aviserated
New Member
Is Hot Chain Waxing the best way to lube our chains. Everything I see on YouTube says it works best and attracts way less abrassive dirt than wet lubes.
How often are you doing it please?I do it and got 2250 miles out of a chain.
you should film this process, i'm curious on how much wax stays on the chain etc. (also the dropping the wet chain into hot wax )I use Putolene Hot wax in a cheap deep fat fryer and do it whenever it needs doing. Not overly helpful, I know, but that's how it is. If the bike is dirty enough to need a wash, the chain gets re-waxed. In the summer, if i run my finger along the top of the plates and they don't get a pair of black lines on them I re-wax.
Process is simple; hose off chain to remove any loose dirt/grit/ leaves/grass/whatever and remove chain. Place chain on top of cold wax and switch fryer on. Go and wash bike. By the time the bike is washed, the wax has melted and the chain is well soaked. Remove chain from wax and give the basket a good shake to rmove as much excess wax as possible. Hang chain up to cool and wipe excess off sideplates.
Don't drop a wet chain into hot wax at 190 deg. Ever.
I don't think so . Your normal lube will prevent the wax adhering to the chain. In fact before you ever start waxing you have to remove all oil / oil based lube from the chain and cluster.Even if I used a normal lube in between waxing that should help.
Agreed. I just started how waxing my chain recently, Southern California where the trail conditions are typically dry and hard packed. The initial degreasing of the drivetrain was a bit of a hassle, but things stay so clean now. I prepped two chains, so whenever I hose off the bike now, I'll just pull off the chain and throw on the other one that is ready to go. I'll probably convert my other MTBs to wax as well because it really does make ongoing cleaning and maintenance so much easier. I don't see a reason to swap over my road bikes to wax though, as those drivetrains stay quite clean as is with just normal lube and infrequent wipe downs (again, dry conditions).Waxing your chain is great if you ride mainly dry weather.
I bought some squirt - it doesn't appear to get into the rollers. It's because of this that I started hot waxing.I wax all my chains and I also use a wax based lube such as 'Squirt' in between full waxing. Never use an oil based lube on a waxed chain.
The brand new XT chain I put in my wax pot yesterday would disagree with your statement somewhat.I don't think so . Your normal lube will prevent the wax adhering to the chain. In fact before you ever start waxing you have to remove all oil / oil based lube from the chain and cluster.
The brand new XT chain I put in my wax pot yesterday would disagree with your statement somewhat.
The chain will be back in the pot within two rides anyway, I'm not aiming for marathon distances, if the factory grease stays between the rollers for longer then in my book that's a good thing. Generally I've found that cheaper deore/nx level chains are 0.75 at 5-600 off road miles. My last XT one had 1000 off road miles and had just hit 0.5 wear. YMMV, literally ?If you didnt strip the chain of its factory grease first, then your wax application isn't going to last nearly as long because it won't be able to adhere to it as well. It may look fine at first, but you will find that it will start making those 'dry chain' noises much sooner, and even after multiple hot waxes it still probably won't last nearly as long as if you stripped it first.
Also i would recommend using the deore chain instead of xt, because the XT has a sil-tec coating which again is going to work against the wax adhering to the chain.
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