Hot melt wax - the journey begins

[James_C]

is anyone using candle wax? this tested quite well here: Lubricant Testing - Zero Friction Cycling

 

[G-Sport]

is anyone using candle wax? this tested quite well here: Lubricant Testing - Zero Friction Cycling

That's interesting but is there a summary somewhere?

I do use Candle Wax, mixed with a little bees wax and complimented by "top-ups" with Squirt EMTB drip wax. Seems pretty good. I usually crash and bend the teeth on the cassette before it actually wears out, whereas with oil I wore them out first.

 

[Emteebee]

I have used candle wax (paraffine). After that moved to Silca. Results on candle wax are pretty ok, but there's more to it. Actually, I just wrote a full article on my experiences but the article disappeared, could it be as a newbie I can't make new posts??

 

[James_MTB]

They actually do recommend using boiling water to strip the old contaminated wax off the chain before re-waxing. Otherwise you are increasing how contaminated your remaining pot of wax is with each re-wax cycle. It’s very easy to do with a kettle outside and takes <5 minutes.

That worked a treat. Thank you

Review of the Silca wax + a bit of chat about waxing

 

[Mr President]

I started using the hot was technique with the secret blend in the spring (N Hemisphere). Rotating 2 Eagle GX chains.
it’s been a wet summer in UK.
I have just had to retire one of the chains as it had 0.75mm wear after 650km.
i used to average 750km per chain using traditional lubes.
it’s a bit disappointing, but I’m not giving up.
I don’t mind the process, but it’s clearly not for everyone.
I love the cleanliness of the whole drive train. So much more pleasant to work on and no endless cleaning after each ride.
I’ve used hot wax on 4 bikes now, so I’m invested

 

[irie]

...
I have just had to retire one of the chains as it had 0.75mm wear after 650km.
i used to average 750km per chain using traditional lubes.
...

Is that with identical chains?

 

[G-Sport]

I started using the hot was technique with the secret blend in the spring (N Hemisphere). Rotating 2 Eagle GX chains.
it’s been a wet summer in UK.
I have just had to retire one of the chains as it had 0.75mm wear after 650km.
i used to average 750km per chain using traditional lubes.
it’s a bit disappointing, but I’m not giving up.
I don’t mind the process, but it’s clearly not for everyone.
I love the cleanliness of the whole drive train. So much more pleasant to work on and no endless cleaning after each ride.
I’ve used hot wax on 4 bikes now, so I’m invested

0.75% rather than mm surely?
I think GX chains may be a bit shit. The XO ones do seem to last a lot longer.

 

[Emteebee]

Regarding longevity, the GX and NX chains are some of the worst performing, ref Chain Testing - Zero Friction Cycling.
GX and below lack the hard-chrome coating of the X01>.
Is switching to X01 or XX1 an option for you? They are the best performers.

What might also be helping is the rewax frequency. Consider emtb causing very high load on chain mechanism, GX may last longer on a shorter rewax interval. Personally I’d say 200 miles is far too late. I rewax my XX1 and XT chain after every ride (40-100km), just to be sure. Only done 300km/per chain yet and zero wear, keeping an eye on wear trend closely.

 

[Bndit]

I started using the hot was technique with the secret blend in the spring (N Hemisphere). Rotating 2 Eagle GX chains.
it’s been a wet summer in UK.
I have just had to retire one of the chains as it had 0.75mm wear after 650km.
i used to average 750km per chain using traditional lubes.
it’s a bit disappointing, but I’m not giving up.
I don’t mind the process, but it’s clearly not for everyone.
I love the cleanliness of the whole drive train. So much more pleasant to work on and no endless cleaning after each ride.
I’ve used hot wax on 4 bikes now, so I’m invested

I have done 1500km`s on GX chain on GX drivetrain, it`s getting closer to 0.5% mark. No waxing, just peaty`s all weather lube time to time and sometimes cleaning with muc off bike clean, same I use for the bike.

 

[James_C]

is anyone using candle wax? this tested quite well here: Lubricant Testing - Zero Friction Cycling

I tried it. It certainly works well. But - in wet/muddy conditions, you get grit in the chain that I can't get out. I've run it through clean water, but it doesnt get it clean enough for my liking. I did rewax it again and put it back on, but its such a palaver, I'm not doing that every time.

I've gone back to cleaning with a parktool chain cleaner/dry lube. Will try again in summer when I'm not getting it regularl y wet.

 

[G-Sport]

I tried it. It certainly works well. But - in wet/muddy conditions, you get grit in the chain that I can't get out. I've run it through clean water, but it doesnt get it clean enough for my liking. I did rewax it again and put it back on, but its such a palaver, I'm not doing that every time.

I've gone back to cleaning with a parktool chain cleaner/dry lube. Will try again in summer when I'm not getting it regularl y wet.

Maybe try the squirt liquid wax, that has worked really well for me. You get a lot of the advantages of melt wax (clean and long chain life) but with the simplicity of reapplying as necessary.
I now do melt wax and top up with liquid after every wet ride and wash.

 

[James_C]

OK how are you washing your chain?