I've seen the tests done with respect to drivetrain friction, but the other concern with wax is durability/longevity. Are you decreasing chain life substantially by waxing instead of lubing, and/or does it require rewaxing at excessively short intervals to avoid squeaking. Have there been tests on that? If so I have not seen them.

The wax longevity issue is a real one, but there are more than enough people online posting that it lasts enough for functionable purposes, with the caveat that you WILL have to wax your chain more frequently than you would with lubes. I've seen wax estimates as low as 100 mi to 500 mi, probably depends on conditions.

On the bike forums, people aren't complaining that their waxed chains are wearing out faster, but no, haven't seen any studies on it. I've seen mainly the opposite (longer lasting), but there may be bias in reporting there.

I don't see a wet lube flowing back and forth as you describe. There is just a thin film.

I seem to remember friction facts doing a cross-chain test and I was surprised how little chain line impacted friction. If my memory is correct, only about a 1-2 watt loss for a big ring front and back cross

My concern is at the moment when the rear derailleur is shifted: the upper derailleur pulley has already moved to the next cog while the chain is still on the current cog (pretty big chain angle). This puts a lot of lateral force on the chain and thus on one side of each pin/roller, squeezing the wax out.

Not flowing back and forth per se but being massaged back by the pin/roller once the chain straightens out and pressure is evenly distributed. Being a thin low viscosity film, it's easier for the molecules to slide back. The same thing can't be said when wax molecules have been squeezed out of each roller and fallen off.

I would think the wax film that starts on the very inside of the chain just slowly works its way out over the roughly 200 miles of use you get between waxings. So the wax between the rollers one pins is slowly works its way out across the roller/plate interface.

I am a little too lazy to always relax, so after the first cleaning and waxing, I use the Squirt Wax. For the first 5 or 6 applications of the Squirt wax I get some grey/black residue from the Molybdimum in the Molton Speed wax, so there is some wax that is still working its way around the inside of the chain for the first month or so

Take it for what it's worth but this is my experience on a campy chorus 11 speed setup that has used squirt lube from new.

I checked the chain @ 1000 miles (four checks) using the campy method of measurement and found it to be 132.20mm to 132.30mm.

Campy recommend that it is replaced at 132.60mm maximum.

The chain came off at 1500 miles due to its link count and a change to a bigger cassette.

I haven't measured it since (using the campy method) but I did use the traditional chain checker on it and the 0.75 end wouldn't go anywhere near it.

I could check it with the vernier again if you think it would help the discussion ?

WD :-)

Very good

I was sort of a skeptic about this at first as well. I've been stuck in that "that's the way we've always done it" box of using oil since the start, but now that I have gone through the initial process on three chains and I have almost 1000 miles on one chain (all dry rides) with the initial treatment I am absolutely sold on it. Even with going just a bit further with the mileage the chain is still running extremely smooth and if wax is working its way out as some have suggested I am not noticing a loss of power, any sign of corrosion or even much noise though it is dry.

I can just simply say that I am sold on home processed and waxed chains. I like tinkering around with stuff in my shop so I even volunteered to wax some of my friend's new chains for this season, but they were skeptics and stuck with oil.

Just as an update - my waxed but 'old & dirty" chain came out great from the wax bath, and after a thorough wipedown after it cooled with a cotton old rag, it's pretty clean. It's clean enough that I can mess with the chain ad libitum with my bare hands with no chain tattoo, although since I started with a really blackened chain, it still gives off small amounts of debris so my hands aren't totally pristine after rough handling it, but that is 1000x better than the traditional clean-lube chain situation I had where even a millisecond brush on my clothes left an instant nearly-impossible to remove mark. And actually, I think even more of an offender now than my chain is the small black gunk left on my crank & cassette that I couldn't get off completey even with the degreaser. I suspect my chain will actually hit most of those dirty parts and actually 'clean' them the rest of the way, and it'll be an even better situation.

The old wax from my pretty-dirty chain turned brown. I melted it again, and let it sit as a liquid for an hour, but it stayed brown. I'll probably just throw out this block since I only used about 0.5 lbs of a 3lbs bag, but I'm sure I could still reuse this wax with really good results (despite the brown color) - if I take a knife to it, the shards are white, and you rub off nearly all of it on the outer chain anyway, so it doesn't have any blackening effect in terms of cleanliness. It did do a good job of cleaning my chain as a solvent, but I wouldn't say it took a really dirty chain to immaculately clean (I think with some vigorous scrubbing would do the trick, but I didn't have the time or interest to do that.)

Later this week I'm going to do a proper batch with a brand new chain with new wax - that one will obviously turn out really clean. But I have to say, I'm REALLY happy so far with its effect on a dirty chain - took it from a still really messy contact situation even after a concentrated citrus degrease, to clean enough to really manhandle without problem. Really looking forward to losing all the horrid greasemarks, black rags, and bike greasemarks!

Actually one drawback I do have to mention that I found out about after the fact - you do have to be cautious with proper ventilation when melting paraffin. Paraffin is a petroleum product, and the vapors have benzene and other known carcinogens, similar to those in gasoline and kerosene.

It's true that many candles are made of paraffin and thus suffer the same problem when they are melting, but since the slow cooker liquifies a lot more at once, you do have to take care in doing it in a properly vented place. I'll probably try to do mine outside as much as possible and keep the liquid phase state to a minimum so I can minimize the vapor production.

I might do 2 chains at the same time from now on as well to get the batch effect, so I can avoid unnecessary liquification and vapor production of the paraffin.

I was also wondering about the toxicity of paraffin to touch since if the vapors aren't good, the touch may be problematic? but it seem that there are actually paraffin baths and creams with paraffins in them. They probably have less paraffin than what I'm using (not sure about those paraffin baths though - they sell cosmetic paraffin bath machines on Amazon!) but I suspect they're not as bad given that they're added to some skin creams as well as being handled without warning lables as paraffin candles.

It is amazing how hard it is to clean all of the drivetrain. I figured that when I started with the waxed chain that I needed also clean the cassette and chain rings. The chain rings I just did the best I could with a rag and mineral spirits, but the cassette I put through 4 ultrasonic baths with a detergent and a couple stubborn spots I had to use a brush. That little cheap ultrasonic tub has proven to be a good buy as well.

On the SRAM etap rebuild the shop put a new SRAM chain on as it came out of the package. I cleaned and waxed that chain, but that manufacturer grease is like fly paper. When I touched the brand new cassette it was also very sticky from that new chain grease. So I removed it and cleaned it as well.

CORRECTION TO ABOVE POST - chain was removed at 1200 miles.

Well my curiosity got the better of me ... lol

New v old (104 links) levelled with a spoke through the other end, lay flat and gently pulled :



The difference :



So, please check out my maths ... lol

0.5" x 25.4 = 12.7 mm
104 x 12.7 = 1320.8 mm
1.47 / 1320.8 = 0.001112961841308
0.001112961841308 x 100 = 0.11

So, 0.11 % worn ?

Perhaps I need to put more wattage through it ... lol

WD :-)

Paraffin is a petroleum product, and the vapors have benzene and other known carcinogens, similar to those in gasoline and kerosene.


There are no appreciable amounts of benzene in paraffin wax. You should avoid breathing the vapors, but not over concern about benzene.

That "from the factory" stuff is the worst. KMC was/is the worst. Those chains just suck any dirt or grit partical out of the air and adhere it to your nice clean chain and drivetrain. One ride and my drivetrain was a gritty mess. Wax is such an improvement.

Short term update here - I've converted both my bikes to wax-chains. One of them has a brand-new chain that was directly waxed in the slow cooker paraffin, and the other one has a used (but not stretched) chain that was one of those 'blacken anything it touches instantly' chains that was swished in the wax.

I'm still wrenching both of them (waiting for parts) so haven't done more than ride 'em around the block as I've only gotten the brakes working on them so far but wrenching a waxed chain bike is night and day better than a blackening lubed chain.

Before I waxed the chain, I had more than several really blackened t-shirts and towels that I'd use after almost any touch on the bike - it got so bad that I was thankful when I just left the chain off completely as things got a lot better.

After waxing though - that's totally gone! The wax doesn't blacken anything, and even the older chain which still has black marks on it despite the waxing, doesn't leave any chain tattoos even when gripping the chain directly. Things are soooo much cleaner and nicer - I don't have to worry about chaing into dark ratty clothes in case the chain brushes it, and I can jump in and out of the house without having to degrease my hands every time.

The waxing is a piece of cake too - seriously, the hardest part of the whole affair is remounting the master link on the chain, as sometimes they come a little stiff, but I've figured that out now so even that is fast.

I'd seriously recommend waxing the chain if you're sick of those chain tattoos - it's trivially more effort to deal with up front, but saves a lot of time in the mess and cleanup back end. Exactly what I was hoping for.

Besides the whole clean chain deal, is wax a better lube friction wise? Has anyone tried waxing bb bearings? I assume due to the consistency of the wax , it should work without breaking down. I know it doesnt last as long but maybe worth it for the A race? Just curious.

Tl dr but I paraffin wax my chain before races, it takes some time but it's the most efficient lube

Yes. Wax is quite a bit faster than even the best liquid/oil lube. And even faster if you then use a PTFE powder on top of it. A properly waxed and powdered chain can be like 6w faster than a stock chain, and 10-15w faster than something dirty lubed with a crappy (heavy) oil/grease.

Wax for bearings is impractical though; the tolerances are too tight. For bearings, you can shave down the friction by using a super lightweight oil. And, of course, bearing manufacturers can take steps to do the equivalent of "powdering" their bearings by applying special surface treatments to the balls and races themselves.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

Jordan to you use waxed chains on the turbo?
Do you find they need to warm up each time, particularly if turboing in a cold room?

On another note, for those using squirt do you find when there is build up of wax the chain gets really sticky and slow?

Which ultrasonic cleaner did you get and where did you get it from?

I do not get wax build up with Squirt. The excess, if any, flakes off.

Is 'squirt' a roll-on (typical) type wax, or is it a melt-in-slow-cooker and dunk chain kind of wax? Sounds like a lot of folks who wax use Squirt - I shied away from it because I didn't think it was a dunk-chain type wax.

I got a cheap isonic from Amazon back in 2012. Blog report here
It is still on Amazon for $88

It will hold a 11-28 cassette and lay flat in the tub to give an idea of the tub size.

That's odd, mine builds up with this sticky black gunk.
It's on the chain, jockeys etc.
Am I applying too much?

Timely as I re-waxed two chains today (rainy Sunday here). One on the dedicated trainer bike and the tri bike. I don't compete so both are considered training chains. After hundreds of miles on my first ever waxed chains I did hear a little more noise than usual toward the end of the ride yesterday so I figured I was past due waxing. It is easy because I left the MSW wax in the slow cooker from the first time and once it was heated enough to liquefy. I put each chain in for about 15 to 20 minutes each while I was doing other stuff. Drive train on both bike are clean. No build up on the jockey wheels and the cassettes look shiny new.

According to the MSW directions I should be able to reuse this wax a few more times on training chains.