"Frank Krygowski" wrote in message
news
On 4/8/2017 7:50 AM, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 8 Apr 2017 19:13:04 +1000, James
wrote:

On 08/04/17 17:51, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 8 Apr 2017 13:42:32 +1000, James
wrote:

A few weeks ago I applied my wax/oil chain lube, just before starting
a
cycling touring holiday that went for 9 days. We encountered 4 days
where it rained for a good part of that days ride. The average day
was
near 100km long. I've since added another 200km or so, and my chain
might be ready for another wax/oil application by now. Note that I
just
got home from an 80km ride and the chain doesn't squeak or sound dry.

I observed numerous others on the ride spending time applying lube to
their chain, mostly in the form of commercial and relatively expensive
wax in solvent preparations.

There was one other guy who used a wax based solution that he'd mixed
himself from a recipe he found online. It consists of paraffin wax,
paraffin oil and xylene solvent. He didn't need to make any chain
maintenance stops either.

The other guy's receipe? Was it for a lube that had to be applied hot
or was the xylene enough to allow it to be applied as a liquid and
then dry in place?


Apparently it could be liquified by immersing the plastic bottle it was
in, in hot water. I should think mine would do that too, but I also
think the penetration is much better if the chain is heated with the
wax.

Interesting. I use paraffin with about 20% beeswax added and some
molybdenum disulfide. The idea was that the added beeswax would make
the mix more adhesive, although now I'm not sure if it is necessary.
I've got an electric pot and I just chuck the chain in and turn the
pot on and leave it alone until I can be sure that the thermostat has
cycled a time or two so the chain reaches the temperature of the
melted wax mix.

As you say, a waxed chain just lasts and lasts and what I was thinking
about was some sort of liquid wax mix that would dry after application
so one could carry a small bottle in the tool bag. Then if things
started to squeak one could do something about it. Although I'm not
sure that is necessary as my waxed chains have never squeaked :-)

I've wished for a method of re-waxing on long tours, but I finally decided
it wasn't necessary. After a fresh hot application of my wax-oil mix, it
takes many hundreds of miles to get the first hints of a squeak.

Haven't bothered lubing the chain since Autumn - its bone dry now, but no
sign of any squeak.

The grease I used was molybdenum disulphide car wheel bearing grease - it
surface treats the moving surfaces with molybdenum.

I used to use the tub of wax chain treatment for motorcycle chains, you
place the chain on the surface and heat it on a stove till the wax melts -
it carries some risk of ruining the temper of the steel if you're not
careful to only get it as hot as it needs to be.


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