This is a video in itself as, so many questions re chain cleaning, so please refer to the episode which covers chain prep for waxing / top lube choice.  

Instructions for chain prep for waxing: 

https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Chain-prep-Guide-Concise-v3.pdf 

As for your chainrings, cassette and jockey wheels – they do not need to be perfectly clean in the same way as the chain does, they just need to be clean enough to not contaminate the chain, which is going to be put into your lovely clean pot of wax.

If very greasy, you will need to clean with degreaser or solvents (Ceramic Speed UFO Drive Train clean is a great option and somewhat nicer to the environment), but if new, or if you’ve been using a wax-based lube, just brush with a stiff nylon brush to get rid of any build-up.

As you run your waxed chain, wax will be imparted to the drive system parts and will be protective. 

You need to use a Slow Cooker.

Rice cookers are tempting because they are cheap and a great size for a bag of wax, but they can overheat the wax, damaging it and you will need to replace the wax. 

After blasting the wax up to temperature, they will then cool to the point where, as you remove your chain it will have far too much wax attached, which will be shed as soon as you pedal your bike, causing mess and waste.  

A couple of companies (Cyclowax, Silca) have released waxing specific waxing stations and are a great option, but not the cheapest tool for this purpose. 

The Silca waxing station is temperature adjustable – and you will need this function if you wish to use the Silca Stripchip System of prepping a brand-new chain which is covered in Factory grease. 

A SLOW COOKER does a grand job at very little cost.   

In Australia an instant pot is also known as a multi-function cooker. 

 Multi-function cookers will have options like rice, steam, broil, desserts, soup, slow cook and more.  Instant pots / Multi cookers are perfectly fine if you choose the slow cook function as then they will not blast heat in.  

They tend to heat up much more quickly than a slow cooker, but not so fast that they damage the wax.  

Also, they often give you the ability to set temperature, so you can just set temp to 90dg c, and it doesn’t matter on what ambient temp is or wax fill level, wax will get to 90dg and stay at 90dg.   

So – these are great – but cost a lot more than a $35 slow cooker – so, decide if popping a chain on top of wax and turning as switch from off to low and coming back in 45 mins to an hour, or whenever after that is somehow going to be a problem, or if you really need to return after just 10 minutes for some reason re should you spend the extra.   

Currently the two best options in Australia are the Adesso 1.5 litre from Woolworths for about $35 – perfect size for a bag of wax, or Kmart have a lamb shanks 3 litre for about $35. 

I recommend only going up to about 3 / 3.5 litres max or you will get a very low fill level for a bag of wax that may not cover the chain after a fairly short number of Re-waxes. A smaller pot will ensure chain coverage for the recommended number of waxes.   

For Mspeedwax, Silca Hot Melt (other than their sous vide bag), Rex Black Diamond wax or any other wax, do not use stove top, BBQ, microwave, your oven, camping stove, pressure cooker, tokomak fusion reactor, flux capacitor, anti-matter drive or any other method of heating wax.   

Aside from very poor temperature control, possible naked flames and possibly reaching paraffin base temperatures flash point – it is these methods where waxing goes wrong.  

 Slow cooker, on low, lid off – you simply cannot damage wax, cause a fire or do anything more dangerous than boiling your kettle – in fact boiling your kettle is more dangerous as the water will be hotter than your wax.   

Silca released Hot Melt wax with a funky sous vide bag so you can put bag in a pot on stove and heat water to melt wax.  That’s fine as boiling water can only get to 100 degrees.  But…  ZFC recommendation is slow cooker, on low, lid off.   

If you forget about your wax and go to bed, all is perfectly fine next morning. You can forget about it and go on holiday for a year, and all will be perfectly fine.   

If you forget your wax and water boils dry, you will have a melted bag, and a problem.  

If it reaches wax flash point temp (circa 180dg c) – you will have a more exciting problem with the possibility of burning your house down.   

Also – it is more difficult to get a good swishing in the sous vide bag vs in a slow cooker pot to get the friction modifiers evenly distributed through the wax vs more sitting down the bottom.   

Sous vide bag can be handy for some indeed – apartment living and no room to buy another appliance, away trips re-waxing can be easier packing your bag vs a slow cooker pot. Those who are going the ultimate race prep with a good ultrasonic with temp control for their race chains – more on this on another video – again the sous vide bag can be super handy.  In general though for I think most – a $35 slow cooker, place wax in, swish like a pro, and on low with lid off, you will never ever have damaged wax or any possible issue, it is fool proof / forget proof – people do go to bed forgetting about their re-wax – I like the impossible to go wrong options overall.

Apart from Silca’s Stripchip system of prepping a brand-new chain; not very. You do not need a thermometer.  

Whilst the recommended perfect temp is basically 90dg Celsius, realistically, you will do a perfectly fine waxing anywhere between 70 and 100dg C, so that’s a pretty wide and easy temp range to hit, if using a slow cooker on low, with the lid off. 

No. In fact, it is best to put chain on the wax, then turn pot on. As the wax heats up and melts, your chain heats up, the previous wax coating will melt off, and then when you come back when the wax is melted you can just swish and hang. Some people have gone wrong by pre-melting, putting the chain in and swishing and then removing it too quickly and hanging to set.  

The chain has not had time to heat up and the old coating to melt off, so this leads to a very poor re-wax.  

If you have pre-melted wax, leave chain in there for at least 5 to 10 mins for it to get up to the same temp as the wax and the old wax coating melted off.   

I have not been able to track a tangible benefit for one vs the other. Half a bag, you change wax twice as often to fresh wax, but the wax will be contaminated twice as fast.  

Personally, I just go the full bag, and simply re-waxing erring on side of early vs pushing treatment lifespans – you will get astounding parts longevity. 

ZFC recommends to re-wax your chain by around 300kms (road) and to change the wax by 30 re-waxes so you should get approx. 8000 to 10,000km per bag (or 2 pucks).  

If you rewax more frequently to take advantage of the stupendous longevity benefits this brings – you can increase the number of re-waxes per bag, as long as the fill level in your pot allows for it.  

When you re-wax more frequently, less airborne dust will have penetrated, so you don’t have to change by 30 re-waxes, you can use km’s (approx. 8000 to 10,000km) as your guide re when to change to a fresh bag. So, if you re-wax every 200km – go 40 re-waxes; easy.  

For off road – it is hard to give a kms or hours guide as the conditions are much more variable.  

Usually in good dry conditions that are not super dusty – you should get 8hrs per treatment, so 30 re waxes x 8 hours = 240 hours – call it 250hours – which is about same as 5 x 50hr suspension services – so, a long time.  

Again – erring on re-waxing more often has enormous drive system longevity benefits. 

Over time, each re-wax imports a small amount of abrasive contamination into the pot, contamination in the wax will reduce the treatment lifespan. 

If you haven’t been keeping track of how many re-waxes or km’s your wax has done (as discussed under ‘How long will a bag of wax last’), you will know that it is time to change wax when each rewax is feeling and sounding dry noticeably faster than it used to.

Simply melt the wax, pour it into an aluminium BBQ tray, wipe the pot clean with a paper towel (wear gloves as it will be hot), and pour in a fresh bag of wax.   

Let the wax in the BBQ tray cool, and when full, dispose of it in hard rubbish. 

The top immersive waxes of Mspeedwax and Silca Hot Melt are both now extremely environmentally friendly. The main base is the highest quality food grade paraffin – so the base (without the friction modifiers) you could literally eat (but not recommended). 

Silca Hot Melt has never used PTFE (Teflon) and MSpeedwax stopped using PTFE some time ago. The latest blend of Mspeedwax has both Moly and Tungsten Disulphide as friction modifiers.   

According to material safety data sheets, Tungsten Disulphide is toxicologically inert, however will can cause lung damage if you breathe in the powder.  

As the Tungsten Disulphide in your wax or lube is not in powder breathable form, this is not possible.   

The material data safety sheet for molybdenum disulphide describes this as basically the same – The latest blend of Mspeedwax has both Moly and Tungsten Disulphide as friction modifiers.   

This is a top tip for immersive waxers – if you re-wax early, rather than pushing wax treatment life, it’s super happy days on top of the already super happy days you were getting just from switching to immersive waxing.

My re-waxing frequency recommendations are very different to the manufacturer instructions.  

The manufacturers put maximum feasible treatment lifespans on for marketing – and the treatments can and do last that long, but there will, over time, be a greater wear rate vs those that re-wax much more frequently.   

When always pushing towards maximum treatment lifespan, you increase the time that any contamination that has snuck in to wear your chain metal, as the coating becomes very thin, it offers less wear protection.   

If you re-wax frequently, you re-coat all parts of chain in a solid super slippery coating, therefore, the chain metal rarely gets a chance to start wearing. 

Airborne dust has more trouble getting into freshly waxed chains compared to chains where wax has worn very thin.   

From lots of tracking on road customers – those who rewax by ZFC’s recommended 300km  (road) typically achieve;  

• Average of 15,000km for a YBN chain re-waxed every 300km. 

• This drops to 8000 to 10,000k for those frequently pushing to 400 / 500km.   

• This increases to 20,000 or even 25,000km for those re-waxing by about 150 to 200km.   

What is the two pot system? – basically you put the chain in pot 1 (pre-melted), wait for the chain to warm up to the temperature of the wax (5 – 10 minutes), move the chain to pot 2 and swish. 

Pot 1 has flushed out contamination from the old wax coating, pot 2 leaves a cleaner coating.   

Of course, over time, contamination will build up in pot 1 so you are swishing in less amazing wax, due to contamination build up.  

It is kinda like diluting the contamination into 2 bags vs one bag but getting the worst out into first pot to try to keep second pot cleaner.  

It is better than one pot, but…. re-waxing early and having two chains on rotation vs going to the two pot system, delivers very large, easily tracked, much greater chain and parts longevity.   

However – there is a way to do the two pot system like a boss. 

Basically pot 1 needs a little bit of raised mesh for chain to sit on.  

This way the old coating melts off and any contamination will settle to the bottom of wax pot. You do not swish after the wax has melted, gently remove the chain and move it to pot 2.  

This keeps pot 2 wax super clean.   

Doing the two pot system like a boss, you can double the number of re-waxes from a bag of wax before worrying about it becoming too contaminated.  

When you have done your 30 re-waxes, pot 2 now becomes pot 1.  Replace the wax from what was pot 1 with a fresh bag of wax and now that becomes pot 2.  

This has pot 2 completing 30 re-waxes as the ’clean’ wax, and then it becomes pot 1 for an additional 30 re-waxes. 

Well, sort of, which leads me to my 2 chains on rotation recommendation.   

Sooner or later almost all of us are going to need to replace a worn chain, so buying your next chain costs you no more.  

With two chains in rotation – high mileage riders can use one chain for Monday to Friday, then the other chain for the weekend – re-wax both chains on the rest day.

 Normal volume riders can use one chain for one week, the next chain next week – and then re-wax both on a rest day.  

Aside from increasing chain longevity to pretty astounding Kms, you also ensure that you get two chains through your drivetrain instead of just one.  

For expensive drivetrains – ensuring you get two chains through, it is very very smart for the simple process of pre-purchasing your next chain.  

Re-waxing frequently also ensures there is a protective coating of super slippery wax on your chainrings and cassette teeth, which is very protective against wear. 

This wax coating also softens the feel of running a solid lubricant which for some, can feel quite different compared to using a heavily damping drip lube.  

If you are in ‘camp wet lube’, “I just lube chain, wipe and ride” – you might think that going to two chains on rotation & immersive waxing is all a bit nuts – but the reality is, waxing is super easy – refer episode 4 demonstration – and you don’t have to do any cleaning ever (!) to attain simply astounding chain and drivetrain longevity.   

This of course means you are running very low friction day in day out too.  

If your parts are wearing fast, this = high friction chain.   

Many avid racers on the two chain system with immersive waxing sell their bikes after a couple of years having done somewhere around 30,000km – and they haven’t had to change any drivetrain components (road).   

Normally in that time they would have replaced something like 6 chains and somewhere between 3 & 6 cassettes, and a set of chainrings.   

They just use the two chain system again with the new bike.  

The enormous cost to run savings allow for extra money to spend on other cool cycling stuff like glasses, helmet, shoes, kit etc, rather than just burning through drivetrain components.   

If that sounds batshit crazy to you – well, it’s your money. I know what I would rather spend mine on.   

For most no.   

I don’t know where it has come from, but a surprising number of people who love waxing contact me – and are tired of turps and metho cleaning chain every time before re-waxing.   

Cleaning with solvents/degreaser is for initial chain prep only, to clean off factory grease / existing drip lube before starting waxing, after that, it is for most, just pop chain off and re-wax, that’s it.   

Sometimes it is helpful to clean the chain: 

• If you ride off-road, some dust will stick to surface of chain from static electricity from chain whizzing through the air, same as dust sticks to your frame – and you didn’t lube your frame (I hope).   

• Easiest is to spray some methylated spirits or isopropyl alcohol onto microfibre cloth, wipe the chain – this will lift the surface dust off, so you greatly lessen how much you import into the wax pot.  

• This should also be done for those on drip lubes anyway, as you do not want lubricant importing abrasive contamination deep into chain as the lubricant penetrates.    

• Post any decent wet ride, the chain should be flushed clean with some boiling water rinses.  

Boil up kettle and swish in an OPEN container, using same the swisher tool you use for re waxing, swish chain for about 30 secs for 3 or 4 rounds of boiling water flush rinses. This will melt off a lot of the previous wax coating and take out a lot of contamination that was brought in by the wet conditions and pressed into the set wax.  

• This is especially great for off-road riders after a full mud ride – just boiling water, re-wax, and silky-smooth chain again. Mud will just wash off cassette with water. The job of resetting a wet lubricant chain post wet ride involves litres of solvent and much more time.  

Not doing so will leave you with a very high friction, very abrasive chain.    

Maintaining a waxed chain post wet rides is vastly quicker and easier, and you don’t need any solvents – just hot water. 

I RECOMMEND blowing dry the chain after the final rinse with a heat gun or hair dryer.  

Getting the chain hot ensures water inside evaporates out.  

Cold air drying with air compressor – dries the outside well but less so the inside.  

• 2 mins with heat gun / hair dryer – pop chain on top of wax, turn pot on, go do fun stuff / clean rest the of the bike.   

No if it’s just a light spray, just re-wax the dried chain.   

Personally, I always re-wax after a wet ride, as the wax is abraded off the outside of chains rollers first, and chains rollers can oxidise if left exposed after being wet as they are made of a high carbon steel for hardness.   

Sometimes it’s fine – if it’s a freshly waxed chain, light spray – you are not going to have any issues.   

But I can’t give a black and white modelling of how much wet after how many kms done on treatment – just follow the ‘if in doubt re-wax’ – you can never go wrong by erring on re-waxing, all that ever leads to is super long lifespans.  

No. This is a waste of electricity and time.  

There is no tangible benefit to boiling water flush rinses after dry rides – especially road riding where extremely little contamination will get into your solid wax lube – but even for most offroad riding unless extremely dusty – just wipe the outside of the chain with a micro fibre cloth, perhaps moistened with a little Isopropyl Alcohol, to be super thorough.   

There have been a number of cases, of possibly killing chains earlier with too much intervention. The temptation to skip drying the chain completely before placing it in the wax, leads to poor wax adhesion as the water will be trapped deep inside the chain and does not evaporate, even in the hot wax – Mspeed wax has tested this scenario and cut open chains and have found water still within.  

Water is not pure – it has minerals and chemicals in it, which could possibly negatively affect wax adhesion and treatment life resulting in high wear rates. 

Maybe once or twice a year I get a case of a customer getting far less lifespan than expected from their chain, and if another error hasn’t occurred – like using a rice cooker – often it has been they have boiling water flush rinsed every time even though they ride only on the road in good conditions.   

I have been waxing for a long time, so have countless riders in my city of Adelaide including a number of entire race teams as well as feedback from countless waxers around the country.   

Don’t over complicate things – basically just re-wax except after a fully wet ride and you are likely to get the same amazing average lifespan immersive waxers on a top wax enjoy.   

If you just can’t help yourself and have to perform some type of clean every time before putting chain into wax pot, then always finish with methylated spirits round to ensure no film is left on the chain.  

But – if you follow recommendations – you absolutely do not need to, nor should you – do a boiling water clean every time for training chains.  

Race chains should always be reset – but that is a more involved process including ensuring no film is left.  

No. This is one of the biggest misconceptions around waxing I am trying to correct, but there are a few components to it that have led to this misconception.   

• Firstly – the abrasive contamination brought in by water will abrade wax off chain and so wax treatment lifespans are shortened in harsh wet conditions. 

• Secondly, as the rollers will be exposed and not coated with a wet lube – if you just park your bike for a day – they will oxidise or rust.   

This leads to the common habit of such riders using a wet lube.   

Step one is to get your head around just how extreme a lubrication challenge this is.  

Your chain has a lot of moving parts, under very high pressure load as the parts are small, and the chain is operating completely exposed to the elements.   

Imagine if you were to remove the seals from your bearings – how do you think your wheel bearings and bottom bracket would be feeling after a couple of rides in such conditions?  

They would be feeling very gritty and rough, they would be high friction, and a lot of damage to balls and races would be occurring, and they would wear out quickly. 

EXACTLY THE SAME THING IS HAPPENING with your wet-lube lubed chain.  

Unless after every wet ride, you fully solvent flush clean chain to reset contamination, what you have on your chain will largely be a grinding paste masquerading as your chain lube.   

So yes, you can park your bike post a wet ride, you can drip more lube on and wipe and think, job done; the chain won’t rust – BUT – you will not have removed the abrasive contamination, just diluted it. 

Those that do try to do the required maintenance go through a lot of solvent or degreaser, at great cost to the wallet and the environment.  

Re-setting a waxed chain post a harsh conditions ride is vastly quicker and easier.  

Boiling water rinse, dry and re-wax, or simply just re-wax.  

If you just re-wax, you will contaminate wax in pot faster but compared to what is happening with your wet-lube lubed chains, you will be vastly ahead, regarding friction and wear. 

The main challenge is that if you are riding all the time in such conditions – rewaxing every night etc. may not be appealing. 

This is where simply having multiple chains is a smart way to roll.   

If you are riding all the time in harsh conditions, your need for a new chain is not very far away unless you are running it way past 0.5% wear which will quickly wear out the rest of your drivetrain.  

It costs no more to pre buy the next chain, or the next two chains – run them in rotation and then re-wax all 3 at once.   

This is very time efficient, and the overall drivetrain longevity from having 2 or 3 chains running on wax on rotation will save you a ton of money over the course of a year.  

If you need to do a boiling water rinse every time, as per previous point – every now and then give the chains a methylated spirits flush also to ensure no film from minerals in water messing with wax bond. 

You won’t need to do it every time, and you will be able to get a lot of rinses from the same bath of methylated spirits. 

The testing from ZFC is extremely clear re wear rates of top immersive waxes vs top wet lubricants to date.   

At time of this FAQ update, the average wear rate for Mspeed wax and Silca Hot melt in wet contamination block 4 is 8.5%. 

The average for the top two wet lubricants tested to date which are Silca Synergetic and Nix Frix Shun is 28%  

For Extreme Contamination block Mspeed wax and Hot melt average 14%.   

The top two wet lubes which in this block were again Silca synergetic and Nix Frix Shun averaged 56%.  

That is a massive difference in wear rates and the reason for this difference is not what happens on the single wet ride, BUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE –

With a wet lube, if you ride in harsh conditions, add lube and wipe the chain – you are just adding lubricant onto what is trending towards an ever more abrasive paste, unless you very frequently use a lot of litres of solvent to fully flush clean.   

With waxing, even just straight re-waxing will reset contamination in the chain extremely well, and an even better job can be done with a boiling water rinse – no solvent needed.  

Think about what would be happening to your bearings riding in such conditions – even if you throw more grease into the bearings – you are not getting rid of the contamination that’s in there that’s causing lots of wear and damage.   

What if you were able to easily pop bearings into a nice bath of hot super high-quality grease that was going to flush out the old grease and replace with new grease – that’s what you are doing every time you re-wax.   

Over time, your wax will become less amazing so you need to periodically change it, same as if you would need to do that in the bearings in hot bath of grease analogy – but vs adding a few ml of lubricant over 100+ links of chain which is about 0.05ml of lubricant per link going on top of a lot of abrasive stuff – well – hopefully you can see why the test results, and the real world results simply have waxing delivering massively lower wear rates vs wet lubes.  

It is just a different way of operating.  

Instead of one chain you keep just dripping lube on or trying to clean and re lube, the best solution for you is likely to be 2 or 3 chains on rotation going through your hot wax spa.  

If you are running multiple chains where there could be some days between wet ride and re-wax, you should wipe the chain dry, remove, and wrap in a microfibre cloth.  

This will prevent any issues for plenty of time until you need to re-wax.  

If your roads are salted, flush it in tap water (or do your boiling water flush rinse), dry, wrap up in microfibre cloth and set aside until re-waxing.   

Re-Optimisation is fully restoring your Race Chain’s ultra low friction treatment (Re Optimising). Your chain undergoes multiple ultrasonic cleans until it is again perfectly clean, it is then re-treated with Molten Speed Wax, the wax treatment is broken in on a motorised drivetrain, and finished with multiple race powder applications, the powder being run in between applications.

Re-Optimising your race chain is done at a fraction of the cost of buying a new race chain, and can be done at least 5 times. This gives you around 1,800 racing kilometres of ultra low friction, which is for most a lot of races!

This service completely opens up the market as to whom can now afford to use an ultra low friction race chain, don’t be stuck on gritty high friction oil whilst your competitors are getting free watts every pedal stroke!

Depends on how you wash it. If you are hitting it with garden hose and detergents – yes. If you are just spraying bike wash or cleaning agent onto a cloth and wiping the frame – no.  

You just don’t want to water your chain unless you are going to re-wax it, and you don’t want to get stuff onto your chain that may contaminate wax on chain, which will then go into your wax pot – as this may impact wax adherence. 

Ok, this comes up a lot.  

Some links are officially re-useable, such as the YBN QRS & MK12 links, most other brands links are officially stated as single use link only.   

For immersive waxing to be viable you need to be able to re-use your master link.  The YBN QRS & MK12 links which I have for 8 through to 12spd are officially re-usable 5 times.  

Most customers do not keep an exact count – somewhere between 5 & 10 seems fine. 

In 8 years and thousands of 6 packs of QRS links sold, the failure rate of the YBN QRS links is extremely low, much lower than the failure rates of chains – across all brands. 

The QRS links are great – they are really well priced with a 6 pack for about $35 lasting around 10,000 to 15,000km.   

Wippermann Connex make some great master links which offer tool-free opening and closing and are fully re-useable. 

Other links – SRAM power lock 10 & 11spd, SRAM Eagle 12spd MTB, T-Type, AXS road 12spd, Shimano 11 or 12spd – are all officially single use.   

For SRAM Eagle MTB, T-Type & AXS road waxers, Shimano 12spd waxers – Officially I need to say you should only use the links once as per manufacturer’s instructions.   

Unofficially I can also say that countless waxers have been re-using said links about 5 times each to make waxing viable – including myself on my MTBs – and to date, I have had zero reported failures – which considering my waxing customer base and years passed now – is a good sign.   

But – YOU have to make the call yourself to go against manufacturer’s instructions – you can’t re-use a single use link, have a failure and go over the bars, and then sue ZFC because I said it’s fine to do so.  

If you do not want to take the chance of re-using an officially single use link, you have the option of a hybrid approach: Use a great, compatible drip wax lube (Ceramic Speed UFO All Conditions, Silca SS, Tru-Tension All Weather) in conjunction with immersive waxing. 

Start with your chain immersive waxed, use the drip-on lube for the next 5 re-lubes, then do an immersive re-wax to reset any contamination, and fit a new master link at this point.   

These drip-on lubes should be worked into the chain by back pedalling – ‘cross-chaining’ will help by opening gaps in the chain links, allowing the lube to penetrate. Wipe off the excess lube and allow overnight for the carrier fluids to evaporate off and the lube to set. 

Mspeedwax say yes, ZFC and now Silca, say no.  

The reason why I say no is that when you re-wax the master link, when the wax sets you will get a build-up of wax at base of the pin, this makes it much harder to push pin fully through link when re-installing.   

It makes installing the master link / connect link much harder, and it also greatly increases the chances that you may only lock in one side and miss getting the pin into the locking channel on the other side, which will lead to master link failure on your ride.   

If you follow the re-wax early advice of ZFC, there is more than enough wax on your chain to take care of the master link, it will be a doddle to re-install, and extremely low risk of only engaging one side of locking channel.   

**NOTE you should always, always check both sides of the master link and ensure that the pin is clearly in the locking channel on both sides of link.  

Click Here for Latest Masterlink Compatibility Guide

Click Here for Latest Masterlink FAQ Guide

For all 8 to 11spd chains – YBN QRS links are recommended, officially re-useable 5 times, and very budget friendly.   

12spd chains –  

Campy 12 speed riders can use either YBN QRS 12 or SRAM eagle mtb links.   

Shimano 12spd I recommend staying with Shimano links – they have an extremely tight locking channel, but also Shimano 12 chains are a little bit thinner vs YBN / campy /SRAM eagle 12 – and so I would use the matching link.  

Sram AXS road, T-Type 12spd – these chains are much thinner than any other 12 speed chain and so you must use SRAM AXS road links.   

Campy 13 speed Ekar – you can only use Campy’s 13 speed Ekar C-Link due to the narrow width and is officially single use only. 

Yes.   

The fumes are dangerous because the base is paraffin, and when paraffin is burned or heated to the point where it starts fuming, it is breaking down, releasing benzene gas – this is toxic.   

The same happens when you burn a candle, just on a small scale. But – you should be aware of a romantic evening with 50 candles around your bathroom for a nice hot rose petal bath, a lot of candles in a small room will have some measurable concentration of benzene gas from burning those candles.   

If your wax blend contains PTFE (Teflon) – there is one You Tuber that recommends 50 grams of PTFE per pound (454 grams) of wax for DIY wax blend – 50 grams!!! – For comparison, MSpeedwax was at 5 grams per half kilo (They no longer use PTFE for health and environmental reasons) – the You Tuber recommends 50 grams because he has no idea how much is actually needed.  

That amount of PTFE is just a waste of money and possibly damaging to health and the environment.   

If you have followed bad DIY wax blend advice and put a ton of PTFE if your wax, and then overheated your wax – overheated PTFE can release a chemical called PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic acid), this is the chemical that is released when one overheats their Teflon pans in kitchen and is possibly damaging to health.   

Using a slow cooker on low with the lid off will keep the wax at a safe temperature for the wax and PTFE – if present. 

Other methods of heating to wax are not so fail-safe and could lead to fuming – which is toxic – do not breathe the fumes, open doors and windows, vent the room thoroughly. 

No, the scent is not toxic.  

Candles have a scent too, and the scent is not toxic, but the candles will be releasing a tiny amount of benzene gas, your wax will not be, as it’s not burning.  

As long as the wax is not overheated and fuming, it is just basically a lubrication candle – without the burning.   

It is not an offensive scent – at least not to me, it just has its own candle scent.   

If the wax started fuming, that’s a first hint.  

But if just at that point and no further, often things can still be ok.  You will know if you have really damaged the wax as when it cools, it will have a distinct yellowish tinge to it.  

If the wax has not been overheated it will cool to a dark grey, light grey or white colour – those shades just depend on how much Tungsten Disulphide settles to bottom of the wax when it cools – if it’s had good swishing and has cooled quickly – it will be dark.  

If it takes a long time to cool due to high ambient temp, much of the Tungsten Disulphide will settle to bottom of the wax and it will be white, or any shade in between dark or white depending on cooling rate and how well it was swished.   

MSpeedwax and Silca Hot Melt are very highly refined to nearly zero mineral oil content, so post wet rides the outside of rollers / chain and the cassette will not have a wet coating of lube to stop oxidation / spot rusting.   

If you re-wax early, rather than pushing the treatment life, there will be sufficient wax imparted to cassette from the chain to protect cassette from both wear and rust.

If you are riding a lot in the wet, either re-waxing frequently, which will reset your chain contamination and stop the chain’s rollers from oxidizing, or – simply complement with an immersive waxing compatible lubricant such as UFO All

Conditions drip, Silca SS drip, or TruTension Tungsten All Weather.   

These lubricants are fully immersive wax compatible, meaning you can re-wax straight over the top of them without needing to clean them, and they make it very easy as just apply, work in, wipe off the excess and you are all sweet until you can get to your next re-wax to re-set contamination – try not to go more than 3 to 5 re-lubes, if riding in harsh conditions, as you will want to re-set that contamination with a re-wax, or boiling water flush clean, dry and re-wax – to avoid more and more contamination being brought into the chain by the wet conditions.   

Running multiple chains and always re-waxing early is going to give you the best possible wear rates for those always riding in harsh conditions.   * SEE ALSO: Isn’t re-waxing frequently a hassle? and What should I do with my chains if I can’t re-wax them straight away post proper wet ride? * 

This can happen every now and then, as the chain heats up in the wax and all the metal parts expand, the roller “on the whip” of the chain may get whipped out during a good swishing.   

No problem, just use a strong magnet to fish the roller out of the melted wax.  

Or – decant the molten wax into a small BBQ tray (wear gloves, as the wax will be hot), retrieve roller from bottom of wax pot, decant the wax back into your pot.    

Going forwards, put a paperclip through the end or chain that will be “on the whip” – this will keep it in place.

Firstly – great job considering a super low friction option – for long events saving 5w or more can really add up to a lot of time, and when you are really really tired – it helps to know that as much of your effort as possible is going into pushing your forwards further, and not being lost to chain friction.   

So much mechanical action is happening in your chain, don’t underestimate just how big the differences can be between the best and the meh lubes as the km’s clock up.  Secondly – the latest blends of MSpeedwax and Silca Hot Melt are very long lasting and will cover most events up to around 12hrs or more no problems unless conditions are really harsh.  If it is much longer than that, or conditions harsher, Silca have released their endurance additive to extend treatment life even further – It’s on the list to be ZFC tested, but Silca have a fine reputation for the quality of their products.   

You could consider if you need a quick top up of a wax compatible lube, that you can just re-wax when get home – like using Ceramic Speed, Silca SS Drip or TruTension All Weather.   

If it’s still a long way to go / really harsh – then topping off with a long lasting wet lube that won’t wash off may be the best option, so using say Silca Synergetic, Rex Black Diamond or Revolube, or if you know of another wet lube that genuinely does really well in harsh wet conditions – I haven’t had time to test all the lubes available, as my testing takes a long time per lube – I have a lot of work to do still.

Just be aware that you will need to do a full solvent clean/re-set before re-waxing if you use a non-wax compatible lube to top off.   

For some events, the fastest option may be to swap out to a fresh pre-waxed chain- ie a 24hr MTB race with support – when you stop to re-fuel / grab lights – a support person, if experienced can put a fresh chain on for 2nd half, and you are straight back to a fresh, fast chain again for the next 12 hrs.   

Often packing your slow cooker to take on holidays with you is not practical.

Depending on how long / how harsh the conditions – you could either pack a second chain, and or, a bottle of UFO All Conditions drip, Silca SS drip or Tru–Tension Tungsten All Weather, apply as needed, re-wax when you get home.  Easy peasy.

Bike packing trips / races can be challenging, if your stopping time is minimal, or conditions wet, a drip-on wax lube will not have enough time to set before you are riding again (most drip-on waxes need at least overnight in dry conditions to set). If this is the case, swapping to a great wet lube – Silca Synergetic, Rex Black Diamond or Revolube may be your best option, it can be applied at any time and needs no setting time. Just be aware that you will need to thoroughly clean and re-set your chain, with solvents or degreaser before re-waxing, when your event is over.

The best lubricants known to use with immersive waxing are Ceramic Speed UFO All Conditions, Silca SS drip and Tru Tension Tungsten All Weather, all work perfectly well to apply over immersive waxes without any cleaning intervention necessary.  Other wax emulsion lubricants like Squirt or Smoove you can – just note they use a very different wax base, so it is best if using those lubricants to: 

1.  Wipe excess thoroughly after working in – something you should do for all lubes anyway, this keeps them from gunking up.
2.  Allow the specified set time.
3.  Run that treatment until the chain starts to sound and feel a bit dry – then re-wax. 

One or two applications of such lubricants do not appear to impact wax adherence, but I wouldn’t recommend re-waxing over many applications of Smoove or Squirt without cleaning first as it may impact adherence as their wax base has a higher mineral oil content.  

Absolute Black have also confirmed it’s perfectly fine to re-wax straight over Graphenlube with MSpeed Wax or Silca Hot Melt as their base is also an extremely refined wax base.  

Never re-wax over a wet lube.   

My recommendation would be to avoid the temptation to go back to a wet lube, simply because of the challenge involved to re-set contamination post wet ride to get chain back to contamination free and low friction without spending a lot of time and using a lot of solvents.   

If your wax treatment is not making the distance, either top off during ride with a wax compatible lube like Ceramic Speed All Conditions / Silca SS Drip / Tru-Tension All Weather – this may take more than 1 application before you get home, as the wax lube will not have time to set and the wet conditions will be washing off the lube as you ride, or – sometimes if you tend to have a coffee stop – pack a second chain and do a chain swap – a chain swap for waxers takes 2 minutes.  It may sound like this is a big hassle vs long lasting wet lube – but – when you get home you can either just re-wax and all is great, or boiling water flush rinse dry and re-wax and all is amazing.   

The wet lube may be no hassle for your training ride itself, but the job to reset is much greater, and if you don’t reset – well, one way or another with wet lubes you have to pay the piper. You either pay for it in solvent flush cleaning maintenance – a lot of it, if you ride in such conditions, or you pay the piper by running what quickly becomes and remains more of a grinding paste vs a silky-smooth low friction lubricant.   

I always like to use the example of your bearings – could you keep your bearings silky smooth and low friction riding in such conditions with the seals removed by just shoving more grease into them. No, you could not. You can either fully flush clean them every time and re-set or imagine if you removed and put them in a nice big bath of hot grease – which would do a far better job of re-setting.   

Your chain is super easy to remove and pop back on (compared to removing and refitting your bearings). 

Could be – 

1.  They have seen a lot of DIY wax jobs which are often a horrible gunky mess.
2.  They don’t understand the huge benefits of waxing so don’t stock it.
3.  They do understand the benefits and worry that they will sell less chains and cassettes – kid you not.
4.  They just want to sell you a bottle of what they do stock.  

Also – in a surprising number of cases – you can find very good mechanics overall who are simply out of date and out of touch re lubricants – this does appear to be improving slowly as more good information becomes available and top racing teams prove the benefits with top results.  

I have seen with a surprising number of experienced mechanics, that some stay extremely stubborn when it comes to lubricant knowledge, despite great advances in lubricant performance and options over recent years.  What I think happens with some mechanics, is that for a time – when they are learning, they are a sponge. At some point though on some fronts – they draw a line under this knowledge.  

THEY know the absolute best way to clean a chain, and THEY know the best lube to use after that as X Pro Tour mechanic showed them.   

They then become very defensive of this ‘BEST’ knowledge and are extremely resistant to change.   

It is often fine for them to use a less-than-optimal lube, as they get parts at wholesale or even change bikes yearly. 

You can minimise it by wiping the chain after removing it from the wax pot, before the wax cools, but – you will go through a lot of cloths, and you will still get an amount of wax flakes pretty quickly.   

Mostly, I use my road training bike / TT bike on the ergo, I don’t have a dedicated trainer bike, so for me the wax flakes are no problem, easily vacuumed up off trainer mat.   

However, if I did have dedicated trainer bike, personally I would use a super clean lube like Silca SS Drip / Tru-Tension All Weather, or I would use a super long-lasting wet lube like Silca Synergetic, Rex Black Diamond, Revolubes, or if you have deep pockets – AB Graphene lube.   

Contamination is very low inside your house, unless something is wrong with your house. So – go with a top wet lube – just don’t over apply, the mentioned lubes need very little to get the job done – it will go black, but it won’t be a big abrasive black mess and these top wet lubes have very low wear rates, stay impressively clean for a very long time in clean conditions. 

Some like the appeal for the trainer bike, that re-lubing can be done once a month or even bi-monthly, depending on mileage. 

Some chains are noisy on wax as the wax does not adhere as well to their coatings.

Shimano 10 and 11spd chains tend to sound and feel dry about 50% faster than YBN, SRAM and Campy 10 and 11spd chains.   

KMC chains also seem to have poor wax adherence, about 9 times out of 10 when I receive an email re this – when I check, it is a KMC chain.  

I have tested some KMC chains myself, and found they feel very dry, very quickly.   

It just means for such chains that you will need to rewax them more frequently to keep them in the silky-smooth zone or use in conjunction with the recommended wax compatible drip lubes to keep them sounding and feeling lovely.   

In general SRAM chains have really good wax adherence, SRAM 10, 11spd & Eagle chains feel silky smooth for a really good duration on a treatment, however AXS road chains are seemingly just a really noisy chain, so this is coming up a lot for AXS road waxers as well.  

About 99% of such emails, it is either KMC chain, or an AXS road chain.  Even on many drip lubes, cyclists report AXS road is noisier than previous groupsets –  so either re-wax more frequently – not a bad thing, as it will have your super expensive AXS parts last for longer than you are likely to own the bike, and / or frequently top off ready for the next ride with wax compatible drip lube.   

Other chains – enjoy many hours in silky smooth silent zone – if not experiencing that, something may have been not quite right in prep, or wax is getting on a bit, or wax has been contaminated or damaged – if not getting wax experience you expected – zing an email through. 

No. The pressures inside your chain from pedaling load reach thousands of psi, so all you will achieve by doing this is a huge excess of wax attached to the outside and inside the chain, which then will be flaked off / pressed out when you start riding, and after 10 minutes you will have the same amount of wax inside your chain as if you removed the chain at 90 degrees after swishing and hanging to set.   

This instruction is on a common YouTube video, and unfortunately such videos just make waxing look extremely time consuming and involved, and put people off immersive waxing, which can prevent more people enjoying vastly longer lasting drivetrains.  

Honestly, It’s a minefield.  Unfortunately, most DIY wax information on YouTube or forums is terrible.   

ZFC tested candle wax – bought online, with no real idea what the quality would be, but it turned out to be quality paraffin wax and actually tested rather well, but not quite matching the highly researched and developed products made by MSpeed wax, Silca or Rex.  

The high performance of even cheap immersive wax vs many commercial drip lubricant products helps highlight the key advantages of immersive waxing vs drip lubricants.  

For further understanding of why IM waxing delivers the lowest wear rates for chain and drivetrain, have a look at the link below which models contamination in your chains lubricant: 

 https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Immersive-wax-vs-Drip-Contamination-and-wear-modelling-v2.pdf 

In the real world however, most candle waxes turn out to be a cheap wax base, so no matter what you add to it, the end result will be crap, or at least completely unpredictable. 

The ratios of what people add is often ridiculous, like 50 grams of PTFE per pound of wax.  

What controlled accurate testing led to such a conclusion??   

People sometimes add paraffin oil to soften the feel and extend the lifespan – this then makes it attract contamination like a wet lube, completely destroying the advantages of running a solid wax prepped chain.   

Most cheap waxes have a high mineral oil content and so get very gunky very quickly and attract a lot of contamination, and some like using candles – can also contain soy or palm oil. Such waxes are also very slow.   

By the time the wax is purchased from place X + delivery, then PTFE from place Y + delivery, plus Moly or Tungsten Disulphide from place Z + delivery – they have paid a decent amount, similar to or more than if they had just bought a bag of MSW.   

Yes, there is video on YouTube that shows a DIY wax that has less wear than MSW – I have a document covering that in my instructions tab. 

The test had no key variables controlled, and the fact the MSW chain was rusting is a pretty big key that the MSW chain was not being re-waxed frequently enough. 

Cheap waxes with high mineral oil content can last longer per treatment and will provide more protection against oxidation if left exposed for a long time before re-waxing, but – the flip side is they are slower and dirtier over time.  

The test had a lot of flaws, all stepped out in the document on website.  

Extremely smart people and PhD chemists and huge testing resources sit behind the researched and developed products – what sits behind the DIY backyard blends?   

I get it – some people love to tinker and love to DIY vs pay a brand money – and so if that’s you, that’s cool, just ensure you start with a very high-quality base wax or the rest of what you do is a waste of time and money. If you have a very high-quality base, you can DIY a lubricant that will beat a huge number of drip lubes on LBS shelves.   

I am also and avid tinkerer – but before I started ZFC, I can assure you – when I was just a normal, if somewhat nerdy cyclist – the path of logic led me to a pack of MSW – $59.90 for a pack of amazing wax that lasts around 10,000km of riding – just – Done. Sold.  I have other things to tinker with.   

Terrible DIY waxing jobs may be the reason why your local bike shop mechanic is very anti waxing, as they see many drivetrains clogged up with so much gunk wax that chain won’t even shift into the 11t cog etc.   

If you believe you have produced something exceptional – put it to the test, if you get 15,000km to a genuine 0.5% wear without any cleaning maintenance, you have a pretty good blend – keep at it.  

If not, buy a pack of MSpeed wax, Silca HM or Rex BD.   

I don’t want to come across as I’m not interested in your DIY wax because I can’t make money from it, it is just that it is a never-ending minefield.  

I receive many emails from people all over the world, asking about every possible blend of stuff you can imagine.   

It is just not my focus; I am flat out and miles behind testing a lot of lubricants either on the market or in development by major manufacturers that have huge development resources behind them to be a genuinely amazing product that ZFC may look to stock & recommend. 

I just don’t have the time and resources to put into a never-ending stream of guesses of mixing together different stuff from the pantry.  

There are plenty of forums where like-minded DIY waxers can go and chat about their super lanolin-beeswax-paraffin-oil-PTFE-moly-tungsten-candle super wax.   

ZFC tested candle wax – bought online, with no real idea what the quality would be, but it turned out to be quality paraffin wax and actually tested rather well, but not quite matching the highly researched and developed products made by MSpeed wax, Silca or Rex.  

Candles / cheap paraffin have a very high mineral oil content of typically around 7%.  

This means it will get quite gunky quite quickly, and this gunky part will gather more contamination more quickly, so the wax in the pot will become contaminated much more quickly as well.  

The base wax in MSW is the highest lab grade paraffin available which is refined down to practically zero mineral oil content.  

You can literally eat this base paraffin with no ill effects (but I probably wouldn’t recommend it). 

This lab grade paraffin is expensive, I have looked at this lab grade paraffin from Norco chemical supplies in Aus, and 1 lb bag of just the paraffin costs more than a 1lb bag of MSW.    

Over the years I have had A LOT of home waxers using candles / cheap paraffin try MSW. The fact they keep ordering MSW shows me they don’t go back to the cheap stuff.  

I have also seen many home wax chains, and most are not a good look.  

If you listened to a ‘Nerd Alert’ podcast on Cycling Tips – their go to mechanic Zac was anti wax because he had just seen too many “waxed” drive trains so gummed up, they wouldn’t even shift gears or be able to shift into the 11t cog etc.   

A lot of the voodoo and poor miss-conceptions re waxing come from the cheap backyard wax methods that one see’s on YouTube etc, and overall it can give waxing a bad rap which leads to many people being turned off and missing out on saving a veritable shipload of friction and wear every ride, as well as all the maintenance savings.    

Make no mistake, the difference between the majority of home blends & MSW is night and day.   

MSW has had a new formula out for a few years which removes PTFE and has updated to tungsten disulphide vs moly, as well as other secret tweaks.  

It has tested extremely close to Silca HM re outright longevity, dry contamination, wet contamination – Silca HM had a slight advantage in wear rate for extreme conditions block.

My testing confirms if a lubricant is outstanding or not in these conditions but does not give an outright efficiency number as it is based on wear correlation due to many reasons – efficiency testing does not yet have an agreed test protocol and numbers are all over the place from one lab to another.  

I’m not going to add to this mess until an approved protocol by a governing body is in place – until such time – the ZFC test protocol is extremely robust.   

Which one is slightly faster out of MSW, Silca HM or Rex BD, I do not know, and I love each of these products immensely, they just deliver unbeatable day in day out super low friction and wear and cleanliness just for popping chain off and into a pot.  

It would almost feel like choosing between one’s children – ZFC has been driving home the benefits of immersive waxing with proven top wax since its inception.   

I can say that in the control testing and field testing Graphenwax unfortunately and surprisingly tested very poorly with very high wear from the start, and it quickly continued to get worse once contamination was added, it did not reset contamination like MSW / Silca HM  / Rex BD wax, it was very dirty, and just as flakey -whilst seeming being too soft and so not forming a solid super slippery polished and self-healing coating like MSW / Silca HM / Rex BD.  

I have had a lot of feedback from cyclists all over the world emailing the same experience.  

I have contacted Absolute Black, and they refute all such test results and feedback, all of their feedback has either been very positive, or they have tracked the issue down to being the customer’s fault re incorrect initial prep.   

ZFC stands by its proven extremely robust control testing, the same test that proved their Graphenlube to be one of the best lubricants invented, which ZFC does stock and recommend (for the right rider).     

Yes, however – 

Most track chains are:

a) Bushing design and

b) have very tight tolerances.  

It is much harder to both ensure factory grease has been cleaned out from between pin and bushing and bushing and roller, as well as ensuring wax penetration in.   

When waxing track chains it is best to use a candy / cooking thermometer to take wax up to max safe temp (before may start to break down the paraffin’s long chain molecules), so bring wax up to 105dg Celsius – ensure chain is in the wax for at least 10 mins to be at same temp as the wax, and really swish the bejeezus out of it.   

At ZFC, for track chain prep, not only are ultrasonics handy for cleaning the chain initially, but they are also used as part 2 of the re-wax process to ensure 100% penetration.   

On the plus side, a wax treatment for track chains lasts a lot of track time and no mess when changing cogs.   

***NOTE!! – Wax break-in on track chains post re-wax is notably longer than road chains, and it can take a bit to get rollers moving as there is a big wax bond surface between roller and bushing.

If you have a race coming up, ensure the chain has had at least 45 mins to 1 hour break-in time to ensure all wax surfaces fully broken in and polished.   

The YBN SLA 410 chain is a brilliant option, it is the only track chain I know that is a bushing-less design just like derailleur chains, which makes them much easier to wax and break in – they are as easy to do as derailleur chains, and despite being much lighter the YBN 410 tested as having almost 1000n greater tensile strength than an Izumi Super Toughness.  

Izumi chains are notoriously hard to wax and break-in due to very tight tolerances.

 Super tight tolerances are also a concern for outright efficiency out of the box – such chains may need extensive break in periods to hit optimum efficiency.  

Adding paraffin oil will make an MSW or other paraffin wax treatment last longer, but it will completely undo the unassailable advantages of immersive waxing and running a super slippery solid lubricant on your chain.  

Not only do you re-introduce viscous friction and increase stiction which are two of the key areas where solid wax has an efficiency advantage over drip lubes, but by having a wet lube on top, every airborne particle will now stick on contact just like any other wet drip lube.  Outright longevity per treatment is not MSW/ highly refined paraffin wax’s main brief. Ultra-low friction, parts wear rates and cleanliness are what it delivers – adding paraffin oil will destroy that.  Don’t do it.  

Silca have suggested adding 20 ml of their synergetic oil to their Hot Melt wax to soften the wax to improve (very) cold weather performance and lessen ‘break in’ times. 

This is very difficult for us to test here in Australia – it just doesn’t get that cold here. 

So, we can refer to the information from the experts in waxing and riding in cold weather Molten Speed Wax – based in Minesota and mad keen on racing winter Cyclocross and year-round cycling.  

The people at MSW would recommend not to add oil, to keep the wax as clean as possible and maintain its resistance to attracting any dirt or contamination – they offer a few tips about how to ‘break in’ the freshly waxed chain to avoid that difficulty, such as – fitting the chain to the bike while it is still slightly warm from the pot and just cycle through the gears to stop the very hard ‘wax bond’ from occurring, or, once the chain has cooled perform the ‘break in’ indoors (where it’s a bit warmer), on the bike on the ergo / rollers for 15 minutes, before heading out into the snow. 

Yes, I have, and that video was a bit of a nightmare, a lot of hard effort to produce a bunch of terrible conclusions. 

• Real world riding has so many variables (load / contamination exposure / re-wax frequency at same km’s & load and contamination exposure etc) that one would need to repeat test for both waxes across many chains and average the results to get a very ballpark end result for both lubricants. It is not remotely accurate as a proper controlled test – one where load is controlled for the same time and distance per interval, re-lubes / waxes are done at the same point, contamination introduced is the same type, and at the same time, and the same amount etc etc.  

• Can you think of any other type of test where so many key variables are run completely uncontrolled, that would be accepted as a valid test?   

• The fact the MSW chain was rusting shows that he was not re-waxing frequently enough. MSW being so highly refined to have no mineral oil content means you need to re-wax at correct intervals, there is no oily coating to protect against rusting if you go too long between re-waxes. The rusting MSW chain is a huge hint as to why the MSW chain recorded a higher wear rate vs his wax blend. I have been waxing for nearly 100,000km now, and have never had a chain rust, because I rewax at the correct intervals.   

• Lastly – the theory re moly causing the metal particles due to being corrosive is just way off. Moly is a proven outstanding friction modifier and is used in many industrial applications. The presence of metal particles would likely have been from excessive wear periods when he has pushed waxed treatment far too long (like when it is rusting) leaving chain with basically no lubricant inside, and a resulting metal on metal wear.  Previous videos by Oz cycle on immersive waxing have included things such as dunking chain in cold water after removing from wax pot to “lock in as much wax as possible” – which is a terrible thing to do as the pressures inside chain when start pedaling will simply press all this excess wax out making a big mess. After 10 mins of riding, you will have the same amount of wax inside chain whether you “Lock in as much wax as possible” or hang to set as is on a 40-degree day.    

It seems like Oz Cycle is genuinely trying to add good value to his viewers but unfortunately a lot of his testing – whilst it gathers great support due to the sheer amount of time and effort put in – it too often simply arrives at the wrong conclusions due to lack of proper understanding and testing that has far too many uncontrolled variables.   

Whilst well intentioned, I do worry that incorrect information can sometimes do more harm than good. I have lost count of how many people I have spoken too who have tried home waxing following Steve’s video’s, had a terrible time of things, thought waxing was pretty terrible, told all their friends it was pretty terrible, as well as any mechanic seeing those drivetrains would also think waxing is pretty terrible.  

It is just not a great situation.  The results and conclusions in that video when you take into account the above – show how easy it is for testing to seem on the surface to be very good – when in reality it was simply miles off on pretty much every outcome. And there are far worse video’s re waxing and lubes on you tube than Oz cycles.    

Sheer input effort and hours isn’t enough – if you are putting out information to thousands of viewers, you have a responsibility – a big one – to ensure the accuracy of what you are reporting.  If I conduct a test and the results are a bit interesting, I contact the manufacturer / re- run test / both.   

Where was the contact to myself re the strange test result, rusting, postulation re moly and corrosion wear? – There was none.  

Where was the contact to MSW? There was none.   

Just skipped straight past go and jumped onto a bandwagon of incorrect postulations and conclusions that suited his own personal outcome. Fancy that. 

Remember – I do not care who makes the best lubricant – I test to find the genuine best, and if it is – I stock it.   

I offered Steve to send me a batch of his blend for control testing – he said he would, it has never arrived –that was many months ago at the time of writing this FAQ.   

I have had a number of Oz Cycle backers say “but he doesn’t sell that wax, he has no vested interest in it!”  Yes he does – it is his recommended product, from his supposedly amazing knowledge of chains and lubricants.  

It is his apparent great free knowledge that he has many thousands of YouTube subscribers. This brings him advertising revenue.   

The more he can wow you with his in depth testing and outcomes, the more shares, the more viewers & subscribers, the more money he makes.  If he is not selling a product, but making money, YOU are the product.   

If all the above seems a bit harsh – Remember I work hard to improve the amount and QUALITY of information available that will genuinely save you watts and running costs.  

If videos are being pumped out that undermine this and add to miss-information, it is obviously frustrating.    

Zero Friction Cycling’s business model is very transparent – use the world’s most exhaustive controlled testing to find and stock the genuine best in class products.  If something was better than MSW, that would be what I recommended as number one, simple as that.   

If a drip lube was better I would simply stock that and recommend that as number one – as you can see, the customer support required around immersive waxing can be high – I often spend up to two or even three hours every day answering emails for questions about waxing.  

I would be lucky to spend 3 hours a month answering questions about the drip lubes I stock.  

Life would be easier if a drip lube was Numero-Uno. 

If a cheap and easy to make home blend was better, I would be making and selling that.   

No – As mentioned before, I did offer to test his blend, but it was never sent.  

At the time of writing, I have over a year’s worth of testing that is “urgent” to get done. Similar to the number of questions I am asked re chain cleaning, I am also frequently asked with regards to so, so, so many different blends and variations of wax / lanolin / bee’s wax and on and on.  

Unless the base wax is lab grade paraffin, based on what I know from a fair bit of time concentrated in this space over the last seven years – it simply will not be as good.  

The base for Steve’s wax is a much cheaper paraffin, it will be longer lasting per treatment vs the very highly refined lab grade in MSW, but it will not remain as clean or low friction – this is something I have seen countless times with countless home wax blends along the same lines – again I could spend my entire life testing home wax blends – to what end?  

As long as the wax base isn’t too terrible and one avoids silly things like adding paraffin oil, then many home wax blends may well outperform a lot of the typical drip lubes stocked on shelves of your LBS, but they won’t match MSW for all the reasons mentioned previously. 

If you want a less refined wax for its greater longevity and oily protection against rusting – then you can absolutely go forth and easily make your own and have a good time – but it is simply not a level of product that ZFC needs to test – there is much more highly valued testing to get too asap vs a never ending stream of home blend variations from YouTube.  

I would recommend that when it comes to lubricant testing and immersive waxing, for proper independent information refer to the original Friction Facts / velo lab testing as well as Zero Friction Cycling testing and detail reviews, and be wary of low grade testing with huge uncontrolled variables on key aspects of the test, regardless of how many hours of effort were put into the test.  

ZFC recommendation at this time of writing would be not to consider Wend Wax, initial testing results, as well as communication with Wend, have come out very poorly indeed. Wend hit the marketing hard, stating “Just rub wax on outside of chain and have a race ready chain in seconds!”  

If you rub a solid lubricant on the outside of your chain – you have a solid lubricant on the outside of your chain, no matter how you try and massage it.  

Massaging it may help it get a little bit inside rollers, but it will not penetrate at all through to the pin.  

The first test following instructions to the letter showed wear rate basically exactly the same as a chain strip cleaned and run without any lubricant.  

Then Wend came out with “the advanced application technique” where one now dissolves the wax in with their own special solvent.  

This did work, sort of, but it was very average vs good lubricants, re wear rate, and the chain & drive train becomes very gunky over time with wax that almost needs a chisel to remove. 

I don’t yet understand why one would spend more money, to mix their own wax drip lube on the go in a faffy multi part process, when you can simply buy a vastly better, pre-mixed wax lube like Ceramic speed All Conditions, Silca SS drip, Tru-tension Tungsten All Weather, Smoove, Squirt etc.  

Then Wend came out with colours, and dismaying the market went wild.  

I had hoped the market was smarter than this by now. Dear me.  

To actually have your coloured drive train and some lubrication you need to;  

•  Rub on coloured Wend wax.  

•  Dissolve wax in with their wax off solvent. This will dissolve the colour.  

• Allow chain to dry  

• Rub coloured wax on again to get your coloured chain back.  

• Enjoy about 5 to 10 minutes of a coloured chain.  

• Enjoy a massively over waxed chain and gunked up drivetrain. Prepare hammer and chisel.  

I have also sent a Wend factory wax chain off for outright efficiency testing at wheel energy, as well as seeing the same testing by Ceramic speed, both results were similar, but the friction loss result was so high I had to double checking before going to print.  

They now have, I believe, a hot melt wax out and a liquid wax version out – I will get to testing and hold onto my hat re how it goes, but until it is independently tested and proven, based on what results and marketing vs reality to date, I would really, really think about that decision.  

Take a moment and think about the marketing vs what can possibly be occurring with solid rub on stick and the deep internals of your chain. It’s your drivetrain. I know what I’m running on mine.  

Do not put a wend wax chain in a pot of MSW.