Hot melt chain wax

RunDMC

I'm about to replace my chain and I thought it might be a good opportunity to try and apply hot melt wax. Has anyone got any experience, tips, advice to offer?

Thanks,

R

hesker

Look up ozcycle on YouTube. He goes through the whole process in detail.

bazermc

Thought this thread was about some sort of sandwich

Euppy

I do it but I think I might switch back to normal lube. It doesn't seem to last at all when there is rain or water on the road.

But once you've got your bike and chain fully degreased, reapplying wax is easy. Multiple chains is the best way. I have a small slow cooker that I fire up on sundays and wax a few chains at once.

I have stopped doing it for my fixed gear as when the wax wears out of the chain, I get a slack chain and it falls off my chainring. Need to retighten wheel. Works flawlessly with derailleur bikes.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118624755#Comment_118624755

i asked about this topic before, and one video i quoted (not sure if it was ozcycle) used a chemical in making a liquid wax which someone - Cram, i think - mentioned was not the sort of chemical you want to mess with.

that was a video about making a wax which was liquid with addition of some volatile chemical, to make it easier to apply without taking the chain off the bike. so after applying, the added volatile chemical would evaporate off the wax.

i think the GCN video from a few years ago on the topic was a 'full dunk into hot wax' approach.

hesker

Don’t think that was ozcycle. Just molten paraffin wax with optional addition of some additives.

Here’s the video

https://youtu.be/HHr9znwpwmQ

RunDMC

I've ordered the PTFE powder from Aliexpress and the paraffin wax from Art & Hobby, for about a quarter of the price of the branded stuff. I reckon I will only need to re-apply once per month or so. I'll give it a go and see how it goes. If it's too much of a faff, I'll go back to lube.

R

Joebrosaysno

I have a motorbike so I use the same rock oil motorcycle wax on my bicycle and it does the job great.

68 lost souls

I recently used the Silca strip chip on a new chain with success. Much easier than stripping a factory grease chain back go raw first. I top up with the drip wax in between. Winter I might revert to regular lube

koutoubia

I use silca hot melt wax on my sram flat top and chorus 12 speed chains.

Wont go back to the oil slick days.

Redo the full wax every 500k or use the drip wax if the bike gets a soaking.

Only thing to be on top of here is to make sure to have fresh quick links to hand. I out a new one on every second removal.

I would imagine that waxing will come into its own during the winter where a liquid based lube will pick up all sorts of crap off the roads whereas a wax wont attract near as much dirt!