Originally Posted by
TMonk
It's certainly more technical than wet lube, so yeah maybe it's too hard for some people? It's also not a well trodden path either so a lot of us are figuring this out as we go. The MSW protocol is way too much effort IMO. I used to just dip in paraffin with no real treatment in between, might switch back to that.
I do agree
Hiro11 that waxing a chain is about the same amount of effort as cleaning and re-lubing. That is including the decreased frequency of waxing, since most riders don't clean after each lube application. The additional work comes from the factory grease removal.
Yeah, bottom line is your average B-group rider non-racer shows up to the group ride and slathers on more lube on top of more lube that wasn't cleaned up properly then digs out a tooth brush or Park Tool cleaner maybe once every couple months to "truly" clean the chain and rings and cassette. How many of them you see take out a rag before tossing the bike on the car before heading to the beer watering hole?
But, you can get away with doing wet lube wrong and riding anyway. Mostly. You just have a worse cleanup job later and spend more money on cassettes and chainrings and chains in the long run. Versus doing wet lube "the right way" and wiping chains and cleaning chains.
The barrier to entry to waxing is that you can't really save time by doing it wrong like you can with wet lube. You kind of have to do enough work no matter what with waxing that you might as well go ahead and get it right. So doing it wrong with waxing is silly because you saved yourself zero time versus doing it right.
Kind of like drywall seams. You can do it wrong and just glue freaking chair rail all over the damned house to hide the seams because you're too lazy to do the drywall seams. But if you're going to do the drywall seams, it saves you zero time to do them wrong if you're going to bother to do them at all. So, just go ahead and do them right.