I wanted to share my experience with waxing my bike chains.
I was resistant to waxing my chains because it seems that a lot of people felt it was “too much work”.
But having to constantly clean black shit off my chains after every ride, then spend time degreasing and re-lubing, I figured I’d try waxing when I got my gravel bike.
Now, thousands of KM later and having converted all three bikes to waxed, there’s no way I’d go back. The time saved could be measured in hours per month.
First, the biggest complaint is chain prep. Yeah, regardless if you’re waxing or not, you’ll need to prep a new chain by removing the factory grease. With waxed, you do this once, and no more worrying about degreasing ever again. Make like easy and get Silca’s chain stripper, and it’s a 10 minute, one-step process.
Ongoing chain maintenance couldn’t be easier. After every ride, give the chain a quick wipe (or not). My chain stays clean, even after a 200 km ride.
And if you ride in wet or dirty conditions? Guess what, you’re in for a LOT of work if you lube your chain. With waxed, keep a second (or third) chain ready to go, and you just swap it out (10 seconds of effort). Take the dirty chain, give it a wipe if it’s only been wet, or pour boiled water onto it if you want to “reset” the chain to bare metal. Then drop it into the waxing pot for a re-wax. You don’t have to stand at the pot, so there’s no real time commitment here. I’ve spent more time completely dirtying large microfiber cloths trying to get my chain “clean” when lubed (hint: it’s never clean if you use a wet lube, not without solvents and an ultrasonic cleaner).
For actual immersion wax, I do it every 1000 km (sooner than you need to), and use a drip wax every 200 - 250 km to keep things fresh.
Honestly, wax is easier, cleaner, and takes less time to maintain vs wet lube.
The only downsides? The initial cost to get started. But this is offset by not having to replace chains or other components prematurely. You actually save money in the long-term when using waxed chains.
Some might argue that “you can’t run waxed chains in muddy or constantly rainy conditions”. Well, at the same time, your wet lube isn’t really helping matters in those situations, either. Waxed is still better, and you can swap chains much faster than you can clean the grinding paste from a wet lubed chain.
Who would I not recommend waxed chains to? Someone who rarely uses their bike. Drip lube will be “good enough” in those cases. But anyone else would benefit from waxing their chain.
Huh? I have two bikes I ride all year round – snow, rain, sun, on and off-road. Both of them pretty well maintained, if I say so myself. I’ve ridden over 5.5k km this year, and I think I’ve spent less than an hour total on cleaning and lubing my chains.
10 minutes to degrease your chain with some fancy (and expensive, I presume) stripper? Damn, nobody’s got time and money for that. You can do that in less than two minutes of work, including taking the chain off and putting in back. Just put your dirty chain in a small plastic bottle with some gasoline and shake it well for a minute. After that, run it through a piece of cloth and hang outside to dry. Done.
Yeah, sure. Not having to cook my chains every 1k km takes sooo much time xD
Then you aren’t really cleaning them. The pins in your chain can’t be wiped clean from the outside. If you ride and wipe down the chain, it’s not clean.
For clarity, that’s done once with a new chain. And it’s a much safer product than solvents, which can be reused for years.
You aren’t getting it clean if that’s how you do it. The grit isn’t being removed as well as you think. You can try that with an ultrasonic cleaner, but a used chain with need multiple baths, even with an ultrasonic cleaner.
In below zero temps, this isn’t an option. And I’d prefer not to use gasoline in my home, either.
You do what works for you. I find waxing to be a far better process, but maybe you’re needs are different from mine.