresh.
Honestly, wax is easier, cleaner, and takes less time to maintain vs wet lube.
The only downsides? The initial cost to get started. But this is offset by not having to replace chains or other components prematurely. You actually save money in the long-term when using waxed chains.
Some might argue that “you can’t run waxed chains in muddy or constantly rainy conditions”. Well, at the same time, your wet lube isn’t really helping matters in those situations, either. Waxed is still better, and you can swap chains much faster than you can clean the grinding paste from a wet lubed chain.
Who would I not recommend waxed chains to? Someone who rarely uses their bike. Drip lube will be “good enough” in those cases. But anyone else would benefit from waxing their chain.
The time saved could be measured in hours per month.
Huh? I have two bikes I ride all year round – snow, rain, sun, on and off-road. Both of them pretty well maintained, if I say so myself. I’ve ridden over 5.5k km this year, and I think I’ve spent less than an hour total on cleaning and lubing my chains.
Make like easy and get Silca’s chain stripper, and it’s a 10 minute, one-step process.
10 minutes to degrease your chain with some fancy (and expensive, I presume) stripper? Damn, nobody’s got time and money for that. You can do that in less than two minutes of work, including taking the chain off and putting in back. Just put your dirty chain in a small plastic bottle with some gasoline and shake it well for a minute. After that, run it through a piece of cloth and hang outside to dry. Done.
Honestly, wax is easier, cleaner, and takes less time to maintain vs wet lube.
Yeah, sure. Not having to cook my chains every 1k km takes sooo much time xD
Maybe I don’t do enough? I tried degreasing my chain in jars and with one of those chain cleaner things and saw no benefit but lots of extra work and mess.
Now I never degrease. Add lube to chain on the bike, several rotations to work it in, several rotations through a rag to clean it off. Takes three minutes and I do that monthly for the road bike, weekly for MTB, and after cleaning the bike. I never have to take the chain off until I replace it.
I use wet lube on the MTB and rock n roll extra dry on road bike.
Here’s the problem:
The parts of the chain that wear out are on the inside; you can’t wipe it clean.
When you use a standard lube, it attracts dirt inside the chain, and creates a grinding paste (i.e. that black crap), which will degrade the chain quickly.
As the chain wears, it wears on other components, so it cascades to the point where you’ll get issues with shifting, chain skipping, etc., and components will need to be replaced.
Waxing fills the gaps where those inner components of the chain wears, effectively providing a buffer that dirt does not stick to.
You may not notice wear unless you are checking with a good quality chain checker tool, or when you start to experience issues.
How often you ride will also be a factor. Someone who rides 2000 km a year may not notice chain wear issues for 2 years. Someone riding 20,000 km might notice these problems every month.
And the more gears your bike has, the less chain wear you can get away with before it starts chewing through other components.
To me, it’s an easy way to ensure longer-lasting, cleaner, quieter components, so I’ll stick to it (no pun intended)!
Define quickly? Is there data showing that waxed chains last X% longer? And what is the net present value of the time needed to maintain a waxed chain? I suspect it is cheaper to replace the chain slightly more often using “good enough” procedures than to obsess about it and spend more time doing a “better” procedure.
The only way to get it all is to go full Sheldon Brown: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html
Is there data showing that waxed chains last X% longer?
And what is the net present value of the time needed to maintain a waxed chain?
From personal experience, much less time needed to maintain a waxed chain than a web lubed chain (assuming the same goal: clean chain, minimal wear).
I suspect it is cheaper to replace the chain slightly more often using “good enough” procedures than to obsess about it and spend more time doing a “better” procedure.
In the data linked above, the cost difference between waxed and standard lube, after 10,000km, is a few hundred dollars vs several thousand. With the amount of riding I do per year, this is like saving enough to buy a new bike each summer.
The only way to get it all is to go full Sheldon Brown: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html
Yes, for 99.9% of bike maintenance info, I also rely on Sheldon Brown. But the (extremely brief) info on wax is super outdated, and they cite articles from 2013. A tremendous amount of innovation has gone into chain wax over even the last few years!
Like I wrote in my OP, I avoided wax because I heard so many stories of it being too much trouble, but my experience has been the opposite.
Did you click the SB article I linked? It was a joke that I used to point out diminishing returns of effort. I don’t want to spend the extra time and use the extra space for equipment and extra chains needed to wax my chain.
The 5 block test method on the site you linked does not seem valid as it would change based on the sequence of blocks. It could have been designed to favor a particular lubricant.
It was a joke that I used to point out diminishing returns of effort.
That was extreme, but with wet lube, I used an ultrasonic cleaner + solvents to actually clean it. Less effort than the article, but similar results.
Any other way would not be cleaning much.
The effort, even with ultrasonic + solvents, is more than waxing.
For me, the little effort saves time, money, and headache. It’s worth it.
I don’t want to spend the extra time and use the extra space for equipment and extra chains needed to wax my chain.
I have a very small box, with a very small slow cooker and a hook to grab the waxed chain. It takes up less space than the solvents needed to clean a web lubed chain.
The time, at least for me, is next to nothing. Far less than constantly wiping a forever dirty web lubed chain + the ultrasonic baths and disposal of solvents.
The 5 block test method on the site you linked does not seem valid as it would change based on the sequence of blocks. It could have been designed to favor a particular lubricant.
Page 1 shows cumulative wear (one test after another), but the second page shows individual blocks, and might be more applicable for some riders.
Even in block 1, without any contamination whatsoever, all chains without wax will wear.
In block 2, which would be someone riding only in dry weather, wet lubes show significantly more wear than drip wax, and even more vs. waxed.
In the wet condition block, many of the wet lubes ironically fail past the point of excessive wear, which means you’re replacing your cassette by that point.
For me, waxing is a no-brainer, especially considering the other benefits (i.e. no solvents, no dirty hands, quiet drivetrain, etc.).
Let it be dirty. I wet lube, wipe, and let good enough be enough.
Counter-point: Here’s how I lube my chain.
Whenever the squeaking annoys me too much, I apply some lube.
Done.Be sure that you’re checking your chain for wear… and your cassette… and chainrings. That approach might work well for some, but squeaking is already a sign that wear has been occuring.
My chain checklist -
Have I put oil on the chain this decade? Y/N
Done!
I don’t see why anyone would need to go thru all that when we’re talking about parts that will need to be replaced at some anyway point no matter how good care you take of them.
For me, my bike is to be used and abused. Yeah maybe my chain and cassette wears faster than with a proper maintenance but I also just keep riding way past that untill it effectively becomes unuseable. My chain is already stretched to the point I’m supposed to replace it and there’s several teeth missing on my rear cassette but I notice no difference in performance. The shifting is going to be more or less shit either way because a new derailleur stays straight on my use for about 3 days. I’ve already mastered the trail-side derailleur adjustment by grabbing it with bare hands and bending it straight(er)
I don’t see why anyone would need to go thru all that when we’re talking about parts that will need to be replaced at some anyway point no matter how good care you take of them.
Plenty of reasons, even when you acknowledge that parts will eventually need to be replaced:
- Convenience.
- Quieter ride.
- Cleaner.
- No solvents when you need to really clean the chain.
- Saves a LOT of money, especially when some newer cassettes are $300+, chains up to $100, etc. But even in my older bike, where the components are cheap, I’d rather not be spending money sooner and more often.
- As with the above point, components last significantly longer, and work better for longer (i.e. better shifting, no chain skipping, etc.).
- If you count watts, waxing will save them.
- Because you aren’t replacing components as often, this has environmental benefits, too.
I’m not a casual rider, so I want my bikes to run smoothly and with as little effort to maintain as possible. For me, waxing has been a blessing.
You know what’s even easier? Forgetting to lube your chain for a while. Then avoid lubing it out of shame to face your failure. Then measuring the chain wear after a year to discover no significant degradation.*
* Might require extra strong ebike-specific chains like KMC X11e EPT
Even easier is not caring or even knowing that you are supposed to do anything.
Ah, you must be one of those cyclists I can hear a mile away! SQUEAK, SQUEAK, SQUEAK!! 😂
Another surprising thing for me is that at no point did it start making shameful noises.
Plot twist: You’re actually using a carbon belt drive. 😆
7 years and counting. Have never had any maintenance on my belt. The Alfine 11 has had an oil change though.
Sounds like a dream! I’m sure at some point I’ll go with a belt drive. For now, I’m quite content with a low-maintenance chain drivetrain. Especially for their ubiquity, lower cost, and ease of repair while out in the middle of nowhere. LOL
It’s been very easy. Although I will say my use case is a 9km urban commute. Any issues I can jump on a train to the local bike shop.
Changing a rear tyre on a split frame in the middle of no where would be beyond me.
Haha, luckily I haven’t biked for quite a few years. My work is pretty away and I can play Ghost of Tsushima on the train.
Then measuring the chain wear after a year to discover no significant degradation.
How many miles/km?
Yes, good chains last longer. But good waxed chains can outlive the life of some bikes (20,000km on a waxed chain is not unheard of). And it preserves the components at the same time.
Not too many, perhaps 2000km. Spring/summer/fall, no water or dirt riding. The cassette is SLX, derailleur and shifter are XT. I don’t ride a huge amount at the highest gears which suffer from higher wear due to the fewer teeth count. I recently lubed it with Silca Synerg-e and it’s bit quieter but the shifting performance was excellent before and after that. With all that said, I have no doubt I’ve worn it more than if I had properly maintained it. Perhaps significantly more. Nevertheless I was flabbergasted at the state of the drivetrain after this much mismaintenance. 😂
Yeah, with 2000km, I wouldn’t expect much wear from a high-end chain like that. Before waxing, I was using Synergetic, which does help to preserve components. But it was still dirty, and I just got tired of always seeing black when I wiped the chain!
Now, I can literally put a dropped chain back on my chainring, and don’t even have to wipe my hands. It’s wild how clean a chain can be after 1000km of low effort maintenance!
So you’re saying I’m the perfect target audience for waxing? 🤔
Unless you don’t ride your bike, you are the perfect target audience for waxing! LOL
How do you melt the initial wax? Watching videos people use crockpots.
Doesn’t that ruin the pot? Do you have a dedicated pot for the wax?
If you use Silcas hot melt, then you can actually just boil the bag and put the chain in there. I haven’t used it like that, but instead just got an inexpensive slow cooker (most are <$25 or nearly free if second hand).
It doesn’t really “ruin” the pot, but I would dedicate it to wax only.
Interestingly enough, I’ve discovered wax melting pots designed specifically for melting waxes (i.e. for candle making), and while they might be a little more expensive than a slow cooker, they offer finer temperature control and may be slightly more convenient to use. With a cheap slow cooker, I’m quite happy!
Appreciate the advice!
I’ll check out some thrift stores / garage sales.
We also have a few candles that could stand to be remelted and reset, so perhaps their fly by the SO better if it’s for multiple uses :)
Thrift stores are full of old crock pots. We used to get them for candle making.
I use a small wax heater for removing body hair. 20$ and gets the job done. If you plan to do more than one chain at a time though, it’s too small. I’ll probably buy a used crock pot or instant pot at some time to wax more than one chain at a time.
Key and Peele would be proud of your use on the chain wax
I prefer belt drive with a sealed internal geared hub. It’s not for everyone or every situation but it’s nice riding in the wet and just putting the bike away after without thinking about cleaning and lubrication
Yeah, if you can get a belt drive, go for it. I think if I ever got an ebike, it would need to have a belt drive. There’s something about working on a heavy bike that makes me want to work on it far, far less than something that’s lightweight.
My chain maintenance takes about 2 minutes: soak it with some cheap multipurpose oil and wipe off the excess with an oily rag. I repeat this once every 2 weeks or so and it has worked good enough so far. When it’s extra wet outside and my bike is covered in mud when I get back home I usually go thru it with an garden sprayer filled with hot water. Then I add the extra step of drying the chain with compressed air and re-lube it for storage after every ride.
Wow, this is super insightful! Thanks! Been wondering about waxing chains. We’re getting into our wet season so this is definitely piquing my curiosity once again.
We’re getting into our wet season so this is definitely piquing my curiosity once again.
Winter here gets slushy and salty, and I burned through a few chains two winters ago, then invested in “rustproof” chains last year, which worked well, but keeping on top of cleaning the inside of the chain and relubing was a PITA.
This year, I’ll be rotating waxed chains.
The SILCA strip chip does a great job of eliminating the need for chain prep. Worth the extra cost, if you don’t want to mess around with harsh chemicals.
Waxed chains are the bees knees. I’ll never go back to using lube.
The SILCA strip chip does a great job of eliminating the need for chain prep. Worth the extra cost, if you don’t want to mess around with harsh chemicals.
I actually ordered some, realized that the slow cooker I was using couldn’t get to the right temperature for it, and sent it back.
It would have been easier, for sure. But the Chain Stripper is also really easy and can be reused. I’ll probably never run out, considering that I may only need to use it once every few years (per new chain). LOL
I used to thin paraffin wax with xylene just enough to make a solution that stays liquid and apply it to the chain from an old chain oil dripper bottle. If applied liberally it flushes out what little dirt has accumulated on the chain and after a quick wipe you’re done. The xylene evaporates leaving you with a waxed chain.
I used dry lubes for a while too but found the homemade wax liquid the most trouble-free option.
Sounds like you made a DIY version of a commercial drip wax. I use Silca’s drip wax, and I’m getting really good value out of it, so I’m not motivated enough to try something homemade. But I’m glad it works for you, and no doubt is better than most other lubes!
Started with wet wax five years ago. Two years ago migrated to immersion waxing.
I do 5-10 chains at a time. It takes all of 15 minutes.
Then I wet wax between immersion waxing sessions.
Chains last a wildly long time and the time saved in between rides is incredible. Not to mention how clean all other parts stay.
I do 5-10 chains at a time.
For how many bikes??
Heheh. A few.
But I also do my partners bikes.
Most bikes have two active chains each. That way when I do it, it’s quite some time before I have to do it again.
Are you doing anything special to clean the chains before they get rewaxed in the immersion bath?
I’m a little OCD when it comes to worrying about contamination, but I hear a lot of people just wipe the outside of the chain and stick it in the wax without issues. You probably have more experience than most, considering how many chains you wax!
OCD checking in here too.
To clean the chains they go in an ultrasonic cleaner with heated water to get rid of the existing wax. This makes it easy to just put all the chains in at once and let them party.
Then a second ultrasonic session with some isopropyl for a final clean and repelling the water. I have mason jars that the chains go in, so it’s really quick and repeatable. By the isopropyl step they’re already quite clean so the isopropyl lasts a really long time.
I’ve got the workflow down - and lots of place to hang chains in the bike workshop.
The same process works well for stripping new chains - just with the hot water step switched out for a mineral spirits bath. It’s just as quick but needs a space with good ventilation.
To clean the chains they go in an ultrasonic cleaner with heated water to get rid of the existing wax.
I didn’t even consider using my ultrasonic cleaner with the heater on. I’m not even sure it gets hot enough, but I may give it a try!
As for isopropyl alcohol, it’s a good second step, but I’m not even sure that it’s necessary.
Remember that technically, we can just dump an old waxed chain into more wax, and it’ll be just fine. Yes, a little contamination gets into the wax, but apparently not enough to be a problem (with as many chains as you have, I probably wouldn’t want to do that).
And the Zero Friction Cycling guy even recommends two wax pots, so your “dirty” chain goes into one, and then into the second one, reducing the contaminants in the second pot.
But, I’m almost certain that simply boiling the wax off is going to be more than good enough to get the chain clean. And I think the guys at Silca say that putting a chain into oil that’s a little wet is fine, since the water “boils off”.
In any case, if your workflow works well, and it sounds like it does, keep doing it! I’m sure I’ll modify and refine my workflow as I go (even might give the two pot method a go), but it’s already “too easy” compared to all the solvent baths I used to run my chains through.
In my experience a lot of people are simply not aware of liquid chain wax like Squirt and think they have to put their chain in a heated pot or something.
This is what I’ve been using for the last 12 years, and I’ve been happy. Immersion waxing seems interesting, but it does seem a bit daunting to me.
Drip wax is better than wet lube, but not as good as immersion wax. You CAN use drip wax over a chain that has been immersion waxed for ongoing top-ups, but it also depends on what works for you.
I use the site zerofrictioncycling to see which methods are best.
Yeah but I’m lazy and imo it is good enough, especially with how easy it is to apply. I know a lot of people think similarly about that process, except they don’t know that there’s an easy waxing way too and it is still superior to regular lubes.
Yeah but I’m lazy and imo it is good enough, especially with how easy it is to apply.
For sure. You’re already getting better, cleaner results than pretty much any wet lube out there - even the best stuff!
I really want to try waxing my chain but I commute on my bike and more than half the year it is wet and rainy so I had always read that it wouldn’t really be suitable due to the wetness. It is interesting to hear that this may not actually be as much of an issue as I was lead to believe by everything I had dead about it.
I generally keep on top of my maintainance and will wash the bike usually once a week including cleaning the filthy as fuck chain.
Think I may look into waxing again after reading this.
Unless your commutes are 150 km a day, wax will still be better than wet lube. Rotating among multiple chains would be the way to go.
The lower the speed count, the less expensive the chain, but you’ll save money in the long run, even with multiple 11 speed chains (which are way more expensive than something like a 7/8 speed chain).
I generally keep on top of my maintainance and will wash the bike usually once a week including cleaning the filthy as fuck chain.
I got tired of that. And realistically, you’ll never get a “clean” chain when using wet lube unless you use an ultrasonic cleaner + solvents (and run it through multiple cleaning cycles). You can clean the outside of the chain, but the wear happens around the pins, and you can’t wipe that clean.
Cheers for the info. I absolutely do not have the money to try this just yet but I will be keeping it in mind to do in the future as I’m sick of the black shit everywhere!