Hot on the heels of our chain wax discussion, Silca now has an endurance additive that can be mixed with their wax.

"EnduranceChip.  EnduranceChip is a semi-synthetic wax blend boasting some of the longest molecular chain lengths possible in a wax for ultimate durability.  Adding EnduranceChip to SecretBlend can  permanent increase the distance between re-waxing by as much as 2.5X (up to 750km) while still being as fast as the top wet lubricants and significantly faster than any dry lubricant."

David Yang said:

Rode the inaugural waxed chain ride on the trainer today and I swear I could feel the difference. Probably also has a lot to do with a new chain and a sparkling clean set of pulleys and chain sets.

in 2013, I tried to test the difference between an optimized waxed chain and one with regular lube.  Two Wipperman chains, one treated by Friction Facts, which had their own wax blend, and one just lubed with some kind of dry-ish lube.  I tested them on rollers at 150 and 250 watts.  I tried to control for tire pressure and temperature.  It was really hard to find the advantage.  But that doesn't mean it's real and can add up.  The estimates were that it should be something like 3cm a second, which is over a kilometer after four hours.   

After today's ride, I'm a waxed chain convert. I put on a few hours of trainer time on the chain this week after the inaugural wax. No squeaks or chirps. Still, in prep for today's long ride I wiped it down and applied some of Silca's drip wax on it yesterday and today it felt buttery smooth. Cassette remained sparkling and when I had to handle the chain after a flat fix, my fingers and kit were grease and oil free. Amazing.

Wiped it down after ride to Bear and will see how long it takes before it makes noise. The ride was dusty because of the gravel trail, but when I wiped it down, minimal black stuff came off and none of it sticky. I have to imagine it may even be the tungsten powder Silca ads to their wax.

I actually switched back from wax to normal lube recently and do not regret it. The drip-on wax is mixed with water and it seriously does not last long at all. You have to clean and reapply every hundred miles or so to feel the benefit. Even though it's messier to clean a oil-lubed chain, it is easier. Just spray good degreaser and rinse. When I used drip on wax it felt that if I didn't have a fully clean chain then the lube didn't adhere that well. Mileage may vary and to each their own. I swore that wax is way better 2 years ago. 

I’ve started using ceramic speed wax drip and have noticed my chain is noisier , especially big ring big cog , I had Murray at ride brooklyn check my indexing and he told me that it’s the wax , I love the look of the wax chain , but I’m thinking of go Full wax or regular lube 

FWIW, Silca is the only drip-on wax I've tried that lasts long enough to be reasonable.

GregHoge said:

FWIW, Silca is the only drip-on wax I've tried that lasts long enough to be reasonable.

Isn’t that to be used as a top up to the full wax treatment?

Yea, but I only do a full wax with new chains.  Drip-on after that.  Basically I bulk buy my chains and do like 10 at once so I don't need to break out the cooker every time I need a new chain.

I guess I split the difference? I've using the Silca chain stripper and then the Silva drip on wax for almost 2 years now. I can get about 400ish miles out of it before I do another thin application that gets me to another couple hundred miles before it's loud and too crusty for my liking, but by that point, my bike is also usually filthy from road grime anyway so the whole thing gets a good scrubbing. Based on my current riding, this shakes out to a full cleaning like once every 5-6 weeks which feels totally doable

GregHoge said:

Yea, but I only do a full wax with new chains.  Drip-on after that.  Basically I bulk buy my chains and do like 10 at once so I don't need to break out the cooker every time I need a new chain.

How long does it take you to wear out a chain?

I think it's taken me two or three years to use that many chains on my road bike.  Of course, I'm re-waxing the chain every four to eight weeks.

After noticing some space in between my big ring and chain while it was hanging on my wall, turns out it's over the .75% threshold. New chain on the way, and I am giving waxing a go for this next chapter... I've been influenced 

mugwump said:

GregHoge said:

Yea, but I only do a full wax with new chains.  Drip-on after that.  Basically I bulk buy my chains and do like 10 at once so I don't need to break out the cooker every time I need a new chain.

How long does it take you to wear out a chain?

I think it's taken me two or three years to use that many chains on my road bike.  Of course, I'm re-waxing the chain every four to eight weeks.

4-6 months or 4-6k miles.  They're these guys:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/195916768968

I just waxed my gravel bike. Very happy with road bike results.

Anyone have any experience and recommendations on cheap no-brand carbon rims? I'm planning on building up a track wheelset for fun as a winter project and brand-name carbon hoops are in the "full wheelset price" category.

David Yang said:

Anyone have any experience and recommendations on cheap no-brand carbon rims? I'm planning on building up a track wheelset for fun as a winter project and brand-name carbon hoops are in the "full wheelset price" category.

What's the worst that could happen? 

David Yang said:

Anyone have any experience and recommendations on cheap no-brand carbon rims? I'm planning on building up a track wheelset for fun as a winter project and brand-name carbon hoops are in the "full wheelset price" category.

Lightbicycle, superteam, winspace (idk if they sell just rims though), far sports, and elite.

If you really want to dive in, chinertown is a good forum and Pandapodium is a solid vendor of vetted Asian brands to the western market.

Thanks Greg, not that I believe everything in the internet but reviews on those forums seem pretty legit. Light Bicycles seems pretty good for the price.

David Yang said:

Anyone have any experience and recommendations on cheap no-brand carbon rims? I'm planning on building up a track wheelset for fun as a winter project and brand-name carbon hoops are in the "full wheelset price" category.

I got my carbon track wheels from a sub brand of Chinese brand Superteam. People seemed to have good experiences with that parent brand so I felt comfortable with the track wheel set for $450 ish and they’ve lasted me well for 2/3 seasons now. 

Sweet thanks peeps, think I have some rims picked out from light bikes. Working on procuring some NOS DA hubs and deciding on spokes (probably sapim cx rays). Been a hot 12 years since my last wheel build so this should be interesting.

+1  pandapodium -- I have not used them yet, but if getting anything China/Asia this would be my first stop -- as that's kinda the point, they vet asian products. Altho I don't think they have just the rims.

Ok waxed chain is pretty sick, however like a dunce I forgot to measure and cut my chain as part of the process haha. Was too focused on getting the strip/wax situation done right… fixed it at the start of my ride yesterday. Helpful shop in LIC let me use some pliers cause after 15 mins of fiddling with the quick link I couldn’t get it to pop without the tool. 

David Yang said:

Sweet thanks peeps, think I have some rims picked out from light bikes. Working on procuring some NOS DA hubs and deciding on spokes (probably sapim cx rays). Been a hot 12 years since my last wheel build so this should be interesting.

FWIW, a few hard-riding guys I know have the Winspace carbon rim-brake wheels and are pretty happy with them.  Interestingly, it looks like Winspace has figured out a way to have a textured brake track ala Zipp without infringing on patents.  

Jules said:

David Yang said:

Anyone have any experience and recommendations on cheap no-brand carbon rims? I'm planning on building up a track wheelset for fun as a winter project and brand-name carbon hoops are in the "full wheelset price" category.

What's the worst that could happen? 

take a look at a pic from less than a second later.

Can I put knobby 33c CX tires on these wheels which have 26mm inner rim width? 

mugwump said:

Jules said:

David Yang said:

Anyone have any experience and recommendations on cheap no-brand carbon rims? I'm planning on building up a track wheelset for fun as a winter project and brand-name carbon hoops are in the "full wheelset price" category.

What's the worst that could happen? 

take a look at a pic from less than a second later.

Holy cow... an SRM head unit!

GrantSeltzer said:

Can I put knobby 33c CX tires on these wheels which have 26mm inner rim width? 

Inner width is fine, but 30mm outer width is kinda cutting it close with a 33mm cross tire.

David Yang said:

GrantSeltzer said:

Can I put knobby 33c CX tires on these wheels which have 26mm inner rim width? 

Inner width is fine, but 30mm outer width is kinda cutting it close with a 33mm cross tire.

Not sure what Dave’s means, but the correct answer is yes you can.

My local shop (Peak Bikes specializing in mtb) built up wheels for me with Stans Crest mk4 rims which are 25 inner and 29 outer. Recommended min width tire is 40mm. 

The correct answer still yes, you can use 33 mm tires on a 30 mm wide rim.

Depending on the tire, it might bubble up wider than 33 once installed on that rim, which is also fine.

Else all that you state makes sense and is totally true.

FWIW , 33mm tire rule isn’t enforced in our local races 
so you could go bigger