The main reason to remove the manufacturer's lubricant may be to avoid softening the paraffin wax with a solute. But some hot-waxers deliberately introduce softening agents. Your line of argument generally matches my experience, but I think that hard paraffin wax is only marginally soluble in mineral spirits. I have been using mineral spirits to clean the chain and relying on a thorough hot wax bath and agitation to remove any remaining crud on the chain. What settles out in the wax bath can be scraped from the bottom of the block after it cools. I put a mesh screen in the bottom of the pot to permit the crud to settle below the chain, maintain a temperature around 170 degrees F. so the wax fluid is thin to aid penetration, agitate and flip the chain over a couple of times in about a half-hour period, and let the bath cool until it's starting to skim before removing the chain. However, I'm now inclined to skip the cleaning (mineral spirits state or a boiling-water bath) and drop the uncleaned chain in hot wax as sufficient for both cleaning and waxing.
Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Why would the factory lubricant prevent adhesion to the surface of the metal? If the chain is hot waxed, the factory lubricant is melted off with the wax…it is a wax itself. If the chain is being solvent wax lubricated, the solvent dissolves the factory lubricant. As to any particles adhering to the metal, that would depend on the particles suspended in the wax. Teflon, for example, would not bond to the metal no matter what conditions you use. If the particles are something like molybdenum sulfide, I question the conditions needed for the MoS to bond to the metal. Additionally, the MoS is suspended in a wax that will also interfere with the adherence. If the wax doesn’t interfere with the adherence, the factory lubricant…again, a wax…won’t interfere either.
Finally, all this foolishness is only going to result in marginal gains in terms of wear and chain longevity. Bicycle chains are going to wear out and all the magic juices and magic waxes and magic incantations aren’t going to change that by much. An incredible expensive chain using an incredibly expensive lubricant and incredibly expensive cleaning system really isn’t going to wear slower than a cheap chain that hasn’t be pampered.