I'm a wax convert - it started years ago when I was recovering from a back injury and commuting on a recumbent, with yards of chain that kept finding a way to stain my legs, my yellow riding jacket, and anything else that got within a block of it. I read that waxing was the lowest friction, longest life option for a chain, and since replacing all that chain was expensive, wax appealed to me. Now I wax the chain on the recumbent as well as my daily rider Atlantis and my mountain bike, and except on a long tour away from home I would never consider using anything else. I recently modified my wax recipe to add a toilet seal wax ring (a couple bucks - new!) for its much softer composition, so now I'm probably running a half and half mixture of Gulf wax and toilet wax. I'm finding the wax is lasting much longer this way before the chain starts chirping, but I've never monitored mileage very diligently - I wax when it squeaks, or if it's been awhile and I'm planning a long ride. I find waxing to be the lowest effort and least messy method of any I've tried in my 5+ decades of regular riding - no cleaning needed, no rags or gloves, never any black stains on hands, clothes etc. from the chain. With a quick link in the chain and a tool for dealing with that, it's very little work and leaves no mess. - Paul
On Thursday, May 28, 2020 at 7:18:22 PM UTC-4, Michael Hechmer wrote: > > Greetings, one and all. It has been a long time, at least a few years, > since my last post and I am just assuming my membership is still active. > > At 75+, I still ride regularly, although not the distances I used to. I > live in a small town in far northern VT, which has mostly dirt roads. I > just ride; I don't desire new stuff nor do anything heroic worth writing > about. I have a Ramboulliet, a Trek 620, An early Saluki (my goto ride), > and a custom Bilenky touring tandem. My wife rides a Betty Foy and my > daughter a Cheviot. All but the Trek have fenders but that's still a lot > of chains out on dirty roads and a lot of messy time cleaning them. > > Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Well maybe. I clean the chains, > rings and cogs with mineral spirits and citrosol. I use a standard oil > lube and wipe them down as best I can. The process of wiping down the > chains inevitably contaminates the rings and cogs with oil and the first > ride bleeds oil from the inside to the outside of the chain. The oil > collects dirt, which wears down rings and cogs. (I just ordered three new > rings today, so I'm focused). Every time I go through this process of > cleaning 9 chains, I watch a youtube video on chain waxing but get put off > by the initial effort and purchase of a crock pot, ultrasonic cleaner, etc; > and wonder if it would really improve this process ; keep the chain cleaner > and reduce wear? > > Your experience, appreciated. > > Michael > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/d0467ed1-cf65-4cc1-811a-d1f1bfe71344%40googlegroups.com.
