Latest News 51 – MSW ETA – MSW Pricing – Chain Stock – Testing

Wheres the wax? Its been like, ages!

Get ready to move fast….

Nearly there! Good news is this will not move from ages to eons! I have cleared wholesale back orders, and so next case due in about a week – I will be able to move MSW back to in stock. I don’t think this will last until next case, so if you been hanging for that ultra low friction goodness, don’t dally. I think by next 2 or 3 cases though I hope to have some buffer – but not sure, I am really proud of the demand for MSW these days – so many super low friction low wear drive trains now! And so many people proving that immersive waxing really is not difficult at all vs the alternative of not waxing. Ah we have all come a long way ?

But thank you again to all for your patience. This has been the longest out of stock period for MSW yet by far, and not quite there yet, but close.

MSW Pricing

Ah doh – it will be going up. Another reason not to dally, this case landing is the last case I am getting at my existing pricing, my cost is heading seriously north as MSW’s cost to produce has also headed seriously north and they haven’t pushed an increase for a long time. And shipping just keeps going up too.

After this next case the price per bag (well, pucks!) is going to jump from $49.90 to $59.90. Ouch I know – but I am absorbing some of the increase which is not ideal with the way shipping keeps going – I will hope to hold it at this price for awhile.

To help soften the blow, the total weight has gone up a bit, each puck is on average 260g so each bag will now be on average 520g vs 500grams.
And…. Remember – when it comes to total cost to run for your drivetrain – most especially on anything as expensive as Ultegra or above, the component wear cost is the dominant cost factor per 10,000km of cycling, and the lubricant cost the much lesser factor if it delivers super low wear. Once we start talking top tier groupsets – again this $10 increase will be nearly nothing when taking into that a new set of chains rings, cassette and chain will be near 1k – so if you halve or more the wear rate vs random drip lubricant choice – which is normally easy (circa 3x is pretty common, and much more again for offroad riding) – then paying an extra $10 to save $500 – it’s a groovy deal indeed.

This price increase will also hit the bundle packs that include MSW.

I should be able to hold pre prep price for chains at this stage.

Chain Stock

Well that’s been fun too, but relief is on the way. I have purchased a stack of shimano chains just buying them online so I have chains to prep and sell now that wax is coming, and the ETA from Shimano for my order (placed months ago) was December (which then updated to next week AFTER I ordered online. Insert sigh here).

Sram Eagle – stock ordered January that was recently ETA of September is now inbound and I should have x01 / xx1 gold + black + rainbow back in stock in approx. 1 week.  No copper inbound ?

AXS road – doing ok for now. I think.

Campy – 11spd in, 12spd – I have 3 left from some I purchased online as there isn’t even an ETA on Campy 12.

YBN – 12spd often going in and out of stock but delays normally not too long. 11spd – going ok now am just shoring up some stock buffer.

Yeehaa. All up – soon will actually have stock of core chains + MSW and I will be fighting hard to try to keep them in stock. Not by like refusing to sell them. Or to sell them but not send them ( ha some businesses do actually do the latter!!! Stay clear of Home Appliances Plus….).

Testing Update

Testing work is pretty bonkers. All 3 machines are just way booked out with testing under Non disclosure for a number of mfg at the moment – they have been all year and its looking like will be into 2023.

Some of these tests will be going public as the tests have gone very well, a bunch though will be just between ZFC and the MFG as I am testing various samples before the best performer can be locked in for production.

There are a bunch of tests I would love to do, and I keep getting some really good requests re X or Y product – and so testing an aerosol lubricant such as boeshield T9 is on the list for when I can get a spot as well as a bunch of other products that have been highlighted over time – I just cant quite give an eta yet.

I still feel I need to prioritise booked tests as there is just as best as I can tell literally really no where else for mfg to go to get credible robust and independent performance data for their lubricant. There is sort of options, maybe, for outright efficiency testing, but that just provides so little useful information really. 99% of cyclists do not care if a lubricant is 4w or 4.5w or 3.5w or 5w – as long as it is low wear in the conditions they are going to be cycling in. There is no other testing that covers initial penetration issues or not, dry contamination performance, wet contamination performance, single application treatment longevity and more.
So if a manufacturer is really genuine re the product they have developed / developing and want independent verification and test results benchmarked against the competition – there are just not a lot of options outside of ZFC, and it is hard not to support manufacturers that are investing a lot of human capital and $$ capital to bring what may likely be a great product to market – the more genuinely great options there are that can be known and obtained around the world – the more drivetrains we can save from an early death by abrasion, and that is my favourite part of ZFC.

As always stay tuned, when I can update re a test I will, a couple of groovy updates should be out soon.

Thanks for reading and stay low friction!!!