FWIW, the Campagnolo C13 chain appears to be bare metal in construction.

The XX1 by SRAM is coated in gold. Is that titanium nitrate or some other high wear coating?

Could the actual construction of the chain, pre lube, be the entire reason?

Absolutely. Maybe.


The road bike doesn’t seem to squeak ever, probably because I rarely ride it.


What about this crazy idea I saw Silca posting the other day. Dip the chain into 125 C wax and leave it in down to 75 C. Or something like that. Their instructions were unclear and I think they were just trying to sell their temperature adjustable wax pot.

I saw something similar on Utube. The guy was explaining that if you remove the chain from the wax while it's still hot a lot of the wax runs out of the rollers. Where as if you let it cool down first, the wax remains inside where it counts.

Possibly. The SRAM XX1 Eagle chain page has a bunch of ad speak but they do mention that the chain is chrome plated. The Campagnolo C13 chain is also coated. There could be construction differences, however. You’ve said that there is a “sound” but not what kind of sound. As I’m sure you know, dry lubricated chains are noisier than wet lube chains. If it were me, I’d not worry about it unless the chain is actually squeaking,

Silca (and others) post a lot of whoo about chains that really doesn’t seem to be backed up by anything concrete. From their waxing system

What’s really silly about their statement is the “not risk overheating” bit. The paraffin used for chains melts from around 40°C to 90°C. Heating it to 125°C could be considered “overheating” the wax. Once the wax is liquid, heating it another 30°C to 40°C doesn’t really do anything. It does make it melt more. Dropping the temperature back down to 75°C for waxing makes little sense as well. Wax doesn’t decompose nor is altered in any way at those temperatures. You’d have to more than double the high temperature to get to the point where you might change the wax composition.

I kind of wonder if they think their heating/cooling process is like tempering chocolate. It might be by that doesn’t really make a difference in how the wax performs. I also believe that a lot of Silca (and others) “procedures” are performative. They don’t do much but they make lubing a chain seem more mysterious which justifies the cost of a $100 “crock pot” compared to a $10 crock pot from Target or $40/pound wax compared to $7/pound canning wax.

Keep chain lubrication…whether oil or wax…and chain cleaning simple. There really is no value in spending a lot of time, energy, or money on chains.

At 75°C, the wax is going to be liquid enough to run out of the rollers. The viscosity of paraffin at 70°C is 5.4 cP. For comparison, lubricating oil has a viscosity of 1.9 cP at room temperature, baby oil has a viscosity of 16.9 cP, and olive oil has a viscosity of 74 cP. None of those liquids are particularly “thick” and most people would say that flow easily. The wax is going to get more viscous as it cools but the chain will be hot for quite a while.

Silca has said they use a synthetic wax. As far as I know, paraffin is not a synthetic.

I don't know much about chain coatings (made of metal). As far as I can tell, expensive chains don't last longer, or if they do, you don't get more miles per dollar with them. But what do I know. I've gone through SRAM and Shimano chains in recent years. These days, I use KMC because they're slightly cheaper and don't seem any worse.

According to Crock Pot, both low and high settings stabilize at:

205 *F - Tips to Making The Best Crock-Pot® Meals In Your Slow Cooker | Crock-Pot®
209 *F - What is the difference between High and Low Setting in Crock-Pot Slow Cookers?

That seems enough to melt Gulf Wax and paraffin from vendors who advertise a lower oil content. But Crock Pots do not come with a nifty arm to hang one's waxed chain!

Nope, it's done, enough is enough.

I saw a lot of familiar faces in these pages. Arguing as usual.