Silca hot waxing

[Sea of vapours]

I will happy go 5 weeks or more between swapping chains over if it hasn't been wet.
On our Alpine trip we had a drenching heading up the valley to the Nivolet, and I still ended up close to 2,000 kms before swapping.

With that re-waxing frequency, what is the typical lifespan of your components, including the chain (in terms of distance, not time)

 

[Dorset Boy]

With that re-waxing frequency, what is the typical lifespan of your components, including the chain (in terms of distance, not time)

I get 10-12,000 kms out of a chain

 

[Dorset Boy]

What's your thoughts on Silca saying 250-300miles? I doubt it's so consumers use more as they say each bag of wax is good for 50-60 hot waxes which is life of a chain easily.

No one would bother with the faff of swapping that frequently if it really were required. Plenty of people ride 200-300 miles a week and really they won't be swapping chains weekly.

 

[Sea of vapours]

I get 10-12,000 kms out of a chain

Similar to me then, which is about !5,000km to reach 0.5% wear. I may be re-waxing unnecessarily frequently (500-700km in the dry). Then again, it's still only five minutes every couple of weeks, so it's still a trifling amount of 'work'.

 

[Binky]

No one would bother with the faff of swapping that frequently if it really were required. Plenty of people ride 200-300 miles a week and really they won't be swapping chains weekly.

Maybe maybe not. With a quick link it's literally a 30sec job though.

I'm more interested to see how long it lasts. I'd be surprised if not more than they state given I easily get 150-200miles on Squirt drip wax but if I do end up swappin chain every couple of weeks it's no issue for me.

What criteria are you using to prompt a rewax? Feels dry, sounds dry?

 

[Dorset Boy]

Maybe maybe not. With a quick link it's literally a 30sec job though.

I'm more interested to see how long it lasts. I'd be surprised if not more than they state given I easily get 150-200miles on Squirt drip wax but if I do end up swappin chain every couple of weeks it's no issue for me.

What criteria are you using to prompt a rewax? Feels dry, sounds dry?

I'll aim to swap every 5-6 weeks or would do earlier if it stated to get noisy or feels rough when shifting.
I'd say ideally once a month (so roughly every 900-1,000 miles) is sufficient to know you've stayed on top of it. So perhaps earmark a change during the first weekend of each month.

 

[scotsbikester]

What's your thoughts on Silca saying 250-300miles? I doubt it's so consumers use more as they say each bag of wax is good for 50-60 hot waxes which is life of a chain easily.

Somewhere there's a thing from Silca. They measured how much wax stays on the chain after it's waxed. I think it was 5g. And most of that is probably returned to the pot on each rewaxing, I expect.

I'm quite tempted by the "two pot" method, using ordinary fully refined parafin wax for the "cleaning" pot. Though it's more a mental OCD thing, it probably doesn't make any difference. But somebody on a local forum has a slow cooker to give away.

 

[Sea of vapours]

I'm quite tempted by the "two pot" method, using ordinary fully refined parafin wax for the "cleaning" pot. T

That's what I do, plus the cleaning pot has a mesh platform at the bottom in the hope that bits of whatever fall through and don't therefore make it into the second pot. The usage rate on Silca wax seems negligible. I'm still on the first bag after four years of 12-15,000km per annum.

 

[scotsbikester]

That's what I do, plus the cleaning pot has a mesh platform at the bottom in the hope that bits of whatever fall through and don't therefore make it into the second pot. The usage rate on Silca wax seems negligible. I'm still on the first bag after four years of 12-15,000km per annum.

Thanks. So you have "ordinary" wax in the first (cleaning) pot?

 

[Sea of vapours]

No, I have Silca wax in both. The second pot has an Endurance Chip in it; the first is just straight wax. The two pots contain the total wax from one bag.

 

[scotsbikester]

I presume it was correctly indexed before you put the waxed chain on was it? One thing you can't remotely do with a freshly waxed chain is index the gears as it sounds awful even when it's correct. Typically, it'll sound fine after about 10km or thereabouts. (If it wasn't indexed in the first place than, fairly obviously, it wont' !)

Went out with a freshly waxed chain today, first ride in a while, due to huge gash in leg after nasty "off".

It's weird that my experience is the exact opposite. The first ten miles or so were whisper quiet. That ride is on smooth tarmac, a lot of it away from traffic. No wind, not that I'm that fast anyway. Honestly, I couldn't hear anything at all from the drive train. I listened as a couple of cyclists went the other way, and they sounded way noisier. Even after ten miles there was really hardly anything.

Not sure why. I use MSW, not Silca. It's a nine speed triple, YBN SLA chain, brand new XT cassette, and chain rings (Spa New Vision) with about 2,500 miles on them.

I'm not bragging, although it is nice to be so quiet. Just can't understand why it's so different. I guess the good thing is that increased noise, indicating time to change, should be obvious.

 

[Sea of vapours]

I've only ever used Silca, and for the last couple of years that's been Silca with the Endurance Chip additive, which makes the wax 'harder'. Possibly MSW starts off, or just is, 'softer' than Silca wax? If it is, then the chain would be quieter from the outset. My chains are really pretty stiff, post-waxing, with minimal lateral movement and very stiff articulation in the normal direction. I'd assumed this was normal for all waxes, but very possibly not. I've actually heard people who use the Silca Speed Chip, which makes it softer, say that the drivetrain is immediately quieter.

Whatever the reason, it sounds like a good result for you :-)

 

[scotsbikester]

Whatever the reason, it sounds like a good result for you :-)

Yes, it's lovely. I can hear the butterflies singing as I pedal!

 

[13 rider]

So I've done it and gone down the silca chain waxing system, was already considering it before this thread started . 1st ride today on a new waxed chain treated with the strip chip whole process is simple enough . A question the chain that has been replaced has 2700 miles on it but shows minimal wear and has been run on Silca super secret drip on wax after stripping the factory grease with solvents ,is it worth waxing this chain and would you use another strip chip to completely clean it
The first ride was quieter than I expected ,I had losened the links by hand and then ran then over a bar to articulate the links

 

[Sea of vapours]

Silca Super Secret drip wax is the same as the immersive wax, other than being in a liquid carrier, which evaporates. If the chain was cleaned with solvents then there won't be any factory grease left, so no need for a Strip Chip. So it's definitely worth continuing to use that chain, and I'd not waste a Strip Chip on it.

Conversely, given that you have the drip wax, you could use that to top up the immersive wax, rather than leave it on a shelf. It's very useful for making immersive waxing last as long as possible when you don't have access to re-waxing immersively as it just fills in the internal gaps left by the immersive wax wearing away.