chain lube or wax?

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rjb
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by rjb »

I've just started waxing my chain as a trial. I picked up a small slow cooker on Freecycle and made my own brew using a 250gramme candle and a generous tooth paste length of finish line grease(PTFE) and Anti scuffing Molybdenum disulphide paste.
I've done the tandem crossover chain so far and after 130 dry miles it still feels fine. It's still fairly clean and dosent pickup the crud which is the usual problem for our rural rides.
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jb
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by jb »

Hypoid gear oil from any car accessory shop, fill empty pot of overpriced rubbish you last bought and apply to chain and anything else that needs lubrication. No additives to interfere with its lubrication properties and cheap enough to re-apply if it gets washed off in the rain.
Also works well in AW hubs alfine hubs and car gearboxes. - Great for chainring tattoos.
Cheers
J Bro
bgnukem
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by bgnukem »

Don't have much faith in wax as it does not remain fluid and so if it is forced out of the high-pressure contact areas within the chain (inner side plate - to - link pin and rollers - to - inner side plate contacts) by pressure and/or link movements, it cannot re-enter these contacts and lubricate properly.

OTOH, wet lubes attract dirt and create grinding paste inside the links.

Has anyone compared chain wear vs. mileage for chain wax vs. chain oil?
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simonineaston
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by simonineaston »

Actually, lot of this has already been addressed before and I (along with many other folks, I imagine) value Brucey's thoughtful and often lengthy advice, based on his years of experience.
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De Sisti
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by De Sisti »

Edited, with a space after each comma and a full-stop.
reohn2 wrote: 27 Jun 2022, 11:18am If you think you can use it 29 times, more than likely many more, it works out cheap in the long run. :wink:
Made my own solution of candle wax flakes and a small amount of Stihl Synth Plus chain oil. :D
Stevek76
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by Stevek76 »

ed.lazda wrote: 27 Jun 2022, 9:47am When using molten wax, how do you judge when it needs re-doing?
I just go on chain noise, if it's running silent/muted its good. If it's making that horrible dry chain sound then it's getting dealt with. I generally find that's a function of number of wet weather rides, I'd imagine it doesn't last forever in the dry but it lasts long enough that it's not a factor.
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reohn2
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by reohn2 »

De Sisti wrote: 27 Jun 2022, 6:23pm Edited, with a space after each comma and a full-stop.
reohn2 wrote: 27 Jun 2022, 11:18am If you think you can use it 29 times, more than likely many more, it works out cheap in the long run. :wink:
Made my own solution of candle wax flakes and a small amount of Stihl Synth Plus chain oil. :D
If it works for you that's great :D
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NickJP
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by NickJP »

I just use Finish Line wet lube and run the chain through the Park Tool clip-on cleaner with some turps or white spirit once a week. I generally get at least 10000km out of a chain before it has got to 0.5% elongation, and a cassette lasts about three chains before the most used teeth on it start to look like hooks.

When I first started riding seriously in the 1970s, I also rode a motorbike, and as I used Duckhams Chainguard on motorbike chains, I also used it on bicycle chains. It was a wax with graphite/grease etc, and you had to melt it and dip the cleaned chain in it.

I don't think Duckhams Chainguard exists any longer as a product - O-ring chains on motorbikes pretty much killed off such lubes.
ed.lazda
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by ed.lazda »

NickJP wrote: 28 Jun 2022, 3:54amI don't think Duckhams Chainguard exists any longer as a product - O-ring chains on motorbikes pretty much killed off such lubes.
I think you're right, but Putoline chain wax is similar and is still used by off-road motorcyclists, who don't tend to be as keen on O-ring chains. It sounds expensive at something like £35 for a 1 kg tin, but if used even once a month on a bicycle chain will last for years.
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Cugel
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by Cugel »

How sticky are Putoline and similar products: Do they leave chainring tattoos?

I ask because I used to dip my bike chains in Linklyfe, a similar product. That was sticky, black and indelible (because of the graphite) if it got into one's clothes. It didn't seem to preserve chains particularly well and was a messy thing to clean off and renew.

I assume that Linklyfet attracted dirt, as do all other sticky lubes, which eventually got into the chain innards. As I understand it, the trick of the hard-wax methods of chain lubrication is that they are not sticky so don't migrate grit into the chain innards but instead keep it on the outside surfaces of the wax, from which it drops off as the outside surfaces of the wax harden even more and flake off.

Have I misunderstood the nature of Putoline and similar products?

Cugel
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bgnukem
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by bgnukem »

NickJP wrote: 28 Jun 2022, 3:54am ..... I generally get at least 10000km out of a chain before it has got to 0.5% elongation, and a cassette lasts about three chains before the most used teeth on it start to look like hooks.
10,000kms for 0.5% wear! Care to share which chain/s you are using??

I religiously clean mine after every long ride and weekly when commuting, also using FL wet, and typically swap chains at 0.5% after maybe 1500 miles!
ed.lazda
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by ed.lazda »

Cugel wrote: 28 Jun 2022, 9:54am How sticky are Putoline and similar products: Do they leave chainring tattoos?
The wax itself is black and can get a bit messy if bits get onto your hands or clothes. Dirt doesn't stick to it. I leave the chain to drain until it cools, then put it back on the bike and give it a good rub down with a rag to remove any excess -- or at least spread it around a bit. This also helps ensure there is a film to stop the chain rusting.
NickJP
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by NickJP »

bgnukem wrote: 28 Jun 2022, 10:25am
NickJP wrote: 28 Jun 2022, 3:54am ..... I generally get at least 10000km out of a chain before it has got to 0.5% elongation, and a cassette lasts about three chains before the most used teeth on it start to look like hooks.
10,000kms for 0.5% wear! Care to share which chain/s you are using??

I religiously clean mine after every long ride and weekly when commuting, also using FL wet, and typically swap chains at 0.5% after maybe 1500 miles!
That seems rather low. If you look at the chain test here: https://cyclingtips.com/2019/12/the-bes ... cy-tested/, where chains were deliberately run lubricated with a slightly gritty mixture to accelerate wear, the best chains lasted about 3500km to 0.5% elongation. Note that if you're measuring wear with a chain checker that uses the rollers, then with some chains those checkers will show 0.5% wear at only about half the distance of the elongation measurement. I also found it interesting in that test that chain life increases with the skinnier chains - about three quarters of the way through the article they have a graph showing the longevity of 8/9/10/11/12-speed Shimano chains, and the 12-speed lasts the longest and the 8-speed the least.

As for which chains we use, they're a mixture - between my wife and myself we have a lot of bikes, and the chains are Shimano, SRAM, Wipperman, KMC, and one bike with Campagnolo 10-speed is running Campagnolo chains.
Stroudy
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by Stroudy »

I also noticed the result across the different widths of chain as being strange. My own experience is the opposite. With all other things being equal (same thorough, regular cleaning regime and the same hot-dip waxing, same routes, same skinny legs) my 8-speed chains outlast my 11-speed ones by some margin. I always attributed that to the wider contact surfaces, with the load-bearing spread out more.
freeflow
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Re: chain lube or wax?

Post by freeflow »

I have two 8 speed chains (KMC EPC coated) that I rotate (ho ho ho) using a single speed chainline (Gears in a can) that have only ever been hot waxed. I'm now approaching 12,000km (that's 6000km per chain in 1 year 10 months) and I still can't get the prongs of a CC-2 Park Tools chain checker between the links (i.e. less than 0% wear) when I measure just before relubing.

When I rode 10 speed, and was religious about relubing and rotating chains, I never got more than about 1500 km per chain.

Me and the bike weigh in at around 130kg.

I tend to relube every 200-400km because its such a simple operation to do.
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