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Old April 10th 06, 09:08 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
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Default Chain Waxing Followup

Ah! The soft put down from the Trek dealer! This dog of yours won't
hunt. I don't "force feed" hot waxing to others, but I have done it
myself since 1990.

Here's my personal experience: I tried waxing solely in an attempt to
have a clean drive train. Unexpected benefits included longer cog,
chainring and chain life. Did shifting performance suffer? Never. My
bikes shift *at least* as well as any among the various groups I've
ridden with all those years.


No soft put-down intended, just personal experience. And didn't know you
were a "waxer." I guess this is the ultimate "Your Mileage May Vary" sort of
thing. Our experiences are quite different. Maybe it's those junk Trek bikes
we sell? :)

Anyway, we've gone too long without a serious disagreement on something, so
I'm relieved that the world now seems to be back in order again.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com


"Ozark Bicycle" wrote in message
oups.com...

Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
And have you experienced the allegedly common "shifting problems"?


There are a number of things that some might say "work" but don't work as
well as they could. If you don't know any better, does that make it fine?



Ah! The soft put down from the Trek dealer! This dog of yours won't
hunt. I don't "force feed" hot waxing to others, but I have done it
myself since 1990.

Here's my personal experience: I tried waxing solely in an attempt to
have a clean drive train. Unexpected benefits included longer cog,
chainring and chain life. Did shifting performance suffer? Never. My
bikes shift *at least* as well as any among the various groups I've
ridden with all those years.
















If
someone is willing to put up with less-than-optimal shifting in order to
get
an unusual gear combination to work, does that mean it would be
acceptable
to everyone?

We get customers who will come in requesting a 39t middle for their
Ultegra
6503 crankset (stock is 30/42/52) and tell us that a friend of their 3rd
cousin says it works fine, no reason not to do it. We explain the reasons
it
won't work as well as stock, but they'll have none of that, because the
friend of their 3rd cousin says it works fine, and besides, they also
read
that it worked fine in newsgroups. Have they ridden a bike with that
arrangement? No. But they've heard it works fine. Of course, we have a
history with the customer, and know that this guy is pretty picky about
stuff, so we very reluctantly agree to do the work for him.

We make the change, adjust things as best we can, but notice that we
really
can't get it to shift from the 39 to the 30 nearly as well as before...
quite a bit of hesitation. It will eventually drop down, but you have to
plan ahead a bit, and really ease off on the pressure. The customer gets
it
back, rides it, and is quite upset that it doesn't work as well as it did
with the 42. "Your mechanics don't know what they're doing" (which would
include me, since I'm the most-experienced mechanic, among other things).
So
the guy leaves, mad, planning never to come back again etc. A few months
later we find that he's essentially "gone through" a number of shops, and
about a year later he's back with us, with a bit less attitude and a bit
more appreciation for what it means when someone says that something
that's
not standard "works fine."

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com


"Ozark Bicycle" wrote in message
oups.com...

HarryB wrote:
I just rewaxed (with pure paraffin) my chain and post the following
observations:

1) I got about 900 (898 to be exact) miles between waxings this time
(I didn't keep detailed notes of my prior waxing frequency, but
guessed I got upwards of 700 miles between waxings.)

2) All miles were ridden on pavement and none in the rain.

3) During the last couple hundred miles or so I would get some
occasional squeaking during the last half of longer rides (40+ miles),
but would not hear any squeaking on rides that were shorter. I don't
know why.

HarryB
PS: I am uninterested in hearing about why hot waxing a chain doesn't
"work." I'm simply posting this as an FYI.


And have you experienced the allegedly common "shifting problems"?




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