Ever wondered why some Tour de France teams opt out of waxing their chains? In this video, we delve into the reasons behind this surprising decision.
From the science and mechanics to the tactical advantages and disadvantages, discover the truth about chain maintenance in the world’s most famous cycling race. Join us as we explore expert insights and the latest industry trends.
#cycling #bike #tourdefrance
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:29 How To Wax Your Chain
02:23 Is Waxing A Chain Worth It?
03:43 How some teams make it work
05:28 Be Careful Of Sponsored Promises
06:45 Should You Wax Your Chain?
2024 Tour De France Bike Prices – Ranked
The HOTTEST Bikes Of The Tour De France 2024
Crucial Tour De France Bikes: Pogačar Vs Vingegaard
NEWEST Bikes Of The Tour de France 2024
Spotted Before The Tour De France! NEW Trek, Canyon And Pinarello
A ‘Value’ Tour de France Bike? AG2R’s Van Rysel RCR
How To Clean Your Bike THE RIGHT WAY To Save Money
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40 Comments
The only reason I use was is because it looks cleaner 😊
I have been using hot, graphite wax baths for chains for decades. It's cheap, the chains run clean, it is long lasting, as do the chains, and I keep spare chains in bags. Of course I do not have 70 bikes to look after, although only a fraction of those bikes will be used on any one day.
As for the process, I find it quite satisfying. I degrease in white spirits, hang the chains to dry, then give them a bath in hot graphite wax, hang the chains up to let them drip excess lubricant, let them cool then bag them up.
I’ve recently converted both my road bikes to chain wax and they are certainly cleaner but other than that, haven’t noticed any other benefits. If anything, I’d say they are ever so slightly noisier than the previous oils I used, but it’s easy to do and I’ll stick with it for the clean drivetrain alone.
Yes we use BananaWax Drag & Friction TDF Racing ChainWax.
I don’t understand why teams couldn’t just wax and break-in all the chains months in advance. No need to squeeze this in during evenings between stages.
I initially went to waxxing for performance gains, but now just use it for everything as it's a much easier process, I have 2 chains and just rotate weekly. Much less time spent than lubing each roller.
I'm waxing my mtb chains you have to decontaminate them very thoroughly to not capture contaminants in the wax… so I understand the hassle, ALSO OFTEN NEGLECTED when you put the freshly waxed chain it's a good tip to run the chain backwards with the tip of a vacuum cleaner under the derailleur cage in the smallest cog to avoid contamination on disc rotors, wax chips go EVERYWHERE 😅
wait how diff is too pre wax 30 chains per rider before the tour starts.
I will do oil. Specifically dumonde tech, it's the cleanest lube I have ever used. Since I race mtb, wax is a hassle to clean chain to put on a new layer.
So they'll wear ridiculous-looking helmets chasing marginal gains but can't wax and break in a hundo chains before the tour and have them on deck?
I quit waxing my chains after I discovered Rock & Roll gold lube. Just my own experience, absolutely no opinion regarding other’s anecdotes (other than I believe them), but for me, it’s tons less hassle with the same results.
Waxing certainly didn't help lidl-trek's tour results HAHAHAHAHA!
Waxing is definitely more work. Having said that there is a trick to lubing a chain. Once you get it you won't want to wax. Breaking a chain is for replacement.
How would Aerocoach feel about me saying there is little difference between their wheels and their competitors, in regards to "good lube" (whatever he means by that) and wax?
Chains are one of the cheapest parts on a bike, why not bring 21 waxed chains per rider? Cleaning is no more difficult; just take the old chain off, clean the bike, and install the next chain. Then go home and re-wax them all for La Vuelta.
Clean is so good to have, I’m converted to wax on my road bikes.
Cleaner and lasting longer is what drives me. Faster? I aint going to win any race because my chain is 1/2 a kilowatt faster than my competitor! Oh And I am my only competitor.
I’ve got 3700 km on my latest waxing job. . . and the chain is “like new”. For the “running in”. . . maybe a machine would do it. I usually wax five or six chains at the same time. So, for a pro team, I’d
Remove Chain of each bike at end of stage
Clean / degrease bike and parts
Replace chains with a run-in chains
Clean, rewax removed chains, “run in“ each waxed chain for installation after next day.
This is NOT rocket science
Maxima chain wax (MC spray type) on a clean chain. Easy, quiet, smooth, gathers little dirt. A can will last eons. Don’t overthink things.
Mountain biking in Utah, waxing is beyond the end game. Have eight chains for two bikes waxed (wax budget plus skis is a bit high for one person) and good for the entire season regardless of moon dust status. Don’t know a single rider with over three seasons here that is still lubing, would have to lube and degrease every single ride if we didn’t.
Immersion wax means I literally only have to care about chain maintenance once yearly.
Run two chains, swap them when I hit 1200km. Settled.
Tell me a single drip lube that can keep bike maintenance as far away from me as possible as waxing can, and then maybe I’ll be convinced to try drop wax again.
I don’t care about the efficiency; I only do it because it means less time on bike maintenance.
I’ve been immersion waxing with plain ole paraffin wax for a decade. Total of 4 bikes I maintain. My wife and I have a matched pair of MTBs and a matched pair of expedition bikes. I really don’t understand the persistence of the notion that waxing is too bothersome. Totally the contrary. The few extra minutes I spend prepping and waxing chains is given back many times over in simplified cleaning of bikes. After we ride in the woods I merely hose off the MTBs and park them on the rack. The only brushing I ever do is the tires if some kind of mud has stubbornly discolored the rubber. I always use bright nickel finished cassettes and chains to show off how clean our drive trains are. When my wife and I bike packed GDMBR from Canada to Mexico I got to rinse off the bikes by garden hose only a few times. Mostly I just drizzled water from a bottle to rinse dust and sand from the chain and cassette whenever I was at water sources. I replace my 2×10 chains at 0.7%. These 2018 Surly ECRs that we have ridden many thousands of miles in addition to GDMBR have been through a couple sets of tires and a few chains but still have original cassettes, chainrings, and all other drivetrain components. What most people accept as “normal wear” is really unnecessary wear caused by the grinding paste made by dirt clinging to petroleum lube. Every “reason” I hear for continuing to use petroleum lube instead of wax is merely listening to someone explain that they don’t know how to wax or never tried it.
Im a father to a very curious 2 year old and as someone who doesnt have a shed but rather a room dedicated to my workshop and bikes, I moved to waxing not because of performance gains but because those little curious hands like to touch and get involved with dad and wax is a far easier option when it comes to wiping.
Wife says I don’t get to replace 105 with Ultegra until end of its life, so I’m using whatever expired lube looking thing I find in the garage 😂
I hope that station from cyclowax isn't too expensive.
Yea that's too much. I just want to get on my bike and ride. I'll keep using the liquid stuff
For personal use, chain waxing cost more than the chain itself. I don’t think it is positive in the net present value if you take care of your chain normally.
The totally pointless muzak playing in the background makes it very annoying to listen an interesting video. Stop using muzak or at least be very careful that it's so subtle that it doesn't interfere listening at all under any circumstances, but preferably don't use it in the first place. It's different to listen to with your editing room acoustics and pro-speakers than on a random computer out here.
I have been waxing for a while and totally love it… been using Enigma Ultimate Chain Wax and never looked back!
Why is the rewaxing and breaking in considered such a problem? Just stash a lot of pre waxed chains in the mechanics truck, rewax only on rest days. If a 10 minute ride is enough to break it in, why is the neutral start not enough for that? E: forgot about the reserve bikes, you'd want those broken in too.
Answer is simple, for every stage you get cleaned and freshly lubricated bike, for long therm waxing is better for sure.
1:42 Wow! Even the Pros use Claris . . . the poor-man's Dura Ace!
Oil is still the king🎉
Waxed chain is only good hot melted and its such a faff to remove your chain every few hundred miles which happens very quickly if you ride 20 hours a week and even more quickly doing the tour de France. Not to mention the cost of quick links being ridiculous. Also as mentioned the wax is gone very quickly in the wet and makes more care needed when washing. Waxed chain only makes sense if you rarely ride your bike and only in perfect conditions. I wish I never bought into the wax gimmick. When my wax runs out I will swap to a high quality wet lube and just keep my chain clean.
This feels like it’s a sponsorship thing somehow. Waxed chains are superior by every metric and it’s ridiculously easy to remove a chain before you “pressure wash with degreaser” (hell the one bike they used in that clip didn’t have a chain on it already 😂). Plus if you were soooo concerned with it you can store 100 prepared, bike specific chains in a small tote that have been ran through gears and topped up with super secret to fill in the compaction spots and you’d be all set for the whole tour. This is the same reasoning that a lot of teams can’t run oversized pulley wheels etc. sponsors gonna sponsor
Tried this decades ago and found it a big waste of time. My chains do fine with a quick wipe and a shot of Squirt. 20 secs at most.
My meagre FTP is no threat to any TdF riders but I am getting 2-3 x more milage out of waxed chains over the past 3 years compared to oil based lubes. My latest chain has just touched on 0.5 wear with just 12,000km use – this compared to the sub 5,000km I was getting previously from the same brand/model chain with a similar use profile. Not having that abhorrent black mass spinning around the rear of the bike is a real bonus!
Waxing is nice until it rains
Because their mechanics are busy enough without looking for more unecessary dirty work
I bought into the Silca chain waxing system with the pot and hangar, etc. I won't be going back to regular lube. For everyone complaining about the work involved in waxing, it's more work than dripping lube on a dirty chain – if that's what you do. But I used to have that Park chain cleaner that you filled up with degreaser, clamped over your chain, then spun the cranks and a bunch of brushes would clean the chain. I'd have dirty degreaser to deal with. I'd still have a dirty cassette and pulleys to clean, and then finally could drip lube on the chain.
If you have the tool to remove and install the quick link, and keep a supply of new quick links in house, removing the chain is easier than that old chain cleaner. The wax tends to prevent build up on the pulleys and cassette, so you are dealing with a much cleaner drivetrain. Even when removing after 4 weeks of use, the chain barely leaves a mark on your hands while handling it. Like many have said, keeping things so much cleaner is as big a game changer as any watts saved.
The Silca pot takes all the guess work and mess out of using crock pots or wondering what temperature it's at. You can redip in the same wax all summer.
To those who wonder about endurance events and how long the wax lasts, I rode Paris-Brest-Paris with a waxed chain last year. At 400km, I applied a little synergistic drip, and same at 800km. No drivetrain issues. For 24 hour events (300-400 miles) I've ridden a newly waxed chain straight through with no issues.
I can't imagine going back at this point. Of all the technological advances in the past 10-15 years, the convenience that modern waxing systems have created is probably the biggest leap forward (since electric shifting)- just for the sake of chain wear and cleanliness.