The subject of waxing a chain has been around
for quite some time now,
and we've had so many requests for a video on it,
so that's what I'm gonna give you,
how to wax your chain.
Now, there'll be some of you, as well,
who are asking,
why would I want to do that?
What's the point in waxing my chain?
Well, according to Friction Facts and Velo Magazine,
there's actually a number of benefits.
One of them is performance gains.
Everybody likes that, right?
Also it repels dirt,
and that really means that your drivetrain
is gonna last a little bit longer.
You won't have all that grinding feel.
Now, the UK is not really blessed with great weather,
so this is probably the ideal place to give it a try.
Now, before we get started,
you're gonna need to do a few things.
You're gonna have a perfectly clean drivetrain.
So your chainrings, chain, jockey wheels, and cassette.
Make sure that there's no dirt on there,
no grime, no existing lubricant,
all of those, make sure it's gone.
There's a link in the description below.
If you're unsure of how to do that,
click through to that
and you'll be able to do that easily.
Also, importantly, you're gonna need this.
This is some paraffin wax.
It's available in hardware stores or even online,
so get some of that.
Preferably try and get some small granules,
'cuz it'll melt a lot faster than the big chunks.
You're also gonna need one of these.
This is a slow cooker,
also known as a crockpot.
Get one of these,
'cuz it's much safer than doing it on a hob at home.
Also get yourself some gloves, some safety glasses,
and also one of these, a coat hanger.
You'll probably have one of those lying around.
That's important.
You'll see why.
Maybe some old rags and some newspaper
just to prevent any drips.
And you're good to go.
Okay, you've got yourself one of these.
Nice and clean,
free of contamination,
no dirt whatsoever,
lovely chain.
That is ultra important to make sure the wax sticks to it.
Okay.
You have to preheat the slow cooker
and then get your paraffin wax or your bar,
whichever you decide to buy.
Pour it in.
Now, you're gonna need enough in there
that the chain itself is actually submerged inside.
It should take probably that much,
probably five to 10 minutes to melt.
In the meantime, keep a close eye on it,
'cuz you don't want this getting out of hand.
It shouldn't do, not in this.
And whilst you're waiting for it to melt,
you can also give it a little stir, as well,
just to make sure that you're not getting
any solid bits of wax in there,
you know, there's no lumps.
That also helps speed up the process a little bit.
So now that your wax has melted,
you're gonna need to slowly lower the chain into the wax
and leave it for about 20 minutes
or until there's no small bubbles appearing
from the links and the rollers of the chain.
Now, with a hook,
or in my case, an old coat hanger,
you just hang up the chain.
It's a little bit warm,
so you are gonna wanna wear some protective gloves.
Hang the chain up to drip dry.
That's gonna take probably between 10, 15, 20 minutes,
depending on how hot it's got inside of your slow cooker.
The good news is, though,
I've got a chain that I've prepared earlier.
Why have I got one?
Well, in between the chain cooking in its wax,
Sy Richardson ran in, gave me another chain,
and said he wanted to give this a try.
So, yeah, I've got two of them now.
So here's one which has already
been melted in the wax.
As you can see, the links are actually a little bit stiff,
reason being
the wax has got well and truly inside of those rollers.
So what you're gonna wanna do
is actually flex the chain around a bit
and break off that wax.
So that wax, essentially you don't want it going everywhere.
You don't want it to be filling up your drivetrain
and risk gunking it up.
Also, with a cloth,
simply take it and wipe away any excess wax
that you may have on the outside of the chain,
because it's no good there.
What you wanna make sure is that
it's the inside of the chain,
inside the pins and rollers.
That's where the wax has gone.
The good news, as well?
That wax in there,
you can reuse it.
So just put the lid on,
turn it off,
next time you wanna wax your chain,
there it is.
Now all that's left for me to do
is to go and fit these back onto my bike
and Simon's bike.
Unfortunately I've got to do his too.
And we're gonna come back
and actually report to you on what we've found.
Okay, so we've both been out,
we've both given it a test.
Si, what do you reckon of it?
Well, firstly,
I've got to say thank you very much, Jon,
for actually getting me a chain and preparing it for me,
because it's something I've been intrigued about
for a long time,
but honestly I've never actually been bothered to do.
So it's been bloomin' interesting.
My first thoughts,
I'm not entirely sure what I think about gold chains,
but apart from that.
It's quite noisy, isn't it?
For something that I,
I expected it to be, like, ghostly silent,
and it's not.
But it is,
it is still clean.
I only did 60k on it,
but 60k in autumn in the UK is pretty grim.
So, you know, it's not bad.
Yeah.
Yeah, the noise factor,
actually we did hear back at Eurobike
from our friends at CeramicSpeed
that in fact a silent chain
doesn't necessarily mean a faster chain, so...
You spent a lot longer on it than I did, didn't you?
You did, what, a couple hundred k?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, about 200, 250k.
It worked just fine,
and the noise really was the only thing
which was off-putting.
The bike, though, the chain, rather, spotless.
Drivetrain, absolutely spotless, so...
Yeah.
You, I get the feeling, then,
that if you've got the time
and you really wanna maximise the efficiency of your bike,
then it's a good thing to do,
particularly maybe if you're about to do,
like, an epic 12-hour ride in bad conditions,
I could definitely see it's worthwhile.
But it's interesting about,
you're saying that CeramicSpeed said it's faster.
Personally,
this might be controversial to some,
I'm willing to sacrifice a couple of watts
for a silent bike,
because I just prefer bikes that don't make any noise.
So there we are.
He's spoken.
Well, what about you?
Well... Are you gonna do it again?
I think I'll,
I think I'll do it again, yeah.
Really? Yeah.
The only thing that's putting me off
is having to buy a new power link or joining link each time.
Yeah.
That's the only thing, really,
that puts me off doing it,
'cuz I'm not sure how long it's gonna last.
Apparently, so they say,
when it does wear away
and you need to re-coat it in wax,
the noise is,
the noise tells you that you need to re-coat it.
So it's quite... It gets even louder.
Yeah, quite a scream, apparently.
Quite a scream.
Well, next time you melt your paraffin wax bath, though,
just drop one in for me, mate, you know?
Yeah, not a problem.
Thanks very much. Yeah.
Yeah, I will do.
All right, do make sure you subscribe to GCN
after this video.
To do that,
just click on Jon's handily placed globe.
Sorry, man, I've nicked your subscribe there.
That's all right. Gonna throw up some videos.
Yeah.
So to learn how to fit and
re-fit a chain,
that's with Si.
Click just down here.
Yeah.
And for one more?
Oh, let's do how to get your drivetrain perfectly clean.
Nice. Where's that?
That one's just down there, mate.