Chain maintenance

Quoted message said:

Is paraffin wax readily available? Is a good thing to use? If not, what
else to use for lubricating a chain?

Have you tried oil?

in message
<[email hidden]>,

D.M. Procida (') said:

Is paraffin wax readily available? Is a good thing to use? If not,
what else to use for lubricating a chain?

What sort of/bike what conditions? I've been using Finish Line Cross
Country on everything for years, but have to confess that I'm thinking
of trying something different on my new road bike. Finish Line Cross
Country is easy to apply and excellent from a protection point of view,
but my chains lubricated with it tend to look quite dirty. This is
slightly aggravated by the fact that with modern narrow chains it's a
lot less easy to whip the chain off the bike and dump it in a jar of
parafin.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

'Victories are not solutions.'
;; John Hume, Northern Irish politician, on Radio Scotland 1/2/95
;; Nobel Peace Prize laureate 1998; few have deserved it so much

Simon Brooke said:

Quoted message said:

Is paraffin wax readily available? Is a good thing to use? If not,
what else to use for lubricating a chain?

What sort of/bike what conditions?

A fairly badly-treated 8-year-old Raleigh Pioneer.

Quoted message said:

This is slightly aggravated by the fact that with modern narrow chains
it's a lot less easy to whip the chain off the bike and dump it in a jar
of parafin.

Why are modern chains less easy to manage?

I'm never quite sure what 'modern' means in a cycling context. When I
was aged between 8 and 15 I knew each of the tens if not hundreds of
bikes in the village *individually* - what sort of brakes, gears, and
damage they had, and more. I was 15 19 years ago, and lots of things
seem to have moved on. Things seem to have moved on even since I bought
my Raleigh eight years ago.

Daniele
--
Apple Juice Ltd
Chapter Arts Centre
Market Road www.apple-juice.co.uk
Cardiff CF5 1QE 029 2019 0140

D.M. Procida said:

Is paraffin wax readily available? Is a good thing to use?

I understand the old fashioned stuff and method involves solid wax that
needs to be melted in a pan, and then flakes off when you use it.

There are ready-to-use wax products in cans and bottles. One type is
expensive and doesn't last long but is nice and clean, and lubricates ok
in dry weather: eg. Finish Line Krytech. An example of the other is
Castrol or Halfords Chain Wax (in motorcycle section) -- bit stickier so
not as clean but is still cleaner than oil; I use it.

Oil and oily products actually lubricate better.

Use whatever you feel like, basically. All lubes on the planet are [censored]
on chains, just [censored] in different ways. Unfortunately, a chain /does/
need some lube on it.

~PB

Pete Biggs said:

D.M. Procida said:

Is paraffin wax readily available? Is a good thing to use?

I understand the old fashioned stuff and method involves solid wax that
needs to be melted in a pan, and then flakes off when you use it.

I have no idea how it's supposed to work, but I admit it sounds like fun
to have to have to boil up stuff. Actually I think the idea is that you
soak your chain in petrol or spirit or something, then do the hot
paraffin thing, and then you (apparently) never need to clean it again
in solvent, just dip it in the melted paraffin wax every 1500km or so.

Quoted message said:

Use whatever you feel like, basically. All lubes on the planet are [censored]
on chains, just [censored] in different ways. Unfortunately, a chain /does/
need some lube on it.

So how come bikes don't have a shaft drive? I bet it would be possible
to design a decent shaft drive for a bike.

Daniele
--
Apple Juice Ltd
Chapter Arts Centre
Market Road www.apple-juice.co.uk
Cardiff CF5 1QE 029 2019 0140

D.M. Procida said:

Quoted message said:

Use whatever you feel like, basically. All lubes on the planet are
[censored] on chains, just [censored] in different ways. Unfortunately, a chain
/does/ need some lube on it.

So how come bikes don't have a shaft drive? I bet it would be possible
to design a decent shaft drive for a bike.

There are shaft drive bicycles but shaft drive is not nearly as efficient
as chain drive, despite the lubrication hassles.

~PB

in message
<[email hidden]>,

D.M. Procida (') said:

Simon Brooke said:

Quoted message said:

Is paraffin wax readily available? Is a good thing to use? If not,
what else to use for lubricating a chain?

What sort of/bike what conditions?

A fairly badly-treated 8-year-old Raleigh Pioneer.

Stick a magic joining link into it so that it's easy to get on and off
the bike, and once every three months or so wop it off, drop it in a
jam-jar of parafin, put the lid on tight, shake vigorously for a few
minutes (out of doors in case the lid leaks), take the chain out and
hang to dry for a few hours, apply lubricant of your choice, leave for
another half hour for it to work it's way into the bearings, wipe off
the excess, stick it back on the bike. In between give it an extra
spray of lubricant every few weeks, ideally in the evening, and then
wipe off the excess before you ride next morning.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

This is slightly aggravated by the fact that with modern narrow
chains it's a lot less easy to whip the chain off the bike and dump
it in a jar of parafin.

Why are modern chains less easy to manage?

Because a Campag chain tool for ten speed chain costs about seventy
quid, and I'm not prepared (yet) to pay that much for a chain tool, and
I don't much fancy wrecking my chain and/or my lesser chain tools (I
wrecked my best chain tool on a Shimano 9-speed chain recently, after
having had it for twenty years). The tolerances and pin insertion
pressures of modern nine and ten speed chains are way tighter than the
six and seven speed chains of just ten years ago.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Want to know what SCO stands for?
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Simon Brooke said:

Quoted message said:

Why are modern chains less easy to manage?

Because a Campag chain tool for ten speed chain costs about seventy
quid, and I'm not prepared (yet) to pay that much for a chain tool, and
I don't much fancy wrecking my chain and/or my lesser chain tools (I
wrecked my best chain tool on a Shimano 9-speed chain recently, after
having had it for twenty years). The tolerances and pin insertion
pressures of modern nine and ten speed chains are way tighter than the
six and seven speed chains of just ten years ago.

That's a chain for a hub with 9 sprockets on it - is it very thin? Are
thinner chains more liable to break?

Daniele
--
Apple Juice Ltd
Chapter Arts Centre
Market Road www.apple-juice.co.uk
Cardiff CF5 1QE 029 2019 0140

D.M. Procida said:

That's a chain for a hub with 9 sprockets on it - is it very thin?

Noticeably narrower than 8-speed, etc. 6.something mm.

Quoted message said:

Are thinner chains more liable to break?

No because they're made strong enough.

~PB

(D.M. Procida) said:

Is paraffin wax readily available? Is a good thing to use? If not, what
else to use for lubricating a chain?

I melt down candles if I'm trying to wax a chain, then put the chain
in the (old) pan. Not done it in a while, but I find it a good way to
keep a chain running cleanly for a good few months, with a small
amount of oil added occasionally. Other people find it a faff.

A

D.M. Procida said:

Is paraffin wax readily available? Is a good thing to use? If not, what
else to use for lubricating a chain?

Yes (ask your pharmacist).

No (for lubrication).

Something proprietary.

I do actually have a big cauldron of parafin wax, and it's handy with
a really gunky chain to chuck it in, boil it up, then take the chain
out and when it cools the gunk comes off in relatively clean chunks.
However, the big jar of assorted solvent (mostly meths and white
spirit) is as good, and in some respects easier.

Parafin wax on it's own is not a good lubricant scheme, unles your
bike never meets any water (ime).

regards, Ian SMith
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