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    The Insane Preparation Of Tour De France Bike Chains



    In the world of the Tour de France, where winning margins are measured in centimeters, every single detail counts, especially the chain. We visited the Lidl-Trek service course in Belgium to go behind the scenes of their industrial-scale chain waxing station. From ultrasonic cleaning to professional “break-in” machines, discover how the pros achieve peak drivetrain efficiency for the biggest races on earth.

    Chapters: ⏱️
    00:00 – Why Chain Prep Matters
    00:32 – Waxing vs. Oiling
    00:55 – The Pro Waxing Station
    01:14 – Measuring Chain Wear & Length
    03:18 – The Hot Wax Process
    05:29 – New Tech: The Cyclowax Pot
    06:00 – Dealing with “Chain Dandruff”
    07:04 – The Chain Breaker Machine
    09:12 – Storage and Organization
    10:28 – Marginal Gains on the Road

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    Are you part of the chain waxing revolution yet, or are you sticking with traditional drip-on lube? Let us know your maintenance secrets and if you’ve noticed the marginal gains on the road! 👇

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    📸 Photos – © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images & © Sprint Cycling Agency

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    30 Comments

    1. @gcntech on

      Are you part of the chain waxing revolution yet, or are you sticking with traditional drip-on lube? Let us know your maintenance secrets and if you've noticed the marginal gains on the road! 👇

    9. @BishBosh2010 on

      Wow. Techno stuff. This will make me change the way I run my chains. I'm off to buy a second or third chain. The Sram XD cassettes are £150 a pop, why use a stretched chain causing premature wear. Thnx

    10. @kiwibiker9754 on

      I tried a drip on wax. It left a godawful sticky mess. I tried tubeless tyres . A puncture which wouldnt seal meant installing a tube in the sealant mess at roadside. I want to enjoy my cycling not having all the faff which in my case give negligible gains.Keeping an oiled chain clean and using tpu tubes is way less work

    12. @LoveBikeBuilt on

      Hahaha. Roman vor 2-3 Jahren hast du mich noch ausgelacht. Jetzt rum heulen. Wer hat sich den immer für mehr regulierung und mehr Staat eingesetzt? Genau du. Du hast doch sogar im Bundestag gesprochen. Und jetzt geht alle wieder schön wählen und wünscht euch das sich was ändert. Egal wo jemand sein Kreuzchen macht. Der linke znd der rechte Flügel gehören immer zum selben Vogel.

    13. @J.C... on

      Whoa. We could use those wax machines for guitar pickup building. They use vacuum wax potting currently. I wonder how ultrasonic wax would work? Hmmm

    14. @CDubb-k3l on

      As for the ‘normal people’, it’s a £15 crockpot, broken coat hanger, gloves and hot fingers and some effing and blinding.
      The wax dandruff is religiously swept up and stuck back in the crockpot, and the 5 watts lost breaking it in on the bike, is insignificant compared to the 6 pints and pizza the night before watching the footie.
      Nice to see how the other half lives 😃

    16. @kevinrandall01 on

      Given the amount of money in the sport, why not just fit a brand new chain ?

      This is getting a bit " my Dad's bigger than your Dad" – we can wax our chains – you can't even wax your legs.

      So very sad. Not the TDF I once looked forward to year after year 👎👎👎

    17. @turboslag on

      I'm just a mere casual cyclist and quite a serious motorcyclist but I've seen chain wax for sale in Lidl of all places and wondered what the heck it was!
      Now I know after watching this but have to say it smells of snake oil to me!!! I used the same synthetic chain lube for both my bikes and cycles, made by motorex, and I seriously doubt any type of wax can be as good as that!!! Wax cannot be as good a lubricant as properly formulated chain lube. The motorex stuff will survive a thousand plus miles on my motorcycles and almost indefinitely on my bicycle, where it only needs attention because of dirt accumulation.
      So just another must have mania thing as far as I'm concerned!!

    25. @philrobson7976 on

      Why don’t the cycling teams buy the chain in bulk directly from the factory 100 m at a time? Prepare, wax, stretch, and remove the 114 links every time they need a chain.

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