Latest News 52 – Mspeedwax back in stock, New Bundle packs, Rex Black Diamond, Testing update, Holiday update, You tube update.

**sorry ran out of time to proof read – apologies for typo’s / poor sentence structure!**

Mspeedwax is back – get your super low friction life started, or keeping it going! Alrighty party peeps here we go! Look for Mspeedwax to be moved to back in stock by around mid morning today. I think this case will last a little longer than the last case, but then again, maybe not (last case went in under 24hrs). However I am hopefully now getting more supply allocated and that the next arrival should be close enough for me to move to back order as opposed to out of stock – but we shall see how long this lasts vs how far away next case.

**Also new bundle packs are imminent (likely online later this weekend), and including 12 speed chains. As 12speed chains take up a an ever growing % of chain sales, having 12spd bundle packs has been needed, it is just a lot more faff vs 11spd as there are so many to cover and at very different price points (YBN 12 in gold / silver / black, rainbow, Campy 12, Sram axs force, axs Red, Sram eagle xx1 in gold, black, rainbow, copper, sram eagle x01 silver, shimano ultegra / XT, shimano DA / XTR – in 116, 126, 138 link lengths – all of these chains with option of as is, mspeedwax prep, hot melt prep, black diamond prep… AND also now what wax choice in the bundle – previously it was just msw, now it will have option of hot melt as well).

All up to cover 10 & 11spd & 12spd bundle packs, with different prep options and add ons such as links, tools, swisher etc so one can grab and go from one page vs going in and out of multiple product pages to add to cart – it is a lot of variations, and a new plug in has had to be sourced to manage this properly as adjusting in/ out of stock or pricing changes on current variations plug in – it is too unwieldy for the move to create 12spd bundles.

The bundles will have items on average 5 to 10% discount vs the rrp if one just added those items to cart separately, and free shipping for domestic orders. I really hope to have the new bundles online by time move msw to in stock, but cannot promise will be all set up in time. If not do not despair, definitely by next case of msw next week they should be all systems go if not today.

Rex Black Diamond

Still running very behind on getting detail reviews for completed tests up, but have this one up now woohoo! (Lubricant test page on Zero Friction Cycling website).

A lot of testing was done for this lubricant as there were a few ins and outs to cover – I wont waffle here but suffice to say it has been tested 6 ways from Sunday and has proven itself an exceptional lubricant choice, such that it has been added to the ZFC selection.

Key Highlights for Black Diamond

• It has extreme treatment longevity – especially in dry conditions (road or offroad). This treatment longevity will really suit some cyclists who just don’t want to be frequently reapplying lubricant whilst remaining very low wear.
• Although it is a wet lubricant, it is not very wet, and has recorded by far the lowest wear rate in the dry contamination test block for any wet lubricant. It is currently the ONLY wet lubricant that ZFC can actively recommend for offroad use, as in general, if you have a wet lubricant on your chain, then every particle of dirt and dust that comes into contact will stick on contact and your lubricants abrasiveness just climbs km after km.
• Many, many mtb riders / gravel riders still use wet lubricants as many wet lubricants are marketed specifically for that demographic (muc-off, wolf tooth wt-1 and many more) with claims of being able to clean as lubricate etc.
  • Wolf Tooth WT-1 used up 52.9% of test wear allowance in dry contamination block 2.
  • Muc-Off ludicrous AF used up 78% of t test wear allowance in dry contamination block 2.
  • Average wear rate for all wet lubricants tested to date in dry contamination block 2 is 39.5%
  • Rex Black Diamond recorded only 11.1% wear rate in this test block, basically ¼ of the wet lubricant average
• Due to its extreme treatment longevity and offroad performance, it is also thus highly recommended for ebike / eMtb use, where high power and high contamination environment have many other top lubricants struggling to last that long, leading to insufficient lubrication if one doesn’t stay on top of re-lubes. Black diamond provides great wear protection even when chain is feeling and sounding very obviously too dry, and this means less ebike riders getting caught out with high wear. A problem that is just omg so common
• Black Diamond can for certain events be used with race day drip, which effects a chemical change turning it from a wet lubricant to a dry lubricant with extremely high dry dust contamination resistance equal to the top dry chain coating products (immersive waxing, top wax lubricants) but with extreme treatment longevity. This is unique on the market.

I am also doing a lot of testing still for Rex for a new product launch that should be coming soon, we are just putting a bunch of formulations through the torture testing before locking in for production.

This one is pretty exciting (well, I think so..) as it is an immersive wax, but it is going to come to market with an exciting angle (a little bit similar to cyclowax variety offerings, but a bit different as well).
The wax will be coming in lovely blocks of “base wax” with a special friction modifier block. One will be able to customize the ratio of their wax. Full race formula will be 1 friction modifier block and X base blocks. For training / commuting etc then one will go with a much greater ratio of base blocks to friction modifier block, and with blocks available for sale separately as well as pack.

Wicked.

Rex are playing to their strengths. With by far the longest lasting drip lubricant in dry conditions, they are carrying this over to their immersive wax, and so expect new immersive wax treatment longevity records – which again may be the tipping point for some to switch over if they do not need to pop chain on and off very often. Oh the land of low friction is so much fun! Testing is ongoing with various modifier to base blocks to lock in ratio’s for race vs training and options in between – but I think will be wrapping in a couple of months and stay tuned for a product launch soon after hopefully (there are always pesky things like production, supply of key ingredients, packaging etc to nail down as well as nailing down making a great product to begin with, tis not easy or fast).

TESTING UPDATE

Aside from madly working away on one machine for Rex, another machine has been very busy testing for Effetto Mariposa for their new Flower Power Wax which I will go into further on a future update, short version though – another amazing product that ZFC will be stocking, and the data for the main test is up on website, it is currently undergoing the single application longevity part of testing to wrap up, and the other machine is testing Session Components S-wax, which is also going very well they are just making an adjustment re penetration issue and then will be re tested.

There has been a really good run of products on test that have excelled during late 2021 and into 2022 – why is this so?

In short – out there in the world there are SO, SO many lubricants on the market clamoring for your $$ and willing to make any claim that will achieve this. Out of this, there are a some brilliant lubricants, a whole lot of meh, it’s a lubricant – but so many quickly become contaminated and abrasive in cycling application, and there are so many shockers as well that just eat your drivetrain as if you were running cutting fluid.

There isn’t really (I don’t believe), another independent test facility offering robust and credible data and testing including dry and wet contamination blocks.
So if a manufacturer believes they have a genuinely great product, and they don’t want their claims lost against the sea of everything else claiming the same, AND also providing own test data is always taken with a lot of skepticism by most of market – obtaining robust independent test data to verify and back claims is extremely desirable.

So little ZFC is pretty flooded. A main test takes A LONG time as it is, and often for manufacturers there are re tests as formula’s are adjusted based on performance recorded, or the may be blind tests of one sample vs another or vs key competitor.

This has left me little capacity to conduct more of my own testing on products making pretty wild claims that I would like to see if they hold any substance. As a priority ZFC would like to identify the genuine best product options available around the world for the greatest number of cyclists to be able to avoid running meh or worse options. I cannot test hundreds of lubricants (well I can if I work until I’m around 1000 years old), so absolutely low emphasis on proving X product is bad – that would just be a never ending task, and much greater emphasis on testing products that have highest chance of proving they are outstanding.

I do need to try to get to the most concerning products (ie Muc-Off, Wend wax etc) and high profile launches like Wolf Tooth WT-1 with big clean as lubricate claims that are just…. Not really in line with the physics of what happens in a wet lubricant in the world of dirt and dust – and there as a number of lubricants I have on my list to pit against rather….. ambitious….. claims – so that will continue to be done when I can for learning for all and knowing some key well marketed products to avoid, however as manufacturers have few if any other viable options for independent verification – if they have put the genuine work and R&D and investment into making a likely genuinely brilliant product – then ZFC is really needed to get this testing done.

Such manufacturers are not going to engage in ZFC testing services (it isn’t cheap..) unless it is genuine. There are no refunds for an unhappy test result, so a lot of vetting is done before accepting a test booking. And those accepted – well, we are seeing that a high % are testing extremely well, and hopefully the above explanation makes sense as to why we have seen such a groovy test run lately.

Holiday Update

Mr & Mrs Low friction plus mini low friction are off for holidays as of next Thursday to following Friday ( 14th to 22nd July). Now that I have a very groovy Retail Supreme Leader in Andrew I don’t need to close ZFC store so low friction goodness can keep zooming out!
I will be prepping as many chains as I can to have Andrew stocked up for the week, but inevitably he will run out of a number of options so there will be mini delays – Andrew will update if unable to ship and that it will be prepped and shipped as soon as I return.

Also Andrew has been studying my typically ridiculously long replies to enquiries and will be doing his best to take over those (but he is not the typist I am so expect quite possible just as good an answer in 500 or so less words) – but again it is possible some enquiries will need to wait for moi to answer – he will advise if enquiry will be answered by me on my return.
I expect Andrew will look like screenshot below from Bruce almighty GIF (sorry no idea how to get gifs to work on FB, I am have no idea re social media apps / stuff – I wing it when I can!)

You Tube Update

I have a youtube film day booked next week so will try to get some good vids done – ah….. I really need to properly prep for them I know, but not sure if that will happen again as a bunch of stuff to get done before leave – but I will try. Thanks for bearing with me and the generally kind comments and emails on the vids! I will keep trying to improve as best I can with the time I can get to focus on…

Thanks as always for reading and stay low friction!