You nailed the explanation of the type of rider that'll be interested in waxing. I'm one of them. Also great is your setup and instruction on the application of wax to the chain. Quality products, quality work. You're absolutely right that AB's Graphine Wax is expensive. And this is where I think you missed the critical step in your setup (Don't feel too bad, I've only seen 1 Australian get this part right). Waxing is just as quick and easy as drip lube once you get it going. The big obstacle to switching to a hot wax is the initial cleaning of the entire drivetrain in preparation to accepting that initial wax. It's a pain in the butt. To get the most benefit from wax, and not spoil/contaminate it, you first need to completely remove every last bit of oil & grease from the drivetrain. Even starting with a new chain, there's packing grease on it. To do this effectively, you agitate and soak the parts in mineral spirits and then flush with denatured alcohol. You may have to do this 3+ times before the solutions are 100% clear after the last round. It's tedious, potentially messy, and takes a few hours. But, you only have to do it once. Once the drivetrain is down to bare metal, you're ready to get the highest performance from the wax. Here's my setup: I have 2 Pearl Izumi Super Toughness chains. 1 on the bike, and 1 freshly waxed on stand-by. If, for whatever reason, I need to re-wax I take off the chain and slap the stand-by on. Now I can take my sweet time in re-waxing the dirty chain. Not that it takes much time... Because it's just wax and a little dirt, cleaning the old chain is simply pouring boiling water over it. The boiling water melts the old wax and rinses the contaminants away. I hang it to dry as the Crock Pot is warming on low. I thread the chain onto a coat hanger and drop it into the wax. I'll leave it for 20+ minutes, agitating occasionally. Then hang it to cool & dry. Once it's dry, I coil it up into a clean rag and it's ready to be applied to the bike when I next need it. AB's Graphine Wax is so smooth, I don't even have to break the links (the drivetrain does that for me when I put it on the bike). As you mentioned, good wax isn't cheap. Great care should be taken to ensure you're not spoiling the wax by introducing material that'll prevent it from adhering to the components.

I am one of those wax chain people! I own a high powered mid drive ebike and like to keep the chain slick to not wear out the drive train. Also I keep my bike inside, when that black gunk builds up on the chain from wet lube and my wife gets it on her I get the ear bashing!! With wax there’s no build up of gunk!! And the chain is easy to clean.

Great video is always Gene.

I used wax like that on my road bike for years. Worked great

I like the liner idea for the Crockpot. I received a package for Christmas and purchased 2 more as AB indicates the price will be going up. I plan on using this only on my road bike for the simple reason of cost. Even in the best conditions, AB says one should expect about 200 miles per application. Me personally, if I ran this on my MTB and rode in wet and or muddy conditions, I would be cleaning the chain. I do this anyway regardless of what lube I am using on my bike. My other plan is to have a rotation of chains so that my bike is never down when it comes time to clean and re-wax.

@rgmtb

3 жыл бұрын

I'm with you on this. For a road bike I can see this working quite well. With all the mud and yuck we ride our mtbs in (specially after all this snow melts) I think we would be cleaning our chains after just about every ride. Now what I don't know is if this wax helps shed that stuff better and makes cleaning easier? Time and testing will tell 👍

I’ve been using Molten Speedwax for years and really like it. A couple things. I live and ride in SoCal so it’s mostly dry and dusty. In those conditions I get hundreds of miles per wax. I usually relax before I need to. I do occasionally hit some creek crossings and that does not affect the durability. I noticed another comment saying he was only getting 60 miles before he needed to reapply. I was thinking of trying the AB wax but this comment has me rethinking. I guess I’ll stick to MSW until I hear more about AB.

@akos46

3 жыл бұрын

Hi Robert! I used MSW before Absolute Graphene Wax and I found it much better lasting than Absolute's wax. I only get 50k f silent riding and after that it is like the chain would run without any lubrication, very creaky. I am going back to MSW

I have using wax since the mid 90's..you can get it to last a complete season 90s (no matter the weather) with just a quick touch up maybe 2 times a year.

awesome video Gene! That looks like some high end wax. What do you do once your done with the wax in the crockpot?

@rgmtb

3 жыл бұрын

I let it cool, fold the plastic liner over the wax to keep out dirt, put the whole thing back in it's box and store it till I need to wax again. You could pull out the liner and just store that and continue to use the pot as normal but for $10 I'm keeping this pot for chain waxing.

i was subbed to a channel where the guy swore by wax and did many different videos on cleaning the chain and waxing and doing long term reviews on it etc..I think the channel was oz cycling? OR something like that. IF i wanted to take the time to wax the chain i would as i think its great..Just a tip cleaning the chain really well is super important. The wax wont coat and stick to the chain if not done correct. Just a tip..Thanks Gene!!

@mtbboy1993

3 жыл бұрын

OZ Cycle: kzread.info/dron/J1xBLthKnPWxfCYCDXBUFg.html

One thing worth noting is that Wax, regardless of brand, needs to be reapplied after riding the bike in wet conditions. Also, dusty conditions reduces the life of the wax.. those two major drawbacks are why people tend to have polarizing views about it, it really is dependent on the conditions you ride in.

@pilikiosuafoa1727

3 жыл бұрын

That is not the case with the wax. You can ride in wet conditions 4 times before you need to wax this which is why this is a major appeal to regular waxers. I've just re-waxed mine after riding in wet conditions three times and I did not need to re wax

@akeluify

3 жыл бұрын

@@pilikiosuafoa1727 Just pointing out that absoluteblacks actual product webpage for Graphenwax states "When riding in rain/wet conditions, the chain should be re-waxed after each ride. This is inherent to all hot melt waxes no matter the brand, and cannot be avoided.".

why not do follow-up video on youtube? even if it's short? its easier to find on youtube than go back on a IG profile and scroll endlessly.

How many times can you recoat a chain with the 4 wax bricks? Did you weigh them before and after? Really wondering if you could buy this once and use it for years, depending on how many miles you ride. Thanks

@rgmtb

3 жыл бұрын

I'm not sure yet on how many times you can coat the chain with 4 blocks. I can tell you that after this first coat I didn't see any noticable difference in the wax level. Sry, I did not test the weight but I can't see it being much. Plus, any number you get right away will decrease after the first ride since that first ride will knock off any extra wax you might have missed when breaking the links.

after the intiial wax application, is it possible to maintain it with a bottle of wax like squirt lube? or do you have te reapply this after every time you ride in wet and muddy conditions?

@rgmtb

2 жыл бұрын

From what I read you need to rewax the chain. I didn't read about an option to have a bottle to rewax.

@osmium_fps6082

2 жыл бұрын

@@rgmtb i asked absolute black yesterday, it's possible to use their graphene lube in a bottle to extend the intervals.

Cant believe no one has made a Key and Peele reference yet…….

Curious how long this will last. I'm horrible about remembering to lube my chain.

@rgmtb

3 жыл бұрын

Same here dude! We will see 👍

@chrisswanson9724

3 жыл бұрын

I've been waxing my chain for awhile. I've not experienced any longevity issues with waxing vs drip lube. But, I'm pretty anal about my maintenance. I used to spend an hour or more detailing my bike when it got dirty. Now, it's just a clean rag wipedown and swap waxed chains if one gets wet or starts making noise.

I'm cheap and lazy - and I wax. I don't ride much in wet weather, but have done muddy MTB races (waxed) and believe waxing is best (for me). Drivetrain stays clean, chains seem to last longer. When encountering mud it still shifted well for the whole race. Even had another rider ask if my chain was waxed as his had mud on (in) his chain while mine was relatively clean. My unproven theory is that mud and water MIXES with most chain lube creating a sticky paste (which will wear the inside of the chain) while the wax repels water and moisture shedding contaminants away before getting inside the chain. As for re-cleaning and reapplying the wax, about every 3 or 4 times will I use the boiling water method. Otherwise I do a soak and shake of the chain in denatured alcohol, shake dry and place the chain in the crock pot for up to 2 hours. That's because I'm lazy. I mentioned I'm cheap - I use a garage sale crock pot. I buy paraffin wax from where-ever has it for the least $$. I want to say like $3 for a pound. I got PTFE powder from amazon. $10 for a little baggy, which I used only 1/4 of so far. Another thing - I don't even loosen the chain up much. Just enough to run it thru the derailuers and just use the first minute of riding flake all the excess off on the road or driveway.

@rgmtb

2 жыл бұрын

Wow, you really break all the rules with waxing and have great success. Interesting to hear. I'll have to check out PTFE powder. Thank you.

There are elements to this application that need to be mentioned. The procedure for cleaning; This is extremely important because if not done correctly the wax will NOT adhere to all the link surfaces, including the inside rollers and pins. After all the cleaning procedures, make sure the chain is completely dry, or any lingering fluid will contaminated the wax. The temperature of the wax must be 90 to 100C. It might have been prudent to confirm performance before making this video. Even after proper chain prep, as mentioned above, I'm only getting about 50 to 60 miles per waxing and then the chain becomes alarmingly noisy and in extreme need of lubrication, almost on the verge of squeaking. Same thing after 3 tries. I am not the only one experiencing this problem, and I am in discussing with AbsoluteBlack trying to figure out why this is the case. I am hoping the fault lies with something I have done wrong, because I want this stuff to work, but I have been meticulous with all the prep procedures.

@rgmtb

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for taking the time to write this out.

@akos46

3 жыл бұрын

I also appreciate your feedback, I am experiencing the same. I done the whole procedure about 7-8 times with various results, from noisy from the start to get it noisy after 50km. I meticulously clean the chain (at that level I never done with Molten Speed Wax) and still get terrible milage.

@mikedio

2 жыл бұрын

@@akos46 was a kmc chain? I had this problem with a new kmc x11el chain . After waxing was silent for 60-70 kms after that was almost squeaking. I replaced it with a shimano hg601 105 chain and the it is ,,silent” even after 170 kms.

Shouldn't I wax also a casette ?

@rgmtb

2 жыл бұрын

I've never done that. The most I have ever done is applied some product to the chain and not the cassette.

@simonRt

Жыл бұрын

There is no need for it, the chain will leave some wax on contact points, excess should fall off. I highly recommend Zero friction cycling they have instructions on how to wax and why. Test data of top level lubricants, chains etc. No speculation just pure science and lots of real world examples. Check it out

There are other MUCH cheaper versions around. oz-cycle even has a easy cheap homemade version that could work up to 30k km... I think it it much cheaper to use candels and 50g of graphene powder....ptfe powder is not as available as graphene powder:). Not sure if graphene is better than ptfe. Anyways this wax is not worth it because is extremely overpriced and does not offer that much extra compared to other wax around.

I think chain wax is more of a road bike thing.

I liked it up until the part where there were no results.

@rgmtb

3 жыл бұрын

I'm sorry man, it's just gonna take a little more time to test. Riding season has only just started but I promise to get some info up very soon on IG. Appreciate your patients on this.

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