Gotcha. No one should ever use a camping stove since open flames are involved and something might catch fire. A sad day for anyone owning a fireplace as well...

The risk of taking the chain off, hanging it by the ends and running it quickly through a camping stove flame is about the same as with boiling water with the same stove. Or hot waxing in general. Or burning a candle. If you don't purposefully try to set the chain on fire, it won't catch fire. But I will have to emphasize that I have not yet managed to ignite the chain. Even with the solvent wax test the solvent burned off but the wax remained.

It's not about hurry. It's about humidity. If you start riding in rain with a water waxed chain that hasn't dried, following your earlier statements, that wax is going to run off in short order. Or do you disagree? How do things dry in rain?

Now considering that there is exactly one brand of solvent wax available, that's exceedingly difficult to find in the EU, and even more difficult to ship (no volatile solvents allowed in planes), the realistic choice is either to use oil (nope), use no lube at all (also nope) or make the water emulsion wax work in all conditions. Letting some of the water evaporate overnight and heating the chain in the morning to A) melt the wax and B) get rid of any remaining water does in fact solve all of water based emulsion wax's problems.

Or have you never done a rainy autumn or spring tour? Do you not know what one might entail?

Oops, my error. I assumed you were only doing this at home, not on a bike tour.

On a tour, when my drive train gets noisy I just add chain lube from the bottle of liquid lube, I use Finish Line Ceramic (dry version) when touring, takes less than a minute counting the time to dig the bottle out of my handlebar bag and put it back.

A hair dryer on tour?¿ ;)) cool stuff!

​​​​​​Say what! You guys don’t carry back-up diesel generators to run your hair dryers? Pffft! Amateurs

No, no “gotcha”. Generally speaking, camp stoves aren’t meant to be waved around like a torch. I was envisioning you leaving the chain on the bike and passing the stove under the chain. Get the stove too close to a tire or set the solvent on fire and there’s going to be problems.

And how much time to you have in camp at night? Taking a chain off to heat it over a flame? I got more things to do at night then taking bits off my bike. And I can just imagine getting down on the ground to look for the inevitable dropped quick link.

Oh, I thought you said that there is no way a water based lube could be re-emulsified. Much of the reason why I don’t use water based wax lubricants is because of the effect rain has on it. Anyone who has used wax lubricants in rain are well aware that the lubricants on the chain needs to be refreshed after riding in rain. I have done long (long, long) dissertations on why. Oil needs to be refreshed as well but for different reasons.

Say what?! You can’t get Silca Secret wax? You can’t get Rock ‘n’ Roll? You can’t get Green Oil? There are a bunch of others that aren’t just available in the US.

Please. Give me some credit. I don’t just tour in fair weather. I don’t use water based wax lubricants because I don’t just tour in fair weather.

But then you know that but are just being a Richard.

I am more worried about the tiresome thing going here again ... ;())))

If you're being intentionally obtuse and imagining silly scenarios, that's on you.

Enough to take a chain off, run it through a multifuel burner flame as it's evacuating the fuel line and putting it back. With some experience, taking a chain off and reattaching it is a super quick process.



Not if it's solidified and dried. It's absurd to think that a chain could match a 30k rpm shear mixer.

Only if you use bad wax lubricants. The good ones don't require reapplication after rain. You can usually get a week of rain riding from a rex waxed chain.

Silca is water emulsion. Never heard of Rock n Roll wax, so I'm assuming it's not available here.

Green oil is from the UK. Not the EU. Have you heard of brexit and what it did to trade between the uk and EU. Also, never seen it and can't find it from EU stores.



So I'm just doing the math here. You say that wax lube needs reapplying after a wet ride. Yet your current one is going 2000 miles with four reapplications. So either you don't follow your own protocol OR you really don't ride in the rain. If it's the former, your words don't mean much. If it's the latter, I do believe your claims of your wet riding experience may be a bit inflated. Winter months tend to be the wet ones.

There's a hole in this thread, isn't there?

I will have some grilled sausages and cold beers if available. So, no time to wax a chain while touring.

I will bring the beer and a bottle of White Lightning. I'll bring a bottle of solvent-based chain wax, too.

Don’t blame me if you don’t explain something very well. Frankly, I don’t know of anyone who is in the habit of removing chains while on tour.

I have far more experience removing chains than you do. I know how quickly they can be removed. I also know how often the quick link can be dropped. Additionally, I know that removing a chain in camp is just a silly thing to do unless there is a real need for it…like replacing the chain. Otherwise, it’s just best to leave the chain in place.

A 30,000rpm mixer is just faster. That doesn’t mean that a chain couldn’t mix water, wax and emulsifier well enough to remove a significant amount of chain lubricant. Just the act of moving the chain around without water does a good job removing wax from the chain.

Go ahead. Pull the other one If a Rex waxed chain was good for riding during a week of rain, then why the need to add any more and all the kerfuffleage about heating the wax to evaporate solvent? If it’s that good, why even carry extra lubricant of any kind. Me thinks this is an idle boast.


Not from Europe. But I really doubt you can’t get solvent based wax. There’s more than one brand.


I chain I am tracking is on one bike over 3 years. It’s not the only bike I ride and it’s not one I ride in winter weather. I have mountain bikes I ride in winter weather that have a different lubrication schedule. I also have done extensive tours where I have had rain days…often many of them. I just haven’t tracked mileage on that bike (nor any other bike until the one I’m doing now).

As to when it is wet, I like in a very different climate than yours. High altitude (1600m) in a semi-desert. March is the wettest month but not every March is wet and we can get significant rain in intense summer downpours. I don’t always ride in rain but that doesn’t mean I never ride in rain. I have also ridden for most of 50 years now so I’ve ridden in a fair amount of rain and am well aware of what it does to a drivetrain.

Again, this is just you being a Richard. I don’t disrespect you although I disagree. You can try doing the same.

Sometimes things are clear from the context. Typical discussions shouldn't require that everything single thing is explained like the other party is a toddler.



There's plenty of good reasons to take a chain or quick link off when on tour or on camp. Just because you don't know of them doesn't mean they don't exist. Your problem is that you've lost all curiosity you may have once had. The world is complete for you, as we'd say where I'm from.


Testing data and teal world data disagrees with that premise but sure. A bike chain is a high shear mixer.

This really disquieted me for a bit. I really had to think, whether you were for real or not... I'm hoping not.

But you realize that tours often last longer than a week? Right? Right?


So umm. The EU has fairly strict environmental laws and also companies use responsibility marketing pretty heavily. If something can be made PFAS and aromatic hydrocarbon free, that's done in an instant. Even some brake cleaners have gone for milder solvents so they can use the "biodegradeable" tag.

So your certainty of something isn't the reality.


​​​​​​​And with this, I'm again done. Thank you for your contribution. Please do not respond.

I am jealous. My bike tours are camping, usually lack the grill and the cooler for cold beers. I had to fry my sausages in a fry pan.

Better a grill and little fridge than a wax cooker.

We don’t know what you have in your head and you didn’t explain it well. Frankly, leaving the chain on the bike is the safest way to do your silly fire drying. I don’t see how you could run the flame up and down the chain while holding it without toasting your fingers. Yea, you could hang it on something but I’m not sure what. Hammer a couple of nails into a tree and stretch the chain between them? Don’t know about you but I don’t tend to carry nails or hammers with me on tour.

Name 3. I’ve toured extensively for 40+ years and I’ve removed the whole chain exactly once. I had to worn out chain at the beginning of the tour and forgot to change it before I left. That instance was what got me to do the chain study I’m currently doing. During that tour, I noticed how little I added lubricant to the chain and decided to track it.

Granted, not changing the chain before the tour was my fault and my negligence but I only did it once. My bikes before a tour are mechanically sound and ready to ride for several weeks with little to no adjustments. Maybe you just aren’t as good a mechanic.




The slightly green/blue world data aside, I didn’t say that it was terribly efficient but it doesn’t need to be. Throw enough water at a water soluble material and it will dissolve. The materials used for getting wax to play nice with water are also hygroscopic. Heat them all you want but they will still pull water out of the atmosphere.

Yes, I realize the tours can last as long as people like. But you said that Rex wax was good for a week of rain. Is that a week of 24 hour rain? Or a week of intermittent rain? Or a week of what? Rex wax must be very, very special stuff as most people actually do report that the chain starts to squeak after rain exposure of most any kind.

And if this magic Rex wax is that good for a “week of rain”, it must be totally marvelous stuff for the dry. Again, why carry extra wax at all?

I noticed you said “I’m again done”. Somehow I don’t think you are. As to not responding, to be a bit childish: “make me!”.