Chain waxing

[AdrianS]

Has anyone converted to waxing ( hot waxing ) their chains instead of the usual oil?
If so, do you still oil the derailleur pivots or leave them clean and dry?
No YouTube videos or any other articles mention oiling the derailleur pivots and jockey wheel pivots.

 

[OldCroc]

I've heard of this before and many years ago knew a chap who tried it but it was a pita as you had to remove the chain to do it. I would have thought that modern chains would have sealed bearings or rollers though so it would be a wasted effort?
I always believed the main wear was on the sprockets which would come from the outside of the chain so any old oil would do the trick as long as it is applied often enough.

I presume a drop of chain oil on the jockey wheels would do no harm if you do venture down that route. Interested to hear what other views there are.

 

[leadfarmer]

Reminds me of the old days of trials bikes and boiling chains in cans of grease

 

[steve hughes]

I've heard of this before and many years ago knew a chap who tried it but it was a pita as you had to remove the chain to do it. I would have thought that modern chains would have sealed bearings or rollers though so it would be a wasted effort?
I always believed the main wear was on the sprockets which would come from the outside of the chain so any old oil would do the trick as long as it is applied often enough.

I presume a drop of chain oil on the jockey wheels would do no harm if you do venture down that route. Interested to hear what other views there are.

Im a bit confused on this , bicycle chains are £20/30. They dont have any sealed bearings at all. The cassette see’s the inside of the chain , you may be confusing the top jockey wheel which touches the outside.

You are spot on that cassettes wear , its due to the pins becoming worn which manifests itself as “ chain stretch” what then happens is they drag off the top of the sprocket. Just like on a motorcycle but one helluva lot faster DAMHIK


Dry lubes are the closest bicycle chains get to wax, the dry lube is a suspension of ptfe in a solvent. When applied to a “ clean dry, and thats critical” chain and the left overnight, the solvent evaporates leaving the ptfe on the wearing pins and side plates resulting in a cleaner lubed chain and potentially less likely to pick up crap.

Apart from the downside of the chain having to be spotless and lubing the day before you ride, dry lube comes off when the chain hets wet with rain and road debris.

Its for this reason I run wet lube all winter eg Oct to April, then dry lube over the summer months. I done long rides in the summer and the dry lube has started to wear off which is a royal pita. Wet lube just does what it says on the bottle , but you have a dirty cassette and chain after every 50/ 100 miles or so.

 

[ymfb]

I’m just about to embark on this journey, partly because I’ve watched a few YouTube people say it’s more effective and partly because I can and it just happens to coincide with fitting a new chain and cassette.

I’ve bought a £14.99 crock pot slow cooker, a kg of paraffin wax, 5 litres of white spirit. I plan to clean and wax two chains at a time. I’m going to clean the chain and cassette in my sonic bath first. I might be tempted to buy some specialist wax if the process goes well.

I’m also starting with my gravel bike.

 

[steve hughes]

Watch this space ^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[DC]

had this conversation the other day with the bike tech servicing my high end Bike.. like Steve above ,dry lube summer, wet lube winter. He advised against wax, It is "flingy" , as we know it is on motorbikes. So it can clog up the jockey wheels and derailleur. which is ok if you want to clean them a lot, it seems oil is a cleaner way and also a better way to add more life to the chain cassette and front rings ...

 

[wildbeeste]

I applied so called "ebike chain wax" to my ebikes new chain following the instructions. When I wash the bike after a ride all the wax obviously disappears as the chain immediately gets a patina of rust. Spraying old fashioned oil or teflon lubricating spray on my other bike's chains protects them from rust even after washing so I am unconvinced about the value of wax rather than other lubes. The wax did not seem to prolong the life of the chain or the cassette either as new ones were required after about 2000 miles due to stretching/wear not rust. Ebike consumables are pricier than motorbike bits.

 

[Hustler]

Reminds me of the old days of trials bikes and boiling chains in cans of grease

I remember that.
I remember doing it as well.

 

[AdrianS]

Chain waxing is meant to be cleaner, be more efficient , and prolong the life of chains and drive train.
I just wonder if the hassle of getting everything clinically clean is worth the hassle.
The original question is - do you still have to lubricate the derailleur pivots if running waxed chains? No mention of this is in any YouTube videos.

 

[AdrianS]

Ps I remember soaking the old motorbike chains in a tin of Linklife on top of the cooker! Not sure if Linklife was wax or some solid grease compound.

 

[steve hughes]

Chain waxing is meant to be cleaner, be more efficient , and prolong the life of chains and drive train.
I just wonder if the hassle of getting everything clinically clean is worth the hassle.
The original question is - do you still have to lubricate the derailleur pivots if running waxed chains? No mention of this is in any YouTube videos.

Some derailleur jocky wheels ( xtr on my bike) are ceramic. Most jockeys are just a steel tube, sometimes no tube spinning on the little allen head axle. As someone said above , it will do no harm to put some conventional oil on the end of the axle irrespective of whether you go waxing or conventional lube. Same for the derailleur pivot points and lastly dont forget a blob of grease on the spring underneath.

 

[jonnie comet]

I got into waxing my bike chains roughly four years ago so I've got a bit of history here. I got into waxing EXCLUSIVELY as I'm such a tart when it comes to having a clean bike. Up until recently I have lubed all my chains with Molten Speedwax.

Yes, it all sounds like a right faff about but you soon get into the swing of it and if you factor in the lack of bike cleaning, then it makes a bit more sense time wise. I usually cycle 400K/month and that means one waxing/month in summer - you really need to double that in winter. I always have a couple of chains used in rotation which cuts down on re-waxing time. Wear on chain/cassette/chainrings really is super minimal but, as said, the lack of cleaning is the biggest attraction for me.

Sat here thinking about it - I can't remember the last time that I bought ANY drive train components.

Recently I changed wax to one where you add a sachet of PTFE. I am on month one with this stuff and I will pop back with my thoughts when I've used it for a couple of months. First impressions are very good, it's 'stickier' and thicker than Speedwax, not sure YET if that's a good or bad thing. I'm definitely NOT a racer so priorities may differ.

Re jockey wheels. I pull the cage apart every so often and lube up, I don't spray anything in situ'. Note, one of my bikes runs a Rohloff hub with the Rohloff chain tensioner. I strip and grease the tensioner once/year and that's that - it's bullet proof.

The bottom line. After my four years of waxing, i would never go back to oil.

EDIT - ALL my riding is on road.

 

[MartinK]

Rohloff Hub - definitely. Chains last for ages because they're always in a straight line, and much heavier gauge than a modern 10/11 speed. I have 2 Rohloffs, one on my "adventure" bike, and one on a gravel bike...

The more expensive, light cassettes seem to wear really quick on my MTB's with derailleur. The heavier (metal I guess) seem to last a lot better.

Not tried waxing, but I rarely ride my road bike these days, my last Sportive being 3 or 4 years ago, and my light road bike still has teh race number on it as I've not ridden it since!

Keen to see how this waxing thread works out - may try it!

 

[jonnie comet]

Just to add.

Hot waxing a cycle chain gives a coating which is nothing like the coating of a chain wax that you might apply from a spray can. There is hardly any 'fling' at all and all the drive components stay lovely and clean.

do you still oil the derailleur pivots or leave them clean and dry?

To answer that question. I do exactly what I would do if I was using any other lubricant (see my post upthread) I have no idea if this is the 'official' way of doing things, it's simply what I've been doing for the last four years.

 

[AdrianS]

I did wax 3 chains today. Biggest ball ache was getting them spotlessly clean and also cleaning the rest of the drive train.
Did it in a small slow cooker bought for 15.95 from eBay. The chains are very rigid when cooled down and had to break all the links around a broom handle before fitting to the bike. Next problem was getting the quick link to join. The thickness of wax prevents it seating fully so had to clean some wax off and work the adjacent links before I could snap the chain together (11 speed road bike).
Took the bike for a quick ride and the chain settled in very well and is very quiet.
Going to gently squirt some GT 85 spray onto the pivots and jockey axles.
Nice to see a very clean drive train!

 

[ymfb]

I did wax 3 chains today. Biggest ball ache was getting them spotlessly clean and also cleaning the rest of the drive train.
Did it in a small slow cooker bought for 15.95 from eBay. The chains are very rigid when cooled down and had to break all the links around a broom handle before fitting to the bike. Next problem was getting the quick link to join. The thickness of wax prevents it seating fully so had to clean some wax off and work the adjacent links before I could snap the chain together (11 speed road bike).
Took the bike for a quick ride and the chain settled in very well and is very quiet.
Going to gently squirt some GT 85 spray onto the pivots and jockey axles.
Nice to see a very clean drive train!

Which wax recipe did you use?

 

[Greenman14]

I’ve been using dry lube on my bike chains for 3 years. Yes, after a wet ride you need to dry the chain, wipe it clean and re-apply the lube. This is fine for me, I have the time and like working on my bikes (1 road and 1 gravel). Chain life is generally about 3000km and I’ve never had to renew a cassette though my highest mileage bike has only done about 14k km. I use a chain wear gauge regularly and never exceed the lower wear limit (0.75%).

Before my conversion to dry lube I used what was called a wet lube. It was oil based and although it may have worked better than a dry lube on long wet rides I still had to thoroughly clean the chain after every wet ride as the chain was covered in a mixture of oil and road crap, so no saving of time.

 

[AdrianS]

Which wax recipe did you use?

I bought some from eBay. 500g of paraffin wax and 50g of PTFE powder to add to the mix.