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Old December 7th 18, 07:00 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Andre Jute[_2_]
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Default A few months waxing chain

On Friday, November 30, 2018 at 12:55:08 PM UTC, Tanguy Ortolo wrote:
Hello all,

A couple of months have passed since I switched to wax for chain
lubrication. I would estimate I rode about 3,000 kilometers with my
chain (cleaning it and lubricating it four times, I think), a point at
which I usually start measuring at least some elongation.

In this case, I cannot measure any. 10 links span 254 mm ± .3 mm, so
that is less than 1 ‰ of elongation. My chain is a good as new. As an
additional bonus, my entire drivetrain has never been that clean!

Unfortunately, when I switched to chain waxing, I also changed from
Shimano chains to a KMC 9.73 one, so I cannot assert that waxing
is good for chain wear, only that either it is, or KMC chains are very
resistant, or both.

Anyway, now I think I will soon be at the point where I will have to
replace my cassette that is starting to be a bit worn, without changing
the chain that is still as good as new!

--
Tanguy


I think it very likely that your results are affected by the switch to a KMC chain. I had a similar effect when I switched to KMC from the horrid Shimano Nexus. Chain life suddenly shot up from always less than 1600km to 4500km and would easily have made 3x or 4800km but I decided to chuck off the chain at 2/3 wear to protect expensive new cogs. The lube was a couple of drops of Oil of Rohloff (about 5 Euro for a bottle that has lasted ten years....) every 1000km, without any cleaning whatsoever because the chain was enclosed in a Hebie Chainglider.

An even more interesting thing happened on my next KMC chain, an X8.93. I ran the chain inside a Hebie Chainglider on the factory lube for its entire life, with zero, repeat zero, additional lube. When the experiment was aborted at 3600km at less than 0.5mm wear, because I wanted to fit some other components, everyone on another forum who'd seen years of me being a chainkiller because I'm a masher, pretty much concluded the KMC is a superior chain and was responsible for at least part of my amazing results.

If course, you must see my results on KMC chains in comparison to what I achieved earlier with other chains, about 1000m/1600km, which was appalling, especially since I was on a forum full of commuters, some of whom got 10K+ on chain. It is also worth noting that I achieve these startlingly better results on KMC chains despite never once in the last ten years cleaning a chain...

James, I know about Connex chains, but they gave me only a small increase in mileage over Shimano's Nexus and the PC1 and others of that default-LBS supply class, and their cost could not be justified. Without claiming that my tests were all equivalent, my personal conclusion is that the KMC is a superb go-to choice.

Andre Jute
Bicycle chain cleaning is free-range masochism that bicyclists inflict on themselves for lack of thought
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