Originally Posted By: BalorNG
No solvent washing, no careful lubing - only dunk into liquid paraffin, agitate, remove, cool, on the bike it goes.
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By the way, applying a solution of wax as most 'dry' lubes is NOT a good idea, because lubing it on the bike would drive the surface dirt into the rollers and trap it there, negating all the benefits of paraffin. This is why, I guess, 'dry lubes' are not as good as pure paraffin 'hot bath'.
I think you are contradicting yourself here. If you aren't cleaning the chain and you are applying more lube you are contaminating the lube in the chain.
I'm a fan of dry wax-based lubes too. The climate I live in is very dry, sandy, and dusty and any oil based lube quickly turns into grinding paste.
I've tried the hot paraffin-wax bath method and while it works I don't find the wax lasts as long as people claim. My take on this is that the different angles the chain takes as it runs in different gears (even being careful not to cross-chain) wears the wax out faster than it would on a singlespeed or hub-gear bike.
I struggle to get more than 3-4 hours before I can hear the effects of a "dry" chain and shifting starts to suffer. Because of this the paraffin wax method is annoying and basically impossible with a lot of the ten speed chains having non-reusable quick-links.
I used to like the original White Lightning formula but when they changed their formula (maybe 10 years ago?) it didn't dry as hard and I was less of a fan. Over the past three years I've been using Squirt chainlube and really like it. It dries a bit harder than White Lightning, lasts as well as Parrafin wax and seems to perform a better in wet conditions than other dry lubes. Supposedly it's a wax in a water-based carrier.
I've thought of trying to mix some moly powder in with the parrafin wax I have left to use on the 8 and 9 speed bikes I have but I like the shiny clean look a waxed chain has and don't want to turn it black (vanity outweighs sanity on this one I guess).
No solvent washing, no careful lubing - only dunk into liquid paraffin, agitate, remove, cool, on the bike it goes.
.
.
.
By the way, applying a solution of wax as most 'dry' lubes is NOT a good idea, because lubing it on the bike would drive the surface dirt into the rollers and trap it there, negating all the benefits of paraffin. This is why, I guess, 'dry lubes' are not as good as pure paraffin 'hot bath'.
I think you are contradicting yourself here. If you aren't cleaning the chain and you are applying more lube you are contaminating the lube in the chain.
I'm a fan of dry wax-based lubes too. The climate I live in is very dry, sandy, and dusty and any oil based lube quickly turns into grinding paste.
I've tried the hot paraffin-wax bath method and while it works I don't find the wax lasts as long as people claim. My take on this is that the different angles the chain takes as it runs in different gears (even being careful not to cross-chain) wears the wax out faster than it would on a singlespeed or hub-gear bike.
I struggle to get more than 3-4 hours before I can hear the effects of a "dry" chain and shifting starts to suffer. Because of this the paraffin wax method is annoying and basically impossible with a lot of the ten speed chains having non-reusable quick-links.
I used to like the original White Lightning formula but when they changed their formula (maybe 10 years ago?) it didn't dry as hard and I was less of a fan. Over the past three years I've been using Squirt chainlube and really like it. It dries a bit harder than White Lightning, lasts as well as Parrafin wax and seems to perform a better in wet conditions than other dry lubes. Supposedly it's a wax in a water-based carrier.
I've thought of trying to mix some moly powder in with the parrafin wax I have left to use on the 8 and 9 speed bikes I have but I like the shiny clean look a waxed chain has and don't want to turn it black (vanity outweighs sanity on this one I guess).