My Quest for Dry Lube (Yes, that's a thing no matter what my wife says).
The quest for dry lube began after seeing Chris Oubre’s thread on what type of lube people were using. I was surprised guys like Mark and Turby were using a thing “Molten Speed Wax”. I had never really looked into it before. I had used the race day “unicorn blood” chain from the optimized chain folks, but I never considered doing it DIY.
I started digging around on the interwebs and quickly got hooked on the idea of a clean, fast wax versus the grimy, oil stuff I had been using. Very quickly I realized I had fallen down the rabit hole. I was going with wax. Sadly, I don’t do things half way. This project also fed my desire to shop. I needed a lot of relatively cheap supplies and I needed them fast. Here is where Amazon.com, my frenemy, comes in handy. Everything you need and more can be found on Amazon Prime and had the next day.
I relied really heavily on the Molten Speed Wax site and a couple how-to’s I found online.
Here is what I needed:
- Mineral Spirits. I suggest two quarts to start.
- Denatured Alcohol. One quart will do since you only need one rinse.
- Degreaser. I used a Simple Green variant, but any will do.
- Small, cheap crock pot. Small is good because it require less wax to create depth to cover the chain. This will become your dedicated waxing unit. You will not want to cook with this ever again. I found mine for $8
- Candy making thermometer. This will help you determine when the wax reaches 195 degrees and it was only $7
- Large plastic jar with a lid. I found one for under $10, but if you have a container with trail mix or something else in it, you can totally use that.
- Chain breaker. You will need it to remove your chain if it doesn’t have a missing link and if you get a new chain (highly recommended) you will need to cut that chain to size.
- If you go with a missing link/quick link, and you should, you will want the tool for that also. Both SRAM and KMC use a link. Shimano uses a pin but will take a missing link as well. Park tools has an opener/closer tool. KMC has two tools, one for each job. Cost is about $12.
- Chain tensioner. This is handy tool for installing and uninstalling the missing link. I made mine out of a wire coat hanger. Thanks internet!
- Grease. You will want to re-lube any parts that need it and that may have been hit too hard during the massive cleaning.
- Ultrasonic cleaner with heating element. This little baby can break the budget, but a DIY baller should have one. Not required, but I have wanted one for a while. I went with the three-liter size.
- Large zip ties – They make the perfect thing for dunking and removing the chain from the hot wax.
- Lot’s and lot of rags or paper towels
- Gloves come in handy to protect your manicure
Your little shopping spree should cost about $50-$75 depending on what you needed not counting the super awesome, totally worth it ultrasonic cleaner with heating element. That bad boy adds another $125, but should last a life time.
Should look like this when you are ready:
First step is to start on cleaning the chain. I recommend starting with a new one. It just makes the initial cleaning much easier. New chains come from the factory already covered in a heavy, sticky industrial grease. They also have metal shavings and other debris from the manufacturing process. This is still easier to clean than an old chain with miles on it already. I suggest KMC. They make 80 million chains a year and also manufacture for Shimano, I am told. As a result, KMC has a fully compatible line of chains both road and mountain for Shimano and SRAM groups. They also offer the most blinged out choices. Feast your eyes on black and green!
They also do GOLD
Cleaning the chain is easy and Molten has a great video on their website as well as detailed instructions of the process I used below.
Place the chain, or chains, depending on your commitment to the hobby, into the plastic jar and cover with mineral spirits. Shake vigorously for 2 minutes. Drain the liquid, dry the chain on a clean towel, dry out the inside of the jar with a paper towel to remove debris and contamination the chain may have left behind. Repeat. And, repeat, until the liquid is clear and the chain leaves no marks when you towel dry. For a new chain this is two cycles an old chain could be many more. Then, for the FASTEST chain, put it back in the clean jar, cover with mineral spirits and leave it overnight.
The next morning, remove the chain, rinse in clean water and then place the chain back in the clean jar (just empty the mineral spirits and towel dry) and cover with the denatured alcohol. This will further clean the chain as well remove any of the water in the pins and grooves of the chain.
While all this is happening, you need to be cleaning your drive train. If you want the FASTEST chain, you should remove the chain rings, the cassette and clean them thoroughly with a degreaser and tooth brush. This is also a great place to use your new ultrasonic cleaner. This is also pretty “easy” to do because you have already removed the chain.
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These are the start-up costs, like the entire jar scenario above. Once with you go to wax, you never go back and this cleaning does not need to be repeated. Moving forward after the conversion, you will just dip the chain in hot wax and then move on.
I also cleaned the jockey wheels and re-greased the jockey wheel bearings, ‘cause I want the FASTEST chain.
If you went the new chain route, it’s time to resize that clean bad boy. There are a lot of ways to size a chain. YouTube has many, but here is PRO TIP – Take the old chain, lay it out next to the new one. Put an ice pick or similar through the end of both chains and then pull them tight. Cut your new one to the exact same size of your old one. BAM! Done!
Now comes the main event! Bring on the wax! Place about ½ of a one-pound bag of Molten Speed Wax into the crock pot. According to the internet, you can use ANY paraffin wax from Walmart for candle making or food storage, but I say stick with Molten. They claim to have additives beyond paraffin to give you the FASTEST chain.
Set the crock pot to high and place the candy thermometer inside. Once the wax goes to liquid, add the chain. I put a zip tie through the center link to make it easier to put it in and out. I also added the two sides of the missing link closure. The cold chain will bring the temp down. Don’t rush, be patient. Clean more grease off your other components while you are waiting.
Once the wax hits 195 degrees on the thermometer, pull out the chain and hang it using the zip tie over some newspaper or card board. It will drip a bit before it dries.
I did the black and green for my favorite road bike, which has a lot of green anodized parts, and the baller gold for my 29’er mountain bike.
Once the chain is dry and cool to the touch, it’s time to install. The chain will be stiff and waxy. Just flex it a bit and work out some of the wax. Once it’s on and you turn the crank a couple times, all that stiffness is gone. Molten says a 10-minute ride will completely break it in.
Run the chain around the small chain ring and the small cog of the cassette then through the jockey wheels. Here is where the tensioner helps. Link the tensioner into both the ends of the chain and now you can work easily. Place the missing link in both ends and use the tool to make it snap into place. You can also use your hands, I suppose, if you have Withrow strength. You chain also turn the crank while holding the wheel to create the force to close the link, but why? There is tool for the job…
Done! Take it for a little ride. The extra wax has flaked off. There may be some hanging on, but you can just brush it off if you want. The thing is totally clean and won’t mark your finger up. The chain is also really quite. Mine just has a low hum to it. I love it.
Let’s talk about next steps. If you want the FASTEST chain, you will re-wax every 300-400 miles. You can also use Squirt Dry Lube for touch-ups. When you decide to re-wax, just open the missing link with your little tool. If you ride 11 speed, you need a new missing link everytime. They are very cheap and are single use for safety.
Place the chain in hot crock pot, heat to 195, hang to cool and re-install. If you want the FASTEST chain, you will place the chain in your ultrasonic cleaner heated to 135 degrees. The wax melts at about 125 degrees and will get flushed out. You can then re-wax this very clean chain.
The whole thing seems to be very clean equals very fast.
This was a super nerdy project, but I had a lot fun with it. It was neat. I learned a lot and got to acquire a few toys. So far I have done two bikes, I am going to do the rest of the fleet when I get around to it. The initial cleaning of all the parts is a chore, but if you don’t care about having the FASTEST chain, you can cut some corners.
Cheers!
Comments
Atta boy Dino! Glad to see you're all in! You can also use a Wipperman Connex master link which lasts forever instead of doing the one time thing. I use their chains also, German company that just makes chains for like 100 years.
Are you using the Molten Wax Powder?
Love that colored chain... My new Ventum is now asking for this.
http://kmcchain.us/chain/x11sl-dlcred/
One caution about your method for sizing the chain, if the chain has stretched and lots, then using your method could result in a chain that's a little too long. If that's the case then you need to match the links instead of the length. The other method is to wrap the chain around the big chain't ring and the largest cog on the cassette, do not thread it through the derailleur at this point. Cut the chain at the closest link, but always round up. Proceed as above.
Thanks for the chain tensioner tip. The MS site also has a chain dipping tool that you can make out of a coat hanger. It allows you to swirl the chain in the wax for deeper penetration.
I use the bent coat hanger on the MSW website. Works great! Also, don't forget some heavy duty rubber gloves to protect the hands!
@Tim - I'm using the race powder also.
That's a good tip. The KMC ones are reusable, unless you are using 11spd. Then they say single use. They are cheap, but I would imagine they add up, especially with multiple bikes. I googled Wipperman and the link were way more expensive, but if they are reusable, I would think the payback is pretty quick. The issue then is color. Wipperman doesn't have all the choices to match the KMC bling.
According to Molten, the powder is a messy pain in the ass and they recommend using it only for racing. I think they quote 200 miles of use and 2-3 watts using the powder. I will definitely do it for my next race, especially since I have gotten good at removing the chain. I could then apply the powder in a bag. I think the move is a fresh wax and then the powder before race day.
Rich saw that red and black KMC chain and has already ordered for his Ventum. I think I will get one as well for my P5, which is black with white and red accents.
Molten says use the jar method for the first time on a new chain. They claim the ultrasonic cleaner with not get all the heavy industrial grease off from the manufacture. They say after the first processing, that the ultrasonic is 100% preferred for every cleaner after that.
Good tip on the chain stretch. I saw that on YouTube. They recommended checking for chain stretch before copying the size, so my little chain gage before I took them off. Both were good.
My latest thing is converting many bikes to 1 x 11.