xraytech

Glad it sorta worked.

jur

I suppose if you started with a completely clean dry chain, there wouldn't be any oil-based crud, just crud. So that should work better. The crud and water would mix and sink.

Hinge

Absolutely. As others have also said, the key is to start with a super clean or new chain.

Xray, my post was by no means a slam on you or your suggestion. I just wanted to try it out and post my findings. I still wound up with clean wax.

xraytech

It's all good man, I'm feeling my way through this also.

xraytech

Got a flat today so I took this opportunity to clean my cassette.

Didn't take very long, just used an old bath cloth to wipe it close to clean without using degreaser .

jur

Nice!

Hinge

Xray, that looks great. What's the low-down on that wheel & cassette?

I'm at mile 200 on my first wax job and it is going great. Super smooth and super clean. No signs whatsoever of it wearing out. Parents are now on board and and they're loving it too!

FYI I discovered another way to clean the wax. After the wax was melted, I ran a high-powered magnet (from a hard drive) through it and it picked up about 90% of the junk that was in there.
I have a feeling I may find some PTFE and MOS2 powder in my stocking next week...

xraytech

BRILLIANT on the Magnet thing.

xraytech

Time to clean the wax.



I'm going to try Hinge's suggestion, a magnet to gather up the metal grit.

xraytech

The Cassette is a SRAM Red OpenGlide 11-28
https://www.sram.com/sram/road/produ...-1090-cassette

The Wheelset is a pair of K-Pros. Well that's the name on the Rims anyways.
Tailor Made 20" 406 451 Front Rear Wheelset Litepro Star Hubs 14 16 Spoke | eBay

jur

How many wax cycles have you done now?

What is your modus operandi? Clean the chain or dunk it straight into the wax?

xraytech

Really wet weather lately and wax barely holds up in rain, that's what I've heard anyways. So on days I rode through rain, I made it a point to re-wax as soon as possible. So I count 3 or 4 cycles? In dry weather I'd probably be on my second cycle.

I wipe my chain with an old dry bath towel and dunk. I also wipe down the rest of my drive train.

xraytech

So I tried the Magnet Trick and it sort a worked. Either the magnet I used wasn't strong enough or what's left at the bottom of the pot is just road grime.

On my next re-wax cycle I'll try the magnet again and try the water separation trick.

Hinge

That is some serious hardware!! Nice! Any pics of your complete bike?

I used a magnet like this, but without the backing plate:



These things are ridiculously strong. Actually, I was surprised that it worked because the crud in my crock pot looked just like the stuff in your picture above and it appeared to be non metallic/magnetic. If you can get a stronger magnet, give it a try.

xraytech

Here's a most recent pic...

Hinge

Oh yeah! I forgot that was your bike. I was following your pursuit of a new fork a while back.

Great bike. I really like those wheels!

Hinge

Quick wax update.

I'm at 350 miles on the original wax and it is still going strong.

My 76 year old father just hit 500 miles on his. He decided to re-wax "just because" but he didn't really need to. It wasn't showing any signs of decreased performance.

jur

:

I waxed my Brompton chain plus 2 new ones. A new one is on now, and the 2 others are ready to go. Itching to wax my Ti Swift chain also. No time...

Jseis 

Great post. I ride my fattie in a lot of sand and will likely switch to a waxed chain for the same reason local contractors run crawler tracks slightly dry...less sand hangs up on pins, rollers, bushings, gear teeth, thus less wear.

john426

Dear xraytech:
Very interesting. This is a problem with my folder because the wheels are so small that the chain is close to the ground. It is such a shame that the article was so poorly written, without your glowing reports I would not consider doing this.

12boy

I have been using wax occasionally augmented with White Lightning for four or five years now. When I used just wax the wax would flake off, but when a small quantity of heavy grease such as lithium water resistant auto grease at 4-5 bucks a can, the mixture stays on and lubes better but doesn't pick up a lot of dirt. The dirt it does pick up is on the outside of the chain so it is not significant. i had some graphite lube and some moly lube lying around so I tossed that in there two. I believe that as dirt accumulates in the wax it settles to the bottom although the graphite moly does give the mixture an iridescent sheen of sorts. I have a little crockpot made for queso dip about 3-4 inches in diameter that will hold a couple of chains. I like to leave it on with the chains for 4-5 hours to insure the waxy mixture gets inside the rollers, although that may be overkill. However, when I ride through a lot of slop from rain or slush it does remove some wax, hence the white lightning will tide me over until I feel like doing this again. I like to wax new chains without removing any of the packing grease, just drop them on in. the wax seems to displace the grease just fine and definitely creates a waxy shield to protect the innards. Nothing scientific but my chains seem to last a long time and my chainwheels wear very little. There is a blog called Eco Velo that discusses the process, and I believe he mentions Grant Petersen of Rivendell bicycles advocates a mix of 80%wax and 20% beeswax. He mentions oil with Teflon (Slick 50). In the bad old days an oily chain could really gunk up a pant leg and it never came out and your hands were filthy. This is better.

cpg

Thanks for that 12boy. I have tried waxing the chain since reading this thread but the results have not been great. When freshly applied its great and feels efficient but I dont think its suited to cold, damp UK winters, the wax soon wears or flakes off. However I might now try mixing wax and lithium grease as I have a few tub of it in the garage.

dynaryder

Ever notice how clean his bikes are? Doubt he's ever ridden in snow/salt. Used to read that blog,but got tired of him editing any comments that didn't agree with him.

jur

@cpg: When you observe that it has worn off, is that just the outside or the inside as well? I suppose you can tell it's gone on the inside when it starts making noise?

smallwheeler

he probably couldn't handle your critiques of his cable routing..

does seems unusually clean given this quote from the website. there isn't even a speck of dust:



"The above photo shows the untouched/unwashed drivetrain of my primary commuter after approximately 450-500 miles. I live in one of California’s central valleys, so our winter conditions are nothing like they are up north or back east—in other words, our winter conditions are not much different than our summer conditions in terms of road grime—but still, you have to admit that’s an unusually sparkly drivetrain for nearly 500 road miles and zero maintenance."