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    Gravel Cycling

    Maybe try a waxed chain scheme?

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    27 Comments

    1. userfry on

      You would need to thoroughly clean drivetrain and chains. And chains should be new. And prepping chains is pain…. You will still have some dust on drive train. But once you’ve done prepping it’s really easy to “lube” chains. Just get more than one. And after using all of them you can rewax them all together (saves some time).

    3. Commercial_Green_280 on

      I’ve been running waxed for a bit now. Is it that much better than traditional lube? I’m honestly not sure

      But I love it because hands are always clean if you need to touch it/ take off the rear.

    5. Thenlockmeup on

      Yeah man go for it. If there’s an option to let the shop do all the proper degreasing for you – highly recommended as you should really get rid of all the oil on the drivetrain

    6. D00M98 on

      I wax. I commute on dirt and gravel. Very dusty. My chains basically look like yours.

      Except with wax, I don’t wash or clean my bikes. I typically wash my bike couple times a year (maybe 1500 to 2000 miles). I do wipe the chains when I wax. On the other hand, with lube, most likely the dust will turn to black grime, if you don’t clean and degrease.

      If you don’t mind washing and cleaning your bike and chains regularly, no need to wax.

      If you don’t want to deal with cleaning and degreasing, wax is the way to go.

    7. Sirocco1093884 on

      I’ve got wax on mine: managed to do about 450km through rain, dust, sand and simple road riding. Happy with that.

    9. DingDongerer on

      Do the wax. Get a second chain and just swap every couple of weeks based upon your mileage. It’s SO quiet when it’s properly indexed, I like it for this reason alone haha

    10. joelav on

      Aside from the obvious benefits of a nice clean drivetrain, my waxed chains last me years. I used to get max 2500 miles out of religiously cleaned dry lubed Ultegra 11 speed chains. Now I get close to 8000 miles. And I don’t ride much pavement on my gravel bike. it’s 95% gravel where I ride. Always dusty, sometimes muddy.

    13. kri1st on

      [https://imgur.com/a/xCk604e](https://imgur.com/a/xCk604e)

      This is what my hot-waxed chain looked like after an 86 km race. Throughout the whole ride everything ran very quietly, and the only noise came when a fresh chunk of mud got caught in the chain. Meanwhile, I could constantly hear scraping and squeaking from other riders. Twice the mud threw the chain off the front chainring, but when I put it back on my fingers stayed clean of oil 🙂

    15. Bud_Johnson on

      Wax is great. From silca perspective… Only downside is ideally when you reup with drip wax is they recommend letting it dry and cure for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.

    16. droobieinop on

      Deep clean to get every bit of factory machining grease out that you can, soak in the hot wax of your choice, hang to dry before installing it and top it off with drip wax (of your choice again) when it starts to feel or sound “dry.” If it gets wet or muddy, wash your bike, run the chain through a dry rag and add drip wax lube.

      So far I have 1500 on my new checkpoint and barely any wear.

    17. jsmonet on

      maybe?

      MAYBE?

      you. wax. nao.

      Yuo can always grab a fresh chain to start with, don’t forget to clean your cassette and jockey wheels

    20. delicate10drills on

      I’m stuck with the DIRTF’T mentality- Do It Right The First Time.

      The upfront cost of a rice pot & ultrasonic cleaner is a bit much when I’m saving for bigger stuff.

    21. egzwygart on

      I live in the area and have ridden Big Sugar a couple of times. You don’t really *need* to wax your chain for that ride.

      But you should start waxing your chain, anyway. You will not regret it.

    25. jackrabbit323 on

      The first time sucks. You have to get that chain super clean before waxing. But once it’s on, it gets easier every time.

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