Originally Posted by
JohnJ80
I know it's not a lot of watts from the middle of the pack to the high end, but 3W is 3W. When you can get that back essentially for free by a lube choice, what's not to like? At an average power output of 150W, that's 2% back for free. I recently installed a power meter on my bike and I have to say I was very surprised at what you can do with rather low watts and the difference by adding as little a few watts to the current effort when riding.
Actually the difference between what you use and what I use is is less than 3W. More on the order of 1.2W which is 0.8% difference. A very slight breeze or even a slightly change in tire pressure makes more difference. Like I said about, it's the difference between 15.0mph and 15.1mph in still air.
Originally Posted by
JohnJ80
I don't clean all the time either - mostly I just add lube when needed and wipe the excess off with rag that has spray of WD40 in it the next morning. The trick to a clean chain is keeping the extra lube off external parts of the chain. That's true of any lube.
I understand that the trick is to keep the lube off the external parts of the chain...I used oil based chain lubricants for a long time. But the difference is that my lubricant doesn't move to the external parts of the chain. You wipe down your chain before each ride. I don't have to. That's my "trick".
Originally Posted by
JohnJ80
Your experience with wax was different than mine. I found it noisier and not especially cleaner. When it got noisier, it seemed to me to happen a lot faster from the time I first noticed the increased noise to where it was really noisy. It's also really hard to get it out of the chain if you want to go back to non wax lubes. So, I avoid it. But it's great that it works for you and it's great to have choices.
I disagree that it is harder to get a wax based lubricant out of the chain. The chain
comes with a wax based lubricant. Many people consider that to be a superior lubricant...I don't happen to be one of them...but I can strip all of it or just about any lubricant out of the chain in 30 seconds with some agitation and a half cup of mineral spirits.