Why Every Cyclist is Talking About This 1 Upgrade

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but, without grease marks on my leg, how will they know I'm really good at bikes?

The delight I get from this kind of content is inversely proportional to the delight I get from maintaining my bikes. I'm more into spray the degreaser from a safe distance, brush if I have to, dry poorly, few drops of chanel n. 5 and hope for the best. You do stuff so I don't have to, this subscription is the best money I ever spent on the internet, hands down!

Tip: Use automotive brake cleaner, the non-chlorinated type to degrease and clean your chain. It's cheap, works really good, won't harm the finish on you bike or components, and dries fast. I have been using the Autozone brand version because they usually have it on sale, sometimes 2 for $5.99-7.99, which is tons cheaper than the Finish Line brand cleaner.

My wax setup is a bent wire clothes hanger and a $7 mini crocpot from Kohl's. For stripping/cleaning chains before waxing, I have a medium/large (28 or 32 oz) gatorade bottle, some heavy duty degreaser (I like the purple Dawn stuff or Totally Awesome) and small tin of mineral spirits. Just throw the chain in the bottle with 4-5oz (100ml) of spirits and shake the crap out of it until the solvent turns black. Dump the solvent and switch to degreaser, shake, dump again. Alternate until the spirits stop turning black. My nasty chain took like 7-8 rounds, and a new chain takes like 2-3 rounds. The problem with brake cleaner is that you wind up spraying most of it past the chain. It's formulated to flash off quickly which isn't what you want to do. You want all the oils and grease to dissolve and stay in solution, and the cleaner step removes the dirt and everything else that the oils let go. All the equipment I use was still cheaper than the massive bag of silca wax that I had to buy, but still cheaper over time than buying chain lube. I've only used like 10% of the bag because my cheap crocpot is so small. You only need enough to submerge the chain. I only ride road on nice days, so I don't see rain dirt or other adverse conditions. I've only rewaxed once so far and it's been 18 months or so. Less maintenance than my unibrow. edit: I did all this because I transport my bike inside my car which has a light-colored interior. The cleanliness aspect was more important to me than friction or efficiency or any of that other bullshit. Try to keep the waxing to the garage or away from the inside of your house if you can help it. Rolling your bike along will cause the chain to flake and you'll have little Tungsten disulfide grey flecks all over your floor. If you try to wipe it up or mop it, the soft wax smudges instead of staying solid so it's a real pain in the ass to clean. But that's better than greasing up your calves and everything else you accidentally touch forever and ever.

Solution looking for a problem, which is Silca’s business model. They take routine objects, like pumps or Allen keys, and make them more expensive than necessary. Yes, they are objects of art to some extent but their pumps are not significantly better than a $30 pump, for example. And of course there’s an after ride wipe that you need to buy from them. ! Just gets some NixFrixShun lube.

SILCA sais that STRIP CHIP is only for factory greased new chain. STRIP CHIP is for "neutralisation" factory grease so the grease would not make wax too soft. Soft wax - short lifespan of the wax on the chain.

You don't need all that stuff in the DIY method (like the crock pot etc) - I just melt mine in a pan on the stove.

Love it! I've been waxing my chains with the crock pot and yes it takes a long time to melt the wax. But there are other things you can do while it's melting like clean the house cut the lawn....... As far a dripping I jus have my chain on a shirt hanger and pull it out and hold a piece of paper underneath . Removing wax , I just roll the chain over a 2x4 / my handrail and it frees up the chain. As far as the wax, I use paraffin wax with a little Teflon. BAM!!!

$164? That is like 8-10 chains on sale. My chains last 4-5k miles. I ride 5-8k miles a year. I take chain off once a month degrease & re-lube. I probably lube again once a month if rainy. For myself I think I will stick with simple green & T-9 Lube 😉 Good video though Thanks!

Haven’t tried the new strip chips but have used the recently released silca chain stripper which you soak a chain in for about 5 minutes or so, then clean with water and then wax. It’s amazing and left me super clean waxed chains in what used to take me a full days of soaking and ultrasonic cleaning. I then use silca super secret drip wax every 150-200 miles after a light spray down on a microfiber cloth with silca biodegreaser on the waxed chain and I’m currently get at least 1500 miles between bike-off re waxing.

Switched to waxing a while back and the DIY method is significantly cheaper/actually better than Silca's own melt product: - Crockpot was $15 AUD ($10 USD) from the supermarket - Thermometer not needed, just whack it on low and walk away. Come back an hour later, swoosh it around and you're sorted - No wood/brackets needed. Just use an old coat hanger and bend it into shape (mimic Molten Speed Wax's tool) - Free - Mineral Turpentine 1L $5 AUD ($3 USD) for 1L + a Jar - Methylated Spirits 1L $4 AUD ($2.50 USD) for 1L + a Jar - Wax $40 USD Total cost = $55.50 USD vs. SIlca's system for $164 = DIY is about $110 USD difference. With the chain, you need to break the links using a handle or a bin handle first (just run it through, don't do it link by link).

If you use the Super Secret every 100 or so miles you don't have to reset your chain as often. I usually go a total of 800 to 1000 miles between resettings as directed by Silca.

D. One suggestion for the tribe - don't use a crock pot. Get an old rice cooker, which will melt the wax way faster. Literally 5-10 minutes. Also, the DIY approach can be a lot cheaper than you might think. I use wax from a bag of crushed ikea tea light candles. I don't think I'm losing very many watts. My degreaseing regimen involves a jam jar and a 50-100 millilitres of petrol - shaken not stirred! The entire set up cost me about US$10. And the running costs are close to zero. Worth thinking about before taking the plunge. Cheers

Bro you glued your derailleur

I’m 500 miles into a Silca waxed chain on my winter bike. Like you I live in PDX, my chain has remained spotlessly clean and worked flawlessly. I started before the Silca system melter came out - so have a $15 thrift store crockpot. Works great - just less control of temperature. I have now waxed four of my bikes (I have G.A.S. too). The most important part is to not contaminate the wax with dirt - so a really clean chain will make the $40 bag of wax last the longest.

I’ve waxed for 30 yrs., but this is what was missing! Wow...a buyer here!

I've been using Squirt chain wax. Clean the chain initially then just Squirt every 200miles, job done.

I still feel this whole hot waxing process is inconvenient and expensive and keep wondering about the environmental cost of all this. I'm using the effetto mariposa flowerpower drip wax and it's super simple and effective to use while being ecofriendly as much as possible. And top rated by zero friction cycling, which says a lot about it.

This was very helpful and good to know. As a fellow Portlander my chains are always dirty and I think this would help preserve them in all the foul weather we have. Now I know the cost and time, I might have to give it a try. Thanks for sharing great content.