As the title says. I drove home from a race in the rain. My waxed (silica secret sauce) chain was covered in rust the next morning.
Should I start over with the wax or replace the chain? It has about 1500 miles on it with very little signs of wear.
by cbacarisse
12 Comments
its just surface rust. id just rewax it. it should polish itself as you ride.
That’s just surface rust. Give it a good clean and wax it again.
Clean the rust off and rewax. Unless you plan on riding a lot in wet conditions, in which case I’d suggest a wet lube. Doesn’t need replacing unless it’s elongated
The rust isn’t really harmful. Wipe it away, I recommend some alcohol and a clean rag, and rewax.
You can avoid this by wiping the chain dry after a wet ride. After a ride in wet and salty conditions, rinse the chain with water before that.
Wax will always wash off in the rain. I know waxing is fashionable right now, but oil based products are generally much more robust lubricants. It’s a better choice if you have a bike that needs to be ridden in inclement weather.
I don’t wax my chains, but if I do get caught in rain and everything is soaking wet, when I get home, even if I don’t clean and re-lube the chain right away, I always run the chain through a rag for at least 10-15 revolutions and then blow off the moisture out of every link with a compressor. If you just leave it, that surface rust will happen every time.
As others have said, clean (ultrasonic, I would assume in your case?) and re-wax, should be fine.
the ultrasonic cleaner will make it shine again. Re-wax and keep using.
Can you say more about your application of the wax? I.e., a description of the waxing process? I’ve been waxing my chains for a long time and ride in the rain, I’ve never had anything like this happen.
Wax it as usual but keep a towel with some kind of light spray oil in the garage or Basement for when you get home to coat the chain in a thin layer of oil… You can Wax as much as you want but the naked chain will ALWAYS rust without at least something to keep moisture away from the bare metal! And that something isn’t wax
I had the same thing. I’m going to experiment by mixing the paraffin wax with beeswax and some other additives to see if I can make it tackier and less brittle.
Just use wet lube… waxing chain is dumb. it’s not gonna hurt your average speed.
Run it through an ultrasonic cleaner then we wax good as new