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.
You know what’s even easier? Forgetting to lube your chain for a while. Then avoid lubing it out of shame to face your failure. Then measuring the chain wear after a year to discover no significant degradation.*
* Might require extra strong ebike-specific chains like KMC X11e EPT
Even easier is not caring or even knowing that you are supposed to do anything.
Ah, you must be one of those cyclists I can hear a mile away! SQUEAK, SQUEAK, SQUEAK!! 😂
Another surprising thing for me is that at no point did it start making shameful noises.
Plot twist: You’re actually using a carbon belt drive. 😆
7 years and counting. Have never had any maintenance on my belt. The Alfine 11 has had an oil change though.
Sounds like a dream! I’m sure at some point I’ll go with a belt drive. For now, I’m quite content with a low-maintenance chain drivetrain. Especially for their ubiquity, lower cost, and ease of repair while out in the middle of nowhere. LOL
It’s been very easy. Although I will say my use case is a 9km urban commute. Any issues I can jump on a train to the local bike shop.
Changing a rear tyre on a split frame in the middle of no where would be beyond me.
Or they are Dutch and have a fully-enclosed chain that never gets wet or dirty.
One thing I’ve done with my winter bike is added a front fender extender (DIY), which prevents any spray from hitting the front chainrings, chain, or down tube. Last year, it was a total game changer. The only thing I couldn’t really help with was spray from the rear fender, which drips downwards onto the chain and cassette.
I don’t even think a Dutch-style chain guard would help prevent contamination from the rear cassette getting drenched.
But the best “winter bike” is one with an internal gear hub, and a belt drive. And an aluminum frame. Unless you really abuse the hell out of it, there should be very little to worry about.
Haha, luckily I haven’t biked for quite a few years. My work is pretty away and I can play Ghost of Tsushima on the train.
Then measuring the chain wear after a year to discover no significant degradation.
How many miles/km?
Yes, good chains last longer. But good waxed chains can outlive the life of some bikes (20,000km on a waxed chain is not unheard of). And it preserves the components at the same time.
Not too many, perhaps 2000km. Spring/summer/fall, no water or dirt riding. The cassette is SLX, derailleur and shifter are XT. I don’t ride a huge amount at the highest gears which suffer from higher wear due to the fewer teeth count. I recently lubed it with Silca Synerg-e and it’s bit quieter but the shifting performance was excellent before and after that. With all that said, I have no doubt I’ve worn it more than if I had properly maintained it. Perhaps significantly more. Nevertheless I was flabbergasted at the state of the drivetrain after this much mismaintenance. 😂
Yeah, with 2000km, I wouldn’t expect much wear from a high-end chain like that. Before waxing, I was using Synergetic, which does help to preserve components. But it was still dirty, and I just got tired of always seeing black when I wiped the chain!
Now, I can literally put a dropped chain back on my chainring, and don’t even have to wipe my hands. It’s wild how clean a chain can be after 1000km of low effort maintenance!
So you’re saying I’m the perfect target audience for waxing? 🤔
Unless you don’t ride your bike, you are the perfect target audience for waxing! LOL
Counter-point: Here’s how I lube my chain.
Whenever the squeaking annoys me too much, I apply some lube.
Done.Same. When it rusts I replace it
When it’s time to replace it, I just buy another '90s MTB for 100€.
Be sure that you’re checking your chain for wear… and your cassette… and chainrings. That approach might work well for some, but squeaking is already a sign that wear has been occuring.
I don’t see why anyone would need to go thru all that when we’re talking about parts that will need to be replaced at some anyway point no matter how good care you take of them.
For me, my bike is to be used and abused. Yeah maybe my chain and cassette wears faster than with a proper maintenance but I also just keep riding way past that untill it effectively becomes unuseable. My chain is already stretched to the point I’m supposed to replace it and there’s several teeth missing on my rear cassette but I notice no difference in performance. The shifting is going to be more or less shit either way because a new derailleur stays straight on my use for about 3 days. I’ve already mastered the trail-side derailleur adjustment by grabbing it with bare hands and bending it straight(er)
I don’t see why anyone would need to go thru all that when we’re talking about parts that will need to be replaced at some anyway point no matter how good care you take of them.
Plenty of reasons, even when you acknowledge that parts will eventually need to be replaced:
- Convenience.
- Quieter ride.
- Cleaner.
- No solvents when you need to really clean the chain.
- Saves a LOT of money, especially when some newer cassettes are $300+, chains up to $100, etc. But even in my older bike, where the components are cheap, I’d rather not be spending money sooner and more often.
- As with the above point, components last significantly longer, and work better for longer (i.e. better shifting, no chain skipping, etc.).
- If you count watts, waxing will save them.
- Because you aren’t replacing components as often, this has environmental benefits, too.
I’m not a casual rider, so I want my bikes to run smoothly and with as little effort to maintain as possible. For me, waxing has been a blessing.
My chain checklist -
Have I put oil on the chain this decade? Y/N
Done!
You lost me at 10-second chain swaps and boiling water.
You lost me at 10-second chain swaps
Wipperman connex master links. No tools required. Can be reused “for the life of the chain”. Takes a second to remove and re-connect. 10 second chain swap!
and boiling water.
Unlike with traditional bike chain lube, which require some rather harsh solvents to remove. Wax can be boiled off the chain when needed. You can go back to bare metal on a waxed chain without any solvents.
Not sure if there is a lighter weight version, but I used to run wax on motorcyles, it came as a spray can and went on almost like a clear plastic coating. Game changer for chain maintenance
Key and Peele would be proud of your use on the chain wax
Neat! I just blast that shit with some WD-40 which isn’t even lube and go on my merry way!
Wow! Thanks for putting up this super informative post and following through so many comments. I love using a waxed chain and I think it’s definitely hard for people to jump to when their bike maintenance is essentially zero. I run wet lube on one bike for wet weather riding (like >50% of the year) so I know both sides pretty well. The wax chain is so much easier to clean and maintain it’s crazy.
It’ll be hard to convert anyone that just lets their bike run into the ground before they start taking care of it, but they’re also probably on bikes that are sub $500 and aren’t looking for efficiencies or endurance performance.
It’ll be hard to convert anyone that just lets their bike run into the ground before they start taking care of it, but they’re also probably on bikes that are sub $500 and aren’t looking for efficiencies or endurance performance.
I think that’s probably pretty accurate. If I had a bike kicking around that I may or may not use, I don’t even think I’d be waxing that chain.
I also think that a good number of people are simply scared away by “all the work” that goes into waxing.
I’m almost looking forward to the winter, where I can really compare my experience between wax and wet lube.
I’m thinking this isn’t really for commuters?
Why not? I’d think it would be perfect for commuters.
Cleaner, less maintenance, and long-term cost savings. 😀
I admire your optimism! My drivetrain is due for replacement, but maybe I’ll be better off just trying to maintain an oil chain and graduate to wax if I can keep it up. I could see myself investing in wax but not following through due to entrenched bad maintenance habits.
I don’t like maintaining my bike much and the waxing seems like it’s something for people that do.
Just using a little bit of oil holds fine for a pretty long time for me, if I don’t ride in the rain a lot. I also never degrease my chain, I’ll wipe it off with rug and that’s it. And I feel like the nasty black chain is mostly a thing if you used too much oil? I am happy with my chain wear and actually surprised for how long it stays fine.
I don’t like maintaining my bike much and the waxing seems like it’s something for people that do.
For me, it’s the opposite. Maintaining a lubed chain required far more time and patience than waxing. In that sense, I can focus more on riding my bike (or maintaining it in other ways, if I choose to).
And I feel like the nasty black chain is mostly a thing if you used too much oil?
That black is metal + dirt + oil. Basically, a grinding paste between the pins of your chain + all the crap that stuck to your chain.
I was using a single drop of wet lube, and my chain would be forever dirty after each ride. I could attempt to wipe it clean with 2 or 3 large microfiber rags, and still not get it “clean”. But wiping doesn’t actually clean the dirty parts where wear is occurring, so it was a never ending battle with degreasing, solvent baths, re-lubing, wiping.
I mean, sure, I could just wipe and re-lube and call it a day, but for the amount of riding I do, I’d either have to be replacing chains every month, or more expensive components a few times a year. That’s not in my budget! LOL
Yeah i guess i’m not all that picky, and granted those waxed chains look great. I read that you save hours per month in maintenance, but i don’t think i spend an hour a year fiddling with my chain, haha.
Wow, this is super insightful! Thanks! Been wondering about waxing chains. We’re getting into our wet season so this is definitely piquing my curiosity once again.
I just waxed the chain on my gravel bike and it’s going great so far. Maybe time to consider the mountain bikes. I do spend a lot of time lubing chains.
We’re getting into our wet season so this is definitely piquing my curiosity once again.
Winter here gets slushy and salty, and I burned through a few chains two winters ago, then invested in “rustproof” chains last year, which worked well, but keeping on top of cleaning the inside of the chain and relubing was a PITA.
This year, I’ll be rotating waxed chains.
I just use some cheapo liquid chain wax on my bike and I dont clean my chain very often, I just put some new wax on the chain when it gets just even slightly squeaky. I have noticed that almost no dirt stays on the drivetrain with wax, it just falls off after a few km. Everything stuck to the chain when using oil, so its an improvement and I dont spend nearly as much effort on it as you do.
Yup! Even drip wax will give better results vs. wet lube. The cleanliness blows me away every time!
I was at a group ride and showed some of the guys how clean the chain was… wiped it with my bare hands, and nothing. That was after like 60km of riding! LOL
I used to thin paraffin wax with xylene just enough to make a solution that stays liquid and apply it to the chain from an old chain oil dripper bottle. If applied liberally it flushes out what little dirt has accumulated on the chain and after a quick wipe you’re done. The xylene evaporates leaving you with a waxed chain.
I used dry lubes for a while too but found the homemade wax liquid the most trouble-free option.
Sounds like you made a DIY version of a commercial drip wax. I use Silca’s drip wax, and I’m getting really good value out of it, so I’m not motivated enough to try something homemade. But I’m glad it works for you, and no doubt is better than most other lubes!
How do you melt the initial wax? Watching videos people use crockpots.
Doesn’t that ruin the pot? Do you have a dedicated pot for the wax?
Thrift stores are full of old crock pots. We used to get them for candle making.
If you use Silcas hot melt, then you can actually just boil the bag and put the chain in there. I haven’t used it like that, but instead just got an inexpensive slow cooker (most are <$25 or nearly free if second hand).
It doesn’t really “ruin” the pot, but I would dedicate it to wax only.
Interestingly enough, I’ve discovered wax melting pots designed specifically for melting waxes (i.e. for candle making), and while they might be a little more expensive than a slow cooker, they offer finer temperature control and may be slightly more convenient to use. With a cheap slow cooker, I’m quite happy!
Appreciate the advice!
I’ll check out some thrift stores / garage sales.
We also have a few candles that could stand to be remelted and reset, so perhaps their fly by the SO better if it’s for multiple uses :)
I use a small wax heater for removing body hair. 20$ and gets the job done. If you plan to do more than one chain at a time though, it’s too small. I’ll probably buy a used crock pot or instant pot at some time to wax more than one chain at a time.
I even use waxed chain through salt and snow. Hosed off once I get to work then compressed air to get the water off. Home side I hose it off then detach it and swish it in a tub of isopropyl and the next chain in the rotation goes on.
This will be my first winter with waxed chains. My only real concern is the drip wax treatments between immersion wax. Since I don’t bring my bikes inside where it’s warm, I think it would be too cold to apply drip wax. I think we have many below zero days, I’ll probably just keep rotating immersion waxed chains until it warms up.
I don’t even drip wax. I could probably stand to refresh them more often, but when I do I just slosh it in 99% iso mooched from work, then hang it up and heat gun it to drip off any gunk stuck in the wax still on the chain, then throw it right in my dedicated noname slow cooker.
If it gets really bad I have the ultrasonic tub but usuallly I don’t
Started with wet wax five years ago. Two years ago migrated to immersion waxing.
I do 5-10 chains at a time. It takes all of 15 minutes.
Then I wet wax between immersion waxing sessions.
Chains last a wildly long time and the time saved in between rides is incredible. Not to mention how clean all other parts stay.
I do 5-10 chains at a time.
For how many bikes??
Heheh. A few.
But I also do my partners bikes.
Most bikes have two active chains each. That way when I do it, it’s quite some time before I have to do it again.
Are you doing anything special to clean the chains before they get rewaxed in the immersion bath?
I’m a little OCD when it comes to worrying about contamination, but I hear a lot of people just wipe the outside of the chain and stick it in the wax without issues. You probably have more experience than most, considering how many chains you wax!
OCD checking in here too.
To clean the chains they go in an ultrasonic cleaner with heated water to get rid of the existing wax. This makes it easy to just put all the chains in at once and let them party.
Then a second ultrasonic session with some isopropyl for a final clean and repelling the water. I have mason jars that the chains go in, so it’s really quick and repeatable. By the isopropyl step they’re already quite clean so the isopropyl lasts a really long time.
I’ve got the workflow down - and lots of place to hang chains in the bike workshop.
The same process works well for stripping new chains - just with the hot water step switched out for a mineral spirits bath. It’s just as quick but needs a space with good ventilation.
To clean the chains they go in an ultrasonic cleaner with heated water to get rid of the existing wax.
I didn’t even consider using my ultrasonic cleaner with the heater on. I’m not even sure it gets hot enough, but I may give it a try!
As for isopropyl alcohol, it’s a good second step, but I’m not even sure that it’s necessary.
Remember that technically, we can just dump an old waxed chain into more wax, and it’ll be just fine. Yes, a little contamination gets into the wax, but apparently not enough to be a problem (with as many chains as you have, I probably wouldn’t want to do that).
And the Zero Friction Cycling guy even recommends two wax pots, so your “dirty” chain goes into one, and then into the second one, reducing the contaminants in the second pot.
But, I’m almost certain that simply boiling the wax off is going to be more than good enough to get the chain clean. And I think the guys at Silca say that putting a chain into oil that’s a little wet is fine, since the water “boils off”.
In any case, if your workflow works well, and it sounds like it does, keep doing it! I’m sure I’ll modify and refine my workflow as I go (even might give the two pot method a go), but it’s already “too easy” compared to all the solvent baths I used to run my chains through.
Maybe I don’t do enough? I tried degreasing my chain in jars and with one of those chain cleaner things and saw no benefit but lots of extra work and mess.
Now I never degrease. Add lube to chain on the bike, several rotations to work it in, several rotations through a rag to clean it off. Takes three minutes and I do that monthly for the road bike, weekly for MTB, and after cleaning the bike. I never have to take the chain off until I replace it.
I use wet lube on the MTB and rock n roll extra dry on road bike.
Here’s the problem:
The parts of the chain that wear out are on the inside; you can’t wipe it clean.
When you use a standard lube, it attracts dirt inside the chain, and creates a grinding paste (i.e. that black crap), which will degrade the chain quickly.
As the chain wears, it wears on other components, so it cascades to the point where you’ll get issues with shifting, chain skipping, etc., and components will need to be replaced.
Waxing fills the gaps where those inner components of the chain wears, effectively providing a buffer that dirt does not stick to.
You may not notice wear unless you are checking with a good quality chain checker tool, or when you start to experience issues.
How often you ride will also be a factor. Someone who rides 2000 km a year may not notice chain wear issues for 2 years. Someone riding 20,000 km might notice these problems every month.
And the more gears your bike has, the less chain wear you can get away with before it starts chewing through other components.
To me, it’s an easy way to ensure longer-lasting, cleaner, quieter components, so I’ll stick to it (no pun intended)!
Define quickly? Is there data showing that waxed chains last X% longer? And what is the net present value of the time needed to maintain a waxed chain? I suspect it is cheaper to replace the chain slightly more often using “good enough” procedures than to obsess about it and spend more time doing a “better” procedure.
The only way to get it all is to go full Sheldon Brown: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html
Is there data showing that waxed chains last X% longer?
And what is the net present value of the time needed to maintain a waxed chain?
From personal experience, much less time needed to maintain a waxed chain than a web lubed chain (assuming the same goal: clean chain, minimal wear).
I suspect it is cheaper to replace the chain slightly more often using “good enough” procedures than to obsess about it and spend more time doing a “better” procedure.
In the data linked above, the cost difference between waxed and standard lube, after 10,000km, is a few hundred dollars vs several thousand. With the amount of riding I do per year, this is like saving enough to buy a new bike each summer.
The only way to get it all is to go full Sheldon Brown: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html
Yes, for 99.9% of bike maintenance info, I also rely on Sheldon Brown. But the (extremely brief) info on wax is super outdated, and they cite articles from 2013. A tremendous amount of innovation has gone into chain wax over even the last few years!
Like I wrote in my OP, I avoided wax because I heard so many stories of it being too much trouble, but my experience has been the opposite.
Did you click the SB article I linked? It was a joke that I used to point out diminishing returns of effort. I don’t want to spend the extra time and use the extra space for equipment and extra chains needed to wax my chain.
The 5 block test method on the site you linked does not seem valid as it would change based on the sequence of blocks. It could have been designed to favor a particular lubricant.
It was a joke that I used to point out diminishing returns of effort.
That was extreme, but with wet lube, I used an ultrasonic cleaner + solvents to actually clean it. Less effort than the article, but similar results.
Any other way would not be cleaning much.
The effort, even with ultrasonic + solvents, is more than waxing.
For me, the little effort saves time, money, and headache. It’s worth it.
I don’t want to spend the extra time and use the extra space for equipment and extra chains needed to wax my chain.
I have a very small box, with a very small slow cooker and a hook to grab the waxed chain. It takes up less space than the solvents needed to clean a web lubed chain.
The time, at least for me, is next to nothing. Far less than constantly wiping a forever dirty web lubed chain + the ultrasonic baths and disposal of solvents.
The 5 block test method on the site you linked does not seem valid as it would change based on the sequence of blocks. It could have been designed to favor a particular lubricant.
Page 1 shows cumulative wear (one test after another), but the second page shows individual blocks, and might be more applicable for some riders.
Even in block 1, without any contamination whatsoever, all chains without wax will wear.
In block 2, which would be someone riding only in dry weather, wet lubes show significantly more wear than drip wax, and even more vs. waxed.
In the wet condition block, many of the wet lubes ironically fail past the point of excessive wear, which means you’re replacing your cassette by that point.
For me, waxing is a no-brainer, especially considering the other benefits (i.e. no solvents, no dirty hands, quiet drivetrain, etc.).
Let it be dirty. I wet lube, wipe, and let good enough be enough.
We’re supposed to be lubing our chains?
I really want to try waxing my chain but I commute on my bike and more than half the year it is wet and rainy so I had always read that it wouldn’t really be suitable due to the wetness. It is interesting to hear that this may not actually be as much of an issue as I was lead to believe by everything I had dead about it.
I generally keep on top of my maintainance and will wash the bike usually once a week including cleaning the filthy as fuck chain.
Think I may look into waxing again after reading this.
Unless your commutes are 150 km a day, wax will still be better than wet lube. Rotating among multiple chains would be the way to go.
The lower the speed count, the less expensive the chain, but you’ll save money in the long run, even with multiple 11 speed chains (which are way more expensive than something like a 7/8 speed chain).
I generally keep on top of my maintainance and will wash the bike usually once a week including cleaning the filthy as fuck chain.
I got tired of that. And realistically, you’ll never get a “clean” chain when using wet lube unless you use an ultrasonic cleaner + solvents (and run it through multiple cleaning cycles). You can clean the outside of the chain, but the wear happens around the pins, and you can’t wipe that clean.
Cheers for the info. I absolutely do not have the money to try this just yet but I will be keeping it in mind to do in the future as I’m sick of the black shit everywhere!
