(Nordic racer here)

Keep in mind that perfluorocarbons (the powders to which you appear to be referring -- not paraffins with varying levels of fluoro content or paraffins in powder form) tend to last from 3k to 50k of skiing, depending on the type and application method.

I'd look elsewhere.

A. I don't understand why you think products designed for the interface between snow and a ski base at temperatures around freezing and below (generally) would be fast at the interface between metal surfaces at temperatures around freezing and above (generally).

B. Swx Cera F is a pure fluorocarbon, not a wax, and it doesn't melt and flow like waxes. (Contrast to highly fluorinated waxes such as Swix HF and Toko Dibloc HF which do melt and flow, and cost half or a third of the prices you mention).

C. I don't see how you would apply Cera F powder to a chain.

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http://www.jt10000.com/

No knowledge of ski wax, but if you want an affordable wax lubricant for your chain, check out the stuff from Premiere, comes in a huge bottle, seems to work really well.

https://www.premierbike.com/...de-chain-lubrication

A. I really have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to these different waxes, fluorocarbons, etc. they make it pretty idiot proof in the ski world. This snow temp, this type of snow, use this “wax”.

B. I have a variety of expensive ski waxes laying around collecting dust and was wondering if any of those could translate to the bike world with any benefit.

What I've done is just use a paraffin candle melted down in a mini crock pot. once the wax was melted, add a bit of regular "wet" chain lube, (not much is needed), then cook the chain for a while. remove the chain and wipe while hot, then when cooled the wax surface feels pretty slick, and after wiggling the links a bit to remove excess wax, there isn't much friction and runs really cleanly. I dunno how to test it, but it seems good to me.

That block of wax will last for ages, just remelt it when the chain needs to be lubed again. I'm also lubing 3 chains at a time since it's a bit of a pain to set up.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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You cannot melt Swix Cera F that way. It's not wax. And the amount is so small 20g that it'd be nearly impossible to dip a chain into.


Ohio_Roadie - how did you apply Swix powder to skis? I assume you corked it in or used a very hot iron or both. Think about doing that to a chain. Is that what you have in mind? How?

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http://www.jt10000.com/

Yeah, I got that, but could the powder be used as an additive to a paraffin based setup like I described? Probably worth a shot anyway.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Interesting. Why not go ahead and use something high in PTFE?

I’ve used both methods of cork and a hot iron for the skis. I was thinking for the temps that the ski “waxes” require to melt that this would be done on the stove top and not a crock pot job.

Could do. That's just what I had. (To be totally honest, it was still on the chain :-D

Either way, the wax got very slippery to the touch, so I figure it can't be too bad.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Just spitballing, since I know some (?) of the pre-made chain waxes are mixed with PTFE and other stuff.

I use a regular cheap paraffin wax to lube my chain. It's harder than pure paraffin, dont know if it's better by any means. I would suspect MSW to be better.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

By pure paraffin do you mean food grade?

Injustice bought a bag of the Molten Speed wax. It isn't very expensive, it is based on the original Friction Facts recipe, and you can wax a ton of chains with one bag (I still haven't finished my first bag). Going the DIY route on this doesn't make much sense because you aren't saving much for all the hassle .

I also really like the Premier lube for a quick application between waxing. Good stuff and very reasonably priced.

America became totally self-indulged.... capitalists....
I'm glad God guided me out of this Babylon!
: )

ps. anybody try to remount powermeter from cranks-pedals-hub, to SNS Pilot or NNN Turnamic bindings?
p.p.s. just wondering, what paraffin should one use to clean the chain - CH would work, or better LF? Rotobrush? (what kind - horse hair, blue/white nylon, brass, etc..) How about Kuzmin HS Brushes - http://www.kuzmin.se/pgs/hs_brushes_en.html ???

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Hare Krishna

WTF dude.

Buy some Squirt lube for 15 bucks and move on.
Life's too short to spend hours messing around for .7 Watts.

Hell, I even bought classic skis with skins so I could spend less time waxing and more time skiing.

I would do just that if it was easily attainable here, but the price premium over USA prices is ridiculous. Goes from ~3x the homebrew cost to 6x or more.

Yeah, it comes in small pellets, called "jam paraffin" here, I think you are supposed to pour a thin layer above jam to conserve it. Very soft compared to ski wax.


Same, but I bet you still put glide on those skis (I do). So no reason not to wax your chain, if one enjoys tinkering with bike equipment (I do).

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

That I can get by the Kg fairly cheap. Good to know, thanks.

Buy some skis.

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

You bet I put glide wax on my skin skis.

But Squirt lube is outstanding stuff and it takes about 15s to apply.

not sure where you live or how much time you had to spend waxing for kick. skin skis (IMO) are great, but they're also really slow -- demonstrably -- and they just don't have that amazing feeling that you can get with wax of amazing glide AND great kick.

to be honest, that feeling is the reason why i classic ski at all. doesn't always happen but is amazing when it does.

(to be fair i live in a place where i can walk 200' to put skis on snow and waxing is blue or extra blue most of the time. i absolutely love klister, though we rarely have those conditions.)

I have some old race skis back in Ohio but a new life as an accountant in Phoenix has ruled that out for now. I’d rather spend my free time riding than driving for a place to ski.

+1


technically cera F is not a pure fluorocarbon. what we think of as pure fluorocarbons are actually perfluorocarbons where there are additives to harden them and tweak the performance.




i forget which company it was but they offered some type of powder that was meant to be sprinkled onto a chain and applied with a brush right before a race. it looked like graphite to me.

the big worry was people applying it on a windy day before their race and inhaling it--more than negating any performance benefit. :)

i can apply 2-3g of a fluoro powder to cover an entire ski, which has more surface area than a chain. guess it is not *that* implausible for someone to use it carefully -- i just doubt the performance would be focused on the optimal range for cycling (as you noted at the start of your post).