I am not sure if this is worthy of a post. Yesterday was cold and rainy in my area so before I jumped on the trainer I spent a little time with re-waxing the chain on the road bike. In January I went through the extensive cleaning with a new chain and wax treatment. That initial treatment really adhered to the metal and lasted for about 500 miles even with one or two rides in the rain before it became a bit noisy.
The second was a re-wax and I did not really do much other than just wipe off the exterior surface with a towel. Barely anything came off on the towel which was the testament to one of the bonuses of chain waxing - cleaner hands when handling. Plus, the cassette, chain rings and pulley wheels were all still very clean looking. However, this second re-wax seemed to only last about 300 miles before it became noisy. Performance wise I really couldn't tell much other than the noise and even the noise wasn't that bad.
So yesterday I wondered what would happen if I did a little more extensive cleaning again. Would it adhere to the metal as good as the first round? When I removed the chain I ran my finger over the chain and was very happy that very little came off on my hands. What I wanted to know is what would happen if I used boiling hot water in an ultrasonic tub with just a little dish detergent. Thinking since the only lube on the chain so far is wax the boiling water would soften and potentially remove the wax from the metal and allow new wax to bond to the surface. After two extensive runs in the tub I felt as if enough dirt and grit was removed. I will have to see how well it will stick for the next several hundred, winter weather, miles. To be determined.
Before cleaning the chain very little came off on my hand.
Two ultrasonic baths with boiling hot water and dish detergent. I was amazed how much filth was coming out of the links. Is it any wonder that the re-wax did not last as many miles as the first extensive cleaning with a new chain?
Water was starting to look cleaner during the wash.
I have two Premier Optimized chains (road and tri bikes) and the Premier Ultra Glide lube, but I plan to wait until I get past the winter wet months to use those in spring 2018.
Other weird things I did on a rainy Sunday was to Plasti Dip Co2 cartridges as an experiment. I thought I would give it a try and see. Just takes a few seconds to dip them into the paint can and then let them dry. I use dual cartridge bracket on the BTS bottle cage mount and they stick out like a sore thumb. Now they will have a nice black rubber coating that may also give a nice buffer if I have to use them and the metal turns frosty cold. At least they look nice. :-)