I recently used the Silca hot pot system to wax my chain on my bicycle. I did a ton of prep work with cleaning the gears, pulleys, and especially the chain. I have only done one ride since then and I noticed that my cassette has dark spots on it that are just chunks of wax that I can scratch off easily with my fingernail. Is that normal? Should I be removing that or leaving it on?
The chain still has some loose wax on it as well as you can see in the picture. I suspect more riding will cause that to fall off.
The other question is – what maintenance should I be doing on the waxed drivetrain? I think I read that after rides you just wipe the chain quickly with a microfiber cloth and that's it?
Lastly – what's a good sign that it's time to re-wax?
Thank you!
by uoficowboy
6 Comments
Hit it with a hair dryer while backpedaling the crank. Keep spinning as it cools.
You might be overthinking this a bit 🤓
Leave the wax on. It will fall off as you ride. Maintenance? None that I can think of besides rewaxing the chain down the road.
1. Excess wax usually just flakes off
2. Depending on what you’re using for wax and depending on how you ride, it’ll need rewaxing at 100 mi or so. I added an endurance chip so I rewax around 300mi or when my drivetrain starts getting chatty and shifting isn’t as crisp. Beyond that, if it’s really wet I’ll wipe the chain and add drip wax in between waxings.
Just leave the wax on the cassette. The bigger problem is you want to make sure not to have so much excess it flings onto the brake.
One thing I’ve been doing is while the chain is cooling, I glove up and wipe the excess off with a paper towel. Just prevents excess flinging around.
Just leave it. Friction will do that job as you ride and the chain will need 20-30 mins of riding anyway to get nice and quiet
Beware of rain and water puddles as they might wash off the loose wax and causing rust. Wipe them dry with a cloth when you rode in wet conditions.