On Mon, 21 Nov 2016 16:30:44 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 11/21/2016 3:58 PM, James wrote:
On 22/11/16 04:46, Doug Landau wrote:
On Sunday, November 20, 2016 at 5:49:13 PM UTC-8, James wrote:


At the moment I guess I ride 2-3000km between re-waxing. After a 1000km
or so the chain might start to sound a little dry. I find a very
sparing squirt of WD40 and wipe off the excess keeps the chain running
silently for another 1000km. My guess is that the WD40 softens the
remaining wax and turns it into grease and oil for a while.

I rode 100km yesterday after a little squirt of WD40. The chain ran
silent and smooth, but it's been a few months between re-waxing and
chain swapping, so I'll do that very soon.

Is this not going to accelerate wear by carrying grit down into the
chain?

Maybe, maybe not. Depends how clean or dirty the rollers of the chain
are I guess. Mine stay very clean.

Somewhat similarly, when I re-wax (with the chain on the bike, using
torch heat) I don't do much to clean the chain first; maybe just wipe it
down with paper towels, but often not even that.

I'm sure the new wax, when it melts, carries some microscopic grit into
the chain's crevices. I'm not worried about that slight deviation from
perfection. My bike, chain, chainrings and cogs still stay much cleaner
than with any other lube, my chain life seems longer (it's plenty long
enough to satisfy me), and the application process is faster than any
"bathe & oil" routine.

I just discovered the several year old chunk of solidified wax from
the cooker that I had used some years ago to wax chains. I remelted
the wax and one thing I noted was that any discolored matter - I
assumed dirt separated almost instantly from the wax. Five it a stir
and it turned almost black, wait just a moment and you could literally
see the black "gunk" settling to the bottom of the pan.

I wonder whether wax is more, or less, likely to carry dirt into a
chain?