Why do we accept tubeless, but not waxed chains?

[Webbo2]

Each to their own, but just out of interest have you tried either?

I don’t think they have ever ridden a bike.😱🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[gbb]

Faff is debatable (personally I prefer regularly waxing chains to periodically having to clean filthy, gritty, oily drivetrains and the mess they create in the interim).

I'd argue cost is tipped heavily in the favour of waxing as the supplies cost naff all (if you're not buying the heavily-marketed industry kool-aid) and the drivetrain components should last a lot longer. Plus there's no outlay on stuff like degreaser and the myriad drivetrain cleaning tools that never really work..

Indeed, ,,faff being debatable.
Former commuters used during winter season, I was.lucky enough to be able to store my bike in my workshops at work...so used to remove chain probably twice weekly, thoroughly blast off any crud with a HP airline, soak in oil, drip dry for a couple hours and refit.
Faff to some ? Easy for me and each part only took a few minutes, almost effortless.

Did it increase chain life ? Not significantly

Didnt mind doing it at all but once the facility to do that was hone...I just returned to wipe, oil, wipe .

Its something that can easily be overthought with hindsight. Its a chain, it has a life, you can extend it a bit but not much IME.

 

[wafter]

Indeed, ,,faff being debatable.
Former commuters used during winter season, I was.lucky enough to be able to store my bike in my workshops at work...so used to remove chain probably twice weekly, thoroughly blast off any crud with a HP airline, soak in oil, drip dry for a couple hours and refit.
Faff to some ? Easy for me and each part only took a few minutes, almost effortless.

Did it increase chain life ? Not significantly

Didnt mind doing it at all but once the facility to do that was hone...I just returned to wipe, oil, wipe .

Its something that can easily be overthought with hindsight. Its a chain, it has a life, you can extend it a bit but not much IME.

I suspect the reason it didn't improve chain life much is because you were only removing contamination from the outside rather than inside the links where the wear takes place. Once contaminated in this way I suspect it's very difficult to clean it all out; I've never had much luck waxing chains that have previously been used with oil.

All the testing I've read suggests waxing gives a significant increase in chain life, however I've not run oiled chains long enough to make a direct comparison myself and I'm certainly not about to start now

I think maybe he was talking about the time involved in rewaxing a chain vs just replacing it more often.
My experience with waxing is that the UK is the last place I'd use it, it just rains too much.

Perhaps, but that still doesn't really make sense unless you're simply chucking on a new chain without cleaning the rest of the drivetrain first.

Granted it's not great in the wet but on balance I'd still rather use it than oil... I am in one of the less rainy parts of the country though.

 

[PaulSB]

I think maybe he was talking about the time involved in rewaxing a chain vs just replacing it more often.
My experience with waxing is that the UK is the last place I'd use it, it just rains too much.

The thing is this is a fallacy. Yes, by definition it rains in the UK on between 159 and 165 days, 43 to 45%, of the year. The source for this data is the Met Office.

This data also defines rainy days as "a rain day is officially counted when 1mm or more of rain or snow falls in a day." A day being 24 hours, the impact on cycling is minimal.

As a resident of the north-west, one of the wetter regions, I can say that rain does increase the frequency of waxing, just as it does lubing. Waxing and lubing involve roughly the same amount of effort, which is minimal for both, unless one chooses to hot wax...........which to my mind is a lot of faffing!!! 🤣

 

[Ming the Merciless]

And as for chain waxing, 100% spotless running gear and the biggest plus, the life of the chain increased ten fold

Your chains last 40,000 to 50,000 miles before replacing. Good going…

 

[gbb]

I suspect the reason it didn't improve chain life much is because you were only removing contamination from the outside rather than inside the links where the wear takes place. Once contaminated in this way I suspect it's very difficult to clean it all out; I've never had much luck waxing chains that have previously been used with oil.

All the testing I've read suggests waxing gives a significant increase in chain life, however I've not run oiled chains long enough to make a direct comparison myself and I'm certainly not about to start now



Perhaps, but that still doesn't really make sense unless you're simply chucking on a new chain without cleaning the rest of the drivetrain first.

Granted it's not great in the wet but on balance I'd still rather use it than oil... I am in one of the less rainy parts of the country though.

You'd be amazed how much black gunk comes out of..and keeps coming out of a chain.
Luckily we has a stainless steel topped.bench so the.mess was easy to deal with.
Personally I suspect that method while not foolproof would remove as much or.more as most other methods. But, as said, its easy to overthink it.
I d only get 1200 to 1600 miles to a chain with regular maintenence (10sp) anyway summer or winter so the difference was only perhaps 3 or 4 weeks cycling (I used to religiously monitor chain life...another thing with hindsight I think you can overthink).

 

[Binky]

You'd be amazed how much black gunk comes out of..and keeps coming out of a chain.
Luckily we has a stainless steel topped.bench so the.mess was easy to deal with.
Personally I suspect that method while not foolproof would remove as much or.more as most other methods. But, as said, its easy to overthink it.
I d only get 1200 to 1600 miles to a chain with regular maintenence (10sp) anyway summer or winter so the difference was only perhaps 3 or 4 weeks cycling (I used to religiously monitor chain life...another thing with hindsight I think you can overthink).

1200-1600 miles per chain? How bad were the riding conditions?

 

[Dorset Boy]

1200-1600 miles per chain? How bad were the riding conditions?

Riding through sand maybe?

 

[gbb]

1200-1600 miles per chain? How bad were the riding conditions?

I always found wear progressively worse / quicker as I went up the speed chain.
I used to love to be out the saddle, push push push uphill, always attacking the road (in my own humble way)
I always assumed (no reason to disbelieve) that riding hard will accelerate wear.

 

[Binky]

I always found wear progressively worse / quicker as I went up the speed chain.
I used to love to be out the saddle, push push push uphill, always attacking the road (in my own humble way)
I always assumed (no reason to disbelieve) that riding hard will accelerate wear.

Well you must have been putting out world class track cyclist power to wear out a chain in 1500miles.

 

[brommieinkorea]

When I used wax, I was in an actual desert , where it frequently goes over a year between any rain. Moved back to the Midwest and the first rain washed all of the wax off, the chain sure was clean but the screaming was rather off putting.

 

[wafter]

You'd be amazed how much black gunk comes out of..and keeps coming out of a chain.
Luckily we has a stainless steel topped.bench so the.mess was easy to deal with.
Personally I suspect that method while not foolproof would remove as much or.more as most other methods. But, as said, its easy to overthink it.
I d only get 1200 to 1600 miles to a chain with regular maintenence (10sp) anyway summer or winter so the difference was only perhaps 3 or 4 weeks cycling (I used to religiously monitor chain life...another thing with hindsight I think you can overthink).

Yeah; I can appreciate that from attempting to clean the oiled chain on my Fuji; it went through jars and jars of paraffin before it stopped turning them black (paraffin was cleaned and reused afterwards so not wasted ). No such mess with wax of course.

As others have said that seems like a very short lifespan; can you remember what brand of chain it was? By contrast I got about 3-3.5k miles out of my waxed 9sp KMC before it was 0.5% elongated. That's all weather use but I'm not a particularly strong rider.

The X11 on my Genesis has seen about 4.5k with life to spare and I reckon conservatively it'll go to 5.5-6k. This has typically only seen fair weather use; although I have reason to believe the 10 & 11sp KMC chains are made from a higher grade steel so likely to last longer regardless, all things being equal.

When I used wax, I was in an actual desert , where it frequently goes over a year between any rain. Moved back to the Midwest and the first rain washed all of the wax off, the chain sure was clean but the screaming was rather off putting.

I can appreciate how wax is probably really well suited to such an environment. Water definitely reduces the effective life of the wax but in my circumstances it's still preferable to oil.

 

[mrushton]

used to commute 20 plus miles a day on fixed gear in Manchester. Switching to wax was a gamechanger. cleaner, long lasting drive train. Had a wax pot at work so in winter/wet weather I could rewax. I had a spreadsheet of weather conditions/rides and it was surprising how often the roads were damp/dry taken across the year. Chain longevity is definitely better