See 1:20 and 2:50 of the video

It's rubbing the excess/dirty wax off upon contact, like with the chainrings. The lubrication is left where it's needed - inside the chain. Once it's on the outside it's not going back in again, so it's not going to cause more frequent need for waxing, just keep everything cleaner.

@@EalingBikeMechanic That's really helpful thank you. Can I ask something else please? When using a waxed chain, what should I do to stop the cassette rusting? Should I be spraying it with something like Muc-Off Bike Protect before putting the wheel back on after cleaning?

@@HKRoad Just don't leave it wet (same with the chain). We advise people to keep a microfibre cloth near the door of wherever they keep the bike, if you come in and the bike is wet then wipe down the whole drive train straight away. Ideally, you would then reapply a little drip wax to protect the chain. You can use the cloth like a floss and rub between gears if being mega thorough, or just generally wipe the cassette. Cassettes don't usually rust - if you see rust on them it's normally because the chain has sat on it and rusted, leaving the rust behind. Definitely don't spray anything that will ruin the adhesion of any current or future wax onto any part of the drive train.

@@EalingBikeMechanic thanks once again - appreciate you giving guidance

As mentioned before, there are different kinds of wax. This is Tru Tension Tungsten, a 'slacker' drip wax which leaves a minimal amount of black build up on the drive parts due to a higher oil content. Brushing it would just spread it around and ruin a brush. We use a paintbrush for the same reason as you on MSW/Hot Melt/UFO drip/etc chains where the lubricant is a true solid. This video is about cleaning, which assumes that the chain is dirty - or at least dusty! It's one bonus of the higher end waxes, you never actually really need to do this step :D

Some setups are louder than others. A fully immersive waxed setup - with the chain swapped relatively early - will likely be one of the quietest you can get. If you push any of the wax options to the limit of the application life they'll be louder, so one more reason to lubricate earlier and keep things clean. We wouldn't call anything about oil 'good' unless you're selling chains/cassettes (in which case you'll love the fact you're selling 5x as many!) but silent running (sometimes) is one of the few upsides. A 'slacker' drip lube such as Tru Tension Tungsten would be the closest option, but it brings with it some of the down sides of oil lube due to the fact it's oilier! I'd call it a 'gateway lube' to the proper stuff like Molten SpeedWax or Silca Hot Melt :)

it is louder because wax is dry and does not muffle vibrations on chain, but does not collects dirt as sticky oil does

The classic 'it depends' really. TTT is better in the wet, and possibly longer lasting. The reason, and downside, is that it's an oilier lube. The oil is paraffin oil, so wax compatible but still attracts more dirt. We tend to use TTT in the winter and on commuting bikes, and UFO in the summer. I just did a 300k ride to Paris on my personal bike using UFO and the chain is still spotless - that's the upside to using UFO. They have also launched UFO Drip Wet Conditions recently, which we'll be trying out when the worse weather comes round to see how that will handle the UK winter!

@@EalingBikeMechanic thanks for the info. I’ll share that with my riders. I like your videos… more please!

We don't have that as easily available, meths is sold at any hardware store for relatively cheap. We also have lots that has been used to rinse chains when prepping them for initial waxing, which is still 'clean' enough to use for this type of job.

This is almost as cross chained as you can be, and as far as most Di2 setups will allow. The other option is big/big, but it tends not to work as well backpedaling and the chain comes off more often.

Yes, that would be ideal!

Depends on how heavy the rain is, our general recommendation is - light rain/short time, just wipe the chain down when you get home. Heavy rain, wipe down and reapply. If chain looks dirty and sounds gritty, full strip and re-wax (see our other video how to do this on the bike)

I suppose you could wash it. We use them until they're too dirty to use on waxed chains, then use them for other work until they're mega dirty and then throw them away. If you were only using the cloth on your own waxed chain it might last months before getting dirty, and maybe a soak in the sink with washing up liquid would get it clean enough to use again.

It depends what product, some are dirtier than others. Compared to oil of course it's nothing, but it will build up over time. What drip wax did you use?

If you use alcohol dust residue will turn up black on your cloth. Should be a very fine layer though.

Sounds interesting, definitely report back if that works. I'd say for chains it might not be ideal as what we're trying to do in the deep clean (which is a different video) is to remove all the wax, bringing the dirt with it. If the wax stays in the chain it'll still be impregnated with ground in dirt and increasing the wear to the chain. That'll mostly come out when the chain's dipped in the hot wax pot, of course - but you're taking the dirt into the pot and contaminating the pot more that way.

Yep we mainly use MSpeedWax which barely leaves any residue, some of the 'slacker' drip waxes (Squirt, Smoove and our favourite winter drip lube Tru Tension Tungsten) do leave a bit of build up though and require a bit more wiping down/cleaning. Not even close to as dirty as wet lube though!

1. How is getting a bit of wax on a cloth destroying it? 2. Have you tried your suggestion - using paper towels to clean a bike drive chain?

It was called 'UFO Drip' but has now been renamed to 'UFO Drip All Conditions' by CeramicSpeed. You should be able to find it most places, check at: www.ceramicspeed.com/en/cycling/find-a-retailer

Degreaser - clue is in the name, wax isn't grease! It'll probably do more than nothing but nowhere close to UFO Clean. There are other products designed to clean wax (Effetto AllPine and Smoove Chain Cleaner) but yes, before UFO Clean was launched we used hot soapy water to clean on the bike. The real key in that situation is the hot part, to melt the wax, so I'd say definitely use gloves for that. There's another option using just water that we will cover in our next video but that requires taking the chain off the bike which is a step that some people are hesitant to do.

Would fairy liquid suffice? 😂

Yep, with hot enough water it'd work pretty well 👌

Not sure where you got that from! There's nothing better to use on a bike chain in our experience.

That's what Zero Friction Cycling would call 'extreme contamination' and that's when they recommend a full clean of the chain. I wouldn't use a bath of alcohol, either remove the chain and clean with boiling water or use a cleaner suitable for wax. Our favourite (and one we show just how well it works in an upcoming video) is UFO Clean by CeramicSpeed. Spray on the chain, cassette and chainrings, work in and rinse and you'll have a 99% clean setup ready to re-wax.

Amazing! Looking forward to that video.

Yep, meths is alcohol so whatever you can get easily will work! You can get meths (in this country at least) in every DIY store and it's cheap so that's the easiest to find here.

Glad it helped - we'll be posting another couple soon. This is the basic one, there's a more thorough cleaning on the bike and then finally removing the chain to clean it to come!

The waxed chain is the key! This is a customer's bike that had done a 90k muddy off road ride, then a quick blast with a jet wash - but other than that, no cleaning so that was pretty much how the chain looked after the ride.

It's Methylated Spirit, cheap and from any DIY store. It's basically alcohol, any alcohol will work - we use highly refined stuff to clean brakes but to just get surface dirt/wax off a chain meths is fine.

@@EalingBikeMechanic I think this is also called "window cleaner spirit"? Am i correct